# Palestinian/Jordanian: at all, whatsoever



## Gerry905

Hello!
What would you use to say at all or whatsoever in Jordanian or Palestinian? I know the MSA word على الإطلاق but I doubt whether it is used in dialects as well.

Examples:
1. He has no sense of humour _whatsoever_.
2. I'm not fine _at all_. We barely talk to each other now.


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## analeeh

بالمَرّة - which also means (in non-negative sentences) 'totally'.

You could also say نهائيًّا _nihaa2iyyan _or, indeed, _3alaa 'l-i6laaq _in some situations speaking formally.

There's also the expression _bnoob_ or _mnoob_ which is used in Syrian and I think in Lebanese and may also be used in some Palestinian dialects, but I'm not 100% sure on this.


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## Hemza

Hello,

Just to add that I knew a Jordanian-Iraqi at my university who was saying "كلش" (kullesh) with the meaning "at all/completely". But always used in negative sentences. But I don't know if it's used in Jordan as well (it is in Iraqi for sure)


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## Ihsiin

كلش means "a lot" and can be used in either positive or negative contexts.


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## Hemza

But I remember once, he said: "ما ودي أطلع الامتحنات كلش" . It does mean "at all" here, right? And I never heard him saying it in a positive sentence, so I didn't know how it could be used in his dialect(s)


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## Ihsiin

No, I would say it means "really" here, as in "I really don't like..."


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## Gerry905

ما عنده حس النكتة نهائياً.
انا مو منيحة نهائياً. احنا ما منحكي بعضنا بالكاد.

And the aforementioned كلش won't work here?


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## analeeh

I think كلش is Iraqi only (and might even be a borrowing from Persian koll-esh with -esh being the equivalent of -hu, though kull shi also makes sense as a derivation). بالمرة is more colloquial than نهائيا, though.


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## Hemza

^To add a detail: "كلش " exists in North Africa but is mainly used in bedouin areas (Southern Morocco/S. Algeria/S. Tunisia). I have no idea about Libya/Chad nor Egypt/Sudan though.

By the way, I wonder if Palestinians/Jordanians use "بالكل"?


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## tounsi51

In Kuwait they use كلش مالي خلق


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## eskandar

Can اصلاً be used in this sense?


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## Hemza

^Hello,

I don't think so, it means "basically" more than "at all".

In Standard Arabic, as example, if you say, "أصلا ما كنت أريد أن أذهب للمتحف معك", this means "Basically, I didn't want to go to the museum with you"
But if you want to say "I don't like it at all" you would say: "لا أحبه بشكل كامل". (there are other ways to say it)

Now, about dialects, it works the same way, "أصلا" can't be used in this way but you can say:

بالكل
بالمرة
نهائيا
قاع
كلش (well apparently not in Iraqi according to Ihsiin)
etc


Hope it helps .

Ps: sorry if I did mistakes, I'm still learning Standard Arabic


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## analeeh

أصلا can mean 'at all, whatsoever' in MSA but I don't think it's very common in this usage in Levantine because it means... well I'm never entirely clear on how to translate it, but it has a different meaning. Like 'to start with', maybe, or 'anyway'. 

أنا أصلا ما حبيتو. ليش لحتى شوفو هلأ؟


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## Gerry905

Hemza said:


> Now, about dialects, it works the same way, "أصلا" can't be used in this way but you can say:[...]



So, let me ask once again, ما بحبه اصلاً = ما بحبه باكل = ما بحبه بالمرة all of them sound natural?


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## Hemza

"ما بحبه بالكل = ما بحبه بالمرة" 
"ما بحبه اصلاً"  , but you can also place "اصلاً" at the beginning of the sentence:
" *اصلاً *ما بحبه"

To me, it doesn't have the same meaning (in dialects):
"ما بحبه بالكل = ما بحبه بالمرة" means "I don't like him at all"
"ما بحبه أصلا" means "In any case/to start with, I don't like him"

From what I've noticed from my Palestinian friends (one from al khalil, the other from al qalqiliya) they seem to use "بالمرة" much more than other expressions.

Ps: it's "bel kull" not "bikull" .


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## Gerry905

Thanks!


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## elroy

analeeh said:


> بالمَرّة - which also means (in non-negative sentences) 'totally'.


 I've never come across بالمرة with that meaning.  I would say عالآخر.

He's totally stupid. = هو أهبل عالآخر.

The word used in the North for "at all" is شيلة ("sheele") and that one _is_ also used to mean "totally" in non-negative sentences:

بحبش البيض شيلة - He doesn't like eggs at all.
هو أهبل شيلة - He's totally stupid.

