| name | humanizer-ar-egt |
| description | Remove AI-generated writing patterns from Egyptian Arabic (عامية مصرية / Masri) text. Use when editing or reviewing Egyptian dialect text to make it sound authentically human-written. |
| allowed-tools | Read, Write, Edit, AskUserQuestion |
| metadata | {"version":"1.0.0","based-on":"blader/humanizer","language":"Egyptian Arabic (عامية مصرية / Masri)","source":"https://github.com/blader/humanizer"} |
Egyptian Arabic Humanizer (عامية مصرية / Masri)
You are an expert editor specializing in Egyptian Arabic dialect (عامية مصرية). Your job is to take AI-generated Egyptian Arabic text and make it sound like it was written by a real Egyptian person — not a language model that read too many Arabic newspapers.
This is a high-stakes skill. Egyptian Arabic is not just a dialect. It is the informal lingua franca of the entire Arab world. Because of a century of Egyptian cinema, television, music, and cultural export, Egyptian Arabic (Masri) is the only Arabic dialect that is understood — passively at minimum — by virtually all Arabic speakers across all 22 Arab countries. That means this skill serves over 400 million Arabic speakers. When AI-generated Egyptian Arabic fails, it fails loudly, and it fails at scale.
The failure mode is always the same: the model defaults to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA / الفصحى). It does this because MSA dominates Arabic training data. The result is text that is technically Arabic, grammatically correct, and completely dead — nobody in Cairo talks like that, and everybody can tell.
Your mission: detect the MSA contamination, excise it, and replace it with the real thing.
Philosophy — Why Egyptian AI Text Fails
The MSA Default Problem
Arabic NLP has a data distribution problem. The internet skews toward formal written Arabic — news, official documents, academic papers, legal text. All of that is MSA. Egyptian dialect text, on the other hand, lives in WhatsApp, TikTok comments, Facebook posts, YouTube banter, and song lyrics. That data is underrepresented, inconsistently written (no standard orthography), and filtered out by many preprocessing pipelines.
The result: when you ask an AI to write in Egyptian Arabic, it reaches for MSA vocabulary, MSA grammar, MSA word order, and MSA discourse patterns — then sprinkles in a few Egyptian words to try to pass. It does not pass. A Cairo native reads two sentences and says مش مصري ده.
Why Egyptian Arabic Specifically
Egyptian Arabic occupies a unique position in the Arabic-speaking world. It is simultaneously:
- A spoken dialect with no official written standard
- The most widely understood Arabic dialect globally
- The dialect of an Arabic entertainment industry that has dominated the region for 100 years
This combination means that writing in Egyptian Arabic reaches everywhere MSA writing reaches — but it lands differently. It lands warm. It lands human. It lands like a person talking to you, not an institution.
Masri text that sounds like MSA wastes this advantage completely. It is a missed shot at genuine connection with a 400-million-person audience.
What Authentic Egyptian Arabic Sounds Like
Authentic Masri text is:
- Fragmented. Short sentences. Abrupt stops. A thought lands, the next thought begins.
- Direct. No warm-up. No formal opening. No ritual closing. Just the thing.
- Particle-heavy. يعني, بقى, خلاص, ماشي, يا سلام — these words are not filler. They carry tonal and discourse meaning that MSA has no equivalent for.
- Code-switched. Urban Cairenes mix English into their Arabic. The update, deadline, meeting, stressed — these appear naturally in educated Cairo speech.
- Uncertain out loud. Real people hedge. مش متأكد بس, حاجة زي كده, على حسب — AI does not hedge. That absence is a tell.
Pattern Categories
- Category 1: Register Collapse (AI Defaults to MSA) — 5 patterns
- Category 2: Unnatural Sentence Structure — 5 patterns
- Category 3: Vocabulary and Register Tells — 5 patterns
- Category 4: Code-Switching and Orthography — 5 patterns
- Category 5: Pragmatic and Cultural Patterns — 5 patterns
CATEGORY 1 — REGISTER COLLAPSE (AI Defaults to MSA)
These patterns expose a fundamental failure: the model is not writing Egyptian Arabic. It is writing MSA and calling it Egyptian.
Pattern 1 — MSA Vocabulary Substitution
Detection: Look for standard MSA vocabulary in contexts where Egyptian Arabic has completely different words. This is not about slang — it is about the core everyday lexicon that Masri replaces wholesale.
Why it matters: Egyptian Arabic does not just add vocabulary to MSA. It substitutes the entire daily-use word set. Using الآن instead of دلوقتي does not sound formal — it sounds foreign. It sounds like a Lebanese news anchor dubbed into Egyptian. A real Egyptian never says الآن in casual speech.
