“Believe” In Arabic

ArabicGenie — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:18:53 +0000

Maggie sent me the following question in a blog comment:

keefakkk
my name is maggie (ghaleb)
just want to make sure of something…
getting my 3th arabic tattoo! (proud to be libanease!)
its the word believe (faith) in the way, i believe i will get trough this, or i believe things will get better ….. NOT in the way: I don’t believe you OR I believe (In God)…even though I do (lol!)
my dad wrote it to mee…but can’t get a confident confirmation from anyone..
thank YOU so much! LOVE YOUR SITE! Just discovered it tonight!
maggie

Translating “believe” into Arabic is tricky and I’m glad you gave a few example sentences to illustrate which sense of “believe” you mean. The word آمن (aamana) is a good fit for “to believe” in the religious sense (e.g. “I believe in God”), but it would seem out of place in a translation of e.g. “I believe things will get better”. This phrase would be better translated using the verb اعتقد (i3taqada). However, اعتقد (i3taqada) does not have the connotations of “determination” or “hope”, that the English verb “to believe” sometimes has.

I think that in your case the word اقتناع (iqtinaa3) would be better suited. الاقتناع (al-iqtinaa3) means “conviction” in the sense of being convinced of something. E.g. أنا مقتنع بأنني سألعب في كأس العالم ana muqtana3 bi-annani sa-al3abu fi ka’s al-3aalam “I am convinced that I will play in the World Cup”.

Below is the word “conviction” in Arabic as a picture:

"Conviction" in Arabic

Alternatively, I would suggest العزيمة al-3azeema (determination) or الثقة بالنفس ath-thiqa bi-n-nafs (self-confidence or trust in one self) or perhaps القوة الداخلية al-quuwa ad-daakhileeya “inner strength”. Maybe “hope” الأمل al-amal might be an option too? There are tattoo designs for all of these four phrases in my Arabic Tattoos eBook.

I’m sorry that I couldn’t give you a clear-cut answer, but I hope that my explanations have given you a better idea of your options. If you send me the word your dad wrote for you I will tell you what it says.

No related posts.

Arabic Tattoos – Pick ‘n’ Mix

ArabicGenie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:24:44 +0000

Or: Arabic Tattoo Frenzy

Over the last 14 days or so I’ve received quite a few Arabic tattoo translation requests. I was too busy to answer them immediately, but I have not forgotten about them. Here they are…

By the way, if you’re really serious about learning Arabic yourself, then why not start with my easy method for the Arabic alphabet?

@Joanne

Inner Strength

Hi

I’m dying to get a tattoo and would like something in arabic as i love the beauty of the script…I’ve been looking for someone to translate ‘inner strength’ or a nearest possible translation and I wondered if you may be able to help me as you seem to know what your talking about?! Could you also please translate my name and my star sign, Libra, please? Im a bit paranoid of ending up with something incorrect and can’t decide which one to go with!

Thank you so much!

Joanne

The concept of “inner strength” would be القوة الداخلية (al-quwwa ad-daakhileeya). Google seems to agree with my translation, insofar as there are more than 38,000 matches for this exact phrase used in meaningful contexts. Literally this translates as “the-strength the-inner”. Below are five different designs (fonts) for this Arabic phrase.

Arabic Tattoo Design "Inner Strength"

Spiritual Strength

Alternatively, one could opt for something closer to “spiritual strength”, which would be القوة الروحية (al-quwwa ar-rooHeeya). Literally, “the-strength the-spiritual”, where الروح (ar-rooH) refers to the soul. Google results for this phrase are more than 43,000 – so, also commonly used.

Arabic Tattoo "Spiritual Strength"

Libra

The star sign “Libra” would be برج الميزان (burdj al-meezaan) or simply الميزان (al-meezaan). As a tattoo, I’d go with the simpler version. The word الميزان (al-meezaan) literally means “the-scales”, but it’s used to refer to the star sign too.

Arabic Tattoo "Libra"

Joanne

Your name transcribed into Arabic would be جوان (djoo-an). However, this looks exactly like the Persian word for “young” – جوان (javân). Perhaps that might be cool to have, a tattoo in Arabic script that can be read as both your name (in Arabic) and as “young” (in Persian).

Arabic Tattoo "Joanne"/ Persian "young"

@Renata

hi max, I want a tattoo in arabic but I dont want any mistakes and I really like your blog
I was wondering if you could send me the following words in arabic in a very simple font

KARMA
PEACE
LOVE
BREATHE

and my name
RENATA

thankyou

( I am still trying to decide wich one, so please make it separated) thankyou so much

For love, see my Arabic tatto design here: Love In Arabic.

Karma

Karma is a concept that is not widely-used in the Arab World. The best translation is simply كارما (kaarma).

Arabic Tattoo "Karma"

Peace

The Arabic for “peace” is سلام (salaam). However, peace as an abstract concept would be “the peace” in Arabic, which is السلام (as-salaam).

Arabic Tattoo "Peace"

Renata

I would transcribe your name as ريناتا (reenaata). Don’t worry about the long “ee” – in Arabic it’s usual practice to transcribe the short vowels from foreign names into long vowels in Arabic. This is due to the fact that short vowels are not written in Arabic, so that your name would not be recognizable if short vowels are maintained in Arabic.

Arabic Tattoo "Renata"

@Abe

hi my name is abe, im interested in getting a tattoo but i want to
make sure i know what im going to get tattooed on me is. can you help
me out with these simple questions;
1. what kind of dialect from the arabic language is most commonly used
on tattoos?
2. what is the correct way to spell these two phrases; 1. God and
Faith 2. Ambition
3. also, i’ve seen these tattos written vertically, one letter under
the other, which means they are not connected, does that mean they are
wrong?

1. Most of the Arabic tattoos I’ve seen are in Modern Standard Arabic. However, I’ve also seen some in the Egyptian and Lebanese dialects.

2. “God and faith” would be الله والإيمان (allah wal-imaan). Note that الله (allah) refers to God in all three monotheistic religions (Jewish, Christian or Muslim).

Arabic Tattoo "God And Faith"

3. Writing Arabic vertically, with disconnected letters is not necessarily wrong, but perhaps not as aesthetically pleasing as horizontal writing, where all letters can be connected. Very rarely you do see vertical writing with disconnected letters in the Arab World. But this is an exception, for example on the rare billboard/shop sign. Generally, if you really wish to have a vertical tattoo in Arabic, why not turn the whole writing counter-clockwise 45°? This way the letters will all be connected and the script is still nice and cursive.