In today’s post, we’re going to learn some everyday, authentic vocabulary about time, using a song (video below) called كِلِّ سَاعَه  kil saʕaa  by the Lebanese singer – Marwan Al-hkoury   مروان خوري

The vocabularies we’re going to look at include units of time as well as other phrases to do with time in general.

 

Time in Colloquial Arabic is

وَأْتْ (وَأِتْ)

Wa’t (Wa’it)

While in Standard Arabic, it’s

وَقْتْ

Waqt

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Now, let’s move to the song. All the time-related phrases mentioned in the song are listed below, in the order they appear in in the song.

You’ll notice that dominant word in the song is

 ساعه

saaʕ-ah

which is the one that appears in the title. The reason is that the singer (lover in the song) is asking his beloved one to check on him and calls him every hour! The phrase كل ساعه

is thus the first of the phrases we’re looking at>>

كل ساعه

kil  saaʕ-ah

(Every hour)

Another phrase that has more or less the same meaning is:

ساعة بساعة

saaʕ-ah  b-saaʕ-ah

(On an hourly basis / Every hour)

 

which means literally ‘from an hour to another’ or ‘Hour by hour’

 

There are also two specific phrases that refer to how often something happens or someone does something.

The first one is:

على طول

ʕla  tool

Always

 

and the other one is (which the opposite of the one above):

ولا مرة

wala  marr-ah

(Not even once/Never)

 

The next phrase we have is:

مشغول

Mashghool

(Busy)

and the way it’s used in the song is:

 

عني مشغول

ʕanni  mashghool

(You’re not giving me enough attention)

which literally means>>

عني مشغول

from me  busy

 

The next one is

بتبقى

B-t-ib’a

will-you-stay

(You’ll stay)

 

and the way it’s used in the song is:

بقلبي بتبقى

In my heart, you stay

(You’ll always be in my heart)

 

The next word is:

ليالي

Layaali

(Nights)

 

The next one is:

كلما

Killma

(Whenever)

 

Another one is:

لما

Lamma

(When)

 

And finally:

سواني

Sawaani

(Seconds)

*Although most of the time units are mentioned in the song, not all of them are. This is why I put some of the most basic unit for time (as pronounced/used in the Lebanese colloquial Arabic) below in the table. They appear in their singular and plural form.

Units of time	Singular	Plurals
Second	ثانيه se:nye	ثواني Thawe:ni
Minute(s)	دقيقه D’ee’a	دقايق D’e:ye’
Day(s)	يوم Yawm	أيام Eye:m
Week(s)	أسبوع Isbooʕ	أسابيع Asabeeʕ
Month(s)	شهر Shaher	شهور Shhoor
Year(s)	سنه Sine	سنين Sneen