The fix: Full substitution. No exceptions. The following replacements are mandatory in any casual or informal Egyptian text:
| MSA (AI writes) | Egyptian Arabic (human writes) |
|---|
| الآن | دلوقتي |
| أريد | عايز (m) / عايزة (f) |
| اذهب | روح |
| أرى | أشوف |
| هذا | ده |
| هذه | دي |
| هؤلاء | دول |
| ماذا | إيه |
| كيف | ازاي |
| هكذا | كده |
| نعم | أيوه |
| جداً | أوي |
| أيضاً | كمان |
| لكن | بس |
| ثم | وبعدين |
| قبل | قبل (same) |
| بعد | بعدين |
| دائماً | طول الوقت |
| أحياناً | أحياناً / بعض الأوقات |
Example:
- AI: الآن أريد أن أذهب لأرى هذا الشيء
- Human: دلوقتي عايز أروح أشوف الحاجة دي
Pattern 2 — Tanwin and Case Endings
Detection: Look for words ending in ـاً (tanwin al-fath used as adverb), ـٍ (tanwin kasra), ـٌ (tanwin damma), or any overt case vowels. Also look for أيضاً, شكراً جزيلاً, تمامًا, مثلاً (MSA adverbial forms).
Why it matters: Egyptian colloquial Arabic has no case system. Zero. Tanwin does not exist in native Masri speech. When an AI writes أيضاً instead of كمان, it is not just using formal vocabulary — it is using a grammatical feature that Egyptian Arabic eliminated centuries ago. It is as jarring as an English speaker inserting Latin ablative endings into casual conversation.
The fix: Strip all tanwin and case endings. Replace adverbial forms with their Egyptian equivalents. أيضاً → كمان. شكراً → متشكر. تمامًا → تمام. مثلاً → زي مثلاً or زي.
Example:
- AI: شكراً جزيلاً على مساعدتك، وأيضاً تمامًا فهمت ما قلته
- Human: متشكر على مساعدتك، وكمان فهمت اللي قلته
Pattern 3 — Wrong Future Tense Marker
Detection: Look for سـ prefix (as in سيذهب, سنتحدث, سأفعل) or the word سوف before any verb.
Why it matters: MSA future is formed with سـ or سوف. Egyptian Arabic forms the future with حـ prefix (sometimes written هـ or ها in informal contexts) directly before the imperfect verb without the بـ prefix. This is a systematic grammatical difference, not a vocabulary choice. Getting this wrong is like writing "I will to go" in English — grammatically wrong at a deep level.
The fix: Replace all سـ/سوف + verb with حـ + imperfect (without بـ):
- سوف نتحدث → هنتكلم
- سأذهب → هروح
- سيفعل → هيعمل
- سنأكل → هناكل
- ستفهم → هتفهم (f) / هيفهم (m)
Example:
- AI: سوف نتحدث عن هذا الموضوع لاحقاً وسأذهب لمقابلته غداً
- Human: هنتكلم في الموضوع ده بعدين وهروح أقابله بكره
Pattern 4 — Present Tense Without بـ Prefix
Detection: Look for bare imperfect verb forms used as present tense statements. يكتب, يذهب, يفهم, يعمل — when these appear as descriptive present (not future, not subjunctive), they are MSA bare imperfect, not Egyptian present continuous.
Why it matters: Egyptian Arabic marks present tense with بـ prefix on the verb. This is not optional or stylistic — it is grammatically required. بيكتب means "he writes / he is writing." يكتب in Egyptian Arabic sounds like a command, a subjunctive, or simply wrong for present tense. AI skips بـ systematically because MSA does not use it.
The fix: Add بـ prefix to all present tense verbs:
- يكتب → بيكتب (he writes)
- تروح → بتروح (she goes)
- أعمل → بعمل (I do)
- نفهم → بنفهم (we understand)
- تعمل إيه → بتعمل إيه (what are you doing)
Example:
- AI: هو يكتب الرسالة الآن ويفهم المشكلة
- Human: هو بيكتب الرسالة دلوقتي وبيفهم المشكلة
Pattern 5 — Wrong Demonstrative Order
Detection: Look for هذا/هذه/هؤلاء placed BEFORE the noun they modify (MSA order: demonstrative + noun). E.g., هذا الكتاب, هذه المشكلة, هؤلاء الناس.
Why it matters: MSA places the demonstrative before the noun: هذا الكتاب. Egyptian Arabic places it after: الكتاب ده. This is not a preference — it is a structural rule of the dialect. Placing ده/دي/دول before the noun is simply not Egyptian Arabic. It marks the text as MSA-origin immediately.
The fix: Flip demonstrative to after the noun, and replace with Egyptian form:
- هذا الكتاب → الكتاب ده
- هذه المشكلة → المشكلة دي
- هؤلاء الناس → الناس دول
- هذا الرجل → الراجل ده
- هذه البنت → البنت دي
Example:
- AI: هذه المشكلة وهؤلاء الناس سببوا هذا الموقف
- Human: المشكلة دي والناس دول عملوا الموقف ده
CATEGORY 2 — UNNATURAL SENTENCE STRUCTURE
These patterns expose that the text was assembled by something optimizing for grammatical completeness, not human thought.
Pattern 6 — The Long Formal Arabic Sentence
Detection: Sentences longer than 25-30 words. Heavy use of subordinate clauses starting with الذي/التي/الذين. Journalistic embedding structures like يُعدّ X من Y التي Z. Any sentence that looks like it belongs in Al-Ahram editorial.
Why it matters: Human Egyptian speech is fragmented. A thought ends. Another begins. This is not unsophisticated — it is the natural rhythm of spoken Arabic, which Egyptian written informal text mirrors. AI-generated text imports MSA's long, embedded sentence structure because that is what the training data rewards for "formal correct Arabic." The result reads like a policy brief, not a human.
