"كَيْف اَلْعائِلة، إِنْ شاءَ ٱلله بِخَيْر؟"
Translation:How is the family? Well, God willing?
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It is indeed. "The" is "أل" from "العائلة". It would have been far more accurate to say: "عائلتك" "your family". I guess The "duolingo" translator here is making a wild assumption that two people are conversing face to face and asking about the other person's family using a less common arabic format.
I was wondering where the possessive "k" was left. I had the good feeling. They forgot to put it.
Yes. The translation of the second part of the sentence is a bit confusing. The literal translation is: "God willing they are alright?"
Having said that, in this situation, in English, one wouldn't ask a question, one would say: How is your family? I hope they're doing well. (or "God willing they're doing well" but very few people use "God willing" these days)
Personnally, I would rather not translate the expressions (Al hamdou lillah and In Sha Allah). To my opinion, even though we need to understand them in English, they should stay in they original language because, in these cases we loose the right meaning by translating them.
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Personally, in my opinion, we lose the right meaning. So they should stay in their original language.
And in reality, foreigners readily use INSYAA ALLAH and ALHAMDULILLAAH in Arabic. I completely agree with your comments
I think it's sort of like in English, when talking with someone it's common to hear something like "Hey! How are you? How's the family?" Or "How's the wife and kids?", stuff like that.
Someone commented that God willing is not used in English. However, we are learning Arabic here, not English. Arabic speakers DO use the expression. It is important for us to know what the literal meaning is in order to obtain a feeling for the culture.
Literally translated it's "God willing", but I think it's important to note that it's mostly use in place of the English "hopefully" or "I hope". I think recognizing that will help a lot of English speakers understand the use of that phrase!
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I disagree with that. It is often used in a similar way as hopefully but that is not what it means. It means that it will only happen if God wants it to. You can say it for things that you may not hope to happen but recognize that if God wants them to, they will. And you also say it for things that usually you wouldn't say hopefully because you are rather certain that they will happen, but even the most certain things will only happen if God wants them too. Like, the sun will rise again in the morning, inshallah.
It IS used. I've heard it used on many occasions and I use it myself. ;)
I guess you've never heard the phrase "god willing and the creek don’t rise"
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As for "Well, God willing?". This is acceptable translation. It might not be helpful literal translation for beginners.
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I have two problems with this "correct" response: 1) The family should be accepted as it is the literal translation. Sure, accept your family since you are talking to someone, but in English it is perfectly fine, acceptable, and commonplace to say "How is the family?" 2) Word order why is God willing well considered incorrect but Well God willing accepted?
How is your family? God willing, fine? Was not accepted. Well and fine are synonyms, are they not?
"How are your family?" is marked as a Wrong Answer (October 31, 2020).
In American English, the 'family' word is treated as singular. Is there any other explanation?
Thanks in advance. :))
Duolingo marked my translation 'Allah willing' as wrong. It says the correct one is 'God willing'. Why was that.
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I don't think it's an adjective. We've been taught that it can be a reply to "how are you?" It must be an adverbial (phrase). I think the first syllable (bi) is a prefixed preposition - بِ
Native English speaker here. Correct English would be, "How are your family" not, "How is your family"
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Another native's view. I'd say either "is" or "are" will do. We English are very flexible/sloppy about grammatical number agreement. The police/government etc are/is... Both are said.
Hi, the contraction "how's the family?" is in common usage and is a contraction of how is, However saying it out in full "how is the family?' is not common usage. But as you say, consistency is not high on the list in English grammar.
In this case 'is' would be correct. 'your family'is a singular noun even though it references a group of people. Hence why in the case of police/government it is sometimes seen as interchangeable. Both words could be referencing the group as a whole (singular) or a specific group of people (plural) , though generally police should always be plural unless it's the subject of a possessive, like in this case of family.
Can someone explain to me what this means? I'm not a native English speaker (or religious) either and this phrase makes zero sense to me..
This is a question asking if your family is OK. The person says "How is the family?" then expresses the hope that they are alright by saying "Well, God willing" meaning "I hope they are well if that is the will (wish) of God".
It's quite common to say "the family" rather than"your family" and some English people do use "God willing", especially Catholics, who sometimes use the Latin form of that expression, which is Deo volente, often shortened to DV.
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I wrote God willing they are well., a very acceptable English equivalent... Marked wrong!
PLEASE !!! change the anwer on the previous question i
There is a difference between "YOUR" family and "THE" family.
Yeah literal translation could be problematic for إن شاء الله. That is actually also the case for العائلة, the family. In english we say "How is your family ?" but Duolingo chose literal "the" instead of "your" for the translation. As the "peace be upon you" which is a perfect translation but has nothing natural in english. Duolingo had prefered literal translation from a language into another rather than spontaneity and natural in the destination one.
I see ive been beaten to yet another duo lingo comment roundup. I said "Hows family, well god willing?"
The first one if you are talking with a male and the second one if you are talking with a female
kara5712800, thanks so much for your additional explanation! -- But, both of us get a downvote from Mr(s) Downvoter Without Any Feedback for Legitimate Comments!
If we are wrong, please give us some feedbacks.
Or, was Mr(s) Downvoter trying to demotivate me? Then, his/her plan worked!
You're awesome, Mr(s) Downvoter Without Any Feedback! لا حول ولا قوة الا بالله
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I do not understand the second question mark. It looks strange: إِنْ شاءَ ٱلله بِخَيْر؟ , as one doubts gods willingness.
Both sentences in ara/eng are not matching please review it again and fix it.
What THS HECK IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "FINE" and "WELL"? I USED THE WORD "FINE" AND YOU SAID THE THE CORRECT ANSWER IS "WELL"???
Again you guys confusing people!!! How come Inshoalloh can be interrogative sentence?!?!!