Levantine Arabic: Sounds great/interesting/good

[stultissimus]

How do I say sounds great/interesting/good in Levantine/Palestinian Arabic? (For example, while accepting a plan offered by one's collocutor, or reacting to a piece of news/gossip..) Is it يبدو like in MSA, or is there a more common informal, colloquial way to say it?

 

[analeeh]

I don't think 'sounds X' is as likely a construction in Arabic. There are all sorts of ways of responding to a proposed plan: تمام حلو, فكرة حلوة, فكرة ولله. But nothing occurs to me as a likely literal translation of 'it seems that' that I hear a lot from people.

 

[Kenny-Alpha]

How do I say sounds great/interesting/good in Levantine/Palestinian Arabic? (For example, while accepting a plan offered by one's collocutor, or reacting to a piece of news/gossip..) Is it يبدو like in MSA, or is there a more common informal, colloquial way to say it?

As Analeeh said, there are numerous ways to express this. However, I personally use 3aZeem/azeem عظيم, which literally is an adjective meaning huge, extreme, massive, etcetera. But in colloquial/spoken Arabic (at least Lebanese), عظيم is used an an interjection or exclamation to mean, "that's great! Wonderful! Marvelous"!

For instance, if my friend told me some good news, I would say عظيم (sounds great)! This is very common in the Levant colloquial.

I can come up with about 10 other colloquial examples that express this ["sounds interesting"]. But I personally find azeem عظيم to be my favorite.

 

[Kenny-Alpha]

How do I say sounds great/interesting/good in Levantine/Palestinian Arabic? (For example, while accepting a plan offered by one's collocutor, or reacting to a piece of news/gossip..) Is it يبدو like in MSA, or is there a more common informal, colloquial way to say it?

Additionally, I can't speak for Palestine dialect, but yibdu يبدو (بدأ) isn't used in Lebanese, at least not to mean "appear or to seem".

The 4 most common ways to express that something "seems, sounds and looks" a certain way- and this is from my personal observation of interacting with Lebanese and Syrians on a daily basis (plus I'm fluent in Lebanese):

1.) yiZhar ennu يظهر إنو & Zaahir ظاهر
2.) imbayyen مبين
3.) Shiklo/shikla شكله/شكلها
4.) Hayto/Hayta هيئته/هيبتها from the noun hay-a هيئة, meaning appearance/looks.

For example, if a friend were to tell me about his plan to go on a boat cruise in bad weather, I would say: wallah!? Shiklo kteer 5aTeer ba2a! والله! شكلو كتير خطير بقى! Are you for real!? That sounds/seems very dangerous!

With that said, يبدو could be replaced by either 1 of the 4 usages above, if you want to sound more colloquial as far as Levantine is concerned.

 

[stultissimus]

For example, if a friend were to tell me about his plan to go on a boat cruise in bad weather, I would say: wallah!? Shiklo kteer 5aTeer ba2a! والله! شكلو كتير خطير بقى! Are you for real!? That sounds/seems very dangerous!

OK, thank you very much, Kenny-Alpha! I am familiar with both مبين and شكله/ها, both of them are often used in PA, but so far I only used them in the literal sense (to say that something/someone appears to be something or looks in a similar way), not in the metaphorical sense of expressing a subjective evaluation. So:
1. if I want to praise something, may I simply say "مبين ممتاز" or "شكله منيح" or "شكله رائع"?
2. Can I also use them followed by a noun (e.g. "مبين خطه رائعه")?

 

[Kenny-Alpha]

OK, thank you very much, Kenny-Alpha! I am familiar with both مبين and شكله/ها, both of them are often used in PA, but so far I only used them in the literal sense (to say that something/someone appears to be something or looks in a similar way), not in the metaphorical sense of expressing a subjective evaluation. So:
1. if I want to praise something, may I simply say "مبين ممتاز" or "شكله منيح" or "شكله رائع"?
2. Can I also use them followed by a noun (e.g. "مبين خطه رائعه")?

You can actually use them in a metaphorical sense also.

شكله منيح is very common for expressing "good idea"! I've heard شكله عظيم to express that something is excellent (metaphorically and physically). But I don't recall رائع being the adjective used. مبين ممتاز sounds colloquially fine to me.

As for مبين followed by a noun, you may need to give me an example in a full sentence. I typically don't hear مبين used that way, when expressing that something seems/sounds. And generally, when using مبين before a noun, you should add 3ala على [upon, to]. For example: his story seems strange. مبين على قصته غريبة. So in such a construction where the noun follows مبين, remember to add على after مبين.

 

[analeeh]

مبين على قصتو غريبة sounds quite odd to me, but I'm not sure what I'd say instead. القصة مبين عليها غريبة sounds better, or مبينتها غريبة. You could also say مبين عليه قصتو غريبة, I think, or مبين إنها غريبة.

 

[Kenny-Alpha]

مبين على قصتو غريبة sounds quite odd to me, but I'm not sure what I'd say instead. القصة مبين عليها غريبة sounds better, or مبينتها غريبة. You could also say مبين عليه قصتو غريبة, I think, or مبين إنها غريبة.

Well generally I would always put the noun before the adjective as in your example. However, the original poster wanted to know if he can use the adjective before the noun. I generally don't do it, but I hear it quite often.