# Arabic translation needed (car window sticker) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2015, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536 "2015-09-17T04:55:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/1 "2015-09-17T04:55:40Z")
A friend saw the a car with this sticker in the back window. The text was surrounded by cross stickers so she assumed it was some Arabic-speaking Christian church I think I’ve pieced together that the last two words are “light of the world” and I see that “I am the light of the world” and “You are the light of the world” are phrases from the Gospels. But when I try translating those the Arabic I get back doesn’t match the first word. The Arabic OCR tools I’ve found online don’t get a clean result either. So hoping I can get a precise translation (or correction if I’m completely wrong). [https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/583/21296258319\_95c556209f\_b.jpg](https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/583/21296258319_95c556209f_b.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/2 "2015-09-21T23:16:27Z")
My wife is Egyptian and she is pretty sure it’s “The Messiah is the light of the world”. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/3 "2015-09-22T09:53:56Z")
المسيح نور العالم = “Christ, light of the world”. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/4 "2015-09-22T16:13:17Z")
The word in the sticker is al-Masīḥ which literally translates as Messiah and is also used as a name for Jesus, similar to how we use Christ as a name for Jesus in English, so Colophon’s translation is probably a better rendering of how this would be expressed in English. In Arabic, the verb “to be” is usually implied and not explicitly used, so the translation could also be “Christ is the light of the world.” ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/5 "2015-09-22T16:53:53Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > In Arabic, the verb “to be” is usually implied and not explicitly used, so the translation could also be “Christ is the light of the world.” light = نور is the light = النور No? ---
**Author:** ![GregH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@GregH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GregH)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/6 "2015-09-22T17:53:48Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > light = نور > is the light = النور > > No? No… I don’t know the correct grammar names, so it’s hard for me to explain… but when you have a construction that says the “x” of the “x”, then you do not need the definite article -al on the first word. So CookingWithGas is correct. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/7 "2015-09-22T19:08:39Z")
> [@GregH](#): > > No… > I don’t know the correct grammar names, so it’s hard for me to explain… but when you have a construction that says the “x” of the “x”, then you do not need the definite article -al on the first word. So CookingWithGas is correct. …“Christ [is] CookingWithGas [the] world”? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/8 "2015-09-22T19:44:37Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > light = نور > is the light = النور > > No? I don’t think the second one would be _wrong_, it just isn’t the way it’s usually done. My knowledge of Arabic is very limited and I freely defer to anyone here who really knows. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/9 "2015-09-22T21:23:50Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > In Arabic, the verb “to be” is usually implied and not explicitly used, so the translation could also be “Christ is the light of the world.” this is how it reads. > [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > light = نور > is the light = النور > > No? no. نور is a light (if alone) or “light” النور is “the light” there is not a verb in it. the verb “is” is implied in the structure. You can write it with the actual verb to be, but then it sounds strange, an error of the non-native speaker. > [@GregH](#): > > No… > I don’t know the correct grammar names, so it’s hard for me to explain… but when you have a construction that says the “x” of the “x”, then you do not need the definite article -al on the first word. So CookingWithGas is correct. It is the Idafa (إضافة) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/10 "2015-09-22T22:03:55Z")
Maybe it’s just blurred, but I’m not seeing the “m” in the first word. That is, I’m not seeing anything between the “Al” and the “s” (reading right to left, of course). ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/11 "2015-09-22T23:52:50Z")
> [@GregH](#): > > No… > I don’t know the correct grammar names, so it’s hard for me to explain… but when you have a construction that says the “x” of the “x”, then you do not need the definite article -al on the first word. So CookingWithGas is correct. I believe this is equivalent to the “smicha” (support) in Hebrew, which is called the Genitive Construct. From the Wik ([Construct state - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_constructus)) …In Arabic, the genitive construction is called إضافة ʼiḍāfah (literally “attachment”) ETA: or what **Ramira** said. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/12 "2015-09-23T00:33:07Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > I believe this is equivalent to the “smicha” (support) in Hebrew, which is called the Genitive Construct. I recall, from some Hebrew language textbooks I saw, this was called “smichut” (סמיכות) or “construct state”. According to [this wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construct_state), it is a construction common to all the Semitic languages. In Hebrew at least, it is used when one noun functions as an adjective to modify another noun, and this is commonly done to create possessive cases. We do something similar quite regularly in English, with phrases such as “library book”. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/13 "2015-09-23T06:52:21Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Maybe it’s just blurred, but I’m not seeing the “m” in the first word. That is, I’m not seeing anything between the “Al” and the “s” (reading right to left, of course). It is what perhaps you see as a ‘bump’ on the aliph lam (al). This is a natural way of writing. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-translation-needed-car-window-sticker/731536/14 "2015-09-23T12:18:05Z")
Thanks everybody!