# To have / I have



## NocturnalJourney

معي Is this how to say I HAVE. I found so many phrases for this I dont know which to use I need traditional version. Thank you.


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## elroy

Hello, and welcome to the forums.

It all depends on the context.

معي literally means "with me" so you can only use it to mean "I have" when what you have is on your person or in the vicinity.

Other possibilities include 

عندي
لدي
أملك

As I said, it depends on the context.


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## NocturnalJourney

I want to say "I have ..(pets) .
Thank you.


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## elroy

The one that would most commonly be used in such a sentence is عندي.


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## NocturnalJourney

thank you


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## Taalib

Don't also forget لِ as another possible way to connote possession. Although, my intuition tells me that it would be used predominantly when the context calls for possessive relationships involving people rather than inanimate objects. Am I right in this judgment? Thus to say that you have lots of cash, I might write:

عندك نقد كثير

But to say you have lots of friends, I might write:
لك أصدقاء كاثيرون


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## elroy

Taalib said:


> عندك نقود كثيرة
> 
> لك أصدقاء كثيرون


 Personally, I would prefer عندك or لديك in that context.


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## linguist786

But we say "لي أخ", so would this not mean that maybe "لي أصدقاء كثيرون" is better? Just a thought..


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## elroy

Again, I would personally prefer عندي أخ or لدي أخ.


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## cherine

Taalib said:


> Don't also forget لِ as another possible way to connote possession. Although, my intuition tells me that it would be used predominantly when the context calls for possessive relationships involving people rather than inanimate objects. Am I right in this judgment?


I'm not sure. We say لله الأمرُ من قبل ومن بعد
and we say (and this one I take from my grammar book) : السرج للحصان، والرَّحْل للجَمَل 


> Thus to say that you have lots of cash, I might write:
> عندك نقد كثير


Elroy already corrected this one. We can also say مال instead of نقود . But I want to add that نقد is many used in the context of stock market and money exchange سوق النقد .


> But to say you have lots of friends, I might write:
> لك أصدقاء كثيرون


Yes you can say that, it's not wrong.


linguist786 said:


> But we say "لي أخ", so would this not mean that maybe "لي أصدقاء كثيرون" is better? Just a thought..


I'm not sure if there's a rule about which possesive marker to use in which context. But I guess that they are, more or less, interchangeable.


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## elroy

cherine said:


> and we say (and this one I take from my grammar book) : السرج للحصان، والرَّحْل للجَمَل


 This one is different, though.  Here the meaning is not so much "has" but more like "belongs to."


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## cherine

Yes. you're right of course.


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## suma

elroy said:


> This one is different, though. Here the meaning is not so much "has" but more like "belongs to."


 
 السرج للحصان، والرَّحْل للجَمَل 

or ...is used for...


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## NocturnalJourney

I'm confused... already.
I want to say I have a black dog, white rabbit and black cat. I know how to name the animals, don't know what to you for "I have"


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## Abu Bishr

Hi Nocturnaljourney

You can use Elroy's three suggestions (عندي, لديّ and أملك) plus ليْ , except that in the case of لديّ the things that you have must be with you i.e. in your company.

There is difference between لي and عندي as the following example will illustrate: Your teacher is asking: Who has my book? and you answer: I have your book, Sir.

Here you won't say: من له كتابي and لي كتابك , rather you'll say: من عنده / معه / لديه كتابي , and عندي / معي / لديّ كتابك يا مدرس . On the other hand, if you want say: "This word has many meanings" You wouldn't say: عند هذه الكلمة معان كثيرة  rather you would say: لهذه الكلمة معان كثيرة . From this it's clear that "have" cannot be consistantly translated with any of the 4 expressions, but as is almost always the case, the context determines the appropriate option.

As for the various usages and meanings of the اللام , then go to the famous Mughnil-Labiib by Ibn Hisham al-Ansaari, and he lists in 22 meanings for the اللام as preposition alone.


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## elroy

Abu Bishr said:


> You can use Elroy's three suggestions (عندي, لديّ and أملك) plus ليْ , except that in the case of لديّ the things that you have must be with you i.e. in your company.


