How to say "twenty" in Arabic
CognateMeaningtwenty
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
عِشْرُون
ʿishrūnעשרון
عشرون
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
עשרים
esrimإِسْرِيم
How the two words are related
Cognate
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ع-ش-رHebrew root
ע-ש-רBoth languages make 20 by pluralizing 10: Hebrew עשר takes ־ים to give עשרים, Arabic ʿashr takes ־ūn to give ʿishrūn — the same move with each language's masculine plural ending.
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
عِشْرِين
ʿishrīnעשריןSpoken Arabic always uses the oblique -īn form; ʿishrūn survives mostly in the news.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
عِشْرِين
ʿishrīnעשריןMoroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
عشْرِين
ʿeshrīnעשריןIn a phrase
عِشْرُون سَنَة
ʿishrūn sanaעשרון סנהtwenty years