Idioms
An Idiom is a fixed phrase whose form is usually unchangeable, and
whose meaning cannot be predicted from knowledge of the meaning of
the individual words; it is always the same, inflexible, metaphorical and
indirect. For example, ‘hard task’ can be translated directly into
)‫)مهمة شاقة‬whereas ‘tall order’ cannot because it is a fixed phrase with a
fixed indirect meaning. This area constitutes special difficulty to Arab
students for three main reasons:
(1) The nature of idioms; the fact that both grammatically and
semantically they have special characteristics, creates a special
difficulty. Students have to learn idioms as single items with their
meanings specified and the special syntactic restrictions on their use in
sentences. For a native speaker this takes place naturally, whereas the
foreign learner has to learn and use those lexical items in the short
course of learning English.
(2) Idioms are among the most frequent items in the native speaker’s
daily use of language. The foreign learner who tries to avoid them and
uses long words instead will single himself out as a foreigner.
(3) Moreover, although a number of English idioms may have Arabic
equivalents:
Move heaven and earth
‫يقيم الدنيا ويقعدها‬
Give someone the cold shoulder ‫يقلب له ظهر المجن‬
The great majority of idioms are not only language, but also culturespecific:
Play one’s cards right
It was her own fault
)‫إذا هبت رياحك فاغتنمها(استغل الموقف لصالحك‬
‫على نفسها جنت براقش‬
We discuss idioms in terms of three groups:
1. Group A: Direct idioms:the idioms of this group have direct, identical
equivalents in Arabic:
It was the straw that broke the camel’s back ‫كانت القشة التي قصمت ظهر البعير‬
He serves two masters
‫انه يلعب على الحبلين‬
2. Group B: Indirect idioms: the idioms in this group are quite
problematic for the students because they are entirely indirect and
cannot be understood from the literal, common meaning of the words.
My car is second hand
‫سيارتي مستعملة‬
There is a black sheep in every family ‫هناك ولد عاق في كل عائلة‬
You are flogging a dead horse
He can walk on water
‫ال حياة لمن تنادي‬
‫في وسعه أن يفعل المعجزات‬
The solution to the translation of these idioms is to understand them in
context only because they cannot be understood in isolation. That is the
reason for having them in full sentences.
3. Group C: Phrasal Verbs: many English verbs change their meaning
when they are used in conjunction with another word, especially with a
preposition or an adverb. The problem with phrasal verbs is that their
meanings cannot be predicted from their form, even if you know the
meaning of all the constituent words. So, while the meaning of He ran
out of house is reasonably straightforward, he ran out of milk means that
he had no milk.
Although there are phrasal verbs in Arabic, the problems the Arab
student faces are twofold:
1. Sometimes the whole phrase in English is equivalent to a single verb
in Arabic (without any preposition):
Be off
‫ينطلق‬
Be over
‫ينتهي‬
2. At other times, the preposition used with the English verb is different
from its usual Arabic equivalent:
Be after
‫يسعى ل‬
Do without
‫يستغنى عن‬
Get rid of
‫يتخلص من‬
Look for ‫يبحث عن‬
Students are advised to know and memorize the most important
combinations of the common, widely used phrasal verbs.
They can also concentrate on the main, core combinations of each of
these common phrasal verbs. For example, the verb come has about sixty
eight phrasal combinations, the commonest ones are: come in, come to,
come across, come off, come on, come out, come through.
Prepositions and prepositional phrases
These are a phenomenon found in most languages. Mastery of their use
is of vital importance, and that is why they constitute one of the greatest
difficulties for the foreign learner. The difficulty can be ascribed to two
main reasons:
1. Complexity of the prepositional system itself in each language:
(a) Each preposition can indicate several different relations; at for
example, has at least ten different relations:
He is at his office(place)
Shoot at (direction)
At arm’s length (distance)
At 2 o’clock (time)
At the age of 15 (age)
At the second attempt (order)
At times (frequency)
At forty miles an hour (rate of movement)
(b)Conversely, the same relationship (or concept) can be indicated by
several different prepositions:
At 3 o’clock
On Sunday
In March, 1976
(c) Many English words collocate with special prepositions that are
unpredictable, and have to be learned as phrases:
Get rid of, eager for, good at, pleased with, tired of, write in ink, prefer
to.
2. Arabic interference: normally the basic and most common sense of
each English preposition is presented to foreign learners first, then other
uses are added later on. The student at once equates this first meaning
with one Arabic preposition, and develops a strong tendency to use that
equation all the time:
Next to becomes next from under the influence of Arabic
‫بالقرب من‬
On his way to us becomes in his way to us
‫في طريقه الينا‬
‫يضحك على‬
Laugh at becomes laugh on
Proverbs
They are special, fixed, unchanged phrases which have special, fixed,
unchanged meanings. A proverb cannot be translated or understood as a
collection of the individual meanings of its words. Discussing the
translation of proverbs is done through three main groups:
Group A: Absolute equivalence:
They are the easiest to translate because most of them can be translated
directly if the students are unaware of the corresponding Arabic proverb.
However, there is more than one Arabic version for some English
proverbs, all of which are equally acceptable:
Like father like son
‫من شابه أباه فما ظلم‬
‫هذا الشبل من ذاك األسد‬
‫الولد صورة من أبيه‬
Group B: Similar equivalence:
The proverbs of this group are harder to translate than those of the first
one. Yet they are not difficult to translate. Knowledge of a part of the
proverb in Arabic is enough for students to guess it in full.
Charity begins at home
Literal translation
‫األقربون أولى بالمعروف‬
‫تبدأ الصدقة في البيت‬
When this is not possible, they can translate its sense:
Let bygones be bygones
‫عفا هللا عما سلف‬
‫ما مضى مضى وانقضى‬
‫دع الماضي ماضيا‬
Group C: Different equivalence:
This group is the greatest in number in both languages. Moreover, it is
the most difficult to translate because its proverbs have no
straightforward, literal relation to their equivalents in Arabic. Literal
translation is not advisable in any way and should be avoided. Students
are advised to resort to dictionaries of proverbs, consult authority, and
resort to colloquial Arabic.
The grass is greener on the other side ‫مزمار الحي ال يطرب‬
Literal translation
‫العشب اكثر خضرة في الجانب اآلخر‬
It is worth noting that some English proverbs have more than one Arabic
equivalent. Likewise, the same English proverb may have another
version.
Prevention is better than cure
‫الوقاية خير من العالج‬
‫درهم وقاية خير من قنطار عالج‬
To add insult to injury
‫ يصب الزيت على النار‬/ ‫يزيد الطين بلة‬
To add fuel to the fire
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