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.
Dialects
As usual, let’s get the different regional forms out of the way. Palestinians and Jordanians typically have straightforward bidd-. Syrians and many Lebanese speakers have bədd-, which is pronounced very similarly to bidd–. The characteristically ‘Lebanese’ form, however, is badd- (also used by many coastal Syrian speakers).
It’s a pseudoverb, suckers
The more pedantic among you might already be working up to point out that بدـ is not, strictly speaking, a verb. This is, strictly speaking, true. Etymologically it’s a preposition + noun combination (بودي bi-waddi ‘[it is] in my desire’) and structurally speaking it marks its subject using possessive pronouns. It can’t take object suffixes directly (it has to use the carrier yaa-), and of course it has no tense forms of its own.
However, in all other respects بدـ acts like a verb. It can’t appear without an attached pronoun marking its subject. It appears generally in the same place as verbs in most structures. And although it’s true that it can’t be itself modified for tense, it can be placed into any tense you want with كان kaan. For some speakers this كان is always in the third person (كان بدي kaan biddi) as you might expect given the etymology, but for lots of speakers it changes along with the person subject (كنت بدي kunt/kənt biddi/bəddi).
Want
The most well-known use of بدـ is to mean ‘want’:
بدي واحد جديد
bəddi waa7ed @jdiid
I want a new one
Note with b-:
شو بدك في؟
shu baddak fii?
What do you want with it?
And with من:
شو بدك مني؟
shu biddak minni?
What do you want from me?
As well as its obvious use with nouns, it can be used with a subjunctive verb to mean ‘I want to…’:
بدي انزل كزدر ع بيروت ع ضهر الجمل
baddi 2ənzel kazder 3a beyruut 3a Dahr @jjamal (L)
I want to go and ride around Beirut on a camel
بدي اشوفك بكرا
biddi 2ashuufak bukra (J)
I want to see you tomorrow
The usual structure for ‘I want X to…’ is as follows: bidd-, plus a noun or an object on the carrier yaa-, plus a subjunctive:
بدي ياك تجي معي
bəddi yaak təji ma3i (S)
I want you to come with me
بدي احمد يصلحلي المواسير
biddi 2a7mad ySalli7li lmawasiir (P)
I want Ahmad to fix the pipes for me
Need
In all Levantine dialects بد can also express need. The most universal structure for this is similar to the English ‘needs fixing’, with a maSdar:
جوازي بدو تجديد
jawaazi bəddo tajdiid (S)
My passport needs renewing
المواسير بدها تزبيط
ilmawasiir biddha tazbiiT (J)
The pipes need fixing
صار بدها سيكارة
Saar biddha sigaara (J)
It’s time for a cigarette [= (the situation, the evening) needs a cigarette)
NL speakers use it more broadly, in constructions like the following:
بدي جدد جوازي
bəddi jaddid jawEEzi (L)
‘I need to renew my passport
Advice, exhortation
A more specialised use with the second person is used in all dialects for moral exhortations, advice etc. This overlaps both with ‘need’, ‘want’ and with the future sense discussed below:
بدك تزبظلت لهجتك
bəddak @tzabbəTli lah@jtak
You need to check your tone/stop talking to me in that tone [= fix your tone] (S)
بدكاش تبطل هالعادة؟
biddkaash itbaTTel hal3aade? (P)
Aren’t you going to stop doing this?
Must, have to, have got to be, should
بد can also mean ‘must’, ‘has to’ etc in contexts like the following:
يلي بدو يفتح الماضي بدو يكون قدّا
yalli baddo yəfta7 @lmaaDi baddo ykuun 2adda (L)
If you want to open up the past you have to be up to the task [= he who wants to… wants to be…]
شو بدي اسوي هلأ؟
shuu biddi 2asawwi halla2? (P)
What should I do now?
Going to, about to
بدو can also be used in a way entirely synonymous with the future senses of the prefix رح ra7 (and all its variants), i.e. to express pre-established planned or scheduled action (i.e. prior to the conversation), or to mean ‘about to’:
بدي اشوفو بكرا وقتيها بحكيلو
biddi 2ashuufo bukra wa2tiiha ba7kiilo (P)
I’m going to see him tomorrow, I’ll tell him then
في زر بدو يوقع من قميصك
fii zərr bəddo yuu2a3 mən 2amiiSak (S)
There’s a button falling off your shirt [= about to fall]
Must be, must have been
بدو can also be used to draw inferences about the world in the same way as English ‘must’ or the alternative structure بكون:
قديش هلقلب بدو يكون قوي ليتحمل هبلنتك
2addeesh hal2alb bəddo ykuun 2awi la-yət7ammal hablantak (S)
How strong this heart must be that it can cope with your stupid behaviour!
بدو يكون bəddo/biddo ykuun plus a past can by extension be used to express ‘I must have’ in a way more or less synonymous with the more common structure with بكون:
بدي كون غفيت
bəddi kuun @ghfiit (S)
I must have fallen asleep
Likewise, بدو sometimes appears in the result clause of conditionals. This shouldn’t necessarily be read as ‘want’ (‘I would have wanted to be…’):
لو ما صرت مطربة كنت بدي كون بالجيش
law maa Sər@t muT@rbe kənt baddi kuun bijjaysh
If I hadn’t become a singer I would have been in the army