رح

See also: رخ

Arabic

Verb

رُحْ • (ruḥ) (form I) /ruħ/

1. second-person masculine singular imperative of رَاحَ (rāḥa)

North Levantine Arabic

Alternative forms

• حـ (ḥa-)

Etymology

Contraction of راح (rāḥ), as preserved in cognates like Gulf Arabic راح (rāḥ). This is in turn related to the verb راح (rāḥ, “to go”) and ultimately derived from Arabic رَاحَ (rāḥa, “to go”), but the precise link is uncertain:

• Possibly a contraction of the verb's active participle رايح (rāyiḥ, “going”), which is widely attested as a fully-inflected future auxiliary. This requires رايح (rāyiḥ) to have somehow developed into the راح (rāḥ) we see in other dialects, however. Usually, the sequence *-āyi- instead contracted to a diphthong -ay- in Levantine (as in حَيط (ḥayṭ, “wall”) from Arabic حَائِط (ḥāʔiṭ) and عَيلة (ʕayle, “family”) from Arabic عَائِلَة (ʕāʔila)), making it off-putting that there are no surviving traces of an intermediate form رَيح* (*rayḥ).
• Perhaps directly from the verb راح (rāḥ, “[he] went”). Many other auxiliary particles are also verbs frozen in the third-person-singular past conjugation, including ما عاد (mā ʕād, “no longer”, literally “he didn't end up”), قام (ʔām, “(loosely) up and”, literally “he got up”), قال (ʔāl, “apparently, allegedly”, literally “he said”).

Particle

رَح • (raḥ)

1. going to; used with a following verb to form a future tense

   رح إشرب هالقهوة.

   raḥ ʔišrab ha-l-ʔahwe.

   I'm going to drink this coffee.

Usage notes

• Closer to English going to than will in many cases, the latter instead being expressible by the future-marking sense of بـ (b-).
• Like with عم (ʕam), the verb can appear either with or without the بـ (b-) prefix, with no bearing on the construction's meaning either way. The usage with the b- is primarily found in Lebanon.
• Also like عم (ʕam), can be negated with either ما (mā) or مش (miš).

South Levantine Arabic

Alternative forms

• حـ (ḥa-)

Etymology

Contraction of راح (rāḥ), as preserved in cognates like Gulf Arabic راح (rāḥ). This is in turn related to the verb راح (rāḥ, “to go”) and ultimately derived from Arabic رَاحَ (rāḥa, “to go”), but the precise link is uncertain, compare with North Levantine Arabic رح (raḥ).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /raħ/, [rˤɑħ]

• Audio (Ramallah):

  (file)

Particle

رح • (raḥ)

1. (auxiliary) will, going to

   Synonym: بدّ (bidd)

   رح أشرب هالقهوة.

   raḥ ʔašrab ha-l-ʔahwe.

   I'm going to drink this coffee.

Usage notes

• Closer to English going to than will in many cases, the latter instead being expressible by the present tense (prefix بـ (b-)).
• As is usually the case with auxiliaries, رح is followed by the subjunctive form of the verb. Unlike in North Levantine Arabic, use of the present tense form is not common.
• Like عم (ʕam), it can be negated with either ما (mā) or مش (miš).