# Halal chicken served



## guess_girl

Hi

I have a food shop and want to display a sign saying' Halal Chicken Served' in Arabic , can anyone help me ?

Thanks in advance


----------



## Josh_

Hello guess girl,

It would be:

*نخدم دجاج حلال

*But many restaurants I have seen just use the word  حلال by itself, especially if it is apparent what kind of food they serve.


----------



## guess_girl

Thank you for the translation!


----------



## zooz

As Josh noted, I prefer using the single word *حلال *or *لحم حلال* (Halal meat); it's rather sufficient.


----------



## cherine

I agree with Josh and Zooz. One note though,


Josh Adkins said:


> *نخدم دجاج حلال*


It's true that (to serve) translates as يخدم but in such contexts (restaurants, food) we translate it as يقدم yuqaddim.


----------



## suma

also don't forget that  دجاجاً حلالاً   the accusative case.


----------



## elroy

An idiomatic translation would be

هنا يباع لحم دجاج حلال

This is commonly seen and avoids the ugly accusative. 

Also, I agree that normally the type of meat is not specified but perhaps the original poster has a reason for wanting "chicken" to be in there.

Josh, نخدم دجاج is a funny direct translation from English that sounds like this.


----------



## Josh_

Well, in both English and Arabic "we serve chicken" could be interpreted differently depending on the context.

You're right, I was influenced by the English.  I should have said, *عندنا دجاج حلال *which I hear commonly, at least around here.


----------



## elroy

Josh Adkins said:


> Well, in both English and Arabic "we serve chicken" could be interpreted differently depending on the context.


 In English, yes.  In Arabic, no.  In Arabic you cannot say نخدم دجاج to mean "We offer chicken," "you can eat chicken here," etc. 

If you've seen something like that around Detroit, I'd say it was a faulty translation from English.  It sounds extraordinarily dissonant to my ears and screams "direct translation."


----------



## Josh_

You must have read too fast.  I was talking about *عندنا دجاج حلال *.


----------



## elroy

Josh Adkins said:


> You must have read too fast. I was talking about *عندنا دجاج حلال *.


 Now I'm confused.  What is the other meaning of that besides "We have halal chicken"?


----------



## Josh_

Now I'm confused, too.  It seemed like you were saying that if I heard نخدم دجاج around Detroit it was a faulty translation.  If you were responding to عندنا دجاج حلال with that comment it was not apparent in your response.  

Anyway, yes it means "we have halal chicken" which I was offering as another viable alternative (that avoids the accusative) that still represent the idea that Halal chicken is served here.


----------



## elroy

Josh Adkins said:


> Now I'm confused, too. It seemed like you were saying that if I heard نخدم دجاج around Detroit it was a faulty translation.


 Yes, that's precisely what I meant.

Now I'm further confused because I'm not sure anymore what "You must have read too fast. I was talking about *عندنا دجاج حلال *." was a response to.

It seemed to me (and I could be wrong) that you were suggesting that both "we serve chicken" and نخدم دجاج are ambiguous, so I responded that the latter is not (at least not in the same way that the former is) and just added a statement to emphasize that it sounded very wrong to me as a translation of the sentence in the title.

I didn't even touch the عندنا version, because it's a good translation and as we would say in Palestinian Arabic فش عليها حكي.


----------



## Josh_

elroy said:


> Yes, that's precisely what I meant.


I was not suggesting that ever I heard نخدم دجاج  around Detroit.  I said that I was being influenced by English with that translation.  I then said in a separate sentence:


> I should have said, *عندنا دجاج حلال *which I hear commonly, at least around here.


which to me seems obvious that I was referring to " عندنا دجاج حلال" as something that I have heard around here, and not نخدم دجاج .



> Now I'm further confused because I'm not sure anymore what "You must have read too fast. I was talking about *عندنا دجاج حلال *." was a response to.


It seemed like you were suggesting that I was saying I heard نخدم دجاج in Detroit (which I wasn't) so I was just clarifying that I was referring to عندنا دجاج حلال with that comment, which I thought was obvious so I (possibly erroneously) assumed that you must have just read too fast and misinterpreted what I was saying.



