# Persian, Urdu, Hindi: expiration date/best if used by



## Alfaaz

*Background: *often for expiration dates the following phrase is written: _best if/when used by : date
_
Attempt: بہترین اگر مستعمل تا ...........? (transliteration: behtareen agar musta'mal taa)

*Question:* What would _expiration date _be in your language?............._best if/when used by_.......?


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## greatbear

Your translation attempt is a 'calquing in thought': just as Hindi "krpya shaanti banaaye rakhiye" is horrible translation of the English "please maintain silence", because that is not the natural way of expressing the same thought in Hindi. The French are not guilty of such self-destructive inflictions: they translate the sentence as "Merci de ...", which would literally translate to "Thanks for ...", rather than any please business.

To summarize, I would eschew all the "best" business as far as Hindi is concerned; simply "____ tak prayog kareN" or "prayog ____ tak" is fine with me.


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## BP.

We could translate it to _taariix e uxrawii/aaxirii isti3maal_.



Alfaaz said:


> ... _best if/when used by : date ..._ behtareen agar musta'mal taa...


You can't just translate words at their places in the sentence as they appear in the original language!


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## Qureshpor

Alfaaz said:


> *Background: *often for expiration dates the following phrase is written: _best if/when used by : date
> _
> Attempt: بہترین اگر مستعمل تا ...........? (transliteration: behtareen agar musta'mal taa)
> 
> *Question:* What would _expiration date _be in your language?............._best if/when used by_.......?



x tak isti3maal kareN (Use before/by x)

isti3maal kii aaxirii taariix (Expiry date)


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## Alfaaz

Thanks for replying everyone! All three replies commented on the attempt, so could everyone explain why they think it is wrong....grammatically?


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## BP.

Has no grammar at all


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## Alfaaz

BelligerentPacifist said:
			
		

> Has no grammar at all


Thanks BP SaaHib!


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## searcher123

In Modern Persian:

expiration date = تاريخ انقضا


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## Qureshpor

Alfaaz said:


> Thanks for replying everyone! All three replies commented on the attempt, so could everyone explain why they think it is wrong....grammatically?



 بہترین اگر مستعمل تا  Best if used by

I can follow your line of thinking and you have attempted to make your phrase just as compact as the English one but there are one or two problems.

"taa" in the sense of "by" is normally used at the begining of a sentence in Persian, e.g.

taa tiryaaq az 3iraaq aavurdah shavad, maar-gaziidah murdah baashad!

By the time an antidote is brought from Iraq, the snake-bitten soul will have perished!

However, in Urdu "taa" is invariably used in the sense of "until" and "as far as". So, it does n't quite fit in the phrase. In addition "musta3mal" is mainly used with a following verb (to be) and on its own it looks/feels odd.

Perhaps..bihtariin agar musta3mal ho qabl az x

This is of course longer than your suggestion.


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## marrish

Alfaaz said:


> *Background: *often for expiration dates the following phrase is written: _best if/when used by : date
> _
> Attempt: بہترین اگر مستعمل تا ...........? (transliteration: behtareen agar musta'mal taa)
> 
> *Question:* What would _expiration date _be in your language?............._best if/when used by_.......?



In my language, 1/1/11 tak achchha !  is another nice sounding possibility.


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## Alfaaz

Thanks for replying everyone!


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## marrish

^ You're welcome! Have the contrbutions proven helpful?


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## Alfaaz

marrish said:
			
		

> Have the contrbutions proven helpful?


Yes they have, I like BP SaaHib's _تاریخ آخری استعمال_ and Qureshpor SaaHib's _بہترین اگر مستعمل ہو قبل از_ (even though it is a bit long as he said) for Urdu, greatbear's _tak prayog _for Hindi and searcher123 SaaHib's _تاريخ انقضا_ . marrish SaaHib's _1/1/11 tak achchha _is also nice, especially in terms of conciseness and simplicity.


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## marrish

Alfaaz said:


> Yes they have, I like BP SaaHib's _تاریخ آخری استعمال_ and Qureshpor SaaHib's _بہترین اگر مستعمل ہو قبل از_ (even though it is a bit long as he said) for Urdu, greatbear's _tak prayog _for Hindi and searcher123 SaaHib's _تاريخ انقضا_ . marrish SaaHib's _1/1/11 tak achchha _is also nice, especially in terms of conciseness and simplicity.


Thank you Alfaaz SaaHib for your kind comment but I don't deserve mentioning since there is nothing above the first dozen of basic Urdu words with practically no grammar. That suggestion doesn't even mention 'use' so it cannot stand to all previous contributions. I don't seem to remember any other phrases in usage in Pakistan (no idea how it may be summed up in Urdu on Indian products) but the English or some Arabic expression which I think was something along the lines of *searcher123*'s informative answer.


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## Alfaaz

> Thank you Alfaaz SaaHib for your kind comment but I don't deserve mentioning since there is nothing above the first dozen of basic Urdu words with practically no grammar. That suggestion doesn't even mention 'use' so it cannot stand to all previous contributions.


marrish SaaHib, which suggestion are you referring to here and what do you mean be "since there is nothing above the first dozen of basic Urdu words with practically no grammar"?


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## Sheikh_14

The following is what they use in Arabic for best before. للاستعمال قبل.
Personally I feel the above is quite instructive for Urdu-phones and Arabic has no trouble with calques realising that on many occasions they are necessary. That being said we don't have to go the circuitous route of tak/taa iste'maal karnaa behtareen etc. One can, however, the easiest alternative from a calque perspective is "iste'maal qabl- ../../...." or if you want to be more verbose/grammatical "baraa'e iste'maal qabl" followed by the date in question. Most documents do use calques because otherwise you'd have to change the entire sequencing of forms or in the past scratch cards. Calques are a God-send for multilingual documentation. Alot of the terminology used in English is not by any means proper English but merely a means for the global Lingua Franca to be convenient. Why must we make our own languages doubly difficult?

So if the 8th of August, 2019 was the use before date you could refer to that as the iste'maal qabl or baraa'e iste'maal qabl taariix and not a single soul would not understand what you are on about.

That being said other alternatives in Aaxir/Aaxirii taariix or taarix E Aaxir work just as well and would translate to last date.

Short is sweet.


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## Alfaaz

I would generally agree with forum members' views against calques, as far as prose/poetry/even everyday conversations with complete sentences are concerned. However, the purpose of this thread (as well as a few others made around the same time) was to see if ideas could be presented in a concise manner if need be (where space might be limited - signs, packages/boxes/labels, website tabs, etc. ). For example, مدخل و مخرج often appear to be used on signs for _entrance and exit_, instead of something like یہاں سے اندر داخل ہوں۔  or یہاں سے باہر نکلیں۔.

Sheikh_14 SaaHib, let's see if forum members have any other suggestions or opinions.  

In the meantime, the following could perhaps be mentioned: زائد المیعاد seems to be used frequently in Urdu media for _expired_, as in زائد المیعاد اشیاء - _expired (food) products_.


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