Bonus post! This is a list of the most common ‘basic’ prepositions (i.e. not the ones that are combinations of a preposition and a noun or an obvious derivation from a noun). ب b- or bé- b- perhaps most commonly expresses static location and lines up with English ‘in’, ‘at’ or fuSHa في. بالبيت bi-lbeet – at home بالسيارة bi-ssiyyaara – in the car It is also used to express the instrument or means by which something is done: ...
You’ve probably already encountered the idea of the causative (make someone do something) in fuSHa with reference to forms II (fa33ala) and IV (2af3ala) of the verb. In many ways causatives work similarly in fuSHa and in colloquial, but the structures are a bit different and causatives are perhaps more common in dialect. Unlike English, which distinguishes compulsorily between ‘make’ and ‘let’ (both kinds of causative), Arabic combines the two under one basic causative. The causative can be formed with خلّى khalla plus a verb or with an independent verb form – both can mean either ‘let X do’ or ‘make X do’, or related meanings. ...
The fuSHa internal passive (e.g. دُرِسَ) is not productive in Shami, although it exists in a number of commonly used set expressions and classicisms and may be used when someone is speaking in elevated language, fuSHa-style. This may seem like good news, but in fact it is not; the passive in Shami is actually much less regular than fuSHa as a result and not all verbs have a passive form. ...
MaSdars (مصادر) or verbal nouns are very common in fuSHa. Cursory treatments of 3aamiyye (usually the same ones that claim that all 3aamiyye sentences are subject-verb-object or that the grammar is ‘very simplified fuSHa’) usually claim that the maSdar simply isn’t used in colloquial. There is an element of truth to this in that certain very common uses of the maSdar in fuSHa are usually or always replaced by structures with conjugated verbs: ...
Anybody who has studied fuSHa will probably have torn at least a little bit of hair out over the uses and abuses of أنّ إنّ and أنْ. You’ll be happy to know that in colloquial there is only one ‘that’, إنّو énno/inno, which is used in place of all of these. إنو can take other pronoun suffixes in place of the -o, like fuSHa anna, but the form with -o can stand in for other pronouns as well. ...
Definites As in fuSHa, relative clauses require a relativising particle when attached to a definite noun and no particle if attached to an indefinite noun. Unlike fuSHa – where this particle declines for case, gender, and number – in colloquial it is invariable, either élli/illi or yalli (depending on speaker and region): الرجال اللي بعرفو érréjjaal élli ba3rfo – the man I know البنت يلي شفتها فايت عالبناية élbén@t yalli shéfta faayte 3a-lbinaaye ‘the girl you saw going into the building’ ...
Note: this page is a handy summary, but for more detail and more examples see the FuSHa to Shami PDF. In Levantine إن is restricted to classicisms and dialectalisms, but the distinction between اذا iza and لو law that fuSHa has is largely maintained. The syntax, however, is a bit different. Open conditionals: iza As in fuSHa, iza is used for ‘open conditionals’ like ‘if it rains, we can go’ or ‘if he’s not happy, let him come and see me’. Unlike fuSHa, any tense form can appear in the conditional clause: ...
As we all know from fuSHa, two or more nouns can be put into a possessive structure by simply sticking them alongside one another in iDaafe (اضافة), literally ‘addition’ and fiddling about with the case and tanwiin suffixes. The absence of case suffixes and tanwiin makes this much simpler in Shami. Nouns that do not end with the suffix ـة do not typically change at all when placed into iDaafe with another noun, other than predictable addition of helping vowels: ...
Object pronouns The object pronouns are pretty similar to fuSHa, especially if you’ve been taught the less literary variants used in many readings of MSA. They are also almost identical to the possessive pronouns: ana: -ni inte: -ak/k inti: -ek/ki huwwe: -o/h hiyye: -(h)a ni7na: -na intu: -kon, -kum hinne/hum: -(h)on, -hom The forms -hom and -kum are only used in Jor/Pal, whilst -hon and -kon are not used in Jordanian. In Syr/Leb, -ha and -hon often lose their h. ...
Shami has a few more complex structures that do not involve simply conjugating verbs. Future There are various ways to express the future. One is by using the simple present with b- on its own: بروح معك bruu7 ma3ak ‘I’ll go with you’ One is by using bédd- (literally ‘want’): بدي امرق لعندو بكرا béddi émro2 la-3éndo bukra – I’m going to go to his house tomorrow Another common way is with the particle رح ra7(a)- or the prefix حـ 7a-: ...