عَفْوًا

astlanda

Senior Member
Estonian maamurre
May I use the word عَفْوًا in cases, when I would say "Excuse me!" in English?
And what is a polite answer, if someone excuses himself?
(e.g. "It is not a big deal.")
 
  • Hello,
    Yes, right! عَفْوًا is a good word
    there are other words like : معذرة, سامحني
    And what is a polite answer
    there are all polite ansers, but I note that عَفْوًاis more formal then the others, then معذرة then سامحني which is too friendly!
    I note also that those terms are differents from "to forgive" which is يغفز : Your forgiveness my Lord!==>غفرانك ربي
    if someone excuses himself?
    If I have understood you, you need expression like :معذرة نفسي
    @+
     
    You may use the word عفواً in many cases such as to say:

    - sorry
    - excuse me
    - an answer to شكراً (i.e: don't mention it)

    As for "It is not a big deal" I think one would rather say:

    * لا علينا or in colloquial مَعْليهش or معليش

    * لا يهمّ or ّما يهم
     
    '3afwan' works in just about all contexts I can think of.

    E.g. "what are you doing!!!!!!!!?"
    "3afwan...3afwan"

    Or your working through a crowd and you knock someone - "3afwan"
     
    Thank you all.

    شُكْرًﺎ لَكُم


    However I found meself in trouble analyzing لَﺎ يَهَمُّ , which should stand for "Don't worry!" , but looks like "He is not worryng." for me.
    لا علينا is another puzzle. I can't find it's stem in my dictionaries.
    Do you still have time to explain me the basics?
     
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    However I found meself in trouble analyzing لَﺎ يَهَمُّ , which should stand for "Don't worry!" , but looks like "He is not worryng." for me.
    It's laa yuhimmu لا يُهِمُّ which means it doesn't matter, or literally it doesn't interest [anyone]. It can also mean: it doesn't worry [anyone], for the stem هـ-م-م can mean "to be important", and "to cause worry".
    لا علينا is another puzzle. I can't find it's stem in my dictionaries.
    Maybe because you were looking for a verb :)
    لا علينا is literaly: nothing is on us.
    علينا is the preposition على + the pronoun نا (indicating the plural نحن or "us").

    When I say: لا عَلَيْكِ it means: no [blame] on you, or "don't worry".
    Do you still have time to explain me the basics?
    No :) You've obviously passed that phase, you only need to practice more on looking up words in the dictionary. I remember it was a whole long lesson in the third year of prepartory school; six years after our first grammar lessons.

    بالتوفيق (=wishing you success) :)
     
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    To be honest, I have heard the word 'sorry' many a time; just say it with an egyptian accent lol!

    I hear aasif and sorry a lot.
     
    Maybe because you were looking for a verb :)
    لا علينا is literaly: nothing is on us.
    علينا is the preposition على + the pronoun نا (indicating the plural نحن or "us").

    When I say: لا عَلَيْكِ it means: no [blame] on you, or "don't worry".

    Yes I was looking for a verb, because it was written with YEH instead of ALEF MAKSURA, but I should have been familiar with it by "salaam alaikum" of course.

    Thank you for the explanation.
     
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