Locale Ar Sa

Reference data for the Arabic (Saudi Arabia) locale — endonym العربية (السعودية), written in the Arabic script, right-to-left (RTL).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: ar-SA
• ISO 639-1: ar
• ISO 639-3: ara
• Script: Arab (Arabic)
• Region: SA (Saudi Arabia)
• Text direction: rtl — right-to-left (RTL)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 27,000,000
• L2 (additional): 3,000,000
• L1+L2 (total): 30,000,000

Set dir="rtl" for this locale (per Locale's text-direction guidance) rather than assuming left-to-right layout.

Base locale

This is a regional variant of Locale Ar 001 (Arabic), the base/macro locale for this language.

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: zero, one, two, few, many, other (6 forms).

• zero — n = 0 (e.g. 0)
• one — n = 1 (e.g. 1)
• two — n = 2 (e.g. 2)
• few — n % 100 = 3..10 (e.g. 3~10, 103~110, 1003, …)
• many — n % 100 = 11..99 (e.g. 11~26, 111, 1011, …)
• other — everything else (e.g. 100~102, 200~202, 300~302, 400~402, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Apply Locale Ar 001 with these Saudi conventions. Writing is MSA; the spoken dialects include Hejazi, Najdi, and Gulf varieties. The Hijri calendar is part of official life.

• Currency: Saudi riyal (SAR, ر.س). Check CLDR ar-SA for the default digits; Eastern Arabic-Indic digits are common in print, Western digits in many apps.
• Calendar: the Umm al-Qura Hijri calendar is used for official dates and religious events; show Gregorian alongside when needed. CLDR supports both.
• Weekend: Friday-Saturday.
• Tone: formal, religiously respectful, and conservative in imagery and content. Honorific titles and religious greetings are expected.
• Terminology: follow terms used by Saudi government bodies and the Saudi Standards body where they exist.

Common pitfalls

• Showing only Gregorian dates for official or religious purposes.
• Using content or imagery that conflicts with local norms.
• The general pitfalls in Locale Ar 001 (calques, passive overuse, bidirectional text, and gender agreement) also apply.

Learn more

• Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
• Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
• Microsoft Localization Style Guide, Arabic (https://aka.ms/arabic-styleguide)
• Unicode CLDR locale data for digits, calendars, and currency formats (https://cldr.unicode.org)