# mid 1870s



## akhooha

I am translating a caption for a photo which includes the English phrase "mid 1870s". What is the best way to express this in MSA? Keeping in mind the space constraints of a caption, I don't want to spell out 1870s, but don't know if there's a proper convention for pluralizing just the bare digits, and I'm not sure how one expresses "mid".  Thank you.


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## elroy

أواسط سبعينات القرن التاسع عشر


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## akhooha

Thanks, Elroy. That's what I was afraid of.  It's a bit long in terms of the space allotted for the caption. There's no neat way to deal with  "1870s" using just the numbers and not the words?

Would it be too strange to write " الـ1870ات" ?? (I've just googled around a bit and found that format, admittedly on just a handful of articles, oddly enough many of them occurring on the Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia. Do you think it would be acceptable?)

While it doesn't mean the same thing, how would one express "circa 1870" ("c. 1870") --- "حوالي 1870"?


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## elroy

I don't like الـ1870ات at all.

What's the whole caption, and how much space do you have?


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## Jamal31

What about ١٨٧٠-١٨٧٩


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## akhooha

elroy said:


> What's the whole caption, and how much space do you have?


If I spell it out, it'll look like this:


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## elroy

And what's the problem?  Does it have to all fit in one line?


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## akhooha

It doesn't have to --- I just think it looks better on one line.


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## apricots

It would look better if you centered it and had the 2nd line start with fi.


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## elroy

What if you replaced في with a comma?


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## akhooha

Thank you elroy and thank you apricots. I think I'll go with apricots's suggestion..... it seems that no one goes for the الـ1870ات format...
Thanks again to both of you for your help.


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## Abu Talha

How about 
"في أواسط سبعينات 1800"
?


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## elroy

Abu Talha said:


> How about
> "في أواسط سبعينات 1800"
> ?


 No.  1800 is a year not a century.


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## Abu Talha

elroy said:


> No.  1800 is a year not a century.


That's true. Second attempt:
في سبعينات القرن ١٨


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## elroy

No, that doesn't work either.


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## Arabic_999_Police

what about منتصف سبعينيات القرن التاسع عشر


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## Abu Talha

One more attempt
في أواسط عقد 1870


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## cherine

Abu Talha said:


> That's true. Second attempt:
> في سبعينات القرن ١٨





elroy said:


> No, that doesn't work either.


Why not? (other than it's 19 not 18) I was going to suggest it.
يهودي عدني، أواسط سبعينات القرن 19
The comma takes less space than في, and 19 less space that التاسع عشر.

P.S. We can also replace أواسط with منتصف. Not that it's shorter, but I'm just suggesting an alternative/different word.


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## elroy

I've never seen or heard that.  I would at least expect القرن الـ١٩ (with الـ).

Maybe there are regional differences?


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## cherine

Right, I missed the ال too  But yes, القرن الـ is commonly used.


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