How to say "to work" in Arabic
CognateMeaningto work
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
ʿamilaעמל
عمل
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
avadأَڤَاد
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ع-م-لHebrew root
ע-מ-לʿamila is עמל, the Hebrew word for toil and labor (עמל כפיים). Everyday Hebrew reaches for עבד, but the root ע-מ-ל is the very same 'work'.
Related Hebrew word:עמלamalأَمَال
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On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
For 'to work (at a job)' Levantine prefers ishtaghal; ʿimil covers 'to do/make'.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo says ishtaghal too: bishtaghal fēn? — 'where does he work?'
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's 'to work' is khdem: fīn katekhdem? — 'where do you work?'
In a phrase
He worked in the city
The root family
ع-م-لע-מ-ל· working
A genuinely shared work root: ʿamila is עמל. Hebrew kept the sweat — עמל is toil, honest and heavy — while Arabic generalized it into any doing at all: ʿamal work, ʿāmil worker, istaʿmala "to use". In spoken Levantine ʿimil is simply "to do, to make", the busiest verb on the street.
- عَمِلَ ʿamilahe worked, didעָמַלhe toiled
- عَمَل ʿamalwork, labor; deedעָמָלtoil, labor
- عَامِل ʿāmilworker, laborerעָמֵלtoiler, laborer
- مُعَامَلَة muʿāmalatreatment, dealing (with people)
- اِسْتَعْمَلَ istaʿmalahe used
- عَمَلِيَّة ʿamaliyyaoperation, process