Hi everyone,

This post is about a very common – and misleading – particle, the word قال ‪2aal. You will almost certainly have encountered this word already as the normal way of saying ‘say’ or ‘tell’:

قللي ما في حدا بالبيت
2alli maa fii 7ada bilbeet
he said there wasn’t anyone at home

But what we’re talking about here is something different, something you might have encountered without even realising it. In this use, 2aal is an invariable particle. Although it looks like ‘he said’, it has no subject in the normal sense of the term. Instead, it marks second-hand information. If you ask me why Nour doesn’t want to go and see a film, I can say:

ولله ما بعرف. قال ما معها مصاري
waLLa maa ba3ref. 2aal maa ma3a maSaari
I don’t know. Apparently she’s got no money.

Similarly, in an example from our last post (and note the use of the participle here):

قال سارق فرع البريد
2aal saare2 fir3 ilbariid
Apparently/they say he robbed the post office.

In these examples, it is fairly neutral. But in other cases it can be used to express scorn or suggest bad behaviour:

قال بدنا نترك! أنا بفرجيه
2aal biddna nitrok! 2ana bfarjii
so we’re going to break up, are we? I’ll show him!

In some contexts, 2aal is used in a way that connects together two sentences. Here it is very similar to the conjunction على أساس, and often expresses a (false) pretext for an action. It’s difficult to translate this usage directly with a single word, because the meaning in English is often expressed with intonation and air quotes. You might use the following sentence to remind your brother of his bad behaviour as a child:

‫كنت تسرقلي مصاري وتخبيهن قال بدك تجبلي فيهن لعبة…
kint tisri2li maSaari w itkhabbiyyon 2aal biddak itjibli fiyyon li3be…
you used to steal money off me and hide it so you could ‘buy me a toy’…

Or imagining for a moment that you’ve tricked someone into thinking he’s going to receive a bribe, you might say the following sentence. The meaning here is similar:

بدو يروح أول الشهر قال ياخد مصاريه. بس يوصل لهنيك بطبو عليه الشرطة
biddo yruu7 2awwal ishshaher 2aal yaakhod maSaarii. bass yuuSal la-huniik biTibbu 3alee shshirTa
he’ll go there on the first of the month thinking he’s going to get his money. As soon as he gets there, the police will jump him

As part of a story, it’s quite common to use the structure as a rhetorical question: قال شو؟ ‪2aal shuu? Again, it’s difficult to translate this with a single word, but let’s imagine again for a second that you’re reminding your brother of how he used to steal your money when you were younger. You can say:

قال شو؟ بس تكبري برجعلك ياهن
2aal shuu? bass tikbari brajji3lek yaahon!
apparently you were going to give it back once I grew up!
[said what? once you grow up I’ll return them to you]

Repeating 2aal before and after a structure is disparaging and suggests the other person has said something ridiculous or infuriating. If your fiancé says it’s still early days and there’s no need to set a date for the wedding yet, you can respond:

‫قال بكير قال! ما نحنا كاتبين الكتاب من سنة!
2aal bakkiir 2aal! ma ni7na kaatbiin liktaab min sine!
‘early days!’ ‘early days!’ We’ve been engaged for a year!

That’s all for now. Note that I’m now (for my sins) on Twitter as Chris Hitchcock (@chm3na), so if you want to suggest posts or make sure I haven’t died, you can follow me there.