رح

• IPA^(key): /ruħ/

رُحْ • (ruḥ) (form I)

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

• حـ‎ (ḥa-)

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”).

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.

• 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).

• حـ‎ (ḥa-)

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).

• IPA^(key): /raħ/, [rˤɑħ]

• Audio (Ramallah)

  (file)

رح • (raḥ)

1. (auxiliary) will, going to

   ‏رح أشرب هالقهوة.‎‎

   raḥ ʔašrab ha-l-ʔahwe.

   I'm going to drink this coffee.

   Synonym: بدّ‎ (bidd)

• 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).