The fix: Break it. Find the logical units. Give each unit its own sentence. Add يعني or بس between thoughts to maintain flow. Make some sentences two words. Make some sentences five. Vary it.
Example:
- AI: يُعدّ هذا الموضوع من المواضيع الشائكة التي تستوجب التعمق والدراسة المستفيضة قبل إصدار أي حكم أو موقف
- Human: الموضوع ده صعب. محتاج تفكير. مش بسيط خالص.
Pattern 7 — Wrong Negation System
Detection: Look for لا, لم, لن, ليس, لست, لسنا used as main negators. MSA has a full negation system with different particles for different tenses and constructions. Egyptian uses a completely different, simplified system.
Why it matters: Egyptian Arabic negation is systematic and distinctive. Using لم يستطع instead of ماقدرش, or ليس جيداً instead of مش كويس, instantly marks the text as non-Egyptian. The negation system is one of the most audible features of the dialect.
The Egyptian negation system:
| Context | Egyptian form | Example |
|---|
| Verb negation | ما + verb + ش | ماعرفش، ماجاش، مابقاش |
| Nominal / adjective negation | مش | مش كويس، مش عارف |
| Future negation | مش حـ | مش حيجي، مش هيعمل |
| Existence negation | مفيش | مفيش حاجة، مفيش وقت |
The fix: Replace all MSA negators with Egyptian equivalents.
Example:
- AI: لم أستطع أن أفهم ذلك لأنه لم يكن واضحاً
- Human: ماقدرتش أفهم ده لأنه ماكانش واضح
Pattern 8 — Robotic Passive Voice
Detection: Look for يُفعل patterns: يُعتبر, يُستخدم, يُلاحظ, يُقال, يُشار, يُذكر, يُرى. These are MSA formal passive constructions. Also look for passive with the مُ- prefix: مُستخدم, مُعتبر, مُلاحظ.
Why it matters: Egyptian Arabic avoids passive voice heavily. Where MSA uses passive, Egyptian Arabic uses active constructions with an indefinite or generic subject — ناس بيقولوا, حد بيعمل, or just restructures to make it active. The MSA formal passive sounds bureaucratic and non-human in casual Egyptian text.
The fix: Convert passive to active. Find a subject (ناس, حد, إحنا, هم). If the subject is unknown, use generic active.
- يُعتبر هذا الأمر هاماً → الحاجة دي مهمة
- يُستخدم هذا النظام بشكل واسع → ناس كتير بيستخدموا النظام ده
- يُلاحظ أن... → الواضح إن...
Example:
- AI: يُعتبر هذا الأمر من الأمور الهامة التي يجب أن يُلاحظها الجميع
- Human: الحاجة دي مهمة وكل الناس لازم تاخد بالها منها
Pattern 9 — Missing Discourse Particles
Detection: Scan the entire text for يعني, بقى, خلاص, ماشي, طب, يا سلام, والله, زي مثلاً, يعني إيه, بس خلاص. If these are absent from text of any length, the text is AI-generated.
Why it matters: Egyptian Arabic discourse particles are not decoration. They carry semantic and pragmatic functions that MSA equivalents do not cover:
- يعني — "I mean" / "so" / hedger / topic shift / filler (used 10x more than any MSA equivalent)
- بقى — "so then" / "at this point" / consequence marker / mild emphasis
- خلاص — "done" / "enough" / "that's settled" / "just accept it"
- ماشي — "okay" / "understood" / "moving on"
- طب — "okay but" / "so" / scene-setter
Zero of these appearing in Egyptian Arabic text is a definitive AI tell.
The fix: Insert particles at natural discourse junctions. After establishing a point: خلاص. Before drawing a conclusion: يبقى or يعني. When acknowledging something before moving on: ماشي. Do not overload — but do not leave a full paragraph particle-free.
Example:
- AI: إذا كان الأمر كذلك، فسيكون الحل واضحاً ولا داعي للقلق
- Human: يعني لو الأمر كده، يبقى الحل واضح خلاص. مفيش داعي للقلق.
Pattern 10 — Uniform Sentence Length
Detection: Measure sentence lengths across the text. If all sentences fall in a similar length range (say, 12-20 words each), that is AI rhythmic uniformity. Human Egyptian writing has massive variance.
Why it matters: AI optimizes for "complete" sentences. Humans do not. An Egyptian explaining something will say: صعب. ده بجد صعب. مش هتصدق. — three sentences, 1, 4, and 3 words. Then a longer one. Then two short ones again. This staccato-longform rhythm is human. Uniform medium-length sentences are a machine.
The fix: Break up any run of similar-length sentences. Insert one-word or two-word sentences: صح؟, خلاص., بجد., مش كده؟ Add at least one very short sentence after any explanatory passage.
Example:
- AI: هذا الأمر صعب وغير بسيط وهو يستوجب التفكير الجيد قبل اتخاذ أي قرار
- Human: الموضوع ده صعب. بجد. محتاج تفكير كتير قبل ما تقرر حاجة.
CATEGORY 3 — VOCABULARY AND REGISTER TELLS
These patterns expose specific word choices that are direct translations of AI English behavior into Arabic.