> It seemed to me (and I could be wrong) that you were suggesting that both "we serve chicken" and نخدم دجاج are ambiguous, so I responded that the latter is not (at least not in the same way that the former is) and just added a statement to emphasize that it sounded very wrong to me as a translation of the sentence in the title.


Yes I was saying that, but I was not suggesting that I ever saw نخدم دجاج in the Detroit area.

So you can't say something like "خدمت فلانا شيء " ?


----------



## elroy

Josh Adkins said:


> Yes I was saying that, but I was not suggesting that I ever saw نخدم دجاج in the Detroit area.


 Ah, I get it now!  You read too much into my words.  When I said "if you've seen that around Detroit," I was not making any implications.  I simply meant that, in the case that you had seen it (independently of the عندنا version), it was a wrong translation.  I guess I was saying that preemptively _in case_ you said in a subsequent post, "But last week I was at a restaurant and saw that."   I did not misread any of your posts. 


> So you can't say something like "خدمت فلانا شيء " ?


 No, not that I know of.


----------



## cherine

Josh Adkins said:


> Well, in both English and Arabic "we serve chicken" could be interpreted differently depending on the context...





elroy said:


> In English, yes. In Arabic, no. In Arabic you cannot say نخدم دجاج to mean "We offer chicken," "you can eat chicken here," etc.


Highlight's mine.
I think the misunderstanding arose from that "both" you've put Josh. Because, as Elias said : the meaning of "serving chicken", in Arabic can't vary according to context, because it can have only one meaning : giving service to chicken, not given people (or serving them with) chicken.


Josh Adkins said:


> So you can't say something like "خدمت فلانا شيء " ?


No  and I think this is what caused this misunderstanding. We say: خدمت فلانًا بشيء .


----------



## Josh_

Well now that we have the misunderstanding cleared up I have another question.  

First, I'd like to mention that if it not used that way then the Hans Wehr must be wrong.



> No  and this is what cause this misunderstanding. We say: خدمت فلانًا بشيء .


If the word is not used that way, why insert the ب ?  The fact that you corrected my version (with something that might be more correct) implies that it is used and that ب is the preposition with the object.  In the definition given in the Hans Wehr, there is no preposition used for the object.  

Also I was wondering if you guys could give some examples of how the word is used?


----------



## elroy

Josh, the preposition makes a HUGE difference.

The object of خدمت is always the person or thing to whom service is given, and not the thing that is offered as a service.

This is where English and Arabic differ. In English you can say both

"I served my guests properly."

and

"I served chicken and potatoes to my guests."

In Arabic you could only say the former using the verb خدم.

Examples of usage:


نحن نخدم الوطن بكل ما لدينا من قوة وعزيمة.
إن بعض الرجال يتوقعون من نساءهم أن يخدمنهم وحسب، ولكن الحياة الزوجية يجب أن تكون مبنية على المساواة والتعاون في تحمل المسؤولية.
أنا خدمت في الجيش لمدة خمس سنوات وبعد ذلك استقلت.
هل تظن أن هذه الآلة قد خدمتك بشكل دائم ومرضٍ؟​


----------



## Josh_

This time it was actually me who was reading too fast and confusing myself.  When I posed the question of the usage of خدمت فلانا شيء you said it was not used that way (to your knowledge, and then Cherine corrected my sentence by including the preposition.  So I thought she was saying it was not used.  I realize she was just saying that it was not used as I had written it, but rather it is used with the preposition.  ِThat was the impetus for my last post.  But, that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, I understand the uses of خدم in Arabic (to render a service, to serve (someone (higher up), a cause, your country, etc.) and how to use it.  Like I said I was confusing myself and I realize now what I was doing wrong .  

Thanks for your help.


----------



## ayed

*نقدم دجاجاً حلالاً *
*دجاج حلال*
as Cherine mentioned"noqaddim"


----------

