skills/plain-spoken-writing/references/egyptian-arabic.md

# Egyptian Arabic reference

Read this when the requested voice is Egyptian Arabic or mixed Arabic/English professional speech

## Goal

Produce readable Egyptian speech, not Modern Standard Arabic with slang pasted on top

## Natural markers

Use only when they fit the speaker and moment:

- بص
- طيب
- طب
- ماشي
- أصلًا
- بقى
- يعني
- خد بالك
- الغريب
- المضحك
- بالمناسبة
- أنا هنا مش بتكلم عن...
- أو لا، خليني أقولها بشكل تاني

These are not decorations. Never distribute them on a quota

## Pronouns and direct address

Egyptian speech often keeps direct address longer than edited prose would:

> أنت ممكن تفتح ChatGPT وتحاول معاه شوية، وبعدها تروح Claude وتلاقي نفسك في نفس الحتة

Do not remove every `أنت` merely to tighten the sentence if the direct address is carrying the rhythm

## Code-switching

Keep industry vocabulary in the form the speaker normally uses

Natural examples can include:
- marketing
- Copywriting
- CRO
- AI
- prompt
- output
- skill / skills
- plugin / plugins
- marketplace
- workflow
- hook
- customer research
- landing page

Do not translate these automatically

Do not add English where the speaker would naturally use Arabic

## Dialect spelling

Prefer readable, familiar forms over phonetic transcription for its own sake

The goal is not to capture every sound. The goal is for an Egyptian reader to hear the speaker while reading

## Filler

`يعني`, `بص`, `فاهم`, `تمام` can carry rhythm, but raw transcripts often contain too many

Keep a filler when it does one of these:
- buys a natural beat before a correction
- signals emphasis
- marks a turn in thought
- belongs strongly to the speaker's voice

Remove it when it only reflects microphone-time hesitation

## Emotional exaggeration

Spoken Egyptian can use exaggeration naturally:

> بقيت كاره AI أصلًا

> عمره عمره في حياته ما هيبقى مفيد ليك

Do not neutralize it automatically when the context is clearly rhetorical rather than a factual claim

## Readability

Paragraph breaks should follow thought beats rather than grammar lessons

A paragraph can be one sentence or several. Variation is desirable when it matches the speech