#Lebanese Sayings

[miadebbas]

Teta Alit

Teta Alit visually translates phrases from the Arabic/Lebanese language into literal scenarios to bring humour, lighthearted connection, and understanding between diverse backgrounds. This Series will play with language and show how beautiful, poetic, and funny the Arabic language is. 

The title in english means, "My Grandmother Said". "Teta" Is My Grandmother in Lebanese, and the word "Alit" can be translated to the word said.

This series was part of my undergrad thesis at OCAD U. 

Ever wondered what some expressions or proverbs your grandparents, or even parents, say sometimes means? Or while visiting a foreign country you hear a strange saying and you wonder what it means? Sometimes they even translate funny…

Here are 10 Lebanese and Arabic proverbs that could have a different meaning that what they sound.

1- El Ered Bi 3ein Emmo Ghazel - القرد في عين أمه غزال

This translates to “The monkey is a deer in his mother’s eyes”.

It’s an Egyptian expression that means that the mother thinks that their child is beautiful and perfect when in reality they are not.

2- Kalemak 3assal 3ala Albeh -  كلامك عسل على قلبي

This translates to “Your words are honey on my heart"  

The feminine version would be “kalemik 3assal 3a albeh”. You just have to replace the -ak with -ik depending on who you talk to. -ak is masculine and -ik is feminine

This expression is the perfect response for when a special someone says something especially sweet. This can also be a used for flirting 😉.  

3- Baselto Ma7rou2a - بصلة محروقة

This translates to “Your onion is burning”

the feminine version would be “Baselta ma7rou2a”. -o is masculine -a is feminine, changes depending on who you talk to.

you can also use “Baseltak ma7rou2a” or “Baseltik ma7rou2a” if you are talking directly to the person. The previous versions are when you are talking about someone.

*see previous proverb for -ik and -ak explanation.

This proverb means that he/she is very impatient.

4- El Tekrar Fi Ta3lim El Hmar - التّكرار في تعلّم الحمار

This translates to “repetition teaches a donkey”.

it means practice makes perfect.

5- Tanjra w le2it ghataha -  طنجرا و لاقيت غطها

This translates to “A pot found it’s cover”

This is said of two people who click.

Personal anecdote:  It is something I felt when I met my best friend. It felt cosmic, it felt right. It felt like I, to take the words of the proverb, found my cover.

6- 7amil El Sullom Bil 3ared -  حامل السّلم بالعرض

Translates to “He is carrying the ladder horizontally”.

When you say it to a woman you have to say “7amle el sullom bil 3ared”. -il is masculine and -le is feminine.

This means he/she is complicating things.

7- Toqbor Albeh - تقبر قلبي

This translates to “Burry my heart”.

Just to let you know no one wants to burry anyone here...

Funny enough despite the dark tone of the expression, it is actually an expression to express one’s love to another. It means that they would rather die than to lose you. It is something I hear my mother say a lot to my siblings and I, so for me this is an expression mostly used by mothers.

A similar expression of love would be Tuqborni*/تقبرني : which translates to “Burry me” .  

This also means that they would rather die and have you bury them before losing you.

An expression used instead of saying “I love you so much”.

*I actually hear my grandmothers say it a lot to express her love.

A sweet expression, right?

8- Rou7 Ballit El Ba7er - روح بلّط البحر

This translates to “Go tile the sea”.

Oh! how I love this expression!! I am guilty of using it a lot, especially when talking to my brother. 

 This is an expression used a lot instead of saying “Leave me alone” or “Get lost”.

9- Fakhar ykassir ba3do - فخار يكسر بعضه 

This translates to “Let the pottery brake itself”

This means to let people deal with their own mess, in other words let’s not deal with the problems of others.

10- Re7na Salata - رحنا سلطة 

This translates to “We went salad”

Something we say when we’re screwed and there is no going back.

I started this thesis to give you all a look at my culture but in the end, I ended up learning a lot too!

Hope you enjoyed it~

Mia 

PS: This might be my longest post. 

[wearenotjustnumbers2]

Had to share this video to show you how beautiful and culturally rich Palestine is. These are the cities of Palestine and their names. Despite the destruction and death, we still have hope. And we will survive this 🙏🇵🇸

It's a beautiful country full of beautiful people, and we deserve to live, frankly.

[majestativa]

Les ténèbres mangeront les ténèbres. (Darkness will devour the darkness.)

— Vénus Khoury-Ghata, She Says, transl by Marilyn Hacker, (2003)

[mayormimii]

Pathologic Arabic dub dialects imo!! (Since they have different accents in English)

[oifaaa]

I get what you mean but Sanji's live action actor is Spanish 😭

He's actually both the Spanish half of him wasn't really relevant to me in that moment but yeah British-Spanish he's got that double coloniser in him

[rainofthetwilight]

imagine....ninjago arabic dub, but everyone has different dialects instead of just speaking in fus7a

lloyd is syrian, kai and nya are lebanese or libyan (probably libyan), jay is morrocan, cole is egyptian, zane is iraqi, pixal is jordanian, and wu is stuck in fus7a lmao

arin is yemeni, sora, jordana and percival are lebanese (basically imperium as a whole r lebanese), wyldfyre is egyptian, euphrasia (and the cloud kingdom) is syrian, and ras would probably be any khaleegi dialect except iraqi (I'm sorry I cannot see him have any dialect other than a khaleegi one that's not iraqi, he's not deserving of iraqi it's too good for him 💪), and judging by cinder's voice in french he prob might be jordanian?? Ig???

[mybeautifulwifearcane]

graysonnnnnnn aarrrrrrgghhh shes so cool

[theinfinitedivides]

that dabke snippet tho.

[jujusjunk]

fav palestinian / lebanese saying or expression that lives in your head rent free ?

My FAV Palestinian/jordanian one is خاوا (khawah)

It’s like “I’ll get what I want wether you like it or not” and I say it WAY too much.

I also love روح بلط البحر and روح كنس السحرة (go tile the ocean and go sweep the dessert)

It’s like “leave me alone” or “go do something else” but much more sarcastically

Now Lebanese ones are الأرد بعيون أمه غزال

Which is like “the monkey is a deer in the eyes of his mother” and it’s usually said when a woman approaches a girl about how her son would be perfect for her to marry or when a man has too much ego.

I also like “كبرانه الخسة براسه"

Is like “the lettuce in his head has grown”? But basically it’s when someone is full of himself and you want to make fun of him.

[iiusia]

Who Are You.

[worstloki]

The funniest arguments are the ones where one country tries to claim a food or type of clothing is solely theirs and shouldn’t be associated with another country pointing out it also exists somewhere else. Even if ‘somewhere else’ is a neighbouring country that a century ago was a part of the same place, somehow this calls people to violence

[whyshedisappeared]

it's incredible how i grew up on this amazing flavourful, hearty arabic food and yet my comfort meal is this

plain pasta with hard cheese that my grandma salts and grates

[greencarnation]

This is Ayat Khaddura. She is a journalist. Here is her last video before she was killed in Northern Gaza

[majestativa]

The scarlet stain on her chest is her heart turned inside out.

— Vénus Khoury-Ghata, She Says, transl by Marilyn Hacker, (2003)

[saturninemartial]

Flexing my (admittedly quite limited) knowledge of Spanish for the sake of Mexican Luffy, Spaniard Cora, and Canarian Sanji.

[trinitea-fics]

halfway through pride month and haven't heard "born this way" a single time. peace on earth!!