Hebrew vs Arabic - How Similar Are They? (2 SEMITIC LANGUAGES)

Can Hebrew and Arabic speakers understand each other? I answer that question, and take a look at some similarities and differences between Hebrew and Arabic, sister languages of the Semitic Language family.
For lots of great Arabic lessons for students of all levels, visit ArabicPod101: bit.ly/arabicpod101. And for Hebrew, visit HebrewPod101: bit.ly/HebrewPod.
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Hebrew and Arabic are two languages of the Semitic language family, meaning that both languages developed from the same ancestor language thousands of years ago.
They are not mutually intelligible, meaning that they can't understand each other unless they study the other language. But they have many similarities in grammar and vocabulary.
If you isolate individual words, many are very similar and clearly cognate words (meaning they're equivalent words that developed from the same root in an earlier Semitic language). For example, the word for "dog" is "kelev" in Hebrew and "kalb" in Arabic. Some words are exactly the same: "yad" means "hand in both Hebrew and Arabic, and "dam" means "blood" in both.
In terms morphology, or how words are formed, Hebrew and Arabic use almost the same system of roots and "templates" as I call them: word patterns consisting of certain consonants and vowels that the three consonant root can be placed. The word's meaning is determined by the root's core meaning, and the specific meaning that is added to it by the word template.
Anyone who speaks either language well will have a huge advantage when learning the other. But they will still have to learn the other language before they'll be able to understand or use it.
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[@Langfocus]

Hi everyone! If you're interested in learning Arabic, check out ArabicPod101 (

[@elimalinsky7069]

I'm a native Hebrew speaker and I found Arabic to be hard to learn. Arabic has a much more complex grammar and the semantic changes between Semitic roots are confusing. It is a similar situation like when an English speaker tries to learn German. It is much easier for a German speaker to learn English than vice versa. Hebrew is easy for Arabic speakers, but Arabic is hard for Hebrew speakers.

[@a.nahari380]

I am from Yemen, the Arabic we speak varies from city to another. I noticed that my grandmother village's accent use pronouns that are exactly the same as hebrew, later on I found out that Jews lived there with the arabs and the language must have blended in.

[@ThatGirl10001]

I’m a native Hebrew speaker. When I learned Arabic, I was surprised to see the exact same internal logic in both language. It was easier and closer to my native language than any other language I’ve ever learned.

[@mohammadhosainnabatisarava3554]

I'm Persian I know Arabic well and speak Hebrew to. I really think that the Hebrew and Arabic are brothers :))

[@user-oy6is7ry8n]

In greek we have the word κιτάπι (kitapi), which means written record. It derives from the arabic root k-t-b.

[@imaneaamar7340]

the way you make sense of languages is very impressive

[@ddoomsday7313]

07:18

[@Langfocus]

1000 views! Great! Thanks for the interest! :)

[@user-ll1br2js9n]

anta（あんた） means "you" in Japanese as well :D

[@marekc4572]

My mother tongue is Polish, I speak Russian quite well, and as I've been living in Israel for many years I of course speak Hebrew. When Israelis hear my foreign accent, seem to be surprised getting know that I'm from Poland, not from Russia (although the accents are totally different). They often say "oh yes I could be wrong because Polish is very similar to Russian". Then I always answer: yes, they are, just like Hebrew and Arabic. The same families (Semitic and Slavic), different alphabets, there are many phonetic similarities, grammars are also similar to great extent but without learning the language, Poles and Russians don't understand each other, neither do Arabs and Israelis.

[@shkedov.b]

As a hebrew speaker and an arabic learner - I totally agree!

[@heliyab134]

I'm a native Hebrew speaker and I found Arabic very similar to Hebrew. I have learned Arabic so fast

[@user-lv7bo3bc8d]

Whenever I hear Arabic, I feel like I'm listening to something very familiar yet different. I guess it's a bit like listening to Italian as a Spanish speaker. Or maybe French as a Spanish speaker, to be more accurate.

[@arnonart]

Hebrew is my mother tounge. When I lived in Israel I lived side by side with Arabs but never learned to speak Arabic. Recently I became acquainted with Iraqi family. We didn't have common language but we managed to communicate through Arabic and Hebrew. It was challenging but not impossible. Very interesting experience. Inert them quit often and we are still speaking a mush of languages mixed together. The most important that we understand each other.

[@zombieteenager007]

As a Maltese person, videos like these are so satisfying. :)

[@subae8786]

They're both sister languages from the Semitic language family, this video made me want to practice Hebrew again, it was really easy for me being an Arab, I was able to learn writing and reading within a month, even the grammar made sense to me, the vocabulary was the most fun to learn as I came across alot of shared and similar words. Semitic languages are fascinating.

[@midovinci7997]

You forgot actually to mention the most important thing here!

[@clarenceshim4339]

Hey Paul, you have really educated me to the machinery of language and dialect, even though I'm a novice I

[@saurabhjain9785]

Such a systemic explanation.