Lebanese Arabic for babies and toddlers
First words in the Lebanese your family actually speaks at home, written so anyone can read them aloud.
Real spoken Lebanese Arabic, not Modern Standard ArabicLebanese Arabic is a spoken dialect. It has no standard written form taught in schools, which is exactly why it disappears so fast in diaspora families. Children hear it from their grandparents, then start school in English or German, and by the time they are five the household language has quietly switched.
Everything on this page is Lebanese as it is spoken, not Modern Standard Arabic. Every word is written twice: once in Arabic script, once in Latin letters so a parent who never learned to read Arabic can still read the bedtime story. That was the reason Kipiku started. Amélie is French, her children are half Lebanese, and she could not read a single page of the Arabic books her in-laws sent.
The Lebanese Arabic and English wordbook is the book most families here buy, mostly for children growing up in the United States, Canada and Australia. There is a Lebanese Arabic and German edition too, for families in Germany and Austria.
Lebanese Arabic and Levantine Arabic
Lebanese is one of the Levantine dialects, the group spoken across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. People searching for Levantine Arabic are usually looking for something close to this, though we publish each Levantine dialect as its own edition rather than blending them, because the differences show up in exactly the everyday words a toddler learns first.
The Lebanese Arabic wordbook
أوّل ١٠٠ كلمة
My First 100 Words
Real spoken Lebanese, not Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)- 100 first words across 10 themes
- Hand-painted watercolour by the artist Digitalartsi
- Latin transliteration under every word
- Board format, 8.5 by 8.5 inches, 26 pages
- Every word cross-checked against dialect dictionaries
Other editions in Lebanese Arabic
Lebanese Arabic words by theme
All 100 words, grouped the way they appear in the book.
Farm Animals
Cat, dog, horse, sheep, goat: the farm animals every toddler learns first
Fruits
Apple, banana, strawberry, watermelon: the everyday fruits in every toddler's vocabulary
Vegetables
Carrot, tomato, potato, broccoli: first vegetables for tiny eaters
The Kitchen
Fork, knife, pot, pan, pizza: words from the heart of every home
Vehicles
Car, bus, truck, tractor, train: the vehicles toddlers point at out the window
Zoo Animals
Lion, tiger, zebra, flamingo, koala: wild animals from far-away places
Ocean Animals
Shark, turtle, jellyfish, fish: the creatures that live under the sea
Sky & Air
Airplane, helicopter, rocket, boat: vehicles that fly and float
Weather
Sun, moon, rain, snow, rainbow: the weather words every child needs
Forest Animals & Nature
Deer, owl, butterfly, bee, tree, mushroom: the forest in 100 words
Gift moments for Lebanese Arabic families
Including Aqiqa and Eid, plus the everyday milestones.
Pronunciation
Every word in the book has a written pronunciation. The full guide for the Lebanese Arabic edition, including the sounds that have no direct equivalent in English, lives on its own page.
Open the pronunciation guideQuestions Lebanese Arabic families ask
Is this real spoken Lebanese Arabic?
This is spoken Lebanese, the everyday register you would hear in a kitchen in Beirut or Tripoli. It is not Modern Standard Arabic, the formal written language used in news broadcasts and school textbooks. A Lebanese grandmother reading these pages will recognise her own words.
My child was born abroad and I speak Lebanese but cannot read Arabic script. Is this book usable for me?
Yes, and that is the case it was designed for. Every Arabic word carries a Latin transliteration underneath, using the number system Lebanese people already use when texting: 2 for hamza, 3 for ayn, 5 for kha, 7 for ha. You read the Latin line out loud and your child hears correct Lebanese.
Will my Lebanese relatives find the Arabic correct?
Every word is cross-checked against Lebanese dialect dictionaries, and each carries a confidence score you can see on its word page. The books have not been through a full native-speaker editorial review yet, so if something reads wrong to you, tell us and we will correct it in the next printing and send you a free replacement copy.
Is this specifically Lebanese, or a general Levantine Arabic?
Specifically Lebanese. Levantine Arabic is a family rather than a single dialect, and the editions we publish are each written for one of them rather than blended into an average nobody actually speaks. Every book on this page is Lebanese throughout, including the theme headings and the book title.
Where are most Lebanese Arabic readers of these books?
Mostly the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, France and Brazil. Books print on demand in each Amazon marketplace, so a grandparent ordering from one country can have the book delivered locally in another without international postage or customs.