Hello everyone. Apologies for yet another long absence – I’ve been working on something pretty big that I’ll be able to tell you more about soon. But to tide you over, here’s a post about a verb (or two verbs, in fact) that you probably know in one sense but don’t realise the full potential of.

Dialects

رجع is used universally. رد is used only in North Levantine in the senses described below (although it is a very common verb in other more literal senses such as ‘answer’).

رجع is rije3/yirja3 in South Levantine and rəje3/yərja3 in North Levantine (these forms are more or less identical in pronunciation and the ə is in this case there for transcription reasons). The maSdar is رجوع rjuu3.

رد is radd/yrədd.

Literal meanings

The most common use of رجع is as a verb of motion equivalent to fuS7a عاد or English ‘go back’, ‘come back’, ‘return’ etc.

اضتريت انو ارجع ع البيت
iDTarreet 2inno 2arja3 3albeet 
I was forced to go back home

راجعة ع الحارة؟
raaj3a 3al7aara?
Are you going back to your part of town?

بعدو ما رجع من الشغل
ba3do maa rije3 mn ishshughol
He still hasn’t got back from work

ردّ also has a number of literal meanings. The most common is probably ردّ على radd 3ala ‘answer, respond to’, but it’s also sometimes used to mean ‘reciprocate’, ‘turn away’ or ‘reject’. رد الباب means ‘leave the door open’.

Do something again

The first idiomatic use of both رجع and رد is a bit trickier to make correspond to any one English word, although it is often similar to either ‘again’ or ‘back’. It expresses, more or less, resuming something/doing something again after having stopped doing it. Structurally, this verb can either be combined with another verb of an identical form or be followed by the subjunctive. The subjunctive seems to be more common in SL although both structures appear everywhere:

ايش رجعت نمت؟
2eesh, rji3et nimet(J)
What, have you gone back to sleep [did you return go to sleep]?

برجع بحاكيك
barja3 ba7akiik (P)
I’ll call you back [I’ll return call you]

وبلكي رد عمل نفس العملة؟
w belki radd 3əmel nafs əl3amle? (S)
What if he does the same thing again [what if he again did the same doing]?

برجع بشتريه
barja3 bashtrii (P)
I’m going to buy it again

Note that it can happily co-occur with other words for ‘again’ despite the seeming redundancy:

سكرت 3 أيام لأني مليت وتعبت بس بعدين رجعت فتحت مرة تانية
sakkarət tlett tiyyaam la2ənni malleet w t3əbət bass ba3deen rjə3t fata7t marra taanye (S)
I closed (my account) for three days because I was bored but then I opened it again

Sometimes it is equivalent to the prefix re-:

كتبت منشور بس طلع كلو كذب قمت رجعت كتبتو مرة تانية
katabet manshuur bass Tile3 kullo kizeb 2umt rji3et katabto marra taanye (P)
I wrote a post but everything in it turned out to be lies so I rewrote it

Note this (seemingly superfluous) example where رد is combined with رجع in its literal sense:

معلومك الشرطة راحت بس بترد ترجع
ma3luumak əshshərTa raa7et bass bətrədd tərja3 (S)
And you know, the police have gone but they’ll come back again

There is an extended usage which doesn’t necessarily correspond to any English word but which basically occurs when there is a reconsideration or a review involved in the action. For example:

أول شي استغليتو بعدين رجعت اشتريتو
2awwal shi staghleeto ba3deen ərjə3t shtareeto
At first I thought it was too expensive but then later I changed my mind and bought it

رجع عملها مقالة طويلة ع أساس بدها تننشر
rije3 3imelha maqaale Tawiile 3a 2asaas biddha tinnisher
Then he made it into an essay/reworked it into an essay because it was supposedly going to be published

قرأتها نسخة الكترونية ولأنها بتستحق رجعت اشتريتها نسخة ورقية
qara2tha nuskha 2iliktroniyya w la2innha btista7eqq rji3et ishtareetha nuskha waragiyya (P)
I read a digital copy then because it was worth it I bought a paper copy as well [I rebought it in paper form]

Go back to being

There is another use of رجع and رد that may not seem immediately familiar. This can literally be translated as ‘go back to being’ although this is rarely the most idiomatic choice in English. Like صار it expresses a change of state – but here the change explicitly is back to a state that existed before (i.e a ‘return’).

