Vocabulary Cards — Session 20: Clothes

Print this page. Cut along the dotted lines. Each card is index-card sized. Carry them in your pocket. Look at one card while getting dressed, doing laundry, picking out shoes by the door.

Card 1

Say it: a-WAA-'ee Means: Clothes

🎨 Picture: A pile of folded clothes on a bed — a shirt, pants, socks — with a child picking out what to wear.

Use it when: You're getting dressed in the morning. Mama is folding laundry. You're packing a bag for teta's house.

This is the everyday Levantine word. In a Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, or Jordanian home, nobody says "ملابس" at breakfast — they say أَواعي.

Card 2

Say it: qa-MEES Means: Shirt

🎨 Picture: A bright blue t-shirt on a hanger, with a small pocket on the chest.

Use it when: You're putting on your shirt. You spill juice on your shirt. You're picking which shirt to wear to a birthday party.

Card 3

Say it: ban-ta-LOAN Means: Pants

🎨 Picture: A pair of jeans folded neatly, with a belt looped through.

Use it when: You're pulling on your pants. Your pants are too short (you grew!). You're looking for clean pants in the drawer.

Yes — it sounds like the French word pantalon. Lebanon and France have a long history together, and many clothing words traveled into Levantine Arabic from French.

Card 4

Say it: KAN-zeh Means: Sweater

🎨 Picture: A cozy knit sweater hanging on a chair near a balcony door. Outside, the mountains are misty.

Use it when: It's cold. You're going outside in winter. Teta tells you, "khud kanzeh!" (take a sweater!) — because tetas always think you're cold.

Card 5

Say it: SUB-baat Means: Shoes

🎨 Picture: Two small sneakers by the front door, next to a pair of grown-up sandals.

Use it when: You're putting on your shoes to go out. You can't find your shoes. Baba says "yalla, libes subbatak!" (come on, put your shoes on!).

In most Lebanese homes, shoes come off at the door. The صُبّاط lives by the entrance, lined up in a row.

Card 6

Say it: JAA-ket Means: Jacket

🎨 Picture: A puffy winter jacket zipped up, with a hood. A child ready to go play in the snow on Mount Lebanon.

Use it when: It's chilly outside. You're heading to school in the morning. You're going up to the mountains where it's cooler.

A bonus card — for the family

Card 7 (bonus)

Say it: LAA-bes Means: Wearing / I'm wearing

🎨 Picture: A child standing in front of a mirror, pointing at their outfit and smiling.

Use it when: You want to say what you have on. "Ana labes qamis azraq" — I'm wearing a blue shirt. "Shu labes?" — What are you wearing?

This one little word turns all the other cards into real sentences. Once your kid can say labes, they can describe their whole outfit.

How to use these cards

1. Use them while getting dressed. Every morning is vocabulary practice. Hold up the قَميص card, then hold up the actual shirt.
2. Play "what am I wearing?" Point to what you have on. Say the word. Let your kid correct your pronunciation (they love this).
3. Stick them on the closet or drawers. قَميص on the shirt drawer. بَنطَلون on the pants drawer. The word and the thing live together.
4. Don't drill. Just notice. When your kid puts on shoes, say صُبّاط. That's it. One word. They'll absorb it.

A little note on the words

You'll notice some of these words sound like English or French — جاكيت (jacket), بَنطَلون (pantalon). That's not cheating. That's history. Levantine Arabic borrowed clothing words from French during the years France was deeply connected to Lebanon and Syria. These borrowed words are real Arabic now — your teta uses them, your aunt uses them, the shopkeeper in Beirut uses them.

And then there are the deeply Levantine ones — أَواعي, صُبّاط, كَنزة — words you won't hear on Arabic TV news, but you'll hear in every single Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, and Jordanian home.

Both kinds are your kid's inheritance. Both kinds count.

Yalla Arabic · Vocabulary Cards · Level 2, Session 20