Saudi phrasebookTaxi and directions
Waggif shwayy (وقف شوي): how to tell a driver to stop for a second in Saudi Arabic
Waggif shwayy - stop for a second, hold on a moment - is what you say to a driver, and shwayy is the little word that softens almost any instruction in Saudi Arabic.
وقف شوي
waggif shwayy
Stop for a second.
Literally: stop a little.
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Who says it, and to whom
Casual and direct - to a driver, a delivery man, a friend walking ahead of you. The shwayy is what keeps it from being an order; waggif on its own is what you shout at a car.
The reply
What a Saudi says back
أبشر
abshir
Consider it done.
Or a nod. Drivers rarely say more than that.
Hear it in a sentence
3 lines from the book
وقف هنا
waggif hina
Stop here.
The one you say when you have arrived.
نزلني هنا
nazzilni hina
Drop me off here.
The politer alternative when it is the end of the ride, not a stop on the way.
شوي شوي
shwayy shwayy
Slowly.
Shwayy doubled - to a driver going too fast, or to anyone talking too fast.
What it really means
Waggif is the command form of the verb to stop - make it stand - and the g in the middle is the Saudi sound of the letter qaf, which the textbook pronounces q and almost nobody in the Kingdom does. Shwayy means a little, and here it means a moment: stop a little, stop for a second. It is the most useful word on this page, because it does the same job in front of anything - intadhir shwayy, wait a bit; shwayy shwayy, slowly.
The phrase is not only for cars. To someone walking ahead of you it means wait for me; to someone explaining too fast it means hold on, go back; to a child it means stop that. A driver hears it as: pull over for a moment, I am not getting out yet - which is why waggif hina, stop here, is the one for when you have actually arrived.
The mistake foreigners make
Saying the word on the road sign. Qif (قف) is what is painted on the red octagon, it is Fusha, and it is never said to a person. The second mistake is leaving the shwayy off: waggif! on its own is a shout, right for a car about to reverse into you and wrong for a driver who has done nothing but miss your turning. Put the shwayy back and the same word becomes a request.
In Egyptian you'd hear: wa'af shwayya - the q of waqqif becomes a glottal stop, where a Saudi makes it a hard g.
Every recording in the phrasebook is from the audio library of the Essential Saudi Dialect Book.
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