حَبيبي

Almost 20 years ago, I was for the first time in an Arabic country (July 16.-29, 1989). I had actually planed to travel by train from Moscow to Hong Kong, however the Chinese authorities thwarted this by their massacre on the Tiananmen Square. Nevertheless, I never regretted going to Syria instead.

One of the phrases our guide often used was Yallah Habibi (let's go darling). The phrase kind of engraved itself into my brain and since then, I usually learn it as one of the first in a new language I encounter.

Habibi (حَبيبي) is an Arabic word that literally means my beloved (of a male; the female form is habibati, or colloquially habibti), from the adjective habib (beloved). It is commonly also used for friend, darling, and similar endearments.

And since I'm in Egypt let's listen to how Mohamed Fouad interprets it: