Percentages

Level 5

Percentages in Arabic are formed by stating a number followed by the phrase في المئة (literally 'in the hundred') or بالمئة ('by the hundred').

How It Works

In Modern Standard Arabic, expressing a percentage is a straightforward construction but requires attention to the grammatical case of the number.

1. The Phrase: The term for 'percentage' is النسبة المئوية. The most formal and common way to say 'percent' is في المئة. You will also frequently see بالمئة, which is widely used in media and business contexts. The word for hundred can be spelled as مئة or the more traditional مائة; both are pronounced mi’a.

2. Number Agreement: For numbers 3–10, the feminine form (ending in tā’ marbūṭa) is the standard usage in percentages. For example, 'five percent' is خمسة في المئة. For 1% and 2%, you use واحد في المئة and اثنان في المئة (or اثنين depending on the case).

3. Quantifying Nouns: To say 'X percent of [noun]', the noun is typically introduced by the preposition من and takes the genitive case. For example: خمسون في المئة من الطلابِ (Fifty percent of the students).

4. Grammatical Case: The number itself is subject to case endings. It can be nominative if it is the subject, accusative if it is an object, or genitive after a preposition.

5. Writing Symbols: The Arabic percent sign is ٪. Arabic typography conventionally places it visually to the left of Arabic-Indic digits, without a space; mixed-direction text can display copied strings unexpectedly. For a fully unambiguous word form, write خمسون في المئة (fifty percent).

Examples (4)

  1. ارتفعت الأسعارُ بنسبةِ عشرةٍ في المئة.

    Prices rose by ten percent.

    Word by Word: Rose the prices by-percentage [of] ten in the hundred.

    In percentages, numbers 3–10 typically take the feminine form. Here, 'ten' is in the feminine form (عشرة) and is in the genitive case because it follows the word 'percentage' in an iḍāfa construction.

  2. خمسةٌ وسبعون في المئةِ من الطلابِ نجحوا.

    Seventy-five percent of the students passed.

    Word by Word: Five and seventy in the hundred from the students passed.

    This shows a compound number (75) acting as the subject. The unit 'five' is feminine (خمسة), which is the standard form for numbers in percentages.

  3. أجابَ على تسعين في المئةِ من الأسئلة.

    He answered ninety percent of the questions.

    Word by Word: He answered on ninety in the hundred from the questions.

    The number 'ninety' uses the -īna ending (accusative/genitive) because it follows a preposition.

  4. نسبةُ النجاحِ هي ثمانون في المئة.

    The success rate is 80%.

    Word by Word: Percentage [of] the success she 80%.

    The percentage is written in words: ثمانون is the nominative form for eighty.

Common Mistakes

  • Keeping the nominative form of two after a preposition.

    بِاثْنَانِ فِي المِئَةِ
    بِاثْنَيْنِ فِي المِئَةِ

    Use اثنين after a preposition. The standalone nominative form is اثنان; the phrase في المئة does not prevent inflection.

  • Mispronouncing the traditional spelling of 'hundred'.

    مائة (pronounced mā'a)
    مائة (pronounced mi'a)

    The alif in the traditional spelling 'مائة' is a silent orthographic carrier; it is never pronounced as a long 'a'.

  • Keeping the nominative decade ending after a preposition.

    بِخَمْسُونَ فِي المِئَةِ
    بِخَمْسِينَ فِي المِئَةِ

    After بِـ, fifty is genitive خمسين. Writing the amount as digits would conceal this spoken case distinction.

How It Connects

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PercentagesLevel 5

Learn This First

To express percentages in Arabic, you need to know how to form basic numbers and combine them with the fixed prepositional phrase 'في المئة' (literally 'in the hundred').

Words in This Pattern

نسبةمئة