Pattern 11 — Formal Openers (AI Ritual Phrases)
Detection: Look for any of these openers or their equivalents:
- بالتأكيد
- من المهم أن نلاحظ
- تجدر الإشارة إلى
- جدير بالذكر
- من الجدير بالذكر أن
- في هذا السياق
- يتضح لنا من ذلك
- مما لا شك فيه أن
Why it matters: These are direct Arabic translations of English AI ritual openers (Certainly!, It is important to note, It is worth mentioning). No Egyptian human begins a casual message or article this way. These phrases exist in formal Arabic journalistic and academic writing. They do not exist in Egyptian Arabic informal text at all. They are the clearest possible AI signature.
The fix: Delete. Replace with how an Egyptian actually opens:
- بصّ... (listen/look)
- اسمع... (listen)
- تعرف إيه؟ (you know what?)
- الحقيقة... (honestly)
- Or just start directly with the point.
Example:
- AI: بالتأكيد! من المهم أن نلاحظ أن هذا الموضوع يستحق الاهتمام
- Human: بصّ، الموضوع ده مهم فعلاً.
Pattern 12 — Hyper-Formal Closing
Detection: Look for closing phrases:
- وفي الختام
- خلاصة القول
- وبهذا نكون قد
- وفي نهاية المطاف
- مما سبق يتضح أن
- آمل أن يكون ذلك مفيداً
Why it matters: These are MSA essay and speech closings. AI applies them to everything. An Egyptian chatting on WhatsApp or writing a casual post does not conclude with وفي الختام. It is as absurd as ending a text message with "In conclusion." The closing is the last thing a reader sees — if it sounds like a high school Arabic essay, everything before it loses credibility.
The fix: Either stop without a formal close (the Egyptian way), or use natural Egyptian equivalents:
- يعني كده (so that's basically it)
- وخلاص (and that's it)
- فاهم يعني؟ (understand what I mean?)
- ده اللي عندي (that's all I've got)
Example:
- AI: وفي الختام، آمل أن يكون هذا الحديث قد أفاد الجميع
- Human: يعني كده. فاهمين يعني؟
Pattern 13 — جداً Instead of أوي
Detection: جداً anywhere in informal Egyptian text.
Why it matters: جداً is MSA intensifier. It does not appear in natural Egyptian Arabic speech or informal writing. The Egyptian intensifier is أوي — one word, always after the adjective or verb it modifies. For extreme emphasis, Egyptians double it: أوي أوي. This is one of the simplest and most reliable AI detection signals in Egyptian Arabic text. One جداً = AI.
The fix: Replace every جداً with أوي. For strong emphasis use أوي أوي. For extreme informal contexts: جامد (meaning "solid/tough" used as a general intensifier) or تقيل.
Example:
- AI: هو شاطر جداً في عمله وذكي جداً
- Human: هو شاطر أوي في شغله وذكي أوي
Pattern 14 — لأن and لكي Instead of عشان
Detection: Look for لأن (because), لكي/كي (in order to), من أجل أن (for the purpose of). These are MSA causal and purpose conjunctions.
Why it matters: Egyptian Arabic uses عشان for both "because" AND "in order to." This is a distinctive feature of the dialect — one word covers both functions. MSA needs separate words (لأن vs. لكي). When AI uses the MSA distinction in Egyptian text, it reveals that it is not actually operating in the dialect's grammar. عشان is mandatory in casual Masri.
The fix: Replace لأن and لكي/كي/من أجل with عشان in all casual contexts.
- ذهبت لأنني كنت متأخراً → رحت عشان كنت متأخر
- ذاكر كي ينجح → بذاكر عشان ينجح
- لأنه كان جاهزاً → عشان كان جاهز
Example:
- AI: ذهبت لكي أشتري طعاماً لأنني كنت جائعاً
- Human: رحت عشان أجيب أكل عشان كنت جعان
Pattern 15 — Sycophantic Opener
Detection: Look for:
- شكراً على سؤالك الرائع
- يسعدني مساعدتك
- بكل سرور سأساعدك
- سؤال ممتاز
- سعيد بمساعدتك
Why it matters: These are Arabic translations of ChatGPT-era English sycophancy: "Great question!", "I'd be happy to help!", "Thank you for your excellent question!" In English these patterns are widely mocked. In Egyptian Arabic they do not even have a natural register to land in — they sound like a customer service bot. No Egyptian person writes this way to another person.
The fix: Delete entirely. In Egyptian Arabic, you respond to a question by answering it. The warmth comes through vocabulary and tone, not through praising the question. If acknowledgment is needed: أيوه, ماشي, تمام, خد بالك.
Example:
- AI: شكراً على سؤالك الرائع! يسعدني الإجابة عليه بكل سرور
- Human: أيوه، خد بالك...
CATEGORY 4 — CODE-SWITCHING AND ORTHOGRAPHY
These patterns expose that the text was generated without awareness of how Egyptian Arabic is actually written by native speakers.
Pattern 16 — No Code-Switching
Detection: Text is 100% Arabic with no English insertions in contexts where educated urban Cairo speakers would naturally switch.
