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Currency & Language

The Bahraini dinar was introduced in 1965, replacing the Gulf rupee. The Bahraini dinar is subdivided into 1000 fils and is usually written with three decimal points (for example: BD 2.103).In 2001, the dinar was officially pegged to the U.S. Dollar at 1 USD = 0.376 BHD, which translates to approximately 1 dinar = 2.65957 dollars. Consequently, with the Saudi Arabian Riyal pegged to the Bahraini dinar, you may receive change in Saudi currency since it is often accepted as payment in Bahrain. 10 Saudi Riyals = 1 BDH. The Bahraini dinar is the second highest valued currency in the world.

To learn more about the Bahraini dinar, please visit the following webpages:
Coinmill.com Currency Converter BD to USD
Continental Currency – Currency Spotlight: Bahraini Dinar

Language

The official language of Bahrain is Arabic, but you will find that English is widely spoken as well. Spending some time learning basic questions or greetings in Arabic may further enhance your overseas living experience and allow you to further immerse yourself in Bahrain’s unique culture.

Arabic is one of the top five spoken languages in the world with over 250 million native speakers. It is a phonetic language which belongs to the Semitic family of languages. The Arabic writing system is called abjad and the alphabet has 28 letters. It consists of consonants, vowels and symbols, and it is read and written from right to left.

The typical order of a sentence is verb – subject – object. Arabic has no capital letters. Most of the letters have four different forms, depending on whether they stand alone or come at the beginning, middle, or end of a word.

In Arabic people don’t include most vowels when writing – for example, maktab (office) is just written mktb. Some Arabic sounds, such as the hh, the q or the g can be very difficult to pronounce. All original Arabic nouns have gender, either masculine or feminine, and it depends on the object or person being spoken to or about.

Useful Arabic Phrases

Formal hello

Al-Salaam A’laikum

Formal response to hello

Wa’ laykum Salaam

Hello

Salaam

Hello

Marhaba

Goodbye

Maa Salaama

Yes

Ee

No

La

What’s Up/ How are you?

Shakhbar?

Very good

Wayd zain

What?

Shnoo?

How much does this cost?

Ib cham?

How much/ last price?

Cham akher?

My name is…

Ismee

I want…

Ub ee

I am from…

Ana min

Let’s go/c’mon/ hurry up

Yalla

Excuse me, to attract attention

Min Faḍlak/ik

Excuse me, to ask someone to move

Al-Ma'dirah

Sorry

Ah-sif

Please

Mīn Fah-ḍlika

Where's the toilet / bathroom?

Ayn al-ḥammahm?

Thank you

Shukran

You’re welcome

Afwan


To learn more about Arabic in Bahrain, please visit the following links:
Just Landed: Languages Spoken in Bahrain
World Atlas: What Languages are Spoken in Bahrain?

Helpful Links

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