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]