Learn Arabic › B1 › جِنِيه
جِنِيه
pound (the basic currency unit, especially the Egyptian pound) /dʒʊˈnajh/
nounB1#2781 most common
Also: guinea (the British gold coin the word is borrowed from), Sudanese or South Sudanese pound
Example sentences
معي عشرة جنيهات.
I have ten pounds with me.
اشتريت هذا القميص بمئة جنيه.
I bought this shirt for a hundred pounds.
سعر الدولار ارتفع مقابل الجنيه المصري.
The dollar's price rose against the Egyptian pound.
أعطاني البائع جنيهًا واحدًا كباقي.
The seller gave me a single pound as change.
انخفضت قيمة الجنيه السوداني بشكل حاد هذا العام.
The value of the Sudanese pound dropped sharply this year.
يناقش الاقتصاديون تأثير تعويم الجنيه على معدل التضخم في مصر.
Economists are discussing the effect of floating the pound on Egypt's inflation rate.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | جُنَيْهٌ | جُنَيْهَاتٌ |
| Genitive | جُنَيْهٍ | جُنَيْهَاتٍ |
| Accusative | جُنَيْهًا | جُنَيْهَاتٍ |
| Vocative | يَا جُنَيْهُ | يَا جُنَيْهَاتُ |
Word family
الجنيه المصريthe Egyptian pound
الجنيه السودانيthe Sudanese pound
الجنيه الإسترلينيpound sterling
نصف جنيهhalf a pound
جنيهاتpounds (money)
Etymology
The word comes from English "guinea," a gold coin first minted in 1663 from gold sourced in the Guinea region of West Africa. British trade and, later, colonial-era finance carried the coin's name into Egypt, where it was adapted into Arabic as جنيه and applied to the local pound once Egypt set up its own currency. The pattern of the word loosely echoes the Arabic diminutive shape fu'ayl, which made the foreign word easier to fit into Arabic morphology. It later spread to Sudan and South Sudan along with the currency unit itself.
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