How to say "few, a little" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningfew, a little
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
qalīlקליל
قليل
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
me'atمِئَات
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ق-ل-لHebrew root
ק-ל-לComparative Semitic dictionaries connect Arabic qalīl 'few, little' to Hebrew קל 'light, easy' — both traced to a Proto-Semitic root meaning 'to be slight, of little weight.' Arabic kept the 'small in quantity' sense; Hebrew drifted toward 'light in weight' and then 'easy.' Hebrew's own קלל, in its more literary uses ('to lighten, to treat as slight'), still sits close to the Arabic meaning.
Related Hebrew word:קלkalكَال
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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
Everyday speech reaches for shwayy 'a little' far more often than literary qalīl.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo's 'a little' is shwayya; for few in number it says ʾulayyil.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's all-purpose 'a little'; qlīl is few in number.
In a phrase
a little time