فَصْل دِراسيّ
root: ف-ص-ل / noun phrase / definition: academic term, semester
It’s officially the final week of term 1 and I’m in that position where, on one hand, I can’t believe a whole term has passed and, on the other hand, I wish I could fast forward past this final wave of deadlines and exams. Such is student life!
Let me try to ignore my pressing deadlines and must-do revision for now, while I try to gather my thoughts into some sort of coherence for this (short) post.
Today we’re looking at this little word: مَهْما.
مهما means “whatever” or “however much”, and is most often followed by a past tense verb—although sometimes we’ll see the jussive (المضارع المجزوم) instead.
The same goes for other similar expressions ending in ما, like أينَما (“wherever”) and كُلَّما (“whenever”), which are all considered type of conditionals in Arabic.
Here are some examples of مهما in context:
سَأُسافِرُ، مَهما كانَ الوَضع
I’ll travel, whatever the situation may be
لَنْ تُصَدِّقَهُ، مَهما قال
she won’t believe him, whatever he says
مَهما أَصَرّوا على الإصلاحات، لا يَتَغَيَّرُ شَيء
however much they insist on reforms, nothing ever changes
Short expression, short post!
Don’t forget to check out last week’s Form I Verb Vowelling Patterns (it is genuinely more interesting than the title suggests, honestly) and have a great week!
في أمان الله
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