# Levantine Arabic: to want - بدّ



## Abu Rashid

elroy suggested this should become a new topic if it were to be carried any further, so here it is.

From what I understood of the word, it is used as a noun, since the pronouns are attached to it as they would be to a noun for instance

my wanting: بدّي
your wanting: بدّك
his wanting: بدّه
her wanting: بدّها
etc.

This is normally how pronouns would be attached to a noun for instance

my book: كتابي
your book: كتابك
his book: كتابه
her book: كتابها
etc.

If I am wrong then please explain this a little clearer for me if you can elroy or any other Palestinian or speaker of Levantine dialect (3ameeyah ash-Shameeyah)


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## elroy

You are partly right. It is a contraction of a noun and a preposition.

In MSA it would correspond to بِوِد (i.e. بـِ + وِد).

So the MSA "biwid-" is contracted to "bid-" in Levantine Arabic (also further mutating to "bad-" in some dialects).

To this the various pronoun suffixes are added. 

I hope that has made things clearer.  If you have other questions feel free to ask them.


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## Abu Rashid

Thanks for that elroy.

I do have another question, is that ود related to ودّ as in the verb 'to love'?


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## elroy

Yes.

وِد (_wid_) is a noun meaning "love, desire" and وَدَّ (_wadda_) is a verb meaning "to love, to desire."


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## Arrius

و,داد (Widaad), therefore, - hope I spelled it right- a girl's name apparently equivalent to French Désirée, must be derived from this root?


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## elroy

Right again.


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## HKK

Is Widaad the female equivalent of Dawood then? Or is there a different shade in meaning?


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## elroy

Well, not really.  The meanings are related, but Dawuud is originally a Hebrew name (as you probably know!), so you can't really say that it is the masculine version of Widaad.  

As for the meanings,

Widaad is "love" (the sentiment) whereas Dawuud/David is "beloved one" (in Hebrew). 

Let's see how many related topics we can squeeze in this thread.  So far we have

Levantine word for "want" -> related verb "to love" -> Widaad -> Dawuud

What next?


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## HKK

Well, this is about the son of biblical Dawuud and بدّه a ring:

http://www.wscribe.com/parables/pass.html

Beautiful story  How would Gam zeh ya'avor translate in Arabic? Would the initials be Jiim Zaaii Yaa?


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## elroy

Ok, now we're _really_ off-topic, but I'll answer your question anyway since this thread hasn't exactly been focused.  I insist, though, that you open a new thread if you wish to discuss new topics. 

"Gam ze ya'avor" would be هذا أيضًا سيمضي, and no, we would not just transliterate the first letter of each of the Hebrew words.


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## eac

Must the pronoun attached to bidd- always agree with a following verb, i.e. بده يشتغل، بدنا نشتغل، بدي اشتغل
How can we say عايزنا نشتغل He wants us to work?

شكرا


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## vinyljunkie619

I have heard lebanese say "huwa beddo neshte3'el" and "beddo yana neshte3'el"


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## dkarjala

eac said:


> Must the pronoun attached to bidd- always agree with a following verb, i.e. بده يشتغل، بدنا نشتغل، بدي اشتغل
> How can we say عايزنا نشتغل He wants us to work?
> 
> شكرا



I can remember and find many instances where the verb is subordinated (lacks the indicative prefix) without a pronoun object. ما بدي تروح 'I don't want you to go" , etc. Of course, you can also use the accusative independent forms like with _ya/iya_ e.g. ما بدي ياك تروح But I think by and large these are optional, as we also have the option in MSA of saying اريد أن تذهب or أريدك ان تذهب. 

Of course, I will defer to our native-speaking members for a definitive answer.


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## analeeh

Biddi etc (also waddi in some strange riifi dialects in Jordan at least - which has just been explained to me by that etymology given above, so thanks) falls into a class that at least one linguist describes as 'pseudoverbs' - i.e. things which act very like verbs but are not morphologically/lack some of their characteristics. Looking at biddi in terms of its etymology explains why its 'conjugation' looks like a noun with personal pronouns but it doesn't explain some of its behaviour very well. I learnt if I remember correctly _kān biddi_ كان بدّي for 'I wanted' with invariable _kān_, but some people in Jordan at least say _kunt biddi_, which is directly analogous to, say, _kunt bashteghel_. I don't know if this tendency has been carried this far in all of the Levantine dialects though. The only way it differs from a verb in its usage is that it can't take object suffixes because it already has them so it has to use _yaa-_ instead, and in that it doesn't have a ماضي form.

It's perfectly possible to say _biddi ta36__ii-ni __l-ma9aari il-yoom_, as well as with _yaaki_ and I think also you can say _biddi innak ta36ii-ni_ etc (but I'd like a native's opinion on that).


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## k8an

eac said:


> Must the pronoun attached to bidd- always agree with a following verb, i.e. بده يشتغل، بدنا نشتغل، بدي اشتغل
> How can we say عايزنا نشتغل He wants us to work?



In Lebanese specifically (I don't think this applies to other Levantine), the following verb for first person usually does not have an alif in front of it. For example:
بدي شوفك baddé shoufak (I want to see you) as opposed to بدي اشوفك baddi/biddi ashoufak (other Levantine)
بدي قللك baddé 2ellak (I want to tell you) as opposed to بدي اقوللك baddi/biddi a2oullak (other Levantine)
خليني شوفك khaliiné shoufak


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## analeeh

That's the same in my experience in Damascene Arabic too - with verbs that start with a consonant cluster there is a first person prefix which sounds like i- but with those that start with only one consonant there's no first person prefix. For Jordanian though there's a first person prefix a- which appears in all environments, with all derived forms of the verb (e.g. _biddi ashuufak, biddi a7ki-lak ishi, biddi adarris il-ingliizi_).