بالمرة, in my experience, could be used in the first sentence but not in the second one (for that meaning, I would say عالآخر as I said).



> There's also the expression _bnoob_ or _mnoob_ which is used in Syrian and I think in Lebanese and may also be used in some Palestinian dialects, but I'm not 100% sure on this.


 I've never heard it used in Palestinian or Lebanese.  I'm pretty sure it's uniquely Syrian (in the Levant, that is).



Gerry905 said:


> احنا ما منحكي بعضنا بالكاد.


 بالكاد means "barely," not "at all."  So this sentence means "We barely don't talk to each other," which doesn't make sense.



Hemza said:


> By the way, I wonder if Palestinians/Jordanians use "بالكل"?


 It's not used in Palestinian Arabic.



analeeh said:


> أصلا can mean 'at all, whatsoever' in MSA


 Can you give an example?  In MSA I would say إطلاقًا or قط.


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## analeeh

elroy said:


> I've never come across بالمرة with that meaning.  I would say عالآخر.
> 
> He's totally stupid. = هو أهبل عالآخر.



Perhaps this is an exclusively Syrian thing but once I had a conversation where somebody was joking with me about a student (her son) and she said something like:

عم بيعزبك شي؟
to which I replied (having learnt بالمرة for 'not at all'):
بالمرة
Which was met by general laughter and an explanation that بالمرة in this context in fact means 'yes, a lot', or something similar.



> Can you give an example?  In MSA I would say إطلاقًا or قط.



So would I, but I remember seeing it in this meaning somewhere and looking it up. It's given this definition in Hans-Wehr too.


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## elroy

analeeh said:


> عم بيعزبك شي؟
> to which I replied (having learnt بالمرة for 'not at all'):
> بالمرة
> Which was met by general laughter and an explanation that بالمرة in this context in fact means 'yes, a lot', or something similar.


 This may very well be a Syrian thing; it's not surprising, given that as I said this does apply to the Galilean شيلة.

Part of the reason for the confusion could have been that you didn't use لأ.  At least in Palestinian Arabic, I would say لأ، بالمرة and not just بالمرة (just as in English, it would be "not at all" and not just "at all").

But your example reminded me of another word that _is_ used on its own to mean "not at all" in Palestinian Arabic: أبدًا, which is very frequently used in response to questions as in your example.  It's not commonly used in normal sentences, though (بروحش عالكنيسة أبدًا doesn't sound natural). 

A word to the wise: It's always a good idea to indicate which Levantine dialect you're talking about when giving an answer.  As I'm sure you know, the different dialects of the Levant are often more different from each other than may meet the eye. 


> So would I, but I remember seeing it in this meaning somewhere and looking it up. It's given this definition in Hans-Wehr too.


 Interesting.  It's kind of hard to really form an opinion on this without a specific example.


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## analeeh

elroy said:


> This may very well be a Syrian thing; it's not surprising, given that as I said this does apply to the Galilean شيلة.
> 
> Part of the reason for the confusion could have been that you didn't use لأ.  At least in Palestinian Arabic, I would say لأ، بالمرة and not just بالمرة (just as in English, it would be "not at all" and not just "at all").



Plausible! That said, Hans-Wehr also gives this as a definition, so who knows.



> But your example reminded me of another word that _is_ used on its own to mean "not at all" in Palestinian Arabic: أبدًا, which is very frequently used in response to questions as in your example.  It's not commonly used in normal sentences, though (بروحش عالكنيسة أبدًا doesn't sound natural).



ابدا is another one with a dual meaning - this one I've definitely seen in MSA to mean (without a negative) 'always', as opposed to 'never'. But ابدا is used this way in Syrian too - 'not at all' (without a negative).

Can you say (in Palestinian) أبدا بيروحش عا الكنيسة? Or بيروحش ابدا عا الكنيسة?



> A word to the wise: It's always a good idea to indicate which Levantine dialect you're talking about when giving an answer.  As I'm sure you know, the different dialects of the Levant are often more different from each other than may meet the eye.



Yeah, of course. I tend to assume that very general things like بالمرة will work the same everywhere, but this often is not actually the case.


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## elroy

analeeh said:


> That said, Hans-Wehr also gives this as a definition, so who knows.


 Do you mean Hans Wehr gives "not at all" as a definition of بالمرة?


> ابدا is another one with a dual meaning - this one I've definitely seen in MSA to mean (without a negative) 'always', as opposed to 'never'.


 I think in limited contexts it can mean "forever," but the vast majority of the time it is used with a negative to mean "never."


> Can you say (in Palestinian) أبدا بيروحش عا الكنيسة? Or بيروحش ابدا عا الكنيسة?


 I wouldn't.  They don't sound natural to me.


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