Egyptian · Levantine · Moroccan · Fusha

Learn the Arabic people actually speak.

Parallel Arabic teaches the dialects spoken in Cairo, Beirut and Casablanca, with Modern Standard Arabic alongside. Read stories at your level, tap any word you don’t know, and practice it until it’s yours.

Start learning free Download on the App Store
  • Free to start
  • No card needed
  • Web, iPhone and iPad

One sentence, four dialects

I want to learn Arabic.

In Egyptian Arabic: عايز أتعلّم عربي

المصري About 100 million speakers, and the most widely understood dialect.

learners
1,500+
dialects
4
lesson levels
A1–C2

Why dialects

Fusha is what you read. Dialect is what you hear.

Modern Standard Arabic is the language of news, books and formal speech. Everyday life, from family dinners to taxi rides, happens in dialect, and the most common words are often completely different.

So Parallel Arabic starts with the dialect you want to speak. Fusha is never far away: compare any word across all four dialects in one tap.

In the textbook · Fusha

ماذا تريد الآن؟

maadha tureed al-aan?

In Cairo · Egyptian

عايز إيه دلوقتي؟

'ayez eh delwa'ti?

Both mean “What do you want now?” Not one word is the same.

How it works

Every word you meet becomes one you can use.

Meet a word in a story, save it with a tap, practice it in a game, then use it in conversation with the AI Tutor.

  1. Step 1 · Read

    Stories written for your level

    Graded stories in your dialect, with the English and transliteration lined up under every word. Turn either one off as your reading gets stronger.

    Browse stories More on reading practice

  2. Step 2 · Tap

    Tap any word you don’t know

    See what it means in that sentence, its root, and how the other dialects say it. One more tap saves it.

    How tap-to-translate works

  3. Step 3 · Play

    Turn new words into quick games

    Multiple choice, listening and speaking rounds, from a topic or from your own saved words. You can play without an account; sign in and the words you miss come back for review.

    Play a round More about the games

  4. Step 4 · Talk

    Then use them in a real conversation

    The AI Tutor role-plays everyday situations in your dialect, like ordering at a café, catching a taxi or asking about prices. It talks back and corrects your grammar as you go.

    Start a conversation More on conversation practice

Start with a free account. No card needed.

Start learning free Or play a game first

Also inside

One app instead of five.

Lessons, flashcards, graded reading, verb drills and conversation practice usually mean five different apps. Here they live side by side, built around the words you save.

Every one of these has its own page with screenshots and answers to common questions: see every feature.

From learners

In their own words.

After only a day, I love Parallel Arabic. As a language teacher — I teach French at a huge public high school in Southern California — and an absolute language nut who speaks seven other languages besides Arabic, I can tell how much thought went into this.
High-school French teacher, Southern California
Wow this is perfect for what I need currently. The stories section in particular is a great idea as I can't find any graded stories for practice. Thank you so much for this :)
This is great! As someone outgrowing Duolingo this is perfect.
I love it! This is something I have been searching for ages :) thank you so much
Have tried many of the 'apps' and this is the closest one to doing what I want! Very useful and comprehensive app, everything's very useful — I love the interlinear format for the stories.
Even though I'm a beginner, your AI is the best I've tried among all the apps! The others are always weird in their answers and pronounce the words weirdly.
Stories UI is really good! The large, readable font, easy switching of transliteration and English, and interactive click-to-define are all really excellent.
I really like the website and find it very useful. For me it's better than a lot of other platforms — it's well thought out and has a lot of features.

Every quote is unedited.

Pricing

Start free. Go Pro when you’re ready.

Free

$0

  • The alphabet, with audio
  • Starter vocabulary and quizzes
  • Speaking practice with feedback
  • Your own word bank
Start learning free

Pro

$10/month

Everything in Free, plus:

  • Every lesson, story and dialect
  • The AI Tutor
  • Spaced-repetition review
  • Unlimited sentence mining
  • Anki decks for every dialect

About the price of a single tutoring lesson.

See everything in Pro

Questions

Before you start

Which Arabic dialects does it support?

Parallel Arabic currently supports Egyptian Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Moroccan Darija, and Modern Standard Arabic (Fusha). All four are available across stories, vocabulary, lessons, and review.

Which dialect should I learn?

The one spoken by the people you want to talk to. Egyptian is the most widely understood, thanks to Egyptian film and TV. Levantine is spoken in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, Darija in Morocco, and Fusha is the Arabic of news, books and formal writing. You can switch dialects at any time.

Do I need to know any Arabic to get started?

No. Complete beginners can start with the Arabic alphabet lessons, which walk you through reading and writing Arabic script from scratch. Once you have the basics, you can move into vocabulary and stories at your own pace.

How is this different from Duolingo?

Duolingo teaches Modern Standard Arabic through fixed, gamified exercises. Parallel Arabic focuses on spoken dialects and builds stories, lessons and practice around the words you save, so you’re learning vocabulary that matters to you, in the dialect you want to speak.

How much does it cost?

You can start for free, with no card needed. The free plan includes the alphabet, a starter set of vocabulary with quizzes, speaking practice and your own word bank. Pro is $10 a month and unlocks every lesson, story and dialect, the AI Tutor, spaced-repetition review and unlimited sentence mining.

Is there a mobile app?

Yes — Parallel Arabic is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, free to download. There is no Android app yet, but the site is a Progressive Web App, so on Android and desktop you can install it to your home screen and get the same full-screen experience.

More answers on the FAQ page.

Pick a dialect. Start today.

Free to start, and you can switch dialects whenever you like.

Start learning free Download on the App Store