By the tiswa editorial team, from the official sources listed at the end of this guide. How we write our guides
On a third-year site visit in Jeddah, the supervisor asked a student: "الشدة جاهزة للصبة؟" He had studied formwork and concrete casting for two terms and still could not answer. Engineering in Saudi Arabia works that way: textbook in English, report in formal Arabic, and a site with a language of its own. Where it matters, the tables below put all three side by side.
Which basic engineering terms does every major share?
Before you split into civil, mechanical or electrical, everyone sits Statics and Strength of Materials. These words run through both from week one:
- Stress (الإجهاد): internal force divided by cross-sectional area.
- Strain (الانفعال): change in length over original length, with no unit.
- Load (الحمل) and force (القوة). A load is a force acting on a structure from outside.
- Moment (العزم), and torque (عزم الدوران) about a shaft's axis.
- Safety factor (معامل الأمان): capacity divided by expected load.
- Tolerance (التفاوت المسموح): the allowed gap between designed and made dimensions.
- Specification (المواصفة الفنية), the thing the client holds you to in the contract.
What civil engineering terms come up in a graduation project and on site?
| English | Textbook Arabic | Site Arabic |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation / footing | الأساس / القاعدة | القواعد |
| Tie beam / grade beam | الجسر الرابط | الميدة |
| Beam | الكمرة / الجائز | الجسر |
| Column | العمود | العمود |
| Slab | البلاطة | السقف / الصبة |
| Formwork | القوالب | الشدة |
| Concrete pour | صب الخرسانة | الصبة |
| Rebar | حديد التسليح | الحديد |
| Concrete block | الطوب الخرساني | البلك |
| Plastering | التلييس | اللياسة |
| Dead / live load | الحمل الميت / الحي | not said on site, but in every calculation |
| Settlement | الهبوط | نزول |
| Soil bearing capacity | قدرة تحمل التربة | تحمل التربة |
| Surveying | المساحة | الرفع المساحي |
Site words shift a little from region to region, but the textbook word is the one for your co-op report. If you write الشدة in a report, add formwork in brackets.
Mechanical engineering terms in Arabic
| English | Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Thermodynamics | الديناميكا الحرارية | The science of energy and heat. |
| Heat exchanger | المبادل الحراري | Moves heat between two fluids without mixing them. |
| Pump | المضخة | Raises liquid pressure and pushes it through pipes. |
| Compressor | الضاغط | Raises gas pressure; the heart of an air conditioner. |
| Bearing | المحمل (رمان البلي) | Lets parts turn with less friction. |
| Gear | الترس | A toothed wheel passing motion and torque. |
| Shaft | العمود الدوار | Carries torque between parts. |
| Fatigue | الكلال | Metal weakening under repeated loads. |
| Friction | الاحتكاك | Resistance to sliding between surfaces. |
| Vibration | الاهتزاز | Oscillation around equilibrium. |
Electrical engineering terms in Arabic
Electrical is the easiest discipline to translate, since nearly every term has one settled Arabic name. The trouble is conceptual: students treat voltage and current as the same thing.
| English | Arabic | Unit or meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Voltage | الجهد | Volt (V), the potential difference between two points. |
| Current | التيار | Ampere (A), the rate of charge flow. |
| Resistance | المقاومة | Ohm (Ω). |
| Capacitor | المكثف | Stores charge. |
| Inductor | الملف الحثي | Resists changes in current. |
| Transformer | المحول | Steps voltage up or down. |
| Frequency | التردد | Hertz (Hz). |
| Power factor | معامل القدرة | Real power over apparent power. |
| Grounding / earthing | التأريض | Bonding a frame to earth for safety. |
| Circuit breaker | القاطع | Trips the circuit on overcurrent. |
| Three-phase | ثلاثي الطور | The usual supply in factories and large buildings. |
Chemical and process terms
Reactor is المفاعل, catalyst العامل الحفاز, distillation التقطير, viscosity اللزوجة, yield المردود and corrosion التآكل. The two that matter most in second-year chemical engineering are mass balance (موازنة الكتلة) and energy balance (موازنة الطاقة); every later problem is built on them. A process flow diagram is مخطط سير العملية, and you will see one on day one of any plant placement.
Which site terms will you hear on coop training in engineering?
Design and control words, mostly, once you leave the site and enter an office or plant:
| English | Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Feasibility study | دراسة الجدوى | Is the project worth building, technically and financially? |
| Prototype | النموذج الأولي | A version tested before production. |
| CAD | التصميم بمساعدة الحاسب | Drawing parts and structures in software. |
| Simulation | المحاكاة | Trying the system on a computer first. |
| Sensor / actuator | المستشعر / المشغل | One measures; the other moves. |
| Feedback loop | حلقة التغذية الراجعة | Compares output with target and corrects. |
| PLC | المتحكم المنطقي القابل للبرمجة | An industrial computer running a production line. |
| Bottleneck | عنق الزجاجة | The slowest stage, which sets the pace of the whole line. |
What mistakes do engineering students make with terms?
- Swapping stress and strain. Stress has a pressure unit such as MPa; strain has none.
- Translating tolerance as تسامح. In engineering it is التفاوت المسموح.
- Mixing energy with power. Power is energy per unit time: kilowatts, not kilowatt-hours.
- Writing "tonnes" when you mean kilonewtons. A kN is a force and a tonne is a mass, and sites blur them all the time.
- Translating moment as لحظة. Here it is العزم.
Where do these terms matter after graduation?
To practise, you register with the Saudi Council of Engineers. It grades members in four levels (engineer, associate, professional and consultant) based on qualifications, experience and passing a professional test.1 The vocabulary you learn now comes back in that test.
Your university's language changes what you need here. At King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, teaching and research are done solely in English,2 so a KFUPM student knows formwork and needs الشدة. Students at bilingual universities need both directions.
To pick a discipline, compare civil engineering, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. Before your placement read the co-op training guide, and for AI help with problems and drawings see AI for engineering students. Spaced review, explained in active recall and spaced repetition, keeps the terms in your head.
