# drop in the bucket



## elroy

The context is the efforts of a Spanish foundation to help people in Mauritania who need medical assistance.  The speaker is saying that they need to keep up their efforts so that the work they've done so far doesn't end up being "a drop in the bucket."

Would غيض من فيض work here, or is that more used to mean "tip of the iceberg" (i.e. a very small piece of a much bigger, already existing, thing)?


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## Sun-Shine

لا أرى "غيض من فيض" ملائمة في هذا السياق
لا يخطر ببالي تعبير يوازي هذا لكن يمكننا أن نقول "كأن شيئًا لم يكن"؟؟
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## elroy

Thank you!  I like that.

I just found this thread, which confirms that غيض من فيض does in fact mean "tip of the iceberg" and not "drop in the bucket."


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## Sun-Shine

You're welcome.
also ضاعت جهودنا سدى is not bad.
Thank you for sharing this thread. I searched about this idiom and I found this أصل عبارة غيض من فيض
It's like  بعض مما عندنا


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## cherine

We can say قطرة في بحر.

But it would help if you explain the exact meaning of "drop in the bucket"


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## elroy

It means that it's extremely insignificant.  It's a very, very small part of what needs to be done.  Imagine you have to fill a bucket with water; if you put a drop in it, that's a minuscule, basically negligible, percentage of the amount of water that's needed for the bucket to be filled.  So in this context, if all the help the Mauritanians need is a bucket's worth of water, then the amount of work they've done so far, if they don't keep up their efforts, will have been a drop in that bucket.

Does that help?


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## Sun-Shine

cherine said:


> We can say قطرة في بحر.


فكرت في هذا التعبير لكنه يبدو إلى حد ما غريبًا
هل نعدله ليكون : قطرة ماء في المحيط؟؟


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## cherine

Thanks for the explanation.

Yes, قطرة في بحر or قطرة ماء في محيط are the equivalents I know of for this phrase/metaphor.


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## djara

حتى لا تذهب جهودنا سبهللا
حتى لا يذهب عملنا سبهللا


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## cherine

Is سبهللا a fuS7a word? I'm asking because we use it in Egyptian Arabic, with the meaning of haphazardly, without rules or order.
I know تذهب جهوده سُدى.


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## djara

cherine said:


> Is سبهللا a fuS7a word?


It's in Lisaan جاء الرجلُ يمشي سَبَهْلَلاً إذا جاء وذهب في غير شيء
He also gives an example which somehow corresponds to the Egyptian usage:
جاء فلان سَبَهْلَلاً أَي ضالاًّ لا يدري أَيْن يَتَوَجَّه


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## cherine

Interesting.

But is this meaning used in modern FuS7a usage in Tunisia? It's not used like this in Egypt.


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## Sun-Shine

cherine said:


> It's not used like this in Egypt.


It's the same in Egypt.
سبهللا : فارغ لاقيمة له


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## cherine

Could you give me examples, please?


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## djara

cherine said:


> But is this meaning used in modern FuS7a usage in Tunisia?


Yes!


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## Sun-Shine

cherine said:


> Could you give me examples, please?


I asked my friend about سبهلله and she told me it can mean فارغ /لا قيمة له
and the examples were:
أهو كلام سبهلله وخلاص 
(كلام فارغ/ ليس له قيمة)

كل اللي بتعمله دا سبهلله
(ليس له قيمة)

Do you know another meaning of it?


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## Abu Talha

djara said:


> حتى لا تذهب جهودنا سبهللا
> حتى لا يذهب عملنا سبهللا


Isn't there a difference though? This seems to mean that the effort was wasted. Whereas "a drop in the bucket" doesn't necessarily imply that the effort was wasted, only that it is vastly insufficient compared to what's needed.

Edit: deleted part


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## djara

In


Abu Talha said:


> Isn't there a difference though?


Indeed, there is a difference. I was building on ضاعت جهودنا سدى  in post #4


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