بدّي إرجع بنت صغيرة على سطح الجيران
bəddi 2ərja3 bənt əzghiire 3ala saT7 əljiiraan (S)
I want to go back to being a little girl on the neighbours’ roof

بتخيل مواقف وهميه معاهم بتفرحني بتذكر انو راحو برجع حزين
batkhayyal mawaa2ef wahmiyye ma3aahom bitfarri7ni, batzakkar 2inno raa7u barja3 7aziin (J)
I imagine made-up scenes with them that make me me happy, (then) I remember they’re gone and I’m sad again

علواه نرجع متل ما كنا
3aluwaa nərja3 mətəl ma kənna! (L)
If only we could go back to how we were!

لا لا هلق رجعت عادية
la2 la2 halla2 rəj3et 3aadiyye (L)
No no now it’s gone back to normal

Note that this structure also exists in fuS7a with عاد:

ولكن المريض بعدها يعود عاديًا تمامًا
walaakin almariiDu ba3daha ya3uudu 3aadiyyan tamaaman
But afterwards the patient regains full health [= goes back to being totally normal]

Causatives

These verbs of course have causatives. radd can itself be used as a causative. For rəje3/rije3 a separate causative exists, rajja3:

شوفة بترد الشايب شب
shoofe bətrədd əshshaayib shabb (L)
A sight that would turn an old man back into a young man

النضارة بترجعك ولد صغير
innaDDaara bitrajj3ak walad izghiir (P)
Glasses make you look like a child again [return you a child]

3molma3ruf

Apologies for the radio silence, guys – I was away for the summer and I’ve been working on various side-projects. But now we’re back. This post is another addition to our Verbs I Might Have Known series (for other episodes, see زبط , اجى, طلع, نزل, صار, نفسي and قعد), this time about possibly the most common and useful catch-all verb in spoken Arabic, عمل.

Even if you’ve only taken a few steps along the road to perdition that is learning fuS7a, you’ll probably know this verb in the meaning of ‘work’ (if you’ve done even one chapter of the Al Kitaab series, it’s what Maha’s dad does at the UN). In Levantine, however, its meaning has shifted to a generic ‘do’ or ‘make’. Many of its derivations – e.g. 3aamel ‘labourer’, ‘factor’ (plurals 3ummaal and 3awaamel respectively) – do still carry meanings to do with work. But the verb itself is used in a thousand and one different contexts, which we’ll try and give a representative taster of in this post.

Dialect forms

In Syrian/Lebanese the past tense is عمل ‪3əmel, conjugated normally. In Palestinian/Jordanian it is the predictable equivalent 3imel (see the PDF for conjugation). In the present there is much more variation: in South Levantine the form is entirely regular (yi3mel, bi3mel, bti3mel etc). In North Levantine, the prefix vowel has an irregular a; in Syrian the stem vowel is e (bta3mel) and in Lebanese the vowel is o (bta3mol). The maSdar is عمل ‪3amal.

Do, make (and ‘have’)

For speakers of languages other than English the difference between ‘do’ and ‘make’ is generally fairly mysterious. Luckily for you, in Arabic this difference does not really exist. While it would (of course) be an exaggeration to claim عمل can be used in every single case where ‘do’ or ‘make’ is appropriate in English, it certainly is the best catch-all equivalent:

شو عم تعمل؟
shuu 3am ta3mel? (S)
What are you doing?

ايش عامل اليوم؟
2eesh 3aamel ilyoom? (P)
What are you up to today?
What have you done today?

The participle here is ambiguous – like lots of other participles its ‘core’ meaning is resultative (‘have done’) but this expression in particular is often used to refer to future plans.

عمول الشاي
3mool @shshaay (L)
Make the tea!

بتقدر تعمل اللي بدك اياه
btigdar ti3mel illi biddak 2iyyaa (J)
You can do whatever you want

With b- it lines up with ‘do X to’:

شو عامل بحالك؟
shuu 3aamel b7aalak?
What have you done to yourself?

Note that in these senses 3imel has a very common synonym, ساوى saawa or سوى sawwa (mostly but not exclusively North Levantine versus South Levantine).

Make X into Y

Although most causal-ish senses of ‘make’ are actually covered by various causative contructions (for which see this post), عمل can express making X into Y:

عملناك مسخرة اليوم يا حمار
3milnaak maskharet ilyoom yaa 7maar (J)
We’ve made you the joke of the day, you idiot

نحن عملناك قوي لتستقوي ع القوات مش علينا
nə7na 3məlneek 2awi la-təsta2wi 3a l2uwweet məsh 3aleyna! (L)
We made you strong so you’d overpower the [Lebanese] Forces, not us!

