# All Dialects/MSA: It depends



## Tajabone

Hello,

 What are the variations you know/use for the sentence (as an answer) "It depends" ?

In the center of Algeria, it's simply used in French : "Ça dépend" (the D is not pronounced).

 The dialectal expression is : *عْلى حْساب*

 Thank you all.


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## cherine

Here, in Egypt, we say على حسب .
I think in fus7a we can't used it just like that, we'd say هذا يتوقف على and we have to precise على ماذا (depends on what).


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## Tajabone

I agree .. and thank you once more


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## elroy

In Palestinian Arabic we just say حسب.

Another possibility for fus7a would be هذا/ذلك يعتمد (على كذا وكذا).


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## cherine

Same here (for حسب) And I agree with your suggestion for fus7a.


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## Taalib

I have encountered two more phrases that connote "depending on," "pending," and other closely associated conditional meanings: مستنَد على and راجِع لِ , with the conditionalized object following the prepositions. But in written modern Arabic I have encountered far more occurrences of حسب (including variants حسبما and على حسب).


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## Tariq_Ibn_zyad

You can also say:

"yata3allaqu bi-"


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## Andrew___

Hi guys,

May I ask:

1. How is حسب pronounced?

2. Is the phrase على حسب the same expression which means " according to", as in  على حسب علمي

3.  How can I say "It depends on many factors/things" using the expression هذا يتوقف على . For context, imagine one is responding to the question "Do you believe in armed resistance?"  I then respond: "That depends on many things, for example..."

4.  Is يتوقف pronounced "yatawaqqaf"?

Thanks.


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## Mahaodeh

1. In collequal I've mostly heard it as hasab - حَسَب, I don't beleive it's used exactly the same way in fus7a.
2. In fus7a, yes.
3. Yes, that's correct, it would be: هذا يتوقف على عدة أمور/أشياء، مثلا...الخ
4. Again, that's correct.

You can also use يعتمد, which is more literal for your example: هذا يعتمد على عدة أمور. I think that in your context yatawaqqaf seems better. In collequal though, I've heard ya3tamid used interchangablly with yatawaqqaf.


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## WadiH

حـَسـَـب
على حـَسـَـب
يــِــعـْتـِمـِد

7asab
3ala 7asab
y*i*3timid


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## oopqoo

elroy said:


> In Palestinian Arabic we just say حسب.
> 
> Another possibility for fus7a would be هذا/ذلك يعتمد (على كذا وكذا).


About Palestinian Arabic, could you give example sentences with حسب? Could it just be used as a one-word response as in:
بدك نروح؟
حسب
(it depends)

I have also seen the word بِتعلّق in PA used to mean "depends". Could you please give example sentences using this word with that meaning?

By the way, please delete my comment here if it's not okay to bump a thread from 2008 - I see some people do it but I'm never certain.


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## elroy

You can use حسب on its own (as in your example), or you can say حسب الطقس، حسب وينتا منخلّص، حسب الظروف، حسب شو بقول المدير, etc.

I've heard بِتعلّق occasionally but only in more recent years and to me it sounds like a calque.  I would stick with حسب.


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## oopqoo

I just noticed in my dictionary that بِتوقّف is also used as "depends", as in بِتوقّف على الجو. Is that also a calque like بِتعلّق? Is it completely synonymous with بِتعلّق?

Thank you


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## djara

In Tunisian, we have a peculiar expression: انت و 
Examples:
It depends on the weather انت والطقس
It depends on how much money you have انت وفلوسك / انت وقداش عندك فلوس


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## apricots

elroy said:


> I've heard بِتعلّق occasionally but only in more recent years and to me it sounds like a calque.  I would stick with حسب.



A calque from what language?


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## elroy

oopqoo said:


> I just noticed in my dictionary that بِتوقّف is also used as "depends", as in بِتوقّف على الجو. Is that also a calque like بِتعلّق? Is it completely synonymous with بِتعلّق?


 I don't know if it's a calque, but it's also not very natural.  If anything I would use بعتمد, but even that's not particularly idiomatic (i.e. using a verb is not idiomatic). 


apricots said:


> A calque from what language?


 A language (like English) in which using a verb is natural and idiomatic.


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## apricots

So does this exchange sound unnatural to you
تزكرت معي شغلة كتير لذيذة برة بدك؟
بتعلق قديش لذيذة


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## elroy

apricots said:


> So does this exchange sound unnatural to you
> تزكرت معي شغلة كتير لذيذة برة بدك؟
> بتعلق قديش لذيذة


Yes.


djara said:


> In Tunisian, we have a peculiar expression: انت و
> Examples:
> It depends on the weather انت والطقس
> It depends on how much money you have انت وفلوسك / انت وقداش عندك فلوس


 We use this in the expression إنت وحظك, but I don't think it's used otherwise.  إنت وحظك is a fixed expression.


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## cherine

Same in Egypt, إنت وحَظَّك / إنت وبَخْتَك and also إنت وِظْرُوفَك, but [as far as I know] no other words.


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## Mahaodeh

In Iraqi Arabic they do use other words as djara mentioned, but the most common are إنت وحظّك، إنت وبختك، إنت ونصيبك.

However, I'm not sure if it means the same as يعتمد. I agree that when translating it to English the best translation would be "it depends on ...." but it's not interchangeable with يعتمد على.


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