Arabic How are you doing? Arabic Beginner Lesson-29
After you’ve greeted someone by saying ‘ahlan wa sahlan or ‘as-salaamu
‘alaykum, the next part of an Arabic greeting is asking how the person’s doing.
The most common way of asking someone how he’s doing is kayf al-Haal?
(ka-yef al-haal). When you break down the phrase, you discover that Haal
means “health” and kayf means “how.” (The prefix al- attached to Haal is a
definite article, so al-Haal means “the health.”) Therefore, the phrase kayf al-
Haal? literally means “How is the health?,” but for all intents and purposes,
you can translate it into English as “How are you?”
kayf al-Haal is a gender-neutral phrase for asking people how they’re doing,
but you should also be aware of gender-defined greeting terms, which are
derivatives of the kayf al-Haal phrase:
When addressing a man, use kayf Haaluka (ka-yef haa-lou-ka).
When addressing a woman, use kayf Haaluki (ka-yef haa-lou-kee).
Another variation of kayf al-Haal is kayf Haalak? (ka-yef haa-lak; How is your
health?). You can use either greeting, but kayf al-Haal is preferred when
you’re meeting someone for the first time because kayf Haalak is a bit more
personal and informal