How to say "if (uncertain condition)" in Arabic
CognateMeaningif (uncertain condition)
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
inאן
إن
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
imإِيم
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Comparative Semitists have long set إن beside Hebrew's own everyday אִם, both reflexes of an old West Semitic conditional particle (compare Akkadian šumma) — but the m/n difference isn't a regular sound law, more family resemblance than proof, the same grade of hedge you'd give Arabic's interrogative أ beside Hebrew's הֲ. Grammatically the two aren't twins either: إن marks a condition seen as unlikely or uncertain, where إذا (see that entry) marks one expected to happen.
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
Cairo's everyday if is law (or iza).
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's if is ila.
In a phrase
if you wish