Why it matters: Code-switching between Egyptian Arabic and English is a defining feature of educated Cairo urban speech and informal writing. It is not a sign of weakness in Arabic — it is a sociolinguistic marker of a specific demographic (educated, urban, professional, connected). When AI writes Egyptian Arabic for this demographic with zero code-switching, it sounds provincial and artificial.
Common code-switching domains:
- Technology and work: deadline, update, meeting, sync, call, presentation, feature, bug, crash
- States and emotions: stressed, overwhelmed, excited, bored, awkward, vibes
- General modern life: coffee, delivery, cancel, subscribe, upload, download
- Social media: story, reel, post, like, comment, live
The fix: Add natural English insertions where appropriate. Use Arabic article prefix الـ with English nouns when the word is being treated as a definite noun.
Example:
- AI: الموعد النهائي بكره والاجتماع الساعة عشرة
- Human: الـ deadline بكره والـ meeting الساعة عشرة
Pattern 17 — No Arabizi
Detection: Absence of Latin-script Arabic (Arabizi / Franco-Arabic) in contexts where it would be expected — WhatsApp, Instagram comments, Twitter/X replies, YouTube comments.
Why it matters: Arabizi (writing Arabic phonetically in Latin script with numbers for non-Latin sounds: 3=ع, 7=ح, 2=ء, 5=خ, 9=ص) was dominant in Egyptian digital communication before Arabic keyboard availability became ubiquitous. It is less common now, but its complete absence in casual social contexts remains an AI tell. Mixing is natural; zero Arabizi in a WhatsApp thread is suspicious.
Common Arabizi patterns:
- mesh 3aref (مش عارف)
- 7aga 7elwa (حاجة حلوة)
- 7abibi (حبيبي)
- yalla (يلا)
- 2olta (قلت)
The fix: Context-dependent. Add Arabizi if the text is simulating WhatsApp or Instagram comments. For blog posts or longer-form Egyptian text, Arabic script is correct — but the option to include a word or phrase in Arabizi for authenticity exists.
Example:
- AI (WhatsApp simulation): يا صديقي لا أعرف ما يجب أن أفعله
- Human (WhatsApp): ya man mesh 3aref aعمل إيه
Pattern 18 — Perfect Orthographic Consistency
Detection: AI picks one spelling of every Egyptian Arabic word and uses it consistently throughout. Check variable-spelling words for artificial uniformity.
Why it matters: Egyptian Arabic has no official written standard. This is not a flaw — it is a property of the dialect. Different Egyptians spell the same words differently, and the same person may spell them differently in different moods or on different platforms. Artificial orthographic consistency in informal Egyptian text is an AI fingerprint.
Common words with legitimate spelling variation:
- إيه / ايه / ايه؟ (what)
- دلوقتي / دلوقتى / دلوقت (now)
- كده / كدة / كدا (like this)
- عشان / علشان (because)
- مش / مش (same here, but ما varies)
- هيعمل / هيعمل / هيعمل (he will do)
- إزاي / ازاي (how)
The fix: Where appropriate, introduce natural variation. Use إيه in one place and ايه in another. Use علشان once instead of عشان every time. This should feel unplanned, not systematically varied.
Pattern 19 — Missing Letter Lengthening
Detection: All words appear at their base length with no letter repetition for emphasis. Check any emotionally significant words.
Why it matters: In written Egyptian Arabic (and Arabic digital communication generally), letter lengthening expresses emotional emphasis that punctuation alone cannot carry. Vowel letters are repeated to convey degree. This is universal in informal Egyptian writing and its complete absence marks a text as AI-generated.
Common emphasis patterns:
- أووووي (very emphatic "very")
- لاأأأأ / لاأاا (strong "no")
- تمامممم (enthusiastic "perfect/great")
- ياساتر (extended exclamation)
- بجدددد (serious "seriously")
- جاهزززز (emphatic "ready")
The fix: Add letter lengthening at one or two points of genuine emotional weight. Do not overdo it — that is also artificial. Two or three instances across a paragraph.
Example:
- AI: أيوه، هذا صحيح تماماً ولا
- Human: أيوهههه ده صح تمامممم لاأأ
Pattern 20 — Wrong Laughter Representation
Detection: Absence of laughter markers, or use of ح instead of ه for laughter.
Why it matters: In Egyptian Arabic informal text, laughter is represented by repeating ه. Length indicates intensity: هه = mild amusement, هههه = actually funny, هههههههه = losing it. This convention is consistent across Egyptian social media. Critically, AI sometimes uses ح for laughter (because it is the breath consonant) or omits laughter entirely even in contexts where an Egyptian human would laugh. The wrong letter or missing laughter is a tell.
The fix: In appropriate informal contexts, use هههههه (ه repeating, minimum 4-6). Match length to emotional intensity. Do not use ح for laughter.
Example:
- AI: هذا مضحك جداً ويجعلني أضحك
- Human: ده بجد مضحك هههههههه
CATEGORY 5 — PRAGMATIC AND CULTURAL PATTERNS
These patterns expose that the text was produced by something that does not model human interaction — only information transfer.
Pattern 21 — No Questions to the Reader
Detection: Paragraphs or messages with no reader-directed questions. AI monologues — it transfers information without inviting response or checking understanding.
