Pinning down patterns in word order and the exact subtle or not-so-subtle implications that different kinds of word-scrambling can produce in colloquial Arabic (or for that matter MSA) is a tricky business and one that we’ve so far completely avoided delving into. I’m going to ambitiously try and address that a little bit in this post. Wish me luck!
Verbal sentences
I’ve almost certainly moaned elsewhere about how teaching materials misguidedly present Arabic dialects as simpler versions of MSA (sometimes even derivable directly from the MSA they teach you properly through a series of simple rules). At least in materials for an English-speaking audience, ‘simple’ is often actually code for ‘more like English’, and one of the outcomes of this is that it is often said that Arabic dialects, unlike MSA (or sometimes MSA, unlike Classical Arabic) has a word order that Puts The Subject First And The Verb Second, Just – Like – English!
As far as Levantine is concerned, though, this is basically nonsense. In fact, although subject-initial word order is also very common (we’ll come to this later), verbal sentences where the subject follows the verb are also very, very common indeed. Where the subject is indefinite – with a few exceptions discussed below – it basically has to follow the verb:
راح ناس تبع جمعيات خيرية يشوفو اللاجئين
raa7 naas taba3 jam3iyyaat kheeriyye yshuufu llaaji2iin…
People from charity organisations went to see the refugees…
اجا حدا من اهلو؟
2éja 7ada mén ahlo?
Has anybody from his family come yet?
Where the subject is definite, it can and often does appear before the verb in a جملة اسمية. But it can equally appear after the verb (just like in fuSHa):
اجت الشرطة ع المشفى
2éjet éshshérTa 3a lmashfa
The police came to the hospital
In relative clauses too a جملة فعلية is probably more common:
المحطة اللي بديرها ابي
élma7aTTa lli bidiira 2abi
The station my dad runs
The main difference between verbal sentences in fuSHa and in Shami is that in the latter, verbs usually agree fully with their subjects (instead of only for gender):
راحو الرجال
raa7u lirjaal
The men went
Simple nominal sentences
The most basic kind of nominal sentences, those with an adjective or another noun as khabar, don’t need a huge amount of discussion since they work mostly as you’d expect them to from fuSHa. However, unlike in fuSHa, in nominal sentences the mubtada2 and the khabar can be switched around, in which case adjectives optionally do not take agreement of any kind:
اي حلو الاردن
2ee 7élw él2érdon
Yeah, Jordan‘s nice
منيح هدولة
mnii7 hadoole
These ones are good
Nominal sentences with verbal khabar
Nominal sentences consisting of a topic (مبتدأ) and a verbal sentence as predicate (خبر) are a bit more complicated. When the mubtada2 is the subject of the verbal sentence, as a general rule only definite nouns can appear:
الشرطة كانت هون من شوي
éshshérTa kaanet hoon mén @shwayy
The police were here a little while ago
امي بس تمرض ما بتركها
émmi bass témroD ma bétrékha
when my mother gets ill I don’t abandon her
An exception is 7ada, which can appear before verbs:
حدا بيعرف شو نوع الحشيش اللي عم يضربو هالزلمة؟
7ada bya3ref shu noo3 él7ashiish élli 3am yéD@rbo hazzalame?
Does anybody know what kind of weed this guy is smoking?
لا ولله ما حدا بين
laa waLLa maa 7ada bayyan
No, nobody’s turned up.
Another exception is in the introduction to jokes, where an indefinite noun can appear before a verb:
مرة حمصي راح ع الحج
marra 7émSi raa7 3al7ajj
Once upon a time a guy from Homs went on Hajj…
Sometimes, the mubtada2-ised subject is a possessor, in which case it needs a pronoun to take its place in the verbal sentence:
يمكن اكتريت المشاكل اللي بتصير بالحياة سببها انو…
yémken 2aktariit élmashaakel élli bétSiir bi-l7ayaat sababa 2énno…
perhaps the reason for most of the problems that happen in life is… [= most of the problems… their reason is that]
جماعة الاسعاف كتير لسانون طويل
jamaa3t él2is3aaf @ktiir lisaanon Tawiil
The ambulance guys are huge gossips [= the ambulance guys, their tongues are very long]
A pronoun is also required if the mubtada2 is a definite direct object or the object of a preposition:
الغسالة شغلتا مرة واحدة بس
élghassaale shaghghalta marra waa7de bass
The washing machine I’ve only turned on once [= I’ve only turned it on once]
اصابعي ما عم حس فيون
2aSaabii3i maa 3am 7éss fiyyon
I can’t feel my fingers [= my fingers, I can’t feel them]
Indefinite direct object mubtada2s, on the other hand, do not require a pronoun.