 Are you sure?  I think that applies to معي but not to لدي.

I am very comfortable, for example, with لدي بيت في القرية to simply mean "I have a house in the village," no matter how far away from it I may be.


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## cherine

NocturnalJourney said:


> I'm confused... already.
> I want to say I have a black dog, white rabbit and black cat. I know how to name the animals, don't know what to you for "I have"


Hi,
Sorry if we confused you with our liguistic discussions. 

If you want a simple answer, you can use عندي .


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## Abu Bishr

elroy said:


> Are you sure? I think that applies to معي but not to لدي.
> 
> I am very comfortable, for example, with لدي بيت في القرية to simply mean "I have a house in the village," no matter how far away from it I may be.


 
The following paragraph is from Ibn Hisham's famous Mughnii al-Labiib:

ثم اعلم أن (عند) أمكن من (لدى) من وجهين: أحدهما: أنها تكون ظرفا للاعيان والمعاني، تقول (هذا القول عندي صواب، وعند فلان علم به) ويمتنع ذلك في لدى، ذكره ابن الشجرى في أماليه ومبرمان في حواشيه. والثانى: أنك تقول (عندي مال) وإن كان غائبا، ولا تقول (لدي مال) إلا إذا كان حاضرا، قاله الحريري وأبو هلال العسكري وابن الشجرى، وزعم المعرى أنه لا فرق بين لدى وعند، وقول غيره أولى.​ 

The paragraph can be translated as follows:

[Therafter, know that "'inda" is more established (in use) than (ladaa) from two angles: The first of them is that it is an adverb for both concrete things and abstract meanings; you say (for example):(هذا القول عندي صواب، وعند فلان علم به) ("This view - according to me - is correct" , and "Such-and-such has knowledge thereof"), and that is impermissible with (ladaa). Ibn al-Shajari mentions it (i.e. this view) in his (Al-Amaali) [= "Dictations"] and Ibn Mubarmaan / Mabramaan in his (Hawaashii) [= Marginal Comments / Notes]. The second (of the two angels) is that you say:(عندي مال) (I have money), even if it (i.e. the money) is absent (i.e. not with you), and you don't say: (لدي مال) (I have money), except if it (i.e. the money) is present (with you). This is the view held by al-Hariiri, Abu Hilaal al-'Askari and Ibn al-Shajari. Al-Ma'arri (though) maintains that there is no difference between (ladaa) and ('inda), (however) the view of those besides him is closer (to the truth)].


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## elroy

So there are two different views, which means this is not a fixed rule.  Thanks for the information.


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## foforum

How to say "TO get mortgage you have to have 25% of real estates price"?
عشان تخذ رهن عقاري لازم عندك 25 بالمية من سعر الدار؟​


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## Semsem83

Its old thread. But in CA(i think MSA also) its

لي اخ

And

عندي كتاب


لي للعاقل
And
عندي لغير العاقل

This is what the popular medina books teach you. You can read it in book 1 lesson 10.

Here on page 26 (4) in the english key:

http://ia801407.us.archive.org/1/items/ArabicLanguageCourseBooks/Madina_Book1_English_Key.pdf


It say also that لي كتاب or عندي أخ is wrong 

You also can read it on page 14 here :

http://ia600301.us.archive.org/26/items/MadinaArabicCourseNotes-Book3/SharhMadeenahBook1.pdf

And لدي كتاب you have it that moment (Its with you at that moment)

And عندي كتاب is for that moment (its with you) or when you have a book but its maybe home or somewhere else.


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## Ali Smith

Assimil l'arabe (2006) says that له سيارة and عنده سيارة mean the same thing. It doesn't say عنده is more common with inanimate objects.


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## Mahaodeh

Semsem83 said:


> It say also that لي كتاب or عندي أخ is wrong


I’m not sure your book is correct.

 وَعِندَهُمْ قَاصِرَاتُ الطَّرْفِ عِينٌ - سورة الصافات
وَلِلَّهِ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَىٰ فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا - الأعراف


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