With nouns

As with ‘do’ and ‘make’ عمل collocates with various different nouns either in set phrases or productively. In some cases English uses a different verb. It would be literally impossible to list all the possible collocations, but hopefully these will give you some idea:

عمل جهد ‪(jəhd/juhd) ‘make an effort’
عمل عملة ‪(3amle) ‘do something (bad), do a (bad) deed’
بتعمل عمايلها ‪(3amaayil(h)a)‪ ‘take its toll, work its magic’
عامل السبعة وذمتها (issab3a wzimmitha/zəmmətha) ‘done all the major sins’
عملها ‘go to the toilet’ [= do it]
عملها تحتو ‘soil/wet oneself’ [= do it under oneself]
عمل مشكلة, مشاكل ‘make/cause trouble, make problems’
عمل من الحبة قبة (mn il7abbe 2ibbe) ‘make a mountain out of a mole hill’
عمل معروف ‘do [someone] a favour’ (in NL, especially Lebanese, the imperative form of this is used as a way to say ‘please’)
عمل فتنة بين (fitne) ‘make trouble between, stir up trouble between’
عمل قصة كبيرة ‘kick up a fuss’

Note these cases where very different verbs are used in English but where عمل is entirely natural in Arabic:

عمل عملية ‘have an operation (as a patient)’ , ‘operate (on a patient)’
عمل فحص (fa7S) ‘have a (medical) test’
عمل حادث ‘have an accident’

عمللي جلطة ‘give me a stroke’ (mostly non-literal)
عمللي اكتئاب ‘give me depression’
عمللي لعية نفس (la3yet nafs) ‘makes me feel sick’ (metaphorically or literally)

عمل حساب جديد (‪7saab) ‘open a new account’
عمل عقد (‪3aq@d) ‘sign a contract, draw up a contract’
عمل جو (jaww) ‘create a [pleasant] atmosphere’
عمل نظام جديد ‘introduce a new system’

Note with certain loanwords, all with l-:

عمل ريسترت – restart (a computer)
عمل تشيك إين – check in (to a hotel)
عمل تشيك اب (tshek 2aab) – have a check up (at the doctor’s)
عمل فرمطة – format (a computer)
عمل تاغ – tag (someone on Facebook)
عمل بلوك – block (someone on the internet)
عمل مساج (masaaj) – give (someone) a massage

But also note that Arabic is much keener on repetition of words from the same root and may use a verb cognate to the object rather than default ‘do’: غلط غلطة ghəleT ghalTa ‘make a mistake’, etc.

Pretend

You’re probably familiar with عمل حالو ‘pretend to be’ [= make oneself out to be]. This is particularly common with the participle in a continuous sense:

عامل حالو شغلة كبيرة
3aamel 7aalo shaghle kbiire
He’s pretending to be a bigshot

عاملة حالها ما بتعرف
3aamle 7aalha maa bta3ref
She’s pretending not to know

Acting the

Plus indefinite noun عمل can mean ‘act the’ in a rude or dismissive way:

لا تعمللي معلم يا ولد
laa ta3məlli m3allem yaa walad
Don’t act the big man with me, boy

Often in this sense it appears with فيها ‘in it’ referring to the situation:

طول عمرك قمرجي نسونجي سكرجي وهلأ جاي تعمللي فيها شريف مكة
Tool 3umrak 2marji niswanji sikirji w halla2 jaay ti3milli fiiha shariif makke! (J)
A lifelong gambling, womanising drunk – and now you want to act like the Sharif of Mecca! [for this use of اجى see this post]

Go on about, talk about (inappropriately)

3imel can also be used dismissively in contexts like the following, where it means something like ‘go on about’ or ‘bring up’ in an inappropriate context:

هي بدها تزبيط! – لك لا تعمللي تزبيط مزبيط
hayy bədda taZbiiT – lak laa ta3məlli taZbiiT maZbiiT
This one needs fixing – Don’t give me all that about ‘fixing’!

What needs to be done now?

An expression:

والعمل هلق؟
w @l3amal halla2?
What do we need to do now?

This is a short post about how to avoid literally translating English in a very common set of constructions.

