How to say "minute" in Arabic
CognateMeaningminute
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
daqīqaדקיקה
دقيقة
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
dakaدَاكَا
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
د-ق-قHebrew root
ד-ק-קBoth build 'minute' from the same root meaning 'thin, fine': Hebrew דקה from דק, Arabic daqīqa from daqīq — Hebrew coined its term on the model of the Arabic (both render the astronomers' 'fine part'), and the root ד-ק-ק / د-ق-ق is a true cognate.
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
Urban Levantine turns ق into a glottal stop: daʾīʾa.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo: diʾīʾa — both qāfs a glottal stop; diʾīʾa waḥda — 'just a minute'.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija keeps both q's: dqīqa.
In a phrase
one minute!
Plural
broken plural CaCāʾiC — like حديقة→حدائق (garden→gardens).