How to say "builder, mason" in Arabic
CognateMeaningbuilder, mason
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
bannāʾבנאא
بناء
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
banaiبَانَاي
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ب-ن-يHebrew root
ב-נ-הRoot ب-ن-ي 'to build' is Hebrew ב-נ-ה letter for letter — the final weak radical shows up as ي in Arabic and ה in Hebrew, the regular Semitic alternation. Even the word-formation matches: bannāʾ and Hebrew's own בנאי are both the doubled-middle CaCCāC/qattāl professions mold, 'the one who builds' twice over.
Related Hebrew word:בנאיbanaiبَانَاي
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija: bennāy.
In a phrase
The builder builds the house.
Plural
sound masculine plural -ūn; the hamza stays on the line after the long alif