تَنْفيس
root: ن-ف-س / form II verbal noun / definition: catharsis
Someone told me yesterday that I seem to do a lot of work without much financial return. Exhibit A: this blog.
But this passion project doesn’t feel like work in any sense of the word. Except for the part where I spend hours planning and typing out content for the benefit of others. Hmm.
Yet it feels just as much—or even more so—something that I do for myself. Maybe it’s the catharsis, maybe the documentation of growth and learning, maybe the gratitude it evokes for being able to spend my time writing about the thing I love.
(But: if you do want to support the running of the blog, you can do so here!)
Also, most of the posts I write are things that I’m keen to record for myself. And, in that sense, The Arabic Pages is like my personal folder of notes.
And this post is one of those.
I’ve been wanting to put together a list (that I’ll keep adding to) of Arabic prepositions—both the common ones, and the less common ones.
So, shall we begin?
أَثْناءَ / في أَثْناءِ
during, within, in the course of
إبّانَ / في إبّانِ
during, at the time of
حالَ
during, right after, immediately upon
حالَةَ
during
خِلالَ / في خِلالِ
during, through, in the course of
في بَحْرِ
during, in the course of
سَحابَةَ
during, in the course of
طولَ / طِوال / طَوّالَ / طيلَةَ
during, throughout
في غُضونِ
during, in the course of, within
مَدى
during, in the course of, within
مُدَّةَ / في مُدَّةِ
during, in the course of, within
حينَ
at (the time of)
عِنْدَ
at, near, with
طَرَفَ
at, with, on the side of
حَتّى
until, up to, as far as
بَعدَ
after, aside from
بُعَيْدَ
shortly after
إثْرَ
immediately after
عَقِبَ
immediately after
تِلوَ
after, upon
قَبْلَ
before
قُبَيْلَ
shortly before
مِن
from, of, among
لِـ
to, for
إلى
to, towards, up to, until
تُجاهَ
to, towards
صَوْبَ
to, towards
إزاءَ / بِإزاءِ
opposite, in front of, facing
أَمامَ
opposite, in front of, facing
صَدَدَ / بِصَدَدِ / على صَدَدِ
opposite, in front of
حَذْوَ / حِذاءَ / بِحِذاءِ
opposite, face-to-face with
حِيالَ
in the face of, opposite
خَلْفَ
behind, after
ضِدَّ
against
بِـ
by, with, at, by means of
مَعَ
with
عَن
from, about
بَينَ
between, among
جَنبَ
beside, next to, near, at
بِجانِبِ
beside, next to
قُربَ
near, towards
تَحتَ
under, below
دونَ
below, beneath, under
أَسفَلَ
below, under
عَلى
on, on top of, over
فَوْقَ
above, over
في
in, within, at
داخِلَ
in, inside, within
في ثَنايا
in, inside, among
ضِمنَ
in, within, among
خارجَ
outside, out of
خِلافَ
beside, aside from
رَغمَ
despite
حَوْلَ / حَوالَي
around, about
عَبْرَ
across, through
I think that’s it for now—which prepositions have I missed out in the list? Let me know in the comments below!
!إلى اللقاء
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Great list! The only addition I can think of is بجوار, similar to بجانب. Of course, there’s all the prepositional constructions like على مقربة من and على كثب من, but I suppose those don’t quite count.
Perhaps وَسْطَ? Arabic has so many of these, I’m wondering how my native language compares to it.
Even outside of prepositions there are loads of small words like إنَّما or لَمّا that always throw me off 🙂
I do not see وَراء there.