# spill the beans



## Ghabi

How do we say "spill the beans" in Arabic? E.g. "I failed the exam and told my brother not to tell mom, but he spilled the beans after all!"


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## xebonyx

!للأسف قد كان *فشى السر* على اي حال....​


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## Mahaodeh

فتن علي, used especially by the younger generations (children and shcool kids). The meaning is not really "identical" to what they are trying to say, so it's more like a slang than it's a proverb or a proper use of the verb.


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## Ghabi

Thanks a lot, Xebonyx and Maha. So it's either "fasha is-sirr" or "fatan 3ala fulaan".


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## cherine

xebonyx said:


> !للأسف قد كان *فشى السر* على اي حال....​


تمام يا أندريا، لكن الفعل ينقصه ألف: أفشى السر. لأن "فشى" تعني انتشر بنفسه، أي لم ينشره أحد.
أيضًا "على أية حال" غير أساسية هنا، ومن الأفضل تغيير الترتيب إلى "كان قد أفشى".​


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## xebonyx

cherine said:


> لكن الفعل ينقصه ألف: أفشى السر. لأن "فشى" تعني انتشر بنفسه، أي لم ينشره أحد.
> 
> ​




 آه نعم، شكرا على التوضيح. بالصراحة لم أكن متأكدة تماماً--كنت على وشك أتصفح القاموس، لكني اًجابت بسرعة نسبيًا. بالإشارة إلى صنف فشى، ما هو *بالعربية*؟ 



> "على أية حال" غير أساسية


استخدمت العبارة لتأكد  
- "after all"



> هنا، ومن الأفضل *تغيير الترتيب إلى "كان قد*".


.أنا أشعر بالحيرة قليلا، لأنّي ظنّت اذا تقدمّت "قد" عن "كان" فتنجح المعنى المقصود الأصلي​


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## Outlandish

You may also use:
وصل الاخبار
نقل الاخبار
قال على كل حاجة
the last one is definitely the most commonly used in the Egyptian colloquial


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## Ghabi

Thanks for the new information, Outlandish.


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## Outlandish

على الرحب و السعة!


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## HBZ55

We have a word in Tunisian arabic that has the same meaning:
9awwid. 
For example:
my brother spilled the beans to my mother.
5ooya 9awwid biyya lommi.


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## cherine

xebonyx said:


> آه نعم، شكرا على التوضيح. بالصراحة لم أكن متأكدة تماماً--كنت على وشك أتصفح القاموس، لكني اًجابت بسرعة نسبيًا. بالإشارة إلى صنف فشى، ما هو *بالعربية*؟​


afshaa follows the wazn أفعل which we call in Arabic فعل رُباعي (quadrilateral verb). It's like أرسل، أنزل ...


> استخدمت العبارة لتأكد
> - "after all"​


على أية حال means "anyway".
I'm not sure it can mean "after all", maybe we can discuss this in another thread. 


> .أنا أشعر بالحيرة قليلا، لأنّي ظنّت اذا تقدمّت "قد" عن "كان" فتنجح المعنى المقصود الأصلي​


قد كان is not incorrect, it has a slightly different meaning (which I can only feel and not explain, unfortunately  ) Besides, the common order is to put qad after kaana and not the other way round.


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## Ghabi

cherine said:


> afshaa follows the wazn أفعل which we call in Arabic فعل رُباعي (quadrilateral verb). It's like أرسل، أنزل ...



Dear Cherine, I think you mean the "derived stem IV". "Quadriliteral" in English refers to the  زلزال type roots.


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## ayed

In the Holy Quran is used :
*قد كانت لكم أسوة حسنة في إبراهيم والذين معه *


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## cherine

Ghabi said:


> Dear Cherine, I think you mean the "derived stem IV". "Quadriliteral" in English refers to the زلزال type roots.


