How to say "to help" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningto help
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
sāʿadaסאעד
ساعد
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
azarأَزَار
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
س-ع-دHebrew root
ס-ע-דRoot ס-ע-ד / س-ع-د, a regular match (ע↔ع). Hebrew סעד means 'to support, sustain' — Genesis has וְסַעֲדוּ לִבְּכֶם, 'refresh your hearts' with food — and lives on in סעודה, a meal, and מסעדה, a restaurant: literally a place that sustains you. Arabic's base root drifted toward 'good fortune' (saʿīd, happy — as in ʿīd saʿīd), while the Form III verb sāʿada, 'to help', keeps closest to Hebrew's supportive sense.
Related Hebrew word:סעדsa'adسَاءَد
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 sāʿid.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's help is ʿāwen.
In a phrase
He helped his friend with the exam