كان لازم نجيب كاسات اكتر مشان الزيارة.

We had to bring more glasses for the visit.

Breakdown of كان لازم نجيب كاسات اكتر مشان الزيارة.

• ال: the
• كان: to be
• لازم: necessary
• اكتر: more

Questions & Answers about كان لازم نجيب كاسات اكتر مشان الزيارة.

What does كان لازم mean here?

It literally means it was necessary, but in natural English this often becomes we had to, we were supposed to, or we should have.

So كان لازم نجيب means something like:

• we had to bring
• we were supposed to bring
• we should have brought

The exact English choice depends on context.

Why is نجيب in the present/imperfect form if the sentence is about the past?

Because after words like لازم, Levantine Arabic normally uses the imperfect form of the verb.

So the past meaning comes from كان, not from changing نجيب into a past-tense verb.

• لازم نجيب = we need to bring / we have to bring
• كان لازم نجيب = we needed to bring / we should have brought

This is very normal Arabic structure.

Where is the word we in the sentence?

It is built into the verb نجيب.

The prefix نـ at the beginning of the verb marks we.

So:

• جيب is the verb idea bring/get
• نجيب = we bring / we get

Arabic often includes the subject inside the verb, so no separate word for we is needed.

Does change for person or number?