In this post we’re going to look at two very useful and versatile prepositions: قد ‪2add and على قد ‪3ala 2add.

قد ‪2add

2add generally means ‘as much as’. For an English speaker its most useful function is probably to provide an easy way of translating ‘as X as’:

ما حدا شاطر قدو
maa 7ada shaaTer 2addo
nobody’s as clever as him

ما بكره شي قد هدول الناس
maa bikrah shii 2add hadool innaas
I don’t hate anything as much as I hate these people

يا أرض اهتزي ما حدا قدي
yaa 2arD ihtazzi maa 7ada 2addi
‘o earth, shake! no-one compares to me’
(a proverb referring to people with a very high opinion of themselves)

By extension, it can also mean ‘up to’, ‘capable of dealing with’, etc:

أنا مو قد المرمطة
2ana muu 2add ilmarmaTa
I can’t deal with the hassle

انت قدها
2inte 2addha
you’re up to the task

انتي قدها
2inte 2addha w i2duud
you’re more than up to the task

Its conjunction counterpart – used when what follows is a sentence and not a noun or pronoun – is قد ما ‪2add ma:

قد ما بدك
2add ma biddak
as much as you want

ما بتحبني قد ما بحبها
maa bit7ibbni 2add ma b7ibbha
she doesn’t love me as much as I love her

قد ما تعبت ما رح تزبط معي
2add ma shtaghalet maa ra7 tiZbot ma3i
no matter how much I work, it won’t work out

على قد ‪3ala 2add

3ala 2add is trickier. It means something like ‘in a number/on a level appropriate to’. The lack of an exact equivalent in English makes translating these sentences closely quite tricky:

في كراسي على قدنا
fii karaasi 3ala 2addna
there are exactly enough chairs
(there are as many chairs as there are people)

مد رجليك على قد لحافك
midd rijleek 3ala 2add il7aafak
don’t dream too big
(stretch your legs out in accordance with the length of your blanket)

Often it works to downplay the quality in question:

خدو على قد عقلو
khido 3ala 2add 3a2lo
you have to talk to him on his level
(treat him in accordance with his brain)

بدو يشتري دكان على قدو
biddo yishtiri dikkaan 3ala 3addo
his ambitions are modest: he wants to buy a stall
(he wants to buy a stall appropriate to his standing)

بيحكي انجليزي على قدو
byi7ki 2ingliizi 3ala 2addo
his English is quite limited