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Wow, really interesting lesson, I never knew the word for Scout or the context of al-Nidham outside of "organization/system"... fascinating.

I do have a question regarding how to say "to join s.t."

I remember learning the very ألتحق ب

Would that verb make sense if you were to say:
"التحقت بالكشافة"
as opposed to the "becoming a member". I can see how both work, but I always thought أصبح was reserved for "becoming" or "earning" a title of sorts, like أريد ان اصبح دكتر

Love the lessons! I'll hope to help write another dialogue in the near future!

Cheers

Tomes

Ya Tomes, indeed you can say (إلتحقت بالكشافة), but as you said this would mean (I joined the Scouts). Your idea of (أصبح) is right too, it means (became), so it is like when you say in English (I became a member in the Scouts).
It is really just two ways to express one thing.

Like Tomes, I found the lesson very interesting, and like Tomes, I was surprised by what Mohamed told us about ﺍﻠﻨﻈﺎﻢ. (It sounded rather Orwellian!) However, what my attention immediately latched on to was the verbal particle "laqad" (ﻠﻗﺪ at the beginning of the second sentence. I’d already read something about this word, and I’d heard it in YouTube videos.

According to Ambros ("Einführung in die moderne arabische Schriftsprache", p. 140), "laqad" is synonymous with "qad" (ﻗﺪ and is often placed before a past tense verb in order to underline the fact that the action denoted by the verb has been brought to a conclusion ("um die Abgeschlossenheit der Handlung zu unterstreichen"). He says that "laqad" can be rendered in German as "schon" (= already), "bereits" (= already) or simply left untranslated.

Surprisingly, Ryding says nothing about "laqad", but she says quite a lot about "qad" (K. C. Ryding, "A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic", p. 450). She distinguishes between two uses of "qad": (1) "qad" with a past tense verb and (2) "qad" with a present tense verb.

(1) When "qad" is combined with a past tense verb it stresses the pastness of the past and can be rendered in English as "already", "indeed" or "really", but in many cases is best left untranslated.

(2) When "qad" is combined with a present tense verb it emphasises the possibility or the potentiality of an action rather than its actual achievement. The best English translation equivalents are "may", "might" or "perhaps".

What Ambros says about "laqad" tallies with what Ehab and Mohamed tell us in this lesson, and Ryding’s remarks on "qad" are similar to Ambros’ remarks on "laqad". There are, however, some questions which still remain unanswered.

(1) Are "qad" and "laqad" always interchangeable?
(2) Does Ryding ignore "laqad" because it is less frequent than "qad"?
(3) Can "laqad" be combined with a present tense verb to express potentiality?
(4) When is "laqad" rendered as "already", and when is it left untranslated?

Finally, here are some of my own ideas about the two particles in question:

When I first discovered "qad" and "laqad" I was immediately struck by their similarity with German words like "schon", "bereits", "möglicherweise" and "womöglich". In German "schon" is often combined with present-tense verbs in cases where the English use the present perfect progressive tense without an adverb (e.g. "Er wartet schon seit einer Stunde"), and words like "möglicherweise" and "womöglich" are often combined with present-tense verbs in order to express potentiality. When German texts are translated into English, "schon" often remains untranslated, and words like "womöglich" are rendered as "may" or "might" because adverbials are more frequent in German than in English.

I would render the second sentence in the Arabicpod dialogue as "I’ve joined the scouts". The addition of "already" would be grammatically possible but inappropriate in the situation under discussion.

When I recently listened to an untitled Arabic video I was struck by the fact that "laqad" was repeatedly used in a narrative context. This raises another question which neither Ambros nor Ryding have considered. Is "laqad" used primarily in narrative texts such as novels or short stories, and is it used frequently in everyday spoken Arabic when someone tells a story?

thanks lads - i am learning a lot here - great stuff

اهلا ثكرا على الدرس

If we compare the first sentence in this lesson with the third example sentence in the lesson entitled “More on tanween” we can find out quite a lot about Arabic relative clauses. The relative clause in the first sentence in “Scout Member” is introduced by a relative pronoun (ﺍﻠﺘﻲ, while the relative clause in the third sentence in “More on tanween” is simply tacked on to its antecedent (ﻓﺘًﻰ without a pronoun.

The clause introduced by a relative pronoun (ﻤﻮﺼﻮﻞ ﺇﺴﻢ is a “sila” (ﺼﻠﺔ, i.e. a syndetic relative clause. The other clause, which has no relative pronoun, is a “sifa” (ﺼﻓﺔ, i.e. an asyndetic relative clause. In “Scout member” the relative clause has to be introduced by an “ism mawsul” (ﻤﻮﺼﻮﻞ ﺇﺴﻢ because the antecedent (ﺍﻠﻤﻼﺒﺲ is a definite noun. In “More on tanween”, by contrast, the relative pronoun has to be omitted because the antecedent (ﻓﺘٴﻰ is an indefinite noun.

The terminology used in traditional Arabic grammar differs in many respects from European grammatical terminology. Distinctions made by European grammarians are blurred in such a way that conceptual incongruencies pose considerable problems for translators and language learners. Thus, for instance, the term “ism” (ﺇﺴﻢ may denote a noun or certain types of pronoun (e.g. demonstrative or relative pronouns), “sifa” (ﺼﻓﺔ may denote an adjective or an asyndetic relative clause, and “harf” (ﺤﺮﻒ may be a letter or a particle.

Since traditional Arabic grammarians assign syndetic and asyndetic relative clauses to different categories (adjectives and adjuncts), there seems to be no generic term corresponding to Engl. “relative clause”. What do Arabic linguists say when they want to talk about relative clauses in European languages?

As far as I know, all the European languages have at least one generic term corresponding to Engl. “relative clause” (e.g. Fr. proposition relative, Ger. Relativsatz, It. proposizione relativa, Sp. oración relativa). Even the Chinese have a term for “relative clause”. It is transcribed as “guānxi cóngjù”.

Personally, I use "indeed" in English often to emphasize, much like what was said in the lesson about "laqad." I'm not surprised to see Desmond noting it here. Very nice lesson. Thanks.