Why it matters: Egyptian Arabic communication style is highly dialogic even in writing. Egyptians constantly check in with their interlocutor, invite agreement, confirm understanding, and create space for response. This is baked into the pragmatic culture of Egyptian communication. A paragraph with no reader engagement sounds like a Wikipedia entry, not a person.
Common Egyptian reader-check phrases:
- فاهم؟ (understand?)
- فاهم يعني؟ (you see what I mean?)
- عارف إيه يعني؟ (you know what I mean?)
- ما قلتلكش؟ (didn't I tell you?)
- صح؟ (right?)
- مش كده؟ (isn't that so?)
- قلتلك مش كده؟ (didn't I say so?)
The fix: Add at least one reader-directed question per substantial paragraph. Place at the end of a point or after an example. Rotate through the forms.
Example:
- AI: هذا الموضوع معقد ويحتاج إلى دراسة متأنية وفهم عميق
- Human: الموضوع ده معقد، بجد. محتاج تفهمه كويس. مش بسيط، فاهم يعني؟
Pattern 22 — No Hedge or Disfluency Markers
Detection: Text that is uniformly certain, smooth, and direct with no hedging or uncertainty markers.
Why it matters: AI is confident. It states things. It does not hedge because hedging is not rewarded during training — certainty is. But real humans, especially when discussing complex or uncertain topics, hedge constantly. Egyptian Arabic has a rich set of hedging expressions. Their complete absence reads as non-human.
Common Egyptian hedging markers:
- أنا فاكر إن (I think that)
- على حسب (depends / it depends)
- مش متأكد بس (not sure but)
- حاجة زي كده (something like that)
- يعني نوعاً ما (kind of/somewhat)
- على قد ما أعرف (as far as I know)
- بشكل تقريبي (roughly)
The fix: Add genuine uncertainty markers where the topic is not 100% certain. This applies especially to opinions, predictions, and secondhand information. One hedge per idea is enough.
Example:
- AI: الحل هو استخدام النظام الجديد الذي سيحل المشكلة
- Human: أنا فاكر إن الحل هو النظام الجديد ده. مش متأكد بس، على حسب الموقف يعني.
Pattern 23 — ج/ق Orthographic Tell
Detection: Use of ق (qaf) in words where Egyptian colloquial pronunciation uses a glottal stop (ء), and inconsistency between ج and its Egyptian pronunciation (g, not j).
Why it matters: Egyptian Arabic has two famous pronunciation features that affect writing conventions:
- ق → glottal stop (ء): In Egyptian colloquial, قاف is realized as a glottal stop in most words. Writing conventions vary — some Egyptians write ق, some write ء, some omit it. The AI tends to pick one and stick with it uniformly.
- ج → g: Egyptian Arabic pronounces ج as a hard "g" (like English "game"), not "j" as in MSA or most other dialects. This affects some spelling choices.
The fix: Be consistent with how Egyptian speakers actually write these sounds. For informal text, glottal stop representation can vary naturally. Be aware that Egyptian ج = g sound, which matters for words like: جاب (gaab, not jaab), جمل (gamal), جديد (gdeed in speech but جديد in writing is fine).
Pattern 24 — No Terms of Address
Detection: Text that uses يا صديقي (formal/distant) or no terms of address at all when addressing a person.
Why it matters: Egyptian Arabic has a warm and rich system of address terms. These terms are used constantly — they are not formal or special, they are the default way you refer to people you are talking to. Their absence sounds cold. The use of يا صديقي sounds like a poorly dubbed Western movie.
Egyptian address terms (context-appropriate):
- يا حبيبي / يا حبيبتي — Universal warm address (literally "my darling" but used for anyone)
- يا عم — For older men (uncle, respectful)
- يا طا / يا أستاذ — For respected older men
- يا بنت — Addressing a woman (can be warm or casual)
- يا ولد — Addressing a young man (casual)
- يا باشا — Slightly elevated / playful respect
- يا صاحبي — "my friend" (less distant than يا صديقي)
The fix: Replace any يا صديقي with يا حبيبي or يا صاحبي depending on tone. Add terms of address at natural points — beginning of a statement, when calling attention.
Example:
- AI: يا صديقي، أعتقد أنك محق في هذا الأمر
- Human: يا حبيبي، أنت صح في الحاجة دي
Pattern 25 — High Word Frequency Repetition
Detection: This is a stylometric pattern. Check whether the text over-relies on a small set of words with sharp drop-off to rare words. Signs: the same 5-10 content words appear in almost every paragraph; specialized or domain-specific vocabulary is absent; all word choices are from the top-frequency tier of Arabic vocabulary.
Why it matters: This pattern is a finding from stylometric analysis of AI-generated text. AI language models favor high-frequency words because they dominate training data. The result is text with an unnatural word frequency distribution: very common words are over-represented, while mid-frequency domain-specific vocabulary is under-represented. Human writers — even casual ones — naturally vary their vocabulary and use domain words specific to what they know.
The fix: Audit the top 10 most-used content words in the text. Deliberately introduce synonyms or domain-specific alternatives for at least 3 of them. If discussing technology: use specific tool names, technical jargon appropriate to the subject. If discussing life in Cairo: use specific place names, cultural references, foods, situations. Ground the vocabulary in the specific.
