Emirati dialect dictionary
Type a word in Arabic or English. See what it means in Modern Standard Arabic and in English, with an example and a computer voice.
Runs on your phone. What you type is not uploaded or saved. The voice is your device's own.
About the Emirati dialect
Many speakers say the Arabic j as y (دياي for chicken), the k as ch (سمچ for fish) and the q as g or j (قهوة sounds like gahwa). Spellings in this list follow how the words are said.
Speech differs between the coast, the desert, the mountains and the east coast. "Not" can be mub, mush or ma depending on the area. An entry here is a common form, not the only one.
Centuries of trade brought words from Persian, Hindi and Urdu, Swahili, Turkish and English, such as موتر (car), دريشة (window) and بنكة (fan).
Every entry has a source: published Emirati dialect course books, the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, and UAE newspapers. Words we could not back up were left out. The example sentences are ours, written to show use.
Sources: see the numbered list below. Last checked: 27 Oct 2026. The voice is a computer voice from your device, not a native Emirati speaker, so the sound may be off. Pronunciation and spelling vary by family and area.