Hi everyone!
Today we’ll be talking about the word عم 3am, usually described as Arabic’s ‘continuous’. We’ve already had reason to discuss 3am briefly when talking about the continuous participle, which also sometimes translates English ‘-ing’. In this post we’ll look at its uses and meaning in more detail.
What is 3am?
3am occupies a space somewhere between an independent word and a prefix. It’s usually combined with the bare present form (without b-) – although there is quite a lot of regional variation on this point – and is negated in Syrian with maa:
| Base | Negative |
|
عم اشرب |
ما عم اشرب maa 3am ishrab I’m not drinking |
|
عم تحكي |
ما عم تحكي |
| عم يلعبو 3am yil3abu They’re playing |
ما عم يلعبو |
Note that like maa, it can ‘scope’ over (i.e. give continuous meaning to) more than one verb if they are connected by w-. Repeating 3am here would be unidiomatic at best:
عم يلف ويدور
3am yliff w yduur
He’s beating about the bush [spinning and turning]
Continuous
As you can see from the examples above, one core use of 3am corresponds closely to the English continuous in ‘-ing’. It expresses an ongoing event:
شو عم تعمل هلق؟
shuu 3am ta3mel halla2?
What are you doing now?
عم ادرس
3am 2idros
I’m studying.
For the most part this should be intuitive to a native speaker of English. It’s important, however, to note that not all examples of ‘-ing’ in English correspond to the continuous. We have to distinguish here between 3am and the continuous participle, which is a subject we’ll come back to in a subsequent post.
Repeated event (have been Xing)
The other core use of 3am is to express repeated action around the present. Here the event itself isn’t ‘ongoing’, but there’s a broader ‘ongoingness’ about the fact that it keeps happening. I could go on trying to describe this idea all day, but conveniently this sense often corresponds to the English present perfect continuous (has been Xing):
عم تشوفو كتير؟
3am itshuufo ktiir?
Have you been seeing him a lot?
ما عم اطلع برات البيت
maa 3am iTla3 barraat ilbeet
I haven’t been leaving the house
Regional variation
3am is used everywhere in the Levant, but there is some regional variation. For North Levantine speakers, using the continuous to refer to an ongoing event is obligatory, just like in English. But in South Levantine, the b-present is often used in this sense:
ايش بتعملي؟
2eesh bti3imli?
What are you doing?
بدرس
badres
I’m studying.
Secondly, alongside 3am, South Levantine speakers have an alternative continuous construction formed with the participle قاعد 2aa3ed, literally ‘sitting’, plus a present verb without b-. The two constructions are broadly synonymous:
|
عم أدرس |
قاعدة بدرس |
That’s all for now. Next time, we’ll look at some specific idiomatic uses of the participle. And if you want to keep up with this and other translation/Arabic-related content, follow me on Twitter at Chris Hitchcock (@chm3na).