Dec 8, 2004 00:19
19 yrs ago
4 viewers *
Arabic term

لئن

Non-PRO Arabic to English Other Linguistics grammar
ولئن اذعن السائق للاشارة الامنية وتوقف على حافة الطريق فان المحققين تضاعفت شكوكهم

Does it have more than one meaning? If yes, could you also provide examples? Thank you.

Discussion

Non-ProZ.com Dec 9, 2004:
My apologies.. being a former teacher, I have a very set way of marking LOL. Although your answer was correct, Alaa provided much more grammatical information, which means I learnt something new from him. I would have given each of you two points, but the Proz system doesn't allow being fair :-(
Don't give up, you will get your points sooner or later. This is about learning, not competing, Zarka. Once again, thank you from my heart for every answer and effort you provided.
Arabicstart Dec 9, 2004:
lol.... I knew no matter what my answer was, you were not going to give me the points for some reason? I have answered many of your questions in the past and wasted my time! This will not happen again. So good luck to you
Non-ProZ.com Dec 8, 2004:
Can they, ya Ahmed? I am impressed. Thank you very much for that bit of information.
Non-ProZ.com Dec 8, 2004:
Thank you all The text is a journalistic piece from the Tunisian daily Assabah, and I have been asked to "stick to the text faithfully". I don't know if that includes sticking to the original language's grammatical errors as well :-) Thank you very much, Alaa for the analysis of the text. Contextually, I think Zarka's makes sense, as the text continues to say that they then arrested the passangers, etc. So the driver did stop.

One of the joys of translating "popular prose" is that you never know how good the writer in the source language really is :-)

Proposed translations

+1
4 hrs
Arabic term (edited): ���
Selected

there is a problem with this sentence

Whichever way you put it, the main clause does not seem to fit with the subordinate clause. Neither in structure and tense, nor in meaning. If you assume the sentence was not transcribed correctly into your source text, we may assume the following original structure:

Past:
ولئن اذعن السائق للاشارة الامنية وتوقف على حافة الطريق لكان المحققين تضاعفت شكوكهم

Present (clumsy):
ولئن اذعن السائق للاشارة الامنية وتوقف على حافة الطريق فإن المحققين تتضاعف شكوكهم

I think that these versions are correct syntactically, but the semantics are still difficult. The premise would be that obeying the authorities' signal to stop represents suspicious activity!

Here is one way where this would make more sense:
ولولا أن أذعن السائق للإشارة الأمنية وتوقف على حافة الطريق لكان المحققين تضاعفت شكوكهم

i.e.: had he not obeyed the authorities' signal and stopped on the roadside, the investigators' doubts would have increased.

It depends on the nature of the source documents that you have and the control has on the text, whether you have some flexibility in this translation or not. If there is no flexibility, I suggest transcribing the error into a literal translation, with a translator's note explaining the issue.

Of course as far as the meaning of لئن, Mona's answer is correct. But with this quality, who knows if the original word might have been لأن (because), yest the grammar would be wrong, but you would still have the same issues as above.

Goodluck, this is a tough one.


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Note added at 4 hrs 12 mins (2004-12-08 04:32:12 GMT)
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Second paragraph from the end: ...and the control you client has over the text ...

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Note added at 4 hrs 26 mins (2004-12-08 04:46:15 GMT)
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Based on the additional information you posted لئن seems wrong, the sentence should have started as follows:

لو أن السائق أذعن

In this case, the main clause would be correct as is.

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Note added at 4 hrs 27 mins (2004-12-08 04:46:36 GMT)
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Sorry: ولو أن
Peer comment(s):

agree AhmedAMS
37 days
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you for the detailed explanation. "
+1
37 mins
Arabic term (edited): ���

if OR had the driver stopped

if OR had the driver stopped
Peer comment(s):

agree Amal Al-Arfaj : "if"
10 hrs
thank you
Something went wrong...
+1
3 hrs
Arabic term (edited): ���

Even though

ولئن اقتلع أشجار الزيتون فمنها نحتُّ جمادات تسري روح الوطن "فلسطين" في
أوصالها، ولئن حرص المحتل على تمزيق ثوب الهوية الفلسطينية
I think this is the meaning that you are looking for. but the follwing are other meanings for you to check out:

ولئن نسي البعض أو تناسى
here the meaning is " If "

فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره الذي يبصر به ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها ولئن سألني لأعطينه ولئن استعاذني لأعيذنه
The meaning here is " when he ask me "

good luck Sam
Peer comment(s):

agree Ahmed Reffat
4 hrs
Thank you Ahmed
Something went wrong...
7 hrs
Arabic term (edited): ���

If - Should - Unless

All of these three terms can be used to indicate the same meaning
Something went wrong...
+1
13 hrs
Arabic term (edited): ���

Because

Because
Peer comment(s):

agree Alexander Yeltsov
5 hrs
Something went wrong...
19 hrs

could it be لكن

لكن: but?

could it be a spelling error?

because it would make more sense:
but the driver... did stop
Something went wrong...
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