Introduction
There are many different ways to express the idea of 'because' in Egyptian Arabic (عشان/علشان، لان، اكمن، لاحسن، حاكم) and although there is overlap in the contexts that they are used in, it can be frustrating to know when to use which one. The examples below typify under what circumstances لاحسن is used to mean 'because'. You will notice that it usually follows commands (Section 1) and requests (Section 2); however, this is not always the case ( Section 3 ). In all three sections, you will notice that the clause that follows لاحسن / أحسن is a vast majority of the time negative, but not always (Example 5). Therefore, as a general rule, use لاحسن / أحسن to explain why you are asking someone to do something when that reason is negative (you will see what I mean by 'negative' as you read through the examples).
When لاحسن / أحسن means 'lest' the verb in the clause that follows this conjunction must be in the plain-form present tense or else a helping verb is inserted. When لاحسن/ أحسن means 'because' there is no such restriction. It can be followed by an active participle (Examples 1, 13, 16 and 17), a verbless clause (Example 5, 11, and 12), a habitual verb (Examples 2 and 9), future tense verb(Examples 3, 10, and 15) or a past tense verb (Examples 4, 6-8, and 14).
One thing I have noticed while gathering the examples for this page is that اتأخرت "I am late" seems to occur more commonly with لاحسن /أحسن than other verbs (Examples 14 and 19). If you are struggling to think of how to incorporate this conjunction into your speech, that may be the place to start with.
Section 1
This section will show how لاحسن/ أحسن is used with commands. The verb can be in the imperative/command form or be interpreted as a command as in Example 7.