For the latest instalment in our ‘verbs I might have known’ series, we’ll be discussing another one of those words you almost certainly know in at least one or two meanings, but which you might not realise the real flexibility and utility of. This time, we’re talking about the humble Levantine word for ‘want’: بدـ. The word for ‘want’ is one of the first things you learn in any dialect, and one of the common words that is usually cited to demonstrate how diverse dialects can be (‘in Egypt they say عايز!’) We’ll cover that sense briefly in this post for comprehensiveness, but mostly this will be about other meanings you might not be familiar with. ...

This is a post about the verb اجى (from fuSHa جاء), which you almost certainly know in the literal sense since it’s such core vocabulary. You might not realise quite how useful this verb can be, though – and that’s why we’ve chosen it to be the next instalment of our verbs I might have known series (see also Təle3/nəzel, zabaT, and this post about useful -aan participles). Too many dialects Let’s get the dialect questions out of the way first. This is an irregular verb (more or less) in all Levantine dialects. To avoid repeating ourselves and to save space from being taken up by ugly tables, if you want to know the full conjugation the North Levantine forms can be found here. The South Levantine forms can be found in the PDF on South Levantine verbs. There are no major differences between the Lebanese and Syrian forms or between the Jordanian and Palestinian forms. The main differences between the North and South forms are: ...

A long, long time ago, we did a brief post about the use of ابو in Egyptian to express a certain kind of possession. This post is a specifically Levantine expansion on that one. ‘The one with’, ‘the one wearing’ Very much a شب ابو لحية Even if you’ve only taken your first few steps in learning Arabic, chances are you know the word ابو abu ‘father of’ – even if it’s only from people’s names. You will probably also have learnt the word أم ‘mother’, at least in fuSHa. (While 2abu is the same in all dialects in this context, its counterpart, ام ‘mother’, is either 2əmm (Sy/Leb), 2imm (Pal or Palestinian-Jordanian) or 2umm (Jor), depending on where you’re from. The first two alternatives are pronounced very similarly.) ...

This is another post about a common and versatile verb you probably won’t get taught in colloquial classes: زبط (sometimes spelt ظبط, though this does not reflect a different pronunciation) zabaT. Although its meanings and uses are more or less the same in all four dialects, its exact vowelling in the present tense is different: while Syr, Jor and Pal all have o (yəzboT, yuzboT and yuzboT respectively, with predictable differences you can read more about in the South Levantine verbs post) Leb has yəzbaT, with an a. ...

Another post on a common expression. You’ll know the relative pronoun اللي (illi/@lli, and its variants يلي yalli and الـ l-), and if you don’t, you should read this post. The equivalent to ‘it’s X who Ys’ in English is expressed literally as X illi Y. Note that the verb (Y) agrees with the pronoun, whereas in English we usually use the third person form invariably. Note as well that the first vowel of illi/@lli is, like the vowel of the definite article, usually dropped following a vowel: ...

This is a short post about one (very useful) aspect of a much bigger phenomenon we’ve written about in detail elsewhere (specifically in this post and in more detail in this PDF), namely participles and their uses and abuses. If you’re relatively new to spoken Arabic, you may well have encountered words like طولان Toolaan, نحفان na7faan or كتران katraan. You might be wondering how these words differ from their simpler and more familiar equivalents طويل, نحيف and كتير. And if you’re like I was a few years ago, you might be misusing them by mistaking them for more colloquial synonyms of the words you know from fuSHa. Well, wonder no longer! ...

Another short post about a useful and common expression. نفسي (for most people nifsi or nəfsi, you may hear some people say nafsi) means ‘I’d love…’ or ‘I wish (I had…)’. You can replace ـي with other pronouns, of course. With nouns it takes بـ: نفسي بفنجان قهوة nəfsi bfənjaan 2ahwe I’d love a cup of coffee نفسي بإيشي يفرحني nifsi b2ishi yfarri7ni I wish I had something to make me cheery ...

This is a short post about how to avoid literally translating English in a very common set of constructions. In English, the word ‘one’ pops up all over our syntax like a bad smell. As well as being a number, the source of the indefinite article (even if ‘a’ and ‘an’ no longer look much like it) and an incredibly pretentious personal pronoun, we use it a lot with adjectives and other similar words to express an example of something, an object or a person characterised by the quality of the adjective. Explaining the semantics of words using other words is tough, but you know exactly what I mean: ‘the big one’, ‘the small one’, ‘that one’, ‘this one’. ...

A quick post about a common and useful expression. على كيفك (for most people 3ala keefak, you may hear 3ala kiifak from some people) literally means ‘on your mood’. The 3ala here is in the sense of ‘according to’ of which some other examples are given in this post. Although 3ala keefak/keefek is probably the most common form the expression can appear with any pronoun. This expression has several distinct but related uses. The first is to say ‘as you like’, ‘in whatever way that you like’, ‘however you like’ etc: ...

This is a famous song by Ziad Rahbani, one of my favourite Lebanese singers (and Feyrouz’s son, for what it’s worth). It’s in the classic Lebanese leftist ‘being poor ruined my relationship’ genre. الحالة تعبانة يا ليلى il7aali ta3baani yaa leyla I’m in a bad way, Leila Literally ‘the situation is tired’. Obviously saying ‘the situation is’ anything in English is very unidiomatic, but the same doesn’t apply to الحالة. The meaning of ta3baane here isn’t so much tired as ‘worn out’, ‘miserable’ (as in نفسيتي تعبانة ‘I’m worn out, depressed’ or بيت تعبان ‘a crappy/worn out house). ...