You're at a falafel stand in Nablus. The guy hands you the sandwich and asks 3indak khamse? Do you have a five? You dig around for a coin. Notice what didn't happen: no verb came out of his mouth. Palestinian Arabic doesn't own one for "to have."
That sounds like a gap. It isn't a problem at all. One small word, , does the whole job.
The one word that means "have"
3ind on its own means something like "at" or "in the possession of." To make it personal, you hook the same little endings onto it that you already use for my/your/his. If you've met biddi for "I want," this is the exact same move (see Saying 'I want' the Palestinian way). Stick the ending on the stem and you're done.
So "I have" is . "He has" is 3indo. The endings carry the person, the same way they do on a noun like beeti (my house) or beeto (his house).
All eight endings
Here's the full set. They're the possessive endings you'll hang on family words and prepositions too, so they pay off everywhere.
| English | with 3ind |
|---|---|
| I have | |
| you have (m) | |
| you have (f) | 3indik |
| he has | 3indo |
| she has | 3indha |
| we have | 3indna |
| you (pl) have | 3indkum |
| they have | 3indhum |
Watch the split in "you." A man gets 3indak, a woman gets 3indik. Same k, different vowel. Get those two straight and the rest fall in line.
Then you name what you've got
After the 3ind word, you just say the thing. No "a," no linking word, nothing in between.
- 3indi ktaab — I have a book
- 3indo sayyaara — he has a car
- 3indi waqt — I have time
That's the whole pattern. Person on the front, thing on the back. 3indha bint means "she has a daughter." 3indna sayyaara means "we have a car." You're building real sentences with two words and zero verbs.
Asking is all in your voice
There's no "do you" to add. You say the exact same words and lift your tone at the end. It's the same trick as a verbless statement, where two words sit side by side and you're finished (more on that in There's no word for 'is').
- 3indak waqt? — do you have time?
- 3indik waqt? — same question, to a woman
- 3indkum mayy? — do you (all) have water?
Say 3indo waqt flat and it's "he has time." Say 3indo waqt with a rise and it's "does he have time?" The words don't budge.
Saying you don't have it
To say you don't have something, you wrap the verb-style negative around it: ma in front, -sh on the end. The i in 3indi stretches to ee before that -sh, which is why "I don't have" comes out ma 3indeesh.
- ma 3indeesh maSaari — I don't have money
- ma 3indoosh — he doesn't have any
On its own, ma 3indeesh is a full answer. Somebody asks if you've got a cigarette, a pen, change for the bus, and ma 3indeesh covers all of it. "Nope, don't have it."
3ind is also "at my place"
The same word does double duty. Point it at a place or a person and 3ind means "at" or "over at someone's."
- 3indna Deef — we have a guest, or there's a guest at our place
- 3ind il-jaar — at the neighbor's
So 3indna can mean "we have" or "at our house," and context sorts it out. Usually both readings are true at the same time anyway.
And in the past: kaan 3indi
3ind has no built-in past, so you bring back the verb for "was," kaan, and park it in front. It stays as kaan no matter who you're talking about.
- kaan 3indi sayyaara — I had a car
- kaan 3indo waqt — he had time
Drop kaan back in, keep the same 3ind endings, and your "have" sentences slide straight into yesterday.
