Ten sentences for your first week in Saudi Arabia

You have just landed. You have a phone full of vocabulary apps and no ability to say anything. Here are ten sentences, chosen by how soon you will need them rather than by how well they demonstrate a grammar point.

Learn them in this order.

1. السلام عليكم — as-salamu alaykum

Peace be upon you. Universal, always correct, works on strangers, shopkeepers, colleagues and taxi drivers. The reply is wa alaykum as-salam, and you will hear it a hundred times a day.

2. وش لونك؟ — wesh lonak?

How are you. The Najdi greeting that follows the salam. Answer bikhair, alhamdulillah when it comes back at you, and return it with w-inta?

3. الله يعطيك العافية — allah ya'teek al-'afyah

Thank you, roughly - literally may God give you strength. Use it instead of shukran for anyone who has just done something for you. This single phrase will do more for your reception here than the next five combined.

4. أبغى ... لو سمحت — abgha ... law samaht

I would like ..., please. abgha is the Saudi I want. Put a noun in the middle - coffee, water, the bill - and you can order almost anything.

5. كم؟ — kam?

How much. One syllable. Point at the thing.

6. وين ...؟ — wayn ...?

Where is ...? Follow it with a place. Wayn al-hammam - where is the bathroom. You will be given directions by landmark rather than street name, which is its own adventure.

7. ما فهمت — ma fahamt

I did not understand. Say this instead of nodding. Nodding costs you the next five minutes; this costs you nothing and people slow down immediately.

8. تكفى، تقدر تعيدها؟ — takfa, tigdar t'eed-ha?

Please, could you say that again? The polite, complete version of number seven. takfa is a soft, very Saudi please - closer to "do me a favour" than to the formal min fadlak.

9. أنا أتعلم عربي — ana at'allam 'arabi

I am learning Arabic. This sentence changes how the conversation goes. People slow down, they switch back from English, and quite often they start correcting you - which is free tutoring.

10. إن شاء الله — insha'allah

God willing. Attached to anything in the future. It is not a way of avoiding a commitment, whatever you may have been told; it is simply how future tense is spoken here, and leaving it off sounds abrupt.

What to do with them

Do not study them. Say them.

Pick three for tomorrow - the salam, allah ya'teek al-'afyah, and abgha. Use each one at least twice. The day after, add two more. By Friday all ten will have been through your mouth in a real situation, which is worth more than a month of flashcards.

Then get the free starter pack - it is forty sentences and the audio, on WhatsApp, and the next thirty carry on exactly where these ten stop.