How to say "to write" in Arabic
CognateMeaningto write
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
katabaכתב
كتب
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
katavكَاتَاڤ
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ك-ت-بHebrew root
כ-ת-בIdentical root כ-ת-ב / ك-ت-ب, letter for letter: kataba is katav. Arabic kitāb (book) echoes Hebrew כתב (writing), and maktūb (something written) sits right next to מכתב (a letter).
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija collapses the vowels: kteb; kanekteb — 'I write'.
In a phrase
He wrote a long letter
The root family
ك-ت-بכ-ת-ב· writing
The Semitic writing root, shared letter for letter: kataba is כתב. Both languages pour it into the same molds but sometimes swap the results — Arabic maktab is the office or desk, while Hebrew מכתב is the letter you would write there. From books (kitāb) to addresses (כתובת), each language wandered its own way from the same act of writing.
- كَتَبَ katabahe wroteכָּתַבhe wrote
- كِتَاب kitābbookכְּתָבwriting, script
- مَكْتَب maktaboffice, deskמִכְתָּבa letter — same shape, swapped meaning!
- مَكْتَبَة maktabalibrary, bookshopמַכְתֵּבָהwriting desk
- كَاتِب kātibwriter, clerkכּוֹתֵבone who writes
- مَكْتُوب maktūbwritten; fated ("it is written")כָּתוּבwritten