How to say "lightning" in Arabic
CognateMeaninglightning
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
بَرْق
barqברק
برق
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
ברק
barakبَارَاك
How the two words are related
Cognate
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ب-ر-قHebrew root
ב-ר-קBarq is baraq, letter for letter — the same word behind the Hebrew name Barak (the biblical judge, and Israeli PM Ehud Barak). Both languages also stretch this root to mean 'shine, gleam.'
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
بَرْق
barʾבראCairo turns the qāf into a glottal stop: barʾ.
In a phrase
بَرْق فِي السَّمَاء
barq fī s-samāʾברק פי א-סמאאlightning in the sky