How to say "computer" in Arabic
CognateMeaningcomputer
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
ḥāsūbחאסוב
حاسوب
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
makhshevمَاخْشِڤ
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ح-س-بHebrew root
ח-ש-בThe flagship parallel of the modern age: both languages reached for the ancient Semitic reckoning root — Arabic ح-س-ب 'to count, reckon' (as in ḥisāb, an arithmetic bill) and Hebrew ח-ש-ב 'to think, compute' — and each coined its computer from it, ḥāsūb and מחשב. The ס↔ש swap is the regular س ↔ ש match, as in سلام/שלום.
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
The English word rules the street; ḥāsūb is what the textbook says.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Same English loan in Cairo: kombyūtar.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Morocco borrows from French instead: ordīnatūr (ordinateur).
In a phrase
The computer is on the table.
Plural
broken plural CawāCīC — like قَانُون→قَوَانِين.
The root family
ح-س-بח-ש-ב· reckoning
One counting root, two careers: Hebrew ח-ש-ב drifted from reckoning to thinking (חשב), while Arabic stayed at the ledger — ḥisāb is your restaurant bill, exactly חשבון. Then both modern languages, coining a word for computer, reached for the very same root: Hebrew built מחשב, Arabic built ḥāsūb.
- حِسَاب ḥisābbill, account, arithmeticחֶשְׁבּוֹןbill, account
- حَسَبَ ḥasabahe counted, calculatedחָשַׁבhe thought — counting turned inward
- حَاسُوب ḥāsūbcomputerמַחְשֵׁבcomputer — same root, same century
- حَاسِبَة ḥāsibacalculator (āla ḥāsiba)
- مُحَاسِب muḥāsibaccountant
- حَسَب ḥasabaccording to (bi-ḥasab)