I'm not sure about the English terms used for Arabic grammar, this is why I prefer using the Arabic ones. أفعل is -as far as I know- a فعل رباعي , whatever this is called in English. 



ayed said:


> In the Holy Quran is used :
> *قد كانت لكم أسوة حسنة في إبراهيم والذين معه *


But of course, Ayed! I didn't say it's wrong to use قد كان , please check my post again:


cherine said:


> قد كان is not incorrect, it has a slightly different meaning (which I can only feel and not explain, unfortunately  ).


If you can explain the difference between قد كان and كان قد that would be helpful.

P.S. Seeing the two sentences again, I think we can say that:
قد كان is followed by either a حرف or اسم .
كان قد is followed by a verb.


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## Xence

HBZ55 said:


> We have a word in Tunisian arabic that has the same meaning:
> 9awwid.
> For example:
> my brother spilled the beans to my mother.
> 5ooya 9awwid biyya lommi.


_qawwed_ is also used in Algeria, but it's a bit vulgar.
Well-educated people would never use it in a family context.



			
				cherine said:
			
		

> I prefer using the Arabic ones. أفعل is -as far as I know- a فعل رباعي ,


I would rather say وزن رباعي but the verb أفشى is فعل ثلاثي مَزيد (بالهمزة)ك ن


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## HBZ55

@Xence:
Some poeple here might think it's a little vulgar, but it's a minority.
There's another word "shka" which no one at all finds vulgar and has the exact same meaning.


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## Josh_

cherine said:


> I'm not sure about the English terms used for Arabic grammar, this is why I prefer using the Arabic ones. أفعل is -as far as I know- a فعل رباعي , whatever this is called in English.



The way I understand it is a فعل مزيد ثلاثي وزنه أفعل. It is a فعل ثلاثي because it comes from a three letter root.  الأفعال الرباعي have four root letters (e.g ترجم، زلزل).  Roots with three letters are often called triliteral roots, or just "three-letter roots," and roots with four letters are often called quadriliteral roots, or just "four-letter roots.



HBZ55 said:


> We have a word in Tunisian arabic that has the same meaning:
> 9awwid.
> For example:
> my brother spilled the beans to my mother.
> 5ooya 9awwid biyya lommi.


That's funny.  So if we wanted to translate that literally it would be "my brother pimped me out to my motherوز"  So it appears that this verb has taken on meanings of selling someone out or revealing a secret about them.  The word "pimp" in English has also taken on an additional meaning, although different from this one in the Tunisian dialect.  It is now often used to mean "to adorn or decorate (often a vehicle, but could be other things, such as a bedroom) with lots of flashy or cool things in an extravagant manner.

Anyway, as far as the original question, I have been thinking about sharing an Egyptian proverb, but as it does not mean the same thing as "spill the beans," although it does have a related meaning, not to mention it is also similar to the English idiom in that uses the word for bean in Arabic. The proverb is ما تتبلش في بقه فولة (literally: a bean cannot become moist in his mouth) meaning he speaks too much; he can't keep his mouth shut. It is related in that one in which ما تتبلش في بقه فولة may very well "spill the beans" because he can't keep his mouth shut.


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## Ghabi

Josh_ said:


> The proverb is ما تتبلش في بقه فولة (literally: a bean cannot become moist in his mouth) meaning he speaks too much; he can't keep his mouth shut. It is related in that one in which ما تتبلش في بقه فولة may very well "spill the beans" because he can't keep his mouth shut.



Haha, I know this one (only that _taHt lisaan_ is used instead of fi _buqq_).


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## HBZ55

@josh:
I couldn't find قود in لسان العرب but I always read that translation when I hear pimp when I watch a movie on MBC2. And, not of a lot of people actually know what the meaning of 9awwad in MSA, they rather know il-madame which has the same meaning when talking in that context.


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## azeid

Ghabi said:


> How do we say "spill the beans" in Arabic? E.g. "I failed the exam and told my brother not to tell mom, but he spilled the beans after all!"



