telling in Arabic: قول (qawl) – meaning, pronunciation, examples

How to use it

"telling" as a noun means a spoken statement or saying. It is used in formal and informal contexts. The word is masculine and takes the usual singular/plural patterns.

Example sentences

هَذَا قَوْلُهُ الصَّدِيقُ.

hādhā qawluhu al-ṣadīqu.

This is his friend's saying.
قَوْلُهُ صَادِقٌ.

qawluhu ṣādiqun.

His statement is truthful.
أَحَبُّ قَوْلًا هُوَ السَّلامُ.

aḥabbu qawlan huwa al-salāmu.

My favorite saying is peace.

Examples from real texts

Sentences taken from published bilingual texts (subtitles, documents). They show the word in context and are not reviewed one by one.

Telling their story

التحدث عن قصتهم

I'm telling the truth.

أنا أقول الحقيقة.

Thanks for telling me, Jim.

شكرا على إخباري يا جيم.

I am telling you the truth.

أخبرك الحقيقة.

I'm telling you, it's there!

هو هنا بالتأكيد!

I'm not telling you anything.

أنا لا أخبرك أي شئ.

Sami wasn't telling the truth.

لم يكن سامي يقول الحقيقة.

She was accused of telling a lie.

اتُّهمت بالكذب.

Nevertheless, he is telling the truth.

بيد أنه على الرغم من ذلك يقول الحقيقة.

Telling tall tales may benefit those with a stake in the telling, but it leaves us all worse off.

وقد يخدم قص الروايات الطويلة من لهم مصلحة في السرد الذي يقدمونه لنا، ولكنه يتركنا في النهاية وقد أصبحنا في حال أسوأ.

Our political and military leaders were telling us one thing and photographers were telling us another.

كان قادتنا السياسيين والعسكريين يخبروننا بشئ واحد والمصوّرين يخبروننا بشئ مختلف

So by me putting all this information out there, what I'm basically telling you is I'm telling you everything.

فبإخراجي لكل المعلومات هناك، أخبركم أساساً بكل شيء.

Questions and answers

Can "telling" be used as an adjective?

In English yes (e.g., a telling example), but Arabic uses a different adjective, not "قَوْل".

Is there a plural for "قَوْل"?

The plural is "أَقْوَال" (aqwāl).

Related words and expressions

telling off توبيخ