نَظَرَ saw in Arabic
نَظَرَ is how you say “saw” in Arabic.
Root ن ظ ر n-ẓ-r. verb (form I). naẓara.
Arabic
English
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Meaning of saw in Arabic
- to look at, look towards directing the sight at something, whether or not one actually perceives it
- to face, be opposite used of a house or mountain fronting a place or person
- to consider, examine, think upon the sense favored by scholars over the plain literal one
Example sentence
إذ نظر عمر إلى عمير حين أناخ على باب المسجد متوشحا بالسيف
Umar saw Umair when he arrived at the mosque's door, girded with a sword.
نَظَرَ he saw
Past-tense verb 'looked, saw', 'he' form.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
نَظَرَ covers both plain looking and, especially among scholars, the intellectual sense of considering or examining something. Saying نَظَرْتُ إِلَيْهِ leans toward a literal glance, while نَظَرْتُ فِيهِ leans toward thinking something over.
Words from the same root
- نَظَرٌ a look; consideration or examination
- نَظْرَةٌ a single look or glance
- مَنْظَرٌ a view, a sight
More example sentences
فَإِنَّهُ سَيُشِيرُ عَلَيْهِ بِالنَّظَرِ فِي الْمَصَالِحِ الآجِلَةِ
For it will guide him to consider long-term benefits.
بِالنَّظَرِ with the consideration
The bi- marks what the advice consists OF; the noun is 'the looking-into', genitive, with the 'the' folded into the word.
يَا رَسُول الله لَو أَن أحدهم نظر إِلَى مَا تَحت قَدَمَيْهِ لَأَبْصَرنَا تَحت قَدَمَيْهِ
O Messenger of Allah, if one of them were to look beneath his feet, he would see us.
نَظَرَ were to look
A past-tense verb 'looked / glanced', subject 'he' inside — but under 'law' it reads as a counterfactual 'were to look'. The unreal condition.
ولو نظر بعين البصيرة لعلم أن السلامة في ترك ما يخشى عاقبته
Had he looked with insight, he would have known that safety lies in avoiding what is feared in its outcome.
نَظَرَ he looked
A past-tense verb meaning 'looked', with 'he' built in, forming the condition after the counterfactual 'if'. The past tense here carries hypothetical force because of that particle, 'had he looked'.
لمّا نظرتَ في كتاب حلية الأولياء لأبي نعيم الأصبهاني أعجبك ذكر الصالحين والأخيار،
When you looked into the book 'Adornment of the Saints' by Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani, you were impressed by the mention of the righteous and the virtuous.
نَظَرْتَ you looked
A past-tense verb with 'you' fused onto its end as the subject, so the single word means 'you looked'. It states the action inside the 'when' clause that the rest of the sentence responds to.
حَتَّى إِذَا دَنَوْا مِنْهَا وَاسْتَنْشَقُوا رَائِحَتَهَا وَنَظَرُوا إِلَى قُصُورِهَا وَإِلَى مَا أَعَدَّ اللهُ لِأَهْلِهَا فِيهَا،
until they come close to it, inhale its fragrance, and see its palaces and what Allah has prepared for its inhabitants in it,
وَنَظَرُوا and see
The connector 'and' joined to a past-tense verb, 'they looked', with a plural 'they' subject in its ending. It adds the third action in the run-up, parallel to the earlier two.
وَمَنْ قَرَأَهُ، أَوْ سَمِعَهُ، أَوْ نَظَرَ فِيهِ،
And whoever reads it, or hears it, or looks into it,
نَظَرَ he looks
A past-tense verb carrying its own 'he' subject, here built to pair with a following 'in' phrase to mean 'looks into'. The full sense comes from the verb plus that preposition together, not the verb alone, which is why the next word completes it.
فَنَظَرَ إِلَيْهِ ابْنُ صَيَّادٍ فَقَالَ أَشْهَدُ أَنَّكَ رَسُولُ الأُمِّيِّينَ
Then Ibn Sayyad looked at him and said, "I testify that you are the Messenger of the Unlettered."
فَنَظَرَ then looked
The fa- is a sequencing 'then', moving to the looking; the completed past verb 'he looked' carries 'he' within, with the named subject following.
قَالَتْ فَنَظَرَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ إِلَى عَائِشَةِ،
She said, and the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, looked toward Aisha,
فَنَظَرَ then he looked
A connector 'then' attached to a past verb meaning 'looked', and the prefix marks that this action follows the previous one in the story. The verb's own default shape supplies the single male doer named just after it.
فَأَخَذَ الْقَدَحَ فَوَضَعَهُ عَلَى يَدِهِ فَنَظَرَ إِلَيَّ فَتَبَسَّمَ
Then he took the cup, placed it on his hand, looked at me, and smiled.
فَنَظَرَ then looked
Begins with the connector 'then'; a past verb 'looked' with 'he' built in. The connector ties the looking to the placing as the next beat. The subject is inside the verb.
فَلْيَنْظُرِ الْعَبْدُ سَيْرَهُ عَلَىٰ ذَلِكَ الصِّرَاطِ
So let the servant examine his conduct on that path.
فَلْيَنْظُرِ so let him look
Two layers in one word: the connective fa- ('so/then'), and a command-shaped verb softened to 'let him look'. This 'let him...' form is built by trimming the verb to its bare command ending and prefixing a 'let' particle. It urges an action rather than reporting one, the start of an exhortation.
فَأَتَاهُ مَا لَمْ يَحْتَسِبْ مِمَّنْ يَأْنَفُ النَّظَرَ إِلَيْهِ،
Then something he had not expected came to him from one who refused to look at him.
النَّظَرَ looking
A noun naming the act of looking, working like an English '-ing' word, carrying the object ending because it is what the scorning verb disdains. So it reads 'looking', the very act the contemptuous person refused. The next word says looking at whom.
Common questions
- How do you say "saw" in Arabic?
- نَظَرَ (naẓara) — though its core sense is 'to look at, direct the sight towards' something, whether or not it was actually seen.
- What does نَظَرَ فِي mean?
- Followed by فِي, it usually shifts from a literal glance to 'consider, examine, or look into' something intellectually, as in نَظَرَ فِي الأَمْرِ, 'he considered the matter.'
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).