Conditional sentences
- Thread starter yasminaha
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Mahaodeh
Senior Member
Arabic, PA and IA.
Which dialect are we talking about?
In any case, you should understand that it’s not that simple. You can’t just say that this in Arabic corresponds to that in English. The two languages work differently. It’s unlikely to be simple and clear cut.
In any case, you should understand that it’s not that simple. You can’t just say that this in Arabic corresponds to that in English. The two languages work differently. It’s unlikely to be simple and clear cut.
Last edited:
Ectab
Senior Member
Arabic-Iraq
إن is, as far as I know, only found in Standard Arabic, but not Modern Arabic dialects. رح, on the other hand, is only found in Modern Arabic dialects, but not Standard Arabic. So, your examples are not quite right.
Anyway, In Classical Arabic, you can't use إن or لو with فعل ماضي and فعل مضارع. The tenses of the if-clause and the subordinate clause should be the same. In Modern Arabic dialects and MSA, you can have the if-clause with a past tense and the subordinate clause in present but the present verb should be preceded with a future particle (س or سوف for MSA, ح or راح for dialects).
Finally, as Mahaodeh stated, we can't have an exact correspondence of Arabic conditional sentences to those of English. You need to understand Arabic conditional rules on their own, plus the form of Arabic you seek (i.e. Classical Arabic CA, Modern Standard Arabic MSA, or Modern Arabic dialects).
Mahaodeh
Senior Member
Arabic, PA and IA.
إن is used in Palestinian Arabic actually. I don’t know about other Levantine dialects but I’d say it’s possible.
I’ve also heard it used in a few Egyptian proverbs, I don’t know if it’s still used or it’s limited to the proverbs but it shows that the dialect originally included إن.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it exists in other dialects, perhaps northern and/or western Hijazi dialects or some Bedouin dialects.
The point is, it could be a dialect.
Ectab
Senior Member
Arabic-Iraq
Do you think it could be borrowed from MSA rather than inherited? If not, then I hope you or anyone acquainted with dialects that have إن inherited from Arabic provide us with examples.
Mahaodeh
Senior Member
Arabic, PA and IA.
No, I highly doubt it.
I don’t know how to prove it, I only have my word. Perhaps I’m wrong, but in Palestinian Arabic I’m quite sure. My grandparents almost never used إذا, at least I don’t recall them using it, it was always إن, some 40 years ago I would only hear إن from Palestinians. Today, I hear إذا quite a lot, usually pronounced إزا, although إن is still used. However, some segments of the society don’t use إذا, specifically those that speak a rural dialect (فلاحي). From the top of my head I can remember two proverbs that use إن:
إن كان صاحبك عسل ما توكولوش كله
إن كبر ابنك خاويه
The first proverb exists in Iraqi Arabic as: إذا چان صاحبك عسل لا تاكله كله. I don’t remember if there is an Iraqi version of the other one.
Having said that, I decided to look up a couple of songs in Egyptian Arabic that I remembered use إن, the songs are:
إن كنت ناسي أفكرك لهدى سلطان
إن كنت غالي عليا لعايدة الأيوبي
إن حبيتني أحبك أكتر لفريد الأطرش
إن راح منك يا عين لشادية
So it seems that I was right about Egyptian Arabic. But I also found:
إن كنت ناوي تعذبني لعبّاد الجوهر
إن رحت لا عاد تنتظر مني أجيك - من أغنية الله عليك لعبد المجيد عبد الله
So it seems that it’s also used in at least some Saudi dialects as I expected.
If I remember correctly, if you look at descriptions of Levantine Arabic from around 1900, the 'if' particles are إن and إنكان.
The fact that اذا is pronounced with a z, if anything, suggests that it's not the inherited form (we'd expect ida, which does occasionally occur in my experience but is not very common).
The fact that اذا is pronounced with a z, if anything, suggests that it's not the inherited form (we'd expect ida, which does occasionally occur in my experience but is not very common).