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Neither Happy nor Unhappy

Arabic translation: لا راضٍ ولا مستاء


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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:Neither Happy nor Unhappy
Arabic translation:لا راضٍ ولا مستاء
Entered by: Alaa Zeineldine
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19:31 Sep 20, 2003
English to Arabic translations [PRO]
Marketing - Marketing / Market Research
English term or phrase: Neither Happy nor Unhappy
In a questionnaire, this is one of the choices to check, the others are (Very Happy, Happy, -, Unhappy, Very Unhappy).

Which of the following choices is better:

1 غير راضِ و لا مستاء
2 غير راضِ أو مستاء
3 ولا راضِ و لا مستاء

Your explanation will also be appreciated.
Alaa Zeineldine
Egypt
Local time: 00:15
لا راضٍ ولا مستاء
Explanation:
I assume from the choices that you presented that "happy" and "unhappy" are used in the sense of "satisfied" and "unsatisfied," and that the question is really about the "neither-nor" construction.

The traditional Arabic construction is

لا كذا ولا كذا

As in

تهيم إلى نُعم، فلا الشمل جامع
ولا الحبل موصول، ولا القلب مُقصر
ولا قرب نُعم إن دنت لك نافع
ولا نأيها يُسلي، ولا أنت تصبر

من قصيدة نُعم لعمر ابن أبي ربيعة

Notice that the construction does not require the conjunction و at the outset.

Other examples:

لا خوف عليهم ولا هم يحزنون

لا لي بالعير ولا بالنفير

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-09-20 22:11:31 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

أمثلة أخرى لهذه الصيغة

لا ضرر ولا ضرار

لا ناقة لي فيها ولا جمل

وقول يزيد بن معاوية
لعبت هاشم بالملك فلا خبر جاء ولا وحي نزل

وقول جرير
فغضّ الطرف إنك من نُمير، فلا كعباً بلغت ولا كِلابا


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-09-20 23:25:17 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

In all of these, whenver there is a واو or فاء at the outset, it is not to be understood as part of the \"neither-nor\" construction, but merely referring to a prior part in the sentence.

It is interesting that in some languages, the antecedent and consequent clauses in \"either-or\" or \"neither-nor\" constructions are symmetrical, while in English, they are not. Depending on their native language, speakers of English as a second language are sometimes heard saying things like \"Or he did not know, or he lied,\" because they presume the same symmetry in English.
Selected response from:

Fuad Yahya
Grading comment
Thank you fuad for turning this into an informative treatise when I thought it was a simple question لا هنا ولا هناك as we Egyptian would say. Mentioning Egypt, I admit that the initial conjunction was due to Egyptian colloquialism. No less helpful was Abdellatif's back-translation. While I can't assign points to two persons, I am equally grateful to both of you.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +5لا راضٍ ولا مستاءFuad Yahya
4 +23 ولا راضِ و لا مستاء
Abdellatif Bouhid
5لا فــرحان و لا زعــلان
Saleh Ayyub
4لا سعيد و لا تعيسMumtaz
1لا فرحان ولا حزين
Shazly


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


3 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
لا سعيد و لا تعيس


Explanation:
ليس بسعيد أو تعيس

Mumtaz
Local time: 01:15
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic, Native in EnglishEnglish
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

19 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
3 ولا راضِ و لا مستاء


Explanation:
Here is how I read the choices:

1 غير راضِ و لا مستاء

Not happy nor unhappy

2 غير راضِ أو مستاء

Not happy and not unhappy

3 ولا راضِ و لا مستاء

Neihter happy nor unhappy

Of course we know here that it has nothing to do with happiness nor unhappiness. It has to do with satisfaction regarding a product.



Abdellatif Bouhid
Local time: 18:15
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic, Native in FrenchFrench

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  globalvil
5 hrs

agree  htms
10 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

23 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +5
لا راضٍ ولا مستاء


Explanation:
I assume from the choices that you presented that "happy" and "unhappy" are used in the sense of "satisfied" and "unsatisfied," and that the question is really about the "neither-nor" construction.

The traditional Arabic construction is

لا كذا ولا كذا

As in

تهيم إلى نُعم، فلا الشمل جامع
ولا الحبل موصول، ولا القلب مُقصر
ولا قرب نُعم إن دنت لك نافع
ولا نأيها يُسلي، ولا أنت تصبر

من قصيدة نُعم لعمر ابن أبي ربيعة

Notice that the construction does not require the conjunction و at the outset.

Other examples:

لا خوف عليهم ولا هم يحزنون

لا لي بالعير ولا بالنفير

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-09-20 22:11:31 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

أمثلة أخرى لهذه الصيغة

لا ضرر ولا ضرار

لا ناقة لي فيها ولا جمل

وقول يزيد بن معاوية
لعبت هاشم بالملك فلا خبر جاء ولا وحي نزل

وقول جرير
فغضّ الطرف إنك من نُمير، فلا كعباً بلغت ولا كِلابا


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-09-20 23:25:17 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

In all of these, whenver there is a واو or فاء at the outset, it is not to be understood as part of the \"neither-nor\" construction, but merely referring to a prior part in the sentence.

It is interesting that in some languages, the antecedent and consequent clauses in \"either-or\" or \"neither-nor\" constructions are symmetrical, while in English, they are not. Depending on their native language, speakers of English as a second language are sometimes heard saying things like \"Or he did not know, or he lied,\" because they presume the same symmetry in English.

Fuad Yahya
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 52
Grading comment
Thank you fuad for turning this into an informative treatise when I thought it was a simple question لا هنا ولا هناك as we Egyptian would say. Mentioning Egypt, I admit that the initial conjunction was due to Egyptian colloquialism. No less helpful was Abdellatif's back-translation. While I can't assign points to two persons, I am equally grateful to both of you.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  jenan
18 mins

agree  Dikran
5 hrs

agree  Mueen Issa
10 hrs

agree  htms
10 hrs

agree  AhmedAMS
6 days
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 1/5Answerer confidence 1/5
لا فرحان ولا حزين


Explanation:
لا سعيد ولا مبتئس

فرحان كلمة عربية أصيلة


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-09-21 04:09:03 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Unhappy:
ربما كانت أكثر حيادية من أن تكون مستاء

Shazly
Egypt
Local time: 00:15
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic
PRO pts in category: 12
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
لا فــرحان و لا زعــلان


Explanation:
صالح

Saleh Ayyub
Local time: 10:15
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 20
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)




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Changes made by editors
Feb 8, 2006 - Changes made by Fuad Yahya:
LevelNon-PRO => PRO
Feb 8, 2006 - Changes made by Fuad Yahya:
Field (specific)(none) => Marketing / Market Research


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