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## elroy

analeeh said:


> _biddi innak ta36ii-ni_ etc (but I'd like a native's opinion on that).


 The structure is not incorrect, but its actual usage is limited.  It is not an unmarked form but expresses a certain nuance:

بدي اياه ييجي/بدي ييجي = _I want him to come_ [with the implication that he has the agency to decide whether he wants to come; I feel like the version without اياه is stronger]
بدي إنو ييجي = _I want for him to come _[I want his coming to happen, whether or not he actively chooses to come]


analeeh said:


> That's the same in my experience in Damascene Arabic too - with verbs that start with a consonant cluster there is a first person prefix which sounds like i- but with those that start with only one consonant there's no first person prefix. For Jordanian though there's a first person prefix a- which appears in all environments, with all derived forms of the verb (e.g. _biddi ashuufak, biddi a7ki-lak ishi, biddi adarris il-ingliizi_).


 Palestinian is just like Jordanian in this regard; the _a-_ is always there.  In verbs with _a_ as an initial radical, the two _a_'s merge into _aa_ (_aakol_, _aakhod_).

A correction: _biddi adarres ingliizi_.  No definite article in Levantine (and probably other dialects).


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## alpharabbit

elroy said:


> Well, not really.  The meanings are related, but Dawuud is originally a Hebrew name (as you probably know!), so you can't really say that it is the masculine version of Widaad.
> 
> As for the meanings,
> 
> Widaad is "love" (the sentiment) whereas Dawuud/David is "beloved one" (in Hebrew).
> 
> Let's see how many related topics we can squeeze in this thread.  So far we have
> 
> Levantine word for "want" -> related verb "to love" -> Widaad -> Dawuud
> 
> What next?



I want to mention that the Hebrew names Yedidah and Jedediah (Yedidyah) come from the same root WDD. In Hebrew, however, root initial W becomes Y (walad = yeled).


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## raful

Hello to you all
I have a few questions regarding the verb بدّ and especially it's negation in the colloquial Levantine dialect.
How should one pronounce the combination You (mas. sing.) don't want ما بدّكش should it be: biddaksh, biddakesh or bidkash? What about the plural forms بدكمش - (bidkomsh or bidkomesh) and بدهمش (bidhomsh or bidhomesh)?


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## apricots

بدكش by itself or followed by a verb that starts consonant vowel bidd*a*ksh (the bold is for the stress shift.)
بدكش تروح؟  bidd*a*k-sh_etr*uu*h? when followed by a verb that starts with et (rather than t-) the sh gets attached to the beginning of that verb.

Thinking about it though you may not use the shiin negation if it's followed by a verb that starts consonant vowel.

I am unsure about the plurals but following the same rules as above is a good bet.


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## raful

Are you sure you drop the ش if بد is followed by a that starts consonant vowel? meaning -  ما بدّي أروح and not ما بدّيش أروح ?


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## analeeh

Some speakers at least say _biddkaash, _though I don't know if this is regional or something. As far as I'm aware, in most Levantine dialects that have _-sh_, _maa, ma-sh _and _-sh_ can be used interchangeably. I think it's typically _biddhomsh_ and _biddkomsh _with a stress shift as apricots has mentioned.


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## apricots

Also, for you (f) the negation is _bidk*ii*sh. 
_
raful in your example ما بديش أروح the shiin is followed by a vowel so it sounds nice. _ma bidd_*i*_sh aruuh _but _ma biddi aruuh _is perfectly fine also.


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## akhooha

raful said:


> ...
> I have a few questions regarding the verb بدّ ...


It should be noted that بدّ is not a verb. See the explanation in post number 2.


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## Languagelearner123456

[Moderator's Note: Merged with a previous thread]
Hello,I was wondering how to conjugate the verb to want in the past tense in Levantine Arabic Romanized script would be greatly appreciated


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## Matat

Usually in Levantine, a verb isn't used for "to want". The word "bidd" بِدّ is used with the verb "kaan" كان, and a possessive pronoun is attached to the "bidd" to indicate who's speaking.

I wanted (masculine and feminine) - kaan biddi - كَانْ بِدِّي
We wanted (masculine and feminine) - kaan biddnaa- كَانْ بِدّْنَا  
You (masculine) wanted - kaan biddak - كَانْ بِدَّكْ
You (feminine) wanted - kaan biddayk - كَانْ بِدَّيْكْ
You all (plural, masculine and feminine) - kaan biddkoun - كَانْ بِدّْكَوْنْ
He wanted - kaan biddoh - كَانْ بِدَّوْ
She wanted - kaan bidda - كَانْ بِدَّا
They (masculine and feminine) wanted - kaan biddoun - كَانْ بِدَّوْنْ


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## Languagelearner123456

Thank you so much


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## analeeh

It's not generally pronounced _-oun_ but rather _-on_ (although a lot of Syrians write it with a waw for some reason).


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## apricots

In Palestinian and probably some other Levantine dialects kaan is conjugated also. e.g. kunt biddi, kaan biddo etc.


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## Matat

Matat said:


> ..and a possessive pronoun is attached to the "bidd" to indicate who's speaking.



Sorry, I meant to say "to indicate the subject" instead.


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