Saudi phrasebookHospitality and food
Ziyadat sukkar (زيادة سكر): how to ask for extra sugar in Saudi Arabic
Ziyadat sukkar - extra sugar - is what you say at the counter when the shahi comes too plain, and ziyada on its own is the Saudi word for extra of anything.
زيادة سكر
ziyadat sukkar
Extra sugar.
Literally: an increase of sugar.
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Who says it, and to whom
Counter talk. Casual, said to a barista, a waiter or the man making the shahi, usually with a small hand gesture. A two-word order is not rude here - it is how everyone orders.
The reply
What a Saudi says back
تم
tamm
Done.
The one-syllable confirmation you will hear at every counter in the Kingdom.
Hear it in a sentence
3 lines from the book
سكر ولا بدون؟
sukkar wala bidoon?
With sugar or without?
The question the barista asks first. Ziyadat sukkar is one of the answers.
بدون سكر
bidoon sukkar
Without sugar.
The opposite answer, in the same shape.
زيادة جبن
ziyadat jubn
Extra cheese.
The same word at the shawarma counter. Swap sukkar for whatever you want more of.
What it really means
Ziyada is a noun: an increase, an extra, more of something. On its own it ends in an -a; the moment you attach it to the next word it grows the -t you can hear in the recording - ziyadat sukkar, ziyadat jubn, ziyadat soos for extra sauce. That is the whole grammar of the phrase, and it is why this entry is spelled ziyadat and not ziyada. After a number it comes back to its bare form: wahid ziyada, one more.
You will use it most at the coffee counter, where shahi is often served already sweet and the question sukkar wala bidoon? is asked before you have sat down. The one place not to use it is over a cup of Arabic coffee. Qahwa is never sweetened; the sweetness is the date you are handed beside it, and asking for sugar in it is the surest way to announce that you arrived last week.
The mistake foreigners make
Translating "more sugar" word for word - akthar sukkar - which is understood, and never said. Or saying ziyada sukkar without the -t, which is also understood and marks the phrase as learned from a page rather than a person. The recording has the -t. Say it that way and the barista will not look up.
In Egyptian you'd hear: sukkar ziyada - the same two words, in the other order.
Every recording in the phrasebook is from the audio library of the Essential Saudi Dialect Book.
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