In English, the word ‘one’ pops up all over our syntax like a bad smell. As well as being a number, the source of the indefinite article (even if ‘a’ and ‘an’ no longer look much like it) and an incredibly pretentious personal pronoun, we use it a lot with adjectives and other similar words to express an example of something, an object or a person characterised by the quality of the adjective. Explaining the semantics of words using other words is tough, but you know exactly what I mean: ‘the big one’, ‘the small one’, ‘that one’, ‘this one’.

For indefinites, there is a very similar construction in Arabic:

بدي واحد كبير
biddi waa7ed ikbiir  (SYR)
I want a big one [masc]

جبت واحدة جديدة
jibet waa7de jdiide  (PAL)
I got a new one [fem]

بدي واحد طويل
baddi waa7ad Tawiil (LEB)
I want someone tall [or a long one, etc]

For definites, though, we absolutely cannot use ‘one’. Instead, a definite adjective is used on its own (or a demonstrative pronoun, etc). (There’s also the construction with ابو or ام, discussed here). Using waa7ed in the following sentences is straightforwardly ungrammatical:

بدي الكبير
biddi likbiir (SYR)
I want the big one

جبت الجداد
jibelijdaad (PAL)
I brought the new ones

عطيني هداك
3aTiini hadaak (SYR)
Give me that one [masc]

مش هديك, التانية
mish hadiik, ittaanye (JOR)
Not that one, the other one [fem]

This works for relative clauses too:

يلي كان يشتغل عندك
yalli kaan yishtighel 3andek (SYR)
The one who used to work for you

The only place where الواحد works is as a pronoun conveniently similar in meaning (but not in pretentiousness – it’s far more common than its English equivalent) to English ‘one’. Note that it by default takes masculine agreement:

الواحد صار يندم اذا اعترف بحبه
ilwaa7ad Saar yindam 2iza 3taraf b7ubbo (PAL)
These days if you admit you‘re in love you‘ll regret it [= it’s become that one regrets if he admits to his love]

This one is quite straightforward. ‘Anymore’ (in one of its senses anyway) expresses that there has been a change from something happening to it no longer happening: I don’t go there anymore.

ما عاد maa3aad مابقى maaba2a

There are two direct equivalents to ‘anymore’/’no longer’, both of them derived from verbs: ما بقى maa ba2a and ما عاد maa 3aad (this one is used in a fuSHa-y form in MSA too). Although they look pretty straightforwardly like negated past tense verbs, they don’t behave much like verbs – for a start, they’re usually invariable, not conjugating for person or number or gender:

ما عاد فيني اتحمل
maa 3aad fiini ét7ammal
I can’t cope anymore/any longer

ما عاد اعرف مثل دور المجامله
maa3aad a3ref massel door lémjaamle
I can’t flatter people anymore [= I no longer know how to act the role of flatterer]

مابقى اعرف شو بدي احكي
maaba2a a3ref shu béddi é7ki
I don’t know what to say anymore/I no longer know what to say

There are exceptions to this, though. Sometimes they do take normal verbal suffixes. Cowell suggests it’s particularly common for this to happen in the third person feminine singular, as in this example:

بحس انو اوجاعي ما عادت تنحمل
b7éss énno 2awjaa3i maa 3aadet tén7amel
I feel that my pain [= pains] is no longer bearable

Despite looking like pasts, they can also appear with negative imperatives:

ما بقى تحكي معي
maaba2a té7ki ma3i
never talk to me again/don’t talk to me anymore

It can also be used in sentences like the following where the reference is to the future. Although English ‘anymore’ can no longer be used here, if my Sunday School acquaintance with Biblical English is anything to go by it used to be possible to, and the meaning is fundamentally very similar even if we have to use a different English phrasing:

معقول ما عاد نرجع؟
ma32uul maa 3aad nérja3?
Can it be true that we’ll never go back [= we’ll not return anymore?]

بطل baTTal

This one literally means ‘stop’ or ‘stop being’. It can be used with either a subjunctive verb or with a noun/adjective, and sometimes can be translated nicely with ‘anymore’:

بطلنا نكيف
baTTalna nkayyef
We’re not having fun anymore [= we’ve stopped having fun]

طيب… رح يصنعو أدوية ويوزعوها ع الجوعانين يسفوها وتسد نفسهن ويبطلو جوعانين؟Tayyib… ra7 yiS@n3u ad@wye w ywazz3uwwa 3a ljoo3aaniin ysiffuwwa w tsidd nafson w ybaTTlu joo3aaniin?
OK… they’re going to produce medicines and hand them out to the starving that they can down and they’ll lose their appetites and won’t be hungry anymore?