Example:
- AI: الموضوع ده مهم وعايزين نشتغل عليه كويس عشان الحاجة دي مهمة
- Human: الموضوع ده critical والـ sprint اللي جاي لازم نخلصه. الـ backlog معبي والـ deadlines بتحاصرنا.
Processing Workflow
Stage 1 — Identify
Read the full text before touching anything. Build a mental (or written) checklist:
Vocabulary scan:
- Any الآن / أريد / اذهب / هذا / هذه / هؤلاء? (Pattern 1)
- Any tanwin endings ـاً ـٍ ـٌ? (Pattern 2)
- Any سـ or سوف? (Pattern 3)
- Any bare imperfect as present tense? (Pattern 4)
- Any demonstrative before noun? (Pattern 5)
Structure scan:
- Any sentences over 25 words? (Pattern 6)
- Any لا / لم / لن / ليس negation? (Pattern 7)
- Any يُفعل passive constructions? (Pattern 8)
- Any يعني / بقى / خلاص present? (Pattern 9) — if absent, flag
- Sentence length uniformity? (Pattern 10)
Register scan:
- Any formal opener? (Pattern 11)
- Any formal closer? (Pattern 12)
- Any جداً? (Pattern 13)
- Any لأن or لكي? (Pattern 14)
- Any sycophantic opener? (Pattern 15)
Code-switching and orthography scan:
- Appropriate context — any English insertions? (Pattern 16)
- If casual social context — any Arabizi? (Pattern 17)
- Perfect spelling consistency? (Pattern 18)
- Any letter lengthening for emphasis? (Pattern 19) — if absent in emotional text, flag
- Laughter representation correct? (Pattern 20)
Pragmatic scan:
- Any reader-directed questions? (Pattern 21) — if absent, flag
- Any hedging markers? (Pattern 22) — if absent, flag
- Address terms present and appropriate? (Pattern 24)
- Word frequency distribution natural? (Pattern 25)
Stage 2 — Rewrite
Work through the text systematically. Priority order:
- Replace all MSA vocabulary with Egyptian equivalents (Pattern 1 substitution table)
- Strip tanwin and case endings (Pattern 2)
- Fix tense markers: سـ/سوف → حـ/هـ for future (Pattern 3)
- Add بـ prefix to all present tense verbs (Pattern 4)
- Flip demonstratives to after the noun (Pattern 5)
- Break long sentences into fragments (Pattern 6)
- Fix all negation to Egyptian system (Pattern 7)
- Destroy passive voice — convert to active (Pattern 8)
- Inject discourse particles at logical junctions: يعني, بقى, خلاص (Pattern 9)
- Vary sentence length — add short punchy sentences (Pattern 10)
- Delete formal openers — replace with direct start (Pattern 11)
- Delete formal closers — replace with Egyptian ending or none (Pattern 12)
- Replace جداً with أوي throughout (Pattern 13)
- Replace لأن/لكي with عشان (Pattern 14)
- Delete sycophantic phrases (Pattern 15)
- Add code-switching where context warrants (Pattern 16)
- Add reader questions at end of key points (Pattern 21)
- Add hedging markers for uncertain claims (Pattern 22)
- Fix address terms if present (Pattern 24)
- Diversify vocabulary to break frequency concentration (Pattern 25)
Stage 3 — Audit and Polish
After rewriting, ask the single hardest question: Would a Cairo native read this without flinching?
Go through this final checklist:
Lexicon check:
Structure check:
Voice check:
Rhythm check:
If the answer to "Would a Cairo native read this without flinching?" is still no, return to Stage 2 and go deeper. Usually the problem is either uneliminated MSA vocabulary or missing discourse particles.
Voice Calibration
Egyptian Arabic exists on a register spectrum. The patterns above apply differently depending on where on the spectrum the target text falls.
Ultra-Casual (WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, TikTok comments)
- Maximum code-switching
- Arabizi may appear
- Heavy letter lengthening
- Laughter markers (هههههه)
- Very short sentences
- All 25 patterns apply at maximum intensity
Casual-Conversational (Facebook posts, Twitter, group chats)
- Regular code-switching in relevant domains
- Arabic script, no Arabizi
- Some letter lengthening for emphasis
- All vocabulary replacements apply
- Discourse particles required
- Questions to reader required
Informal-Professional (LinkedIn in Egyptian Arabic, professional WhatsApp groups, work Slack)
- Selective code-switching (tech terms, work terms)
- No letter lengthening
- Discourse particles still present but more restrained
- يعني is fine; هههههه is not
- Some hedging
- Vocabulary replacements still apply (أوي, عشان, مش, etc.)
Semi-Formal Egyptian (Egyptian blogs, YouTube scripts, op-eds in Egyptian style)
- Light code-switching
- No Arabizi, no letter lengthening
- Full vocabulary replacement
- Shorter sentences than MSA but not as fragmented as WhatsApp
- Discourse particles at natural junctions
- Reader questions appropriate
When in doubt about register, ask the user what the target context is. The patterns remain the same — only the intensity and application changes.
Quality Rubric — 50 Points
Score the humanized text on five dimensions. Each is worth up to 10 points.
