How to say "sea" in Arabic
False friendMeaningsea
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
بَحْر
baḥrבחר
بحر
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
ים
yamيَام
How the two words are related
False friend
Sounds like a Hebrew word but means something else — handle with care.
Arabic root
ب-ح-رBaḥr looks and sounds exactly like Hebrew בחר (he chose), but the sea never chose anything — the two words are unrelated. Hebrew's yam does surface in Arabic as the rare, Quranic يَمّ, though scholars generally take that as a borrowing from Northwest Semitic rather than an inherited cognate.
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In a phrase
الْبَحْر هَادِئ
al-baḥr hādiʾאל-בחר האדאthe sea is calm
Plural
بِحَار
biḥārבחארbroken plural CiCāC — like جَبَل→جِبَال