Thanks to Aaron for reminding me of this one!

صار Saar

Another less explicit option that you often have is to use صار Saar which we’ve previously written about here and which often expresses a change of state in much the same way that ‘anymore’ does. See that post for more examples, but here’s one:

الواحد صار ما الو خاطر يبتسم من كتر ما قلبو عم يحترق
élwaa7ed Saar maa 2élo khaaTer yébtésem mén két@r ma 2albo 3am yé7tére2
You don’t [= one doesn’t] feel like smiling anymore because of how bad you feel inside [= from how much his heart is burning]

No direct equivalent to ‘already’ exists in Arabic, which is probably why a growing number of speakers familiar with English (and even some who aren’t!) use the borrowed form orredi (or older speakers in Lebanon deeja). This is not yet widespread enough or unstigmatised enough to recommend using, though, so for the moment let’s have a look at some of the partial equivalents you might want to familiarise yourself with instead. Each of these can be used in some of the circumstances ‘already’ can be used in.

من هلق mén halla2 

Literally ‘from now’. Often used to mean ‘from now on’, this is also used to translate a specific, present sense of ‘already’ which expresses surprise at or the unlikeliness of what you’re discussing. This is perhaps not a particularly helpful description, so here’s a couple of examples:

من هلق جعت وعطشت وبلشت نق, عن جد الصيام متعب كتير
mén halla2 jé3@t w 3aTash@t w ballash@t né22, 3anjadd éSSiyaam mét3ib @ktiir
I’m already hungry and thirsty [= got hungry and thirsty] and [I’ve already] started complaining, fasting really is very tiring!

 خلص المسلسل, مين راح يشتاق؟ انا من هلق اشتقت
khéleS élmusalsal, miin ra7 yéshtaa2? ana mén halla2 @shta2@t
The series is over – who’s going to miss it? I miss it already 

The meaning of ‘already’ comes pretty straightforwardly from its literal meaning of ‘from now’, and like the translations of ‘just’ we discussed last time prevents it from being used in non-present contexts.

سبق و saba2 w

One option quite commonly used in Syrian is the fuSHa-esque (but Shami-pronounced) saba2 w-. This literally means something like ‘it previously happened that’, and so can be used in circumstances where ‘already’ can be replaced with ‘previously’ or ‘formerly’:

في داعي روح شخصيا علما انو انا سبق ورحت مرتين واخدو بصمات الاصابع؟
fii daa3i ruu7 shakhSiyyan 3ilman énno ana saba2 w ré7@t marrteen w akhadu baSamaat él2aSaabe3?
Do I need to go in person, given that I’ve already been twice and they’ve taken my fingerprints?

سبق وقلتلك انو كتير صعب قراءة الفيديو بهادا اللون
saba2 w 2éltéllak énno ktiir Sa3b qiraa2t élviidyo bhaada lloon
I’ve already told you (I told you before) that it’s very difficult to read the video in this colour

صرت + resultative participle

An active participle with resultative meaning (e.g. كاتب  ‘having written’) can sometimes be used in conjunction with the verb صار ‘to become’ with a meaning similar to a certain use of ‘already’. It is much less common than ‘already’ in English, however, at least in Syrian – although it seems to be used more in Palestinian. It usually gives a connotation of weariness or frequency, comes along with a number (usually of times) and from personal experience it occurs most frequently by a long way with قال (but perhaps people have to repeat themselves at me more than the average person):

انا كم مرة صرت قايتلك ومفهمتك هي الحركات الولدنة بلاها
ana kam marra Sér@t 2aayéltak w @mfahhémtak hayy 7arakaat élwaldane balaaha!
How many times have I told you – stop it with this childish nonsense [= movements of childishness, without them!]

صرت شايف نفس الصورة شي عشر مرات
sér@t shaayef nafs éSSuura shi 3ashar marraat
I’ve seen the same photo about ten times already…

من الاصل, بالاصل bil2aS@l, mn él2aS@l

This one literally means something like ‘to start with’, but in some specific contexts it can translate ‘already’:

لا يلي بالاصل حلو ومو عامل تجميل بيبقا حلو
la2 yalli bil2aS@l 7élu w muu 3aamel tajmiil byéb2a 7élu
No, the ones who are already pretty [= pretty to start with] without getting surgery are still pretty