Welcome to the 2^nd part of this blog post 🙂 مرحبا بكم في الجزء الثاني من هذه المدوّنة. Last week, we started studying ways that one can use to discuss their opinion مناقشة آرائهم in Arabic, particularly Syrian Arabic اللهجة السوريّة. We particularly looked at expressions that can be used to express/state an opinion التعبير عن الرأي/ وجهة النّظر. Today’s post will focus on expressions that we can use to ask others سؤال الآخرين  for their opinion عن آرائهم .

 

To refresh your memory, you can check the first part of this blog post here where we talked about expressions that we can use to state/give an opinion.

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2- Expressions to ask someone for their opinion

The other group of expressions we’re going look at is that which can be used to ask one for their opinion.

 

A- To ask about something/ someone

The most common way of asking another for their opinion is to use the question word “what” شُو + “your opinion” رَأْيِكْ. This phrase is quite general, as the following:

 

What’s your opinion? شو رأيك إنتَ؟<<

 

-This phrase can be used to ask about a specific thing شَيْءْ مُعَيَّنْ, e.g.

–In this case, the preposition “of”بِـ   is added before the thing we’re talking about.

 

What’s your opinion of? شو رأيك بِـ؟ <<

 

Examples:

شو رأيك بـالفستان؟

What’s your opinion of the dress?

 

شو رأيك بالموضوع؟

What’s your opinion of the matter?

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-The same structure شو رأيك بِـ  can be used to ask someone for their opinion of a person.

 

Example:

شو رأيك بــندى؟

What’s your opinion of Nada?

 

*Interestingly, in Syrian Arabic, the prepositionبِـ  becomesفِي  when the thing or person discussed is referred to using a pronoun.

شو رأيك فـيه؟

What’s your opinion of it/ him?

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B- To ask about (doing) certain action (verbal structure)

In case you would like to ask someone for their opinion about doing something, a verbal phrase is added after the main structure of the question: شو رأيك . The verb is put in the present tense.

 

What’s your opinion of (doing)? شو رأيك + فعل؟ <<

 

شو رأيك اعمل الرز هيك؟

What do you think of cooking the rice this way?

شو رأيك نرجع / ناكل برا؟

What do you think of going back/ eating out?/

 

Another structure could be:

 

برأيك.. راح يعطوني موعد…؟

In your opinion, will they give me an appointment?

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مثال

Example

 

شو رأيك في هاللوحة؟ شوفي قديش حلوة –

What do you think of this painting? Look at how beautiful it is.

بصراحة أنا ما بشوفها هيك –

I honestly don’t see it this way.

شو قصدك؟ –

What do you mean?

يعني.. بحسها عادية كتير – ما فيها شيء مميز –

Kind of, I think it’s quite ordinary – nothing is special about it.

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I hope you enjoyed and benefited from this two-part post about opinions 🙂