Walk up to a juice stand in Ramallah on a hot afternoon and the first thing you'll want to say is fee mayy? Three little sounds, a lift in your voice at the end, and you've asked "is there any water?" The guy nods and hands you a bottle.
is the word for "there is" and "there are." It's tiny and you'll use it constantly, so it's worth getting comfortable with early.
One word, no matter how many
Palestinian has no verb for "is" in the present, which throws a lot of learners at first (there's a whole guide on that). But it absolutely has a word for "there is," and fee is it. The nice part: fee doesn't change for singular or plural. English makes you pick between "there is" and "there are." Here you just say fee and move on.
- fee beet — there's a house
- fee byoot — there are houses
- fee 7ada hown — there's someone here
- fee naas barra — there are people outside
One book or a hundred, it's the same fee out front.
Turn it into a question with your voice
Here's where fee earns its keep. To ask a yes/no question, you don't add a word or flip anything around. You say the same sentence and let your voice rise at the end.
- fee 7ada hown? — is anyone here?
- fee mayy? — is there water?
- fee mushkile? — is there a problem?
Same words as the statement, just a different landing. That last one, fee mushkile?, is one you'll hear all day. So is the answer to it, which we'll get to.
Saying there's none: ma feesh
To flip fee into "there isn't," you wrap it. Put ma in front and a -sh on the end, and you get ma feesh.
You can also just say ma fee with no tail. Both are correct; ma feesh is a touch more emphatic and you'll hear it more on the street.
- ma feesh maSaari — there's no money
- ma feesh waqt — there's no time
- ma fee mushkile — no problem
That last line is gold. ma fee mushkile is the Palestinian "no worries," the thing you say when someone apologizes, when a plan falls through, when you want to wave off a hassle. Learn it as one chunk.
The trap: fee is not fi
This is the one that catches everybody. fee (there is) and (in) look almost the same written out, and they sound close. They do completely different jobs.
fee is about existence. fee 7aleeb means "there's milk." fi is about location. It sits in front of a noun and tells you where something is: il-7aleeb fit-tallaaje, "the milk's in the fridge."
The quick test: fee usually opens the sentence and can stand on its own. fi always leans on whatever comes right after it. If you can answer "exists, or located?" you'll never mix them up.
Was there? kaan fee for the past
fee only works in the present. To push it into the past, you put kaan in front: means "there was" or "there were."
- kaan fee 7ada hown — there was someone here
- ma kaan feesh waqt — there wasn't time
Same logic for the negative. The ma wraps the kaan, and the -sh hangs off the fee.
Lines for the shop and the house
You'll use fee most at a counter and at home. A few worth banking.
At the vegetable stall in Nablus, you're checking what they've got:
- fee khuDra Taaza? — is there fresh veg?
- fee 7aleeb? — do you have milk?
- ma feesh bataaTa il-yowm — no potatoes today (what the seller tells you)
Once the answer is yes, you're straight into how much it costs and telling them what you want.
At home or on the phone:
- fee 7ada bil-beet? — is anyone home?
- fee akl? — is there food?
- ma feesh mayy — there's no water
That last line gets real use. In a lot of the West Bank, ma feesh mayy is something you'll actually say, more often than you'd like.
