Three Ways to Say “There is” in Arabic

ضَوْء

root: ض-و-ء / noun / plural: أَضْواء / definition: light

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I feel like a heavy door has flung open and let light flood in since I wrote about my deepening winter blues two weeks back. Maybe it’s my increased vitamin D dosage. Or maybe entering my twenty-sixth year of life brought with it lots of things to be grateful for and look forward to.

Either way, I’m thankful for the flood of light.

And speaking of light, I think this post will help some of us elevate and illuminate our writing in Arabic.

That’s one of the main reasons I actually put together the synonyms and small but useful phrases series: to give Arabic students (including myself) an idea of some little tweaks we can make to take our Arabic essays and written works to a more advanced level.

And this week, we’re looking at three different words to say “there is” or “there are” in Arabic. Because starting multiple sentences with the same word gets boring.

So let’s take a look:

هُناكَ

Okay, so here’s your basic I-learnt-this-in-Chapter-One-of-the-textbook word for “there is/are”. You’ll use it until your teacher introduces الخبر المقدّم to switch up your sentence structures and eliminate it altogether.

Example:

هناك نجوم كثيرة في السماء

there are many stars in the sky

And an example of الخبر المقدم, since we mentioned it:

في السماء نجوم كثيرة

there are many stars in the sky

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يوجَد / توجَد

Then you level up a little when you discover the passive form I verb يوجَد. Or توجَد for feminine or non-human plural subjects.

Example:

توجد نجوم كثيرة في السماء

there are many stars in the sky

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ثَمَّةَ

Oh, and then when you’re lucky, and your teacher—maybe in your third year at university—lets slip this gem of a word, ثَمَّةَ, that everyone’s been hiding for no reason… then you feel like you’ve unlocked an advanced word for the very simple meaning you wish to convey. You feel elite. You use it too often, but it’s worth the momentary feeling of pride.

Example:

ثمّة نجوم كثيرة في السماء

there are many stars in the sky

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That’s it. So whether you choose هناك or يوجد or ثمّة, or even use the خبر مقدّم structure to avoid using a specific word for “there is”, try switching it up every now and then.

And if you want some more tips for writing Arabic essays, check out Four Simple Tips to Improve Your Essay Writing Skills in Arabic—a post I wrote almost exactly four years ago!

!إلى اللقاء

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