How to say "book" in Arabic
CognateMeaningbook
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
kitābכתאב
كتاب
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
seferسِفِر
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ك-ت-بHebrew root
כ-ת-בA kitāb is literally "a written thing", from the same כ-ת-ב root as Hebrew כתב. But mind the mirror trap: Hebrew ספר "book" looks just like Arabic سفر (safar) — which means "journey"! Arabic does keep سِفْر (sifr) for a weighty tome of scripture, so the roots meet again on the shelf.
Related Hebrew word:כתבktavكْتَاڤ
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
The short i drops in speech: ktāb.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
In a phrase
This is a new book.
Plural
broken plural CuCuC — the textbook example of the pattern
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