Mutlakan

English translation: Never

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Arabic term or phrase:Mutlakan
English translation:Never
Entered by: Noha Kamal, PhD.

17:17 Sep 25, 2006
Arabic to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Psychology / Questionnaire
Arabic term or phrase: Mutlakan
This word, to my knowledge, means "absolutely". However, this is in a questionaire given to Palestinians speaking Arabic. It's a scaled answer. On one end (1) it says "Mutlakan".. on the other "always". The intention from Mutlakan
(as translated from English) was to mean "never". Will Palestians Arabic speaking women understand this as "never" as it was intended?

Thank you very much.
Zareh Darakjian Ph.D.
United States
Local time: 06:56
Never
Explanation:
Most of the time, it is understandable. However, you can also change it to fit your question. e.g هل توافق على كذا وكذا؟ نعم/ أحيناناً/ لا أوافق أبداً. But in that example مطلقاً is also ok.
Selected response from:

Noha Kamal, PhD.
Local time: 15:56
Grading comment
Thank you so much, Noha ... and also Stephen, Ahmad, sktrans, Alexander and Saleh for your confirming of the answer.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +7Never
Noha Kamal, PhD.
5 +1I would change it to a more explicit, more precise expression
Fuad Yahya


Discussion entries: 3





  

Answers


4 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +7
Never


Explanation:
Most of the time, it is understandable. However, you can also change it to fit your question. e.g هل توافق على كذا وكذا؟ نعم/ أحيناناً/ لا أوافق أبداً. But in that example مطلقاً is also ok.

Noha Kamal, PhD.
Local time: 15:56
Native speaker of: Arabic
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thank you so much, Noha ... and also Stephen, Ahmad, sktrans, Alexander and Saleh for your confirming of the answer.
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thank you Noha for the quick response!


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Stephen Franke
36 mins
  -> Thanks a mil.

agree  ahmadwadan.com: Yes
54 mins
  -> Thanks a mil.

agree  sktrans
1 hr
  -> Thanks a mil.

agree  Alexander Yeltsov
1 hr
  -> Merci!

agree  Saleh Ayyub
2 hrs
  -> Merci!

agree  Dr. Hamzeh Thaljeh
8 hrs
  -> Merci!

agree  Chowdhury
20 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
I would change it to a more explicit, more precise expression


Explanation:
The expressions MUTLAQAN and ABADAN are relative to the context. MUTLAQAN, as you pointed out, means "absolutely." An answer could be "absolutely yes" or "absolutely no." And ABADAN does not by itself mean "never," although in common parlance it is understood that way by many. ABADAN simply means "forever" or "to the end of time." A thing could be forever true or forever false, which makes ABADAN a synonym of always, although with more emphasis on the sense of eternity. In fact, the expression DA'IMAN WA ABADAN is commonly used for emphasis, which clearly shows that the two terms are not antonyms.

Now, to be realistic, anyone answering a questionnaire will realize that if one end of the scale is "always," the other will have to be the opposite. That makes imprecision in this case somewhat tolerable. And yet, it is probably in the best interest of all to use a more precise expression.

The only single-word expression that explicitly means "never" is the word قَطّ (pronounced QATT), as in
ما قال لا قَطّ إلا في تشهده
لولا الشهادة كانت لاؤه نعم

Unfortunately, it is not a very commonly used word in everyday conversation, except among good readers. That would give me a pause before using it in an instrument of this kind, although I would not hesitate to use it in florid prose.

The alternative is to abandon single-word expressions in favor of a pharse that is consistent with the content of the questions themselves, like:

لا أفعل ذلك مطلقا
لا أفعل ذلك أبداً
لم يحصل أبداً
لا يحدث ذلك أبداً
For a terser apporach, you can at least say
لا، أبداً
لا، مطلقاً


Fuad Yahya
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Stephen Franke: Fuad make very good sense in his comment. Agree.
1 hr
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