In this post, I give some notes about the form and the use of two prepositions (إلى) and (على).
The literal meaning of (إلى) is ‘to’, and it is used in expressions like (أذهب إلى عملي) ‘I go to my work’ and (إلى من يهمه الأمر) ‘to whom it may concern’, etc. It should be noted that (إلى) is used with some verbs as collocations, i.e. they are usually used together, e.g. (يحتاج إلى) ‘need’, (يدعو إلى) ‘call for’, (يشير إلى) ‘indicate’, (يهدف إلى), ‘aim to’, (يصل إلى) ‘get to’, etc. (إلى) is used in fixed expressions, e.g. (بالإضافة إلى) ‘in addition to’. It should be noted that when pronoun suffixes are used with (إلى), the final (ى) changes into (ي), e.g. (إليه) ‘to him’, (إليك) ‘to you’, etc.
The literal meaning of (على) is ‘on/about’, and it is used in expressions like (على الطاولة) ‘on the table’ and (على الإنترنت) ‘on the internet’, etc. It should be noted that (على) is used with some verbs as collocations, i.e. they are usually used together, e.g. (يشفق على) ‘pity’, (يحافظ على) ‘preserve’, (يزيد على) ‘exceed’, (يؤثّر على), ‘affect’, (يسيطر على) ‘control’, etc. (على) is used in fixed expression, e.g. (على الرغم من) ‘despite’. It should be noted that when pronoun suffixes are used with (على), the final (ى) changes into (ي), e.g. (عليه) ‘on/about him’, (عليك) ‘on/about you’, etc.
Comments:
Travis:
Thanks for the info… I’m still very new to learning Arabic, however I’ve been having my friend teach me and although the going is slow (obviously it’s much different than English) it’s exciting when I’m able to string together basic sentences. I’ve just recently started on prepositions, and I think for most English speakers that’s one of the more difficult things to grasp, as it seems sentence structures can vary a good deal.
That being said, I really like your blog here… and I look forward to your future lessons!
aziza:
@Travis Thank you Travis, and good luck with your endeavors to learn Arabic.
Prepositions are one of the hardest things to learn. It may be useful to learn prepositions with verbs or expressions they occur with. If you keep a vocab diary, dedicate a page to each preposition and write down expressions that include the preposition.
Good luck and keep following the Arabic blog!
Aziza
KT:
Thank you for your great blog (I’ve set it as my homepage!). I had a question about pronunciation. Do you pronounce (إلى) as “ila”? And is (على) pronounced “3la”?
Shukran!
aziza:
@KT Dear KT,
Yes, you get the pronunciation right ‘ila’ and ‘3ala’
Scheich Josef:
(يصل إلى) ‘get to’ add in the first paragraph
(يحتاج إلى) need’ delete in the second paragraph
(عليه) ‘on him’, (عليك) ‘on you’, in the second paragraph
يوسف
aziza:
@Scheich Josef Shukran Youssef.
Scheich Josef:
Shukran Aziza for changing two items.
In the last paragraph (يحتاج إلى) ‘need’ is NOT
an example of a collocation of (على) with a verb 😉
يوسف
aziza:
@Scheich Josef Shukran Josef,
I could not have wished for a more thorough assistance! I really appreciate it!
Aziza
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aziza:
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