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Arabic is the official language of the UAE. English is used as the favorite medium
of communication in the majority of trade and commerce activities, along with
Arabic. English is widely spoken and understood in major cities of the UAE like
Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah etc. Urdu, Hindi, and Farsi are other major languages
in the UAE. As a large number of expatriates are from the Indian sub-continent,
South East Asia, Africa and several other regions, you will find people here speaking
Bengali, Malayam, Punjabi, and Tagalog too.
Signs in Dubai are generally in both Arabic and English, as well as the telephone
automation system allow you to choose between the two. So knowing English is
certainly an advantage in the UAE. But once you are outside the cities, you
will find that English is not easily understood by rural people. As the UAE
population constitutes over 75% expatriates, mainly from the South Asian countries,
knowledge of Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Bengali and Tamil can be quite useful.
Given below are some of the commonly used Arabic phrases that can be quite
useful for you.
Marhaba - Hello
As-salam àlaykum - Peace be with you (common Islamic greetings)
Wa àlaykum as-salam - And to you peace
Shukran - Thank you
Àfwan - You're welcome
Na'am - Yes
La'a - No
Ma'assalama - Goodbye
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