Gulf Arabic translator

Gulf Arabic, Khaleeji, is the everyday Arabic of the Arabian Gulf. Parlo translates into it and out of it, so your Arabic sounds local rather than read from a newspaper. Speak or type in English or any of Parlo's languages, and hear the answer read aloud.

Spoken in: The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and much of Saudi Arabia.

How Gulf Arabic differs from standard Arabic

• ق is often a hard "g": gāl for "he said", where standard Arabic says qāl.
• Greetings and everyday words change: hala (hello), shlōnak (how are you), zēn (good), wēn (where).
• "I want" is abī or abgha, as in abī musāʿada, "I need help".
• It varies along the coast: Kuwaiti, Emirati and Saudi speakers each have their own words, and in some areas ك is said "ch".

The same phrases, side by side

From Parlo's phrasebooks: standard Arabic on the left, Gulf Arabic on the right.

How Parlo handles Gulf Arabic

1. Choose Arabic (Gulf) in the language list.
2. Type or speak. The translation comes back in everyday Gulf Arabic, in Arabic script, and is read aloud. It works the other way too: speak Gulf Arabic and read it in English.
3. For a two-way chat, open the conversation translator and put the phone between you.

• Parlo writes a general Gulf Arabic that is understood across the region.
• Conversations in Gulf Arabic use Parlo's own dialect translation, so the answer stays in dialect.

Translations are made by AI and can be wrong, so check anything important. For medical, legal or official matters, use a professional interpreter.