Diagnosis: Grammar
Arabic text in question
ุตุงูุฉ ุงููุงุฏู ูู
Arabic text as it should be
ุตุงููุฉู ุงูููุงุฏูู ูููู
Note: You don’t use diacritics (ุชุดููู) in everyday Arabic. We use them here to clearly explain the grammar, spelling and meaning of words. To avoid confusion, we generally ignore auxiliary vowels that are necessary for pronunciation to avoid consonant clusters.
Analysis
The construction ุตุงูุฉ ุงููุงุฏู ูู contains a mistake.
- The word ุตุงูุฉ means hall.
- The word ูุงุฏูู ูููู is the sound masculine plural, nominative case (ู ูุฑููููุนู), of the active participle ูุงุฏูู ู which means coming.
What we have here is a so-called ุฅูุถุงูุฉู-construction. This is a possessive construction in Arabic, where two nouns are joined to express a “of” relationship (like hall of arrivals). According to the rules, the second part (ุงููู ูุถุงูู ุฅููููููู – “added to it”) must be in the genitive case (ู ูุฌูุฑููุฑู).
โค Correct: ุตุงูุฉู ุงูููุงุฏูู ูููู. It literally means hall of the arriving (people) = arrivals.
A personal note: I was quite astonished when I saw this mistake in the main train station of Medina (ุงููู ูุฏูููุฉู ุงููู ููููููุฑุฉู) in Saudi Arabia. To be honest, I somehow expected that in the holy city of Medina, the Saudi officials would pay more attention to correct Arabic.
- Source: Real Place
- Time the photo was taken: 2022-11-16
- Location: Saudi Arabia
ู ุญุทุฉ ูุทุงุฑ ุงูู ุฏููุฉ ุงูุฌุฏูุฏ
42368 Madinah
Saudi Arabia
Latitude: 24.47412479999999
Longitude: 39.6997404
Credit
Picture credit: Gerald Driรner
Added: 03/24/2025 Gerald Driรner
Whoops ๐
Jessica Rugg Right, but a sign would be in MSA.
Michelle Bartels Not all signage in the Gulf follows MSA norms. You might find this short documentary by Rizwan Ahmad relevantโit explores so-called โincorrectโ Arabic spelling on street signs in Qatar and raises interesting questions about what counts as a โmistakeโ in public language use: https://youtu.be/riLecrZt7xE?feature=shared
It could be correct in the colloquial dialect. Dialects don’t always use proper grammar. ุงููู ุฃุนูู
ุฅู ุดุงุก ุงููู ุงูุฎูุฑ
Numbers are pronounced in different cases depending on the dialect. In some dialects, the numbers follow proper declension, in some they are always nominative, and in others they are always accusative (generally speaking).