To have in Arabic
There is no specific verb or expression in Arabic for the concept of “to have”. Instead, in Arabic, a preposition is taken and a personal suffix is added. We’ll show you how to say to have in Arabic!
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Lots of wording options
While there is no direct translation for “to have” in the arabic language, there are several ways of expressing that someone owns or has something (with him/her).
| مع | ل | لدى | عند | |
| usage | to express having a possession and/or to express having an affiliation or attribute (more firmly of something) is applied to humans | to express in classical Arabic that you have possessions with you is applied to things | to express, in modern standard Arabic, that one has possessions on one’s person is applied to things | |
| more meanings | with, to | for, to | near | near |
Note!: The four Arabic prepositions listed above must be provided with personal suffixes to mean “to have”. Apart from that, they can also have other meanings as single words without suffix.
Examples: The doctor has a car. الطبيب عنده سيارة oder للطبيب سيارة \ عند الطبيب سيارة
To have in the colloquial language
Colloquially, there are probably a few more ways to say “have”, such as the following combination:
عند + في + Pesonalsuffix
Example: If you go into a shop and want to ask the shopkeeper if he has a certain product, yo can ask: … في عندك, which means like: Do you have …? or Is there … with you?
To be in Arabic
“To have” and “to be” are known to be the most important basic verbs in a language. There is also no real word for “to be” in Arabic. Unlike “to have” in Arabic, there is no other way od express beeing in Arabic. It i just left out entirely.
Example: That is a big problem. هذه مشكلة كبيرة
That was To have in Arabic. If you enjoyed the article, then why not learn the dual in Arabic next. Also, feel free to check out our previous chapter on The Nisba form in Arabic.
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