שش

How to say "congratulations!" in Arabic

Loanword

Meaningcongratulations!

Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic

مَبْرُوك

mabrūkמברוך

مبروك

Hebrew · Modern Hebrew

מזל טוב

mazal tovمَازَال تُوڤ

How the two words are related

Loanword

Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).

Arabic root

ب-ر-ك

Hebrew root

ב-ר-ך

Israeli slang מברוק is this word, borrowed whole. Mabrūk is literally 'blessed,' built on root ب-ر-ك — the very one behind بارك (to bless) and بركة (blessing) elsewhere in this app — and Hebrew's own מבורך, 'blessed,' is built the same way from ברך.

Related Hebrew word:מבורךmevorakhمِڤُورَاخ

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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

أَلْف مَبْرُوك
alf mabrūkאלף מברוך

The fuller cheer: 'a thousand congratulations!' — for weddings, births, new jobs.

Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta

أَلْف مَبْرُوك
alf mabrūkאלף מברוך

Same cheer in Cairo; the reply is allāh yibārik fīk.

Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes

مبْرُوك
mebrūkמברוך

Darija: mebrūk, or alf mebrūk; the reply is llāh ybārek fīk.

In a phrase

مَبْرُوك يَا صَدِيقِي
mabrūk yā ṣadīqīמברוך יא צדיקי

congratulations, my friend

The root family

ب-ر-كב-ר-ך· blessing (and kneeling)

Blessing begins at the knee: Hebrew ברך is the knee itself, and Arabic keeps the kneeling verb (baraka — what a camel does at the well). From kneeling grew the blessing — ברכה and baraka — and, delightfully, the pool in both languages: בריכה and birka, originally the watering place where the camels knelt. Israeli slang has even borrowed מברוק back from Arabic mabrūk.

  • بَرَكَة barakablessingבְּרָכָהblessing
  • مَبْرُوك mabrūkcongratulations! ("blessed")מְבֹרָךְblessed
  • بَارَكَ bārakahe blessedבֵּרַךְhe blessed
  • بِرْكَة birkapool, pondבְּרֵכָהpool — the same word in both
  • تَبَارَكَ tabārakablessed be (He) — as in tabāraka wa-taʿālāיִתְבָּרַךְmay He be blessed

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