Breakdown of ما شاء الله، أنت قوي!
أنتanta
you (singular)
قويqawiyy
strong
ما شاء اللهmâ shâ'a llâhu
how wonderful! (admiration: what God has willed)
Questions & Answers about ما شاء الله، أنت قوي!
Why is the phrase translated as 'Wow' here? Doesn't ما شاء الله have a religious meaning?
Literally, ما شاء الله means 'What God has willed.' While it does have a religious origin, Arabic speakers of all backgrounds use it every day as an expression of admiration, joy, or surprise. In this sentence, it functions just like 'Wow!' or 'Amazing!' in English. It is also traditionally used when complimenting someone to protect them from the evil eye.
Does the word ما mean 'what' or 'not' in this expression?
In this phrase, ما means 'what' or 'that which'. It is not the negative 'not' that you might have seen before verbs. Combined with شاء (willed), the whole phrase literally means 'What God willed.'
Why isn't there a word for 'are' between أنت and قوي?
In Arabic, present tense sentences do not use a 'to be' verb like 'am', 'is', or 'are'. To say 'you are strong', you simply place the pronoun أنت (you) directly before the adjective قوي (strong).
How would I say this exact same sentence to a woman?
The idiom ما شاء الله stays exactly the same, as it is a fixed phrase. However, you must change the pronoun to the feminine أنتِ (anti) and add the feminine ending to the adjective, making it قوية (qawiyya).
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