If you are interested, in Egyptian colloquial you can say " أنا سقطت فى الإمتحان و قلت لأخويا مايقولشى لماما لكن هو كان سيح لى خلاص "


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## Xence

HBZ55 said:


> I couldn't find قود in لسان العرب


In القاموس المحيط (entry: دبَّ) I found this:
والدَّيْبوبُ: النَّمَّامُ والقَوَّادُ


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## Mahaodeh

HBZ55 said:


> I couldn't find قود in لسان العرب


 
That surprised me actually, I mean, you find فتوش there but not qawwaad!



HBZ55 said:


> but I always read that translation when I hear pimp when I watch a movie on MBC2. And, not of a lot of people actually know what the meaning of 9awwad in MSA, they rather know il-madame which has the same meaning when talking in that context.


 
I don't think that's true; the word is offending and vulgar but it's very common and except for little children, I doubt any one in Al Mashriq or Al Jazeera Al 3arabia would have any doubt about what it means.


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## Ghabi

azeid said:


> If you are interested, in Egyptian colloquial you can say " أنا سقطت فى الإمتحان و قلت لأخويا مايقولشى لماما لكن هو كان سيح لى خلاص "



Why, of course I'm interested! But I don't understand كان سيح لى, I only know the verb سيح means something like "to flow/melt".


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## azeid

Ghabi said:


> Why, of course I'm interested! But I don't understand كان سيح لى, I only know the verb سيح means something like "to flow/melt".


 
" سيح " means that he told my secret to all people or he exposed me in the Egyptian colloquial
and you can pronounce it like " ضيع " 
There is fatha " فتحة " on the seen "السين" and there are shada " شدة " and fatha " فتحة " on the yaa" ياء "


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## Ghabi

azeid said:


> " سيح " means that he told my secret to all people or he exposed me in the Egyptian colloquial
> and you can pronounce it like " ضيع "
> There is fatha " فتحة " on the seen "السين" and there are shada " شدة " and fatha " فتحة " on the yaa" ياء "



I got it. It's the "derived stem II" with the causative meaning: make [the news] flow, i.e. spread the news. Thanks for teaching me this, Azeid.


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## xebonyx

cherine said:


> afshaa follows the wazn أفعل which we call in Arabic فعل رُباعي (quadrilateral verb). It's like
> أرسل، أنزل ...



I was actually looking for the term "reflexive verb" which I assume is "      فعل إنعكاس" ?​


> على أية حال means "anyway".
> I'm not sure it can mean "after all", maybe we can discuss this in another thread.



سأكتب مشاركة جديدة. 




> قد كان is not incorrect, it has a slightly different meaning (which I can only feel and not explain, unfortunately  ) Besides, the common order is to put qad after kaana and not the other way round.



Don't worry, I'm sure it's one of those things I will have to get used to the "feeling" of using it in its more common contexts.


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## Abu Talha

Ghabi said:


> How do we say "spill the beans" in Arabic? E.g. "I failed the exam and told my brother not to tell mom, but he spilled the beans after all!"


Can we use وشى here?
قلت لأخي لا تخبر أُمَّنا ولكنه وَشَى بي إليها
Or can وشى only be used for misrepresentation and embellishment beyond what is true?

EDIT: "spilled the beans" of course is completely valid, but I think that "ratted me out" may also work as specific to this situation and I was thinking of وشى as a translation for the latter expression but wasn't sure whether the وشاية had to be necessarily inaccurate and blown up out of proportion.


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## Haroon

Dear all
Is there a proverb in CA of that meaning; spill the beans?
Thanks in advance


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## cherine

I think Abu Talha's suggestion is what you're looking for if spilling the bean is about causing someone trouble. And you can also use أفشى السر and باح بالسر and أذاع الخبر .

Do you have a specific context?


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## Haroon

no - it is used in general - thanks Cherine for the reply - I was sure that I saw the thread before but failed to reach it when needed.


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