Breakdown of ارفق السيرة الذاتية والشهادة والتوصية.
Questions & Answers about ارفق السيرة الذاتية والشهادة والتوصية.
Is this sentence actually Levantine Arabic?
It sounds formal / Modern Standard Arabic, not casual spoken Levantine. This is the kind of wording you see on job applications, websites, and official instructions.
A Levantine speaker would understand it immediately, and in semi-formal writing they might still use ارفق. But in everyday speech, people often choose more colloquial verbs such as ابعت for send, ضيف for add, or حمّل for upload, depending on the situation.
What does ارفق mean here?
ارفق means attach, enclose, or include.
In this context, it means something like:
- attach the files
- include the documents
- upload the documents
So it is a very common verb in application and paperwork language.
What grammar form is ارفق?
It is an imperative verb, meaning a command: Attach ...
More specifically, it is the command form addressed to one masculine singular person.
A useful thing to know: in normal Arabic writing, short vowels are usually not written, so ارفق can look ambiguous by itself. But here the context makes it clearly a command.
If fully vowelled, the command is أرفِق.
Who is this command addressed to, and how would it change for other people?
As written, it is addressed to one male.
Common forms are:
- ارفق — to one male
- ارفقي — to one female
- ارفقوا — to more than one person
In instructions on forms and websites, Arabic often uses the masculine singular as a general default, even when the instruction is meant for any user.
If the writer wants to sound more neutral or polite, they often avoid the direct command and say something like يرجى إرفاق... meaning Please attach...
Why are all the nouns definite with ال?
Because the sentence is talking about specific required documents:
- السيرة الذاتية — the CV
- الشهادة — the certificate
- التوصية — the recommendation
In formal Arabic, this is very normal. The instruction is not asking for just any random examples of these things; it means the expected, known documents for the application.
So the definiteness sounds natural and official.
What exactly is السيرة الذاتية?
السيرة الذاتية is the standard Arabic expression for CV or résumé.
Literally:
- سيرة = life story, biography, course
- ذاتية = personal, self-related
So the literal sense is something like personal biography, but the normal real-world meaning is simply CV / résumé.
In spoken Levantine, many people also just say سي في.
Why does الذاتية come after السيرة?
Because in Arabic, adjectives normally come after the noun.
So:
- السيرة = the biography / the CV
- الذاتية = personal / self-related
Together: السيرة الذاتية
Also, the adjective matches the noun in definiteness, gender, and number. Since السيرة is definite, feminine, and singular, الذاتية matches it.
That is why both words have ال.
What does الشهادة mean here exactly?
الشهادة can mean several related things, depending on context:
- certificate
- diploma
- degree certificate
- graduation certificate
- official qualification document
So in this sentence, it usually means the certificate or diploma document you are expected to submit. The exact English translation depends on what kind of application this is.
What does التوصية mean here? Is it a recommendation letter?
Yes, in this context التوصية usually means a recommendation in the sense of a recommendation letter or reference letter.
Arabic often makes this more explicit by saying:
- رسالة توصية — recommendation letter
- خطاب توصية — letter of recommendation
So التوصية by itself can work when the context is clear, but if you want to remove ambiguity, خطاب توصية or رسالة توصية is clearer.
Why doesn’t the sentence say what I am attaching these documents to?
Because that part is often understood from context.
If this appears on an application form, email instruction, or online portal, Arabic commonly just says Attach the CV, the certificate, and the recommendation without repeating to the application, to the email, or to the form.
If you wanted to make it explicit, you could say things like:
- ارفق السيرة الذاتية مع الطلب — attach the CV with the application
- ارفقها مع الإيميل — attach it with the email
But in short instructions, leaving that unstated is completely normal.
Why is the sentence ordered with the verb first?
Because this is a command, and Arabic very naturally starts commands with the imperative verb.
So:
- ارفق — attach
- then the things to be attached
This is actually similar to English instructions:
- Attach the CV...
- Submit the form...
- Upload the file...
So the word order here is very natural for instructional language.
Why are the items linked with و in this way?
و means and.
So the structure is simply:
- السيرة الذاتية
- والشهادة
- والتوصية
This is a normal Arabic list: the CV, and the certificate, and the recommendation.
Arabic often uses و before each additional item in a list. That is completely standard. In modern writing, commas may also be added, but the sentence is fine as written.
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