How to say "twelve" in Arabic
CognateMeaningtwelve
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
ithnā ʿasharאת'נא עשר
اثنا عشر
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
shneim asarشْنِيم أَسَار
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ث-ن-يHebrew root
ש-נ-יSame trick as eleven, one number up: Hebrew שנים עשר is 'two' plus 'ten', and Arabic ithnā ʿashar is exactly that, with ث answering ש as it always does (compare اثنان/שניים). This is no coincidence: both languages inherited the 'two + ten' construction from their common ancestor.
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
Follows 'two' → tnēn in the dialect (ث softens to t): tnaʿash.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Follows Cairo's 'two', itnēn.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
With an emphatic ṭ — even though 'two' on its own is jūj.
In a phrase
twelve months