عَفْوًا

[astlanda]

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.")

 

[chflb]

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
@+

 

[Xence]

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

 

[londonmasri]

'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"

 

[ayed]

you can say أعذرني

 

[astlanda]

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?

 

[cherine]

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)

 

[londonmasri]

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.

 

[astlanda]

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.