How to say "electrician" in Arabic
New wordMeaningelectrician
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
kahrabāʾīכהרבאאי
كهربائي
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
khashmalaiخَاشْمَالَاي
How the two words are related
No Hebrew relative — learn it fresh.
Built straight on كهرباء kahrabāʾ, 'electricity' — itself no relative of Hebrew חשמל (see the electricity entry). Arabic dresses its Persian-derived amber-word in the nisba -ī ending that turns a noun into 'the electricity guy', exactly what Hebrew's own -אי suffix does in חשמלאי.
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On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
Levantine trades often use the Turkish -jī suffix instead: kahrabajī, like qahwajī 'coffee man'.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Morocco clips the French électricien to ṭrīsyān.
In a phrase
The electrician is at the house.
Plural
sound masculine plural -ūn