How to say "father" in Arabic
CognateMeaningfather
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
abאב
أب
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
abaأَبَا
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
أ-ب-وHebrew root
א-בArabic ab and Hebrew av (אב) are the same primeval Semitic word — hear it in Avraham/Ibrāhīm and in Arabic bynames like Abu Mazen ('father of Mazen').
Related Hebrew word:אבavأَڤ
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
In everyday speech dads are bāba; ab survives mostly in the construct abu ('father of').
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo too: bāba; abūya — 'my father'.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija dads are bba (also bāba); bba alone already means 'my father'.
In a phrase
My father is at home.
Plural
broken plural aCCāC — like أب→آباء; the pattern's ʾa- and the root's own hamza fuse into the long آ.