# Join the Puzzle Club!



## sethmachine

Hello everyone, 
                      I was wondering how does one say: Join the Puzzle Club! in Standard Arabic.


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## elroy

انضم إلى فرقة الألغاز

This would be said to a single male.  The form of the verb changes if the addressee is a single female or a group.


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## cherine

Elroy, why did you choose فرقة and not نادي ?


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## elroy

Because I think "club" here refers to a group of people with similar interests, and not to an organization or establishment (think of student groups on a campus, for example).

That was the first thing I thought of, anyway.  I suppose that it could theoretically be an actual نادي, but we won't know that unless sethmachine gives us some more information about the context.


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## papillon7

I will use نادي in all cases.
I think"join the club"in english could me used in two ways,the metaphorical one or in the regular one.
1_if someone says something not clear,we can tell him"welcome to the puzzle club.
2_or if there is a club where people meet and try to resolve puzzles,so you say"I join the puzzle club"


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## Josh_

Perhaps an influence of English, but I prefer نادي .


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## elroy

I'm sorry, but unless the reference is actually to an organization or establishment, I strongly disagree with نادي.  A high school or university may have various student clubs, which are most certainly not نوادي!  That's the kind of thing I thought of when I read the title of this thread.


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## Andrew___

What if this Puzzle Club is just a group of people meeting in someone's house to play puzzle games?  Surely you wouldn't use *نادي* in such a case...


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## elroy

Exactly.   The English word _club_ has (at least) two distinct meanings, and they cannot both be rendered as نادي.


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## cherine

Sorry to disagree with you, Elias, but I believe that the word نادي doesn't necessarily have to refer to an establishment.
We have نادي القصة and we have (maybe metaphorically) نادي القلوب الحزينة . So I do believe that we can safely translate "club" as نادي in almost all contexts.


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## elroy

So would you refer to a student group consisting of five people interested in Irish drama as a نادي?


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## Josh_

Why not?  If they want to refer to themselves as a نادي, who are we to say no.  At Middlebury they had many clubs (referred to as نواد :lنادي الخط ونادي الطبخ والخ ), many only composed of only a few people.

While I cannot be 100% sure of the Arabic word I tend to agree with Cherine as per my understanding of the word.

As far as the English goes, I do not believe that there are two distinct meanings of the word.  To me a club is group of people who meet regularly for some common purpose, regardless of size or status as an organization.  That is, if they decide to apply the term _club_ to their group.  They could also apply the word _group_ if they so desire.


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## elroy

Josh, you may have misunderstood what I meant.  To me, there is a clear difference in English between a) a group of people with similar interests (as you have described) and b) a physical establishment - such as an athletic club like this one.  

I would definitely use نادي to describe b but not a.  I've never come across the word used that way, and to me, the Middlebury names sound like literal translations from English.

الغني does not list that meaning:

*نَادٍ*،* النَّادِي* - ج:* أَنْدِيَةٌ*،* نَوَادٍ*،* النَّوَادِي*. [ن د و]. (فا مِنْ نَادَى). 1."نَادِي الْمُهَنْدِسِينَ" : مَكَانُ، مَجْلِسُ اِجْتِمَاعِهِمْ.  ‏ "ذَهَبَ إِلَى النَّادِي"   "النَّوَادِي الرِّيَاضِيَّةُ". 2."النَّادِي اللَّيْلِيُّ" : مَكَانٌ للتَّسْلِيَةِ وَاللَّهْوِ.   "وَنَوَادِي اللَّيْلِ تَبْقَى عِنْدَنَا مَفْتُوحَةً حَتَّى الصَّبَاح". ( نزار قباني).​
Both definitions refer to physical locations; neither refers to a group of people with common interests.


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## Josh_

So what you're saying is that the word نادي can only refer to a physical building, and cannot refer to an abstract concept such as a grouping of people?


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## elroy

In my experience, yes.


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## Josh_

Well, maybe that was the original meaning of the word, but in my (limited) experience it can be more broad than that.

By the way, I might not have understood that definition that you listed very well, but it seemed to me only to list a few examples, but did not actually explain what a naadi is.


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## elroy

Perhaps it's been _broadened_ to include that additional meaning of the English word _club_.  But like I said, I'm not at all familiar with such a usage.

The dictionary entry contains both examples and explanations/definitions:

نَادِي الْمُهَنْدِسِينَ" : مَكَانُ، مَجْلِسُ اِجْتِمَاعِهِمْ

The red part is an example and the blue part is a definition.


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## Josh_

Out of curiosity I just searched various combinations with the word نادي in which it would not be used to refer to a physical building and got many returns:

نادي التصوير
نادي الشطرنج
نادي الطبخ
نادي السينما
نادي الكتاب (perhaps a calque from English)


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## Mahaodeh

Well, in the Quran, it says "ناصية كاذبة خاطئه * *فليدعو ناديه* * *سندعو الزبانية*" meaning "let him call his group/people/allies. So I would think that it does not apply to a physical space but the people who attend that place.


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