How to say "saw" in Arabic
CognateMeaningsaw
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
minshārמנשאר
منشار
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
masorمَاسُور
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ن-ش-رHebrew root
נ-ס-רHebrew's word for saw, מסור, is this very root. Biblical Hebrew spelled the tool מַשּׂוֹר (Isaiah 10:15), with the sin שׂ that regularly answers Arabic ش; later Hebrew respelled that sin as ס, giving מסור, לנסר 'to saw' and נסורת 'sawdust'. Arabic minshār is the instrument noun of ن-ش-ر, 'to saw, spread'. Don't let the letters pull you toward נשר 'eagle': its Arabic twin is نَسْر nasr, with س.
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo says munshār.
In a phrase
He cut the wood with the saw.
Plural
broken plural maCāCīC — like مِفْتَاح→مَفَاتِيح