انا فشخة برات هالبيت ماني فاشخة
2ana fashkha barraat halbeet maani faashkha
I’m not taking a single step outside this house! [= a step… I’m not stepping – faaskha, not faaskhétha]
The same applies to pseudoverbs (ma3i, biddi etc) as to normal verbs, although in their case the pronoun has to be carried by yaa (note since haada is definite the second example needs a direct object pronoun):
ليرتين ما معي
liirteen maa ma3i
I don’t even have two liras [= two lira I don’t have]
هادا ما بدي ياه
haada maa béddi yaa
I don’t want this one [= this one I don’t want it]
Unlike in fuSHa, the mubtada2 position can also be occupied by various different kinds of adverbial construction, including normal adverbs, adverbs of time, location etc:
اي من هلق موقع عليه
ee mén halla2 mwaqqe3 3alee
I’ve already signed it
بعدين بتعرف
ba3deen @bta3ref
You’ll find out afterwards
اليوم وصلت
élyoom wSél@t
I arrived today
Words and phrases in this position can be made negative with muu/mish etc:
لا مو اليوم وصلت
la2 muu lyoom wSél@t
No, it wasn’t today I arrived…
الطير شك لعندك هيك بالغلط يعني مو بشطارتك سحبتو لك رح تجنني
éTTeer shakk la3éndak heek bélghalaT, ya3ni muu bshaTaartak sa7abto!
The bird came down on your side by accident. It wasn’t through your cleverness that you caught it!
Note that regardless of the role that the mubtada2-ised noun has in the underlying sentence, interrogative pronouns come between it and the verbal khabar:
الزلمة وين شافني؟
ézzalame ween shaafni?
Where did the guy see me? [not ween ézzalame… as in the English sentence]
Also note that although this kind of shifting of parts of the sentence away from where they would normally appear is more common with verbal sentences it can also happen with simple nominal sentences, just like in English:
هلق انا كوضعي المالي تمام
halla2 2ana ka-waD3i lmaali tamaam
now I’m – money-wise – fine
Two elements can be brought to the front of the sentence together, in which case they appear in the same relative order that they would normally, i.e. subject, object, adverbial:
احمد بعينو ضربتو
a7mad b3eeno Darabto
As for Ahmad, I hit him in the eye
سارا شغلة بسيطة ما بتاكل
saara shéghle basiiTa maa btaakol
As for Sara, she won’t eat simple things
Why scramble the sentence?
There a few different reasons to use a nominal sentence (i.e. to bring part or parts of the sentence into the space before the verb). In many cases the nuance is so subtle the form with the noun moved to the front is nearly synonymous with the normal form, especially where moving the subject is concerned, and in any case it would be impossible to cover all of the reasons it can possibly happen. But here are three important ones:
Topicalisation
Putting something before the verb can sometimes signal a change in topic similar to ‘as for’. Often this is preceded by هلق halla2 ‘now…’:
هلق احمد زلمة كتير منيح
halla2 2a7mad zalame ktiir @mnii7
Now Ahmad’s a really good guy…
Sometimes it can be accompanied by the particle اما amma ‘as for’, particularly in higher registers:
اما ما يسمى بالقانون رقم عشرة انا رح اتساءل قبل ما ندخل بصلبو
2amma maa yusamma bilqaanuun raq@m 3ashara 2ana ra7 2étsaa2al 2ab@l ma nédkhol bSulbo
As for the so-called Law Number 10, I’d just like us to consider before we talk about it in detail…
A more colloquial equivalent is perhaps achieved by using a pronoun before the noun in question:
هنه قطر ما بفوتوك بدون فيزا
hénne qaTar maa bifawwtuuk biduun viiza
Qatar won’t let you in without a visa [= they Qatar won’t…]
Contrast
In sentences where different things are being contrasted, explicitly or implicitly, the noun in question is usually brought to the front:
سارا ما بتروح, بس احمد بروح
saara maa bitruu7, bass 2a7mad biruu7
Sara doesn’t go, but Ahmad goes
انا ع برطانيا ما بروح
2ana 3a briTaanya maa bruu7
I wouldn’t go to Britain [but I would go to some other places]
هادا ما بدي ياه بس هداكه باخدو
haada maa béddi yaa bass hadaake baakhdo
I don’t want this one, but that one I’ll take
Emphasis
A second related reason is to add emphasis to something that seems important, with or without حتى ‘even’:
انا كلمة واحدة ما بقول
2ana kélme waa7de maa b2uul
I won’t say a single word!
نحنا الغسالة ما شغلناها
né7na lghassaale maa shaghghalnaaha!
we haven’t even turned on the washing machine [which is such a basic thing to want to turn on!]
تلاتين يوم ما دخنت ولا حبة سيكارة
tlaatiin yoom maa dakhkan@t wala 7abbet sigaara
in thirty days I haven’t smoked a single cigarette
ربطة خبز ما عرفنا اشترينا
rabTét khéb@z maa 3réfna shtareena
We couldn’t even buy a packet of bread…