How to say "like, as" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaninglike, as
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
mithlaמת'ל
مثل
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
kmoكْمُو
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
م-ث-لHebrew root
מ-ש-לArabic m-th-l is Hebrew מ-ש-ל by the regular ש↔ث correspondence. Arabic kept the plain sense of likeness — mithla "like", mathalan "for example" (literally למשל!) — while Hebrew narrowed the root to the מָשָׁל, the parable, and its נמשל.
Related Hebrew word:משלmashalمَاشَال
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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
The dialect flattens th to t: mitl baʿḍ — "alike, the same".
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo's 'like, as' is a different word: zayy — zayy baʿḍ, 'alike'; zayy mā — 'just as'.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's 'like, as' is bḥāl: bḥāl bḥāl — 'all the same'.
In a phrase
sweet like honey