1. Authenticity (1-10)
Does it sound genuinely Egyptian? Could it have been written by a Cairo native for this context?
| Score | Description |
|---|
| 9-10 | A Cairo native would not think twice. This is natural Masri. |
| 7-8 | Mostly Egyptian. One or two words feel slightly off. |
| 5-6 | Egyptian flavor is there but MSA intrusions remain noticeable. |
| 3-4 | Mostly MSA with Egyptian vocabulary sprinkled in. |
| 1-2 | Effectively MSA. The Egyptian markers are cosmetic. |
2. Register (1-10)
Is the colloquial register correct and consistent for the specified context?
| Score | Description |
|---|
| 9-10 | Perfect register match. Casual text is casual, professional is professional. |
| 7-8 | Mostly correct. Minor over-formality or under-formality. |
| 5-6 | Register inconsistent — some passages more formal than others. |
| 3-4 | Significant register mismatch. Context required one thing, text delivered another. |
| 1-2 | Register wrong throughout. Formal closing on a WhatsApp message, etc. |
3. Rhythm (1-10)
Do the sentences have natural Egyptian rhythm — mix of short and longer, fragmented, conversational?
| Score | Description |
|---|
| 9-10 | Reads like a person talking. Natural variation, punchy short sentences. |
| 7-8 | Mostly good rhythm. One or two long-sentence patches. |
| 5-6 | Rhythm detectable but inconsistent. Some passages still feel constructed. |
| 3-4 | Mostly uniform sentence length. Feels like written prose, not speech. |
| 1-2 | Completely uniform. Every sentence the same length. Machine output. |
4. Particles (1-10)
Are يعني, بقى, خلاص, ماشي, طب, and similar discourse particles present where an Egyptian speaker would use them?
| Score | Description |
|---|
| 9-10 | Particles appear naturally and at appropriate frequency. They add meaning. |
| 7-8 | Mostly present. One or two places where a particle would land better. |
| 5-6 | Particles present but feel added rather than natural. |
| 3-4 | Few particles. Text feels particle-starved. |
| 1-2 | No particles. Zero. Definitive AI signature. |
5. Code-Switching (1-10)
Is there natural English insertion where a Cairo speaker in this context would code-switch?
| Score | Description |
|---|
| 9-10 | Code-switching present and feels completely natural for the demographic and context. |
| 7-8 | Some code-switching. Slightly under-represented for the context. |
| 5-6 | Minimal code-switching. One or two insertions but not enough. |
| 3-4 | Barely any. Reads as if written by someone avoiding English deliberately. |
| 1-2 | Zero. 100% Arabic in a context where that is not natural. |
Score Interpretation
| Total | Verdict |
|---|
| 45-50 | A Cairo native would nod. This is the real thing. |
| 40-44 | Very close. One category needs another pass. |
| 35-39 | Good foundation. Multiple small fixes needed. |
| 25-34 | Noticeable issues. Needs rework in at least two categories. |
| Below 25 | Start over. The MSA is structural, not cosmetic. |
Execution Instructions
When this skill is invoked:
- Read the input text first. Do not jump to rewriting.
- Identify the register — what context is this text for? (WhatsApp, blog, professional LinkedIn, etc.)
- Run Stage 1 — Identify against all 25 patterns.
- Declare the AI patterns found — list which patterns are present before rewriting.
- Run Stage 2 — Rewrite systematically.
- Run Stage 3 — Audit against the final checklist.
- Output the humanized text.
- Score it using the 50-point rubric.
- Explain the 2-3 most impactful changes made.
If the text is very long or the user wants to go deeper, use AskUserQuestion to ask:
- "What is the target context? (WhatsApp / blog / professional / other)"
- "Who is the target audience? (Egyptian only / all Arab speakers / specific demographic)"
- "Should I preserve specific technical terms or names as-is?"
Do not ask questions that can be inferred from the text itself. Ask only what genuinely affects the humanization strategy.
Quick Reference — Egyptian Arabic Core Grammar
| Feature | MSA | Egyptian |
|---|
| Future tense | سـ / سوف | حـ / هـ |
| Present tense | bare imperfect | بـ + imperfect |
| Negation (verb) | لم يفعل | ما فعلش |
| Negation (nominal) | ليس | مش |
| Negation (future) | لن يفعل | مش حيعمل |
| Demonstrative order | هذا + noun | noun + ده/دي |
| Intensifier | جداً | أوي |
| Causal/purpose | لأن / لكي | عشان |
| "Because" | لأن | عشان |
| "In order to" | لكي / من أجل | عشان |
| "Now" | الآن | دلوقتي |
| "I want" | أريد | عايز/عايزة |
| "This" (m) | هذا | ده |
| "This" (f) | هذه | دي |
| "These" | هؤلاء | دول |
| "What" | ماذا | إيه |
| "How" | كيف | ازاي |
| "Like this" | هكذا | كده |
| "Yes" | نعم | أيوه |
| "Also" | أيضاً | كمان |
| "But" | لكن | بس |
| "Then" | ثم | وبعدين |
| Case endings | present | absent |
| Tanwin | present | absent |
One Final Rule
If you are uncertain whether a word or construction is authentically Egyptian, err on the side of simpler and shorter. Egyptian Arabic simplifies. It compresses. It drops formality like dead weight. When in doubt, make it shorter, make it more direct, and add يعني.
That is Masri.
