# past tense translated as present



## flancy

The following question often pops up in my mind: why is it that Arabic translators use present tense instead of the past tense for translating the past tense? I read

البر حسن الخلق والإثم ما حاك في صدرك وكرهت أن يطّلع عليه الناس

It was translated as "Righteousness is in good character, and wrongdoing is that which wavers in your soul, and which you dislike people finding out about."

I think it should be "wavered" and "disliked".


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## elroy

Arabic often uses the past tense to express general truths; in those cases, English typically uses the present tense.

Other examples:

من طلب العلا سهر الليالي 
من جدّ وجد 
من آمن بي ولو مات فسيحيا (translation of John 11:25b, "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live", KJV) ("believeth" is an archaic form of "believes")


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## flancy

All of the examples you have given are of conditional sentences. I know that in such sentences the past tense is translated as the future.

For example. إن ضربتني ضربتك If you will hit me I will hit you. من احترمه احترمته Whoever he respects I will respect.

But البر حسن الخلق والإثم ما حاك في صدرك وكرهت أن يطّلع عليه الناس is not a conditonal sentence, isn't it?


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## elroy

That's irrelevant.  Please reread the first sentence of my first post.


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## Interprete

flancy said:


> All of the examples you have given are of conditional sentences. I know that in such sentences the past tense is translated as the future.
> 
> For example. إن ضربتني ضربتك If you will hit me I will hit you. من احترمه احترمته Whoever he respects I will respect.
> 
> But البر حسن الخلق والإثم ما حاك في صدرك وكرهت أن يطّلع عليه الناس is not a conditonal sentence, isn't it?


There are plenty of similar examples in the Qu'ran, of past tense used in lieu of the present yet having a 'general present' meaning.

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا (1)
Obviously Allah is still watching, he didn't just do it in the past and then stopped.

 The Arabic past can even be used to indicate the future, as in: والله ما كنت طول الدهر ناسيها (by God I will never forget her in my whole life).

​


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## flancy

elroy said:


> That's irrelevant.  Please reread the first sentence of my first post.



I understand you. You are saying that the past can be used for general truths regardless of whether the sentence is conditional.
But I find this very strange. Can you give me some reference?


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## Interprete

flancy said:


> I understand you. You are saying that the past can be used for general truths regardless of whether the sentence is conditional.
> But I find this very strange. Can you give me some reference?


There is not one Arabic grammar book in existence which doesn't describe this rule... so pick absolutely any grammar book and you will find it.


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## rayloom

Wright describes it on the first page (of the second volume). The first volume deals with parts of speech and orthography, very basic stuff.


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## bearded

elroy said:


> Arabic often uses the past tense to express general truths; in those cases, English typically uses the present tense.


The very common expression ''In sha' Allah''  is usually translated (into my language at least) as ''if God wants/if God will want'', although the literal meaning is ''if God wanted(past)''.  Is this also an example of past tense used as present/ future, or should the past be understood as a conditional?


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## Mahaodeh

No, this one (at least the modern usage of it) is more of an expression that has become 'stuck' in a certain form.

However, the original expression (in Classical Arabic) is a conditional statement. جواب الشرط would usually be understood from the context.


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## bearded

Thank you, Mahaodeh.


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## flancy

bearded said:


> The very common expression ''In sha' Allah''  is usually translated (into my language at least) as ''if God wants/if God will want'', although the literal meaning is ''if God wanted(past)''.  Is this also an example of past tense used as present/ future, or should the past be understood as a conditional?



Actually, when have a conditional sentence then it makes no difference in meaning whether you use a verb in the past or present tense. Look:

إن فعلت ذلك هلكت
إن تفعل ذلك تهلك
إن تفعل ذلك هلكت
إن فعلت ذلك تهلك

All of them meaning the same thing: "If you will do this, you will perish."
I should add that in the fourth case you can read تهلكُ or تهلكْ.

More example:

من كتم سره بلغ مراده
He who will keep his own secret will attain his object.

إنني أخاف إن عصيت ربي عذاب يوم عظيم
I fear if I will rebel against my Lord the punishment of a great day.

So what I am trying to tell is that إن شاء الله and إن يشإ الله mean exactly the same thing: if Allah will want. However, I have never heard anyone use the latter.


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## bearded

flancy said:


> So what I am trying to tell is that إن شاء الله ..... mean exactly ....: if Allah will want


Thank you for your reply, flancy.  So what you are saying is that, in the well-known phrase, sha' is a past tense used with the meaning of a future tense (OK, it could also be present, but Arabs use the past).


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## Mahaodeh

The phrase in the present can refer to the present or the future, the phrase in the past can be used to refer to past, present, and future.


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## flancy

Mahaodeh said:


> The phrase in the present can refer to the present or the future, the phrase in the past can be used to refer to past, present, and future.



Can you quote some book for this?


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## Mahaodeh

I'm afraid I can not. I'm basing it on my intuition as a native speaker.


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## flancy

elroy said:


> Arabic often uses the past tense to express general truths; in those cases, English typically uses the present tense.



Would إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً لِّمَنْ خَافَ عَذَابَ الْآخِرَةِ be an example of this too?


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## rayloom

The perfective aspect of stative verbs implies a certain continuity in Arabic.
As such translating them with a simple past tense in English might convey that they had finished in the past.
"I believed in God" might imply you believed once and stopped believing.
While Arabic آمنت بالله implies you still do.
This in English is expressed as the inchoative aspect, which applies to certain past tense stative verbs, but the correspondence with Arabic statives isn't exact. So in this case it would be better to use a present tense or a present perfect to translate an Arabic perfect stative verb, it largely depends on the context.


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## flancy

I understand. I think this is called the "gnomic past".


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