حَمَلَ to carry in Arabic
حَمَلَ is how you say “to carry” in Arabic.
Root ح م ل ḥ-m-l. verb (form I). ḥamala.
Arabic
English
The audio uses AI voices.
Meaning of to carry in Arabic
- carry, bear, convey (a load) literally, upon the back or the head
- become pregnant, conceive said of a woman; an extended, tropical use
- take on responsibility for a debt or bloodwit construed with بِ; also used of a whole group answering for another
- show or harbor anger tropical use, of concealing or displaying rancor
Example sentence
فَإِنَّ الطِّبَاعَ تَحْمِلُ عَلَى خُصُومَةِ الأَعْدَاءِ
For nature inclines towards opposing enemies.
تَحْمِلُ it inclines
Present-tense verb 'carries, drives', 'it/she' form — here 'drives, inclines (one)'.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
Beyond the literal sense of carrying something on the back or head, ḥamala extends readily to abstract senses in the Qur'an and classical usage: bearing a burden of sin, a woman conceiving, a tree bearing fruit, and a person or group taking on responsibility for a debt or bloodwit.
Words from the same root
- حِمْلٌ a load, a burden
- حَمْلٌ the act of carrying; also pregnancy
- حَمَالَةٌ responsibility for a debt or bloodwit
More example sentences
وَإِذَا حَمَلْتَهَا عَلَى أَمْرِ اللَّهِ صَلُحَتْ
And if you carry it upon the command of Allah, it becomes good.
حَمَلْتَهَا you carried it
'hamalta' = 'you carried' with '-ta' = 'you'; '-ha' = 'it', so 'you carried it'.
احمل جسدك على القليل المنتظم من الطاعات، فالقليل الدائم أثبت من الكثير المنقطع
Engage your body in a little but consistent worship, for a little that is continuous is more steady than much that is sporadic.
اِحْمِلْ carry!
Command 'ihmil' = 'carry!, take on!'; 'you' is built in.
إِذْ جَاءَهُ لُقْمَان وَقد حمل حزمة على ظَهره
Then Luqman came to him, carrying a bundle on his back.
حَمَلَ carrying
Past-tense verb; subject 'he' built in.
لذلك جاء الذكرُ المشروعُ بصيغٍ تحملُ المعنى
Therefore, the prescribed remembrance comes in forms that carry meaning:
تَحْمِلُ carry
Present 'carries, bears', subject 'they' inside, describing the forms. With the noun before it indefinite, the bare verb works as 'that carry'.
فيحملها على مذهبه ويناظر على ذلك مع ظهورها في خلاف ما يقول
So he interprets it according to his school of thought and debates on that basis, despite its clarity against what he says.
فَيَحْمِلُهَا he interprets it
The 'fa-' draws the consequence: 'so he construes it.' 'Carry' is used figuratively — to bend a text onto a reading — with the verb taking 'onto' (next) for the view he forces it toward. The '-ha' is 'it,' the verse.
فاقتدهِد في كسر شَهَواتها، وحملها على ما يرضي ربك، واصبر على ذلك، فإن العاقبة حميدة
So strive to break its desires, compel it to what pleases your Lord, and be patient with that, for the outcome is praiseworthy.
وَحَمْلِهَا and its compelling
The wa- joins a parallel verbal noun, 'and carrying it', with -ha 'it' attached. It rides on the same 'strive in' frame as the previous noun, so it too stands in the possessive case as a thing one strives at; 'it' points to the self.
وقال أبو الدرداء إني لأستجم نفسي ببعض الباطل كراهية أن أحمل عليها من لحق ما يكلها
And Abu al-Darda said, 'Indeed, I refresh myself with some idle talk, fearing that I might burden it with so much truth that it becomes weary.'
أَحْمِلَ I might burden
A present-tense verb with 'I' built in, in the subjunctive because of the 'that' before it; the changed ending (an -a rather than -u) signals the burdening is a feared possibility, not something happening. English shows this with 'might/would', Arabic by the verb's vowel.
فحمله إلى بيته،
and carried it to his home,
حَمَلَهُ carried it
A past verb 'carried' with 'he' built in and the attached -hu 'it' as its object, pointing back to the molasses; the verb mounts its object as a suffix.
فقال له البائع لماذا لم تحمله مقلوبًا؟
The seller said to him: Why didn't you carry it upside down?
تَحْمِلْهُ you carry it
A present 'to be' verb clipped to the jussive by the negator before it, so 'did not carry'; the attached -hu 'it' is its object. The shortened ending is the mark of that jussive.
فقال المشتري وكيف أحمله مقلوبًا؟
The buyer said: How could I carry it upside down?
أَحْمِلُهُ I carry it
A present-tense verb 'carry' with 'I' built in and the attached -hu 'it' as its object; the plain ending marks it as a real question about how he could do it.
فرجع إلى البائع فقال لقد حملته مقلوبًا كما قلت، فسال كله
He returned to the seller and said: I carried it upside down as you said, and it all spilled.
حَمَلْتُهُ I carried it
A past verb 'carried' with the built-in -tu 'I' as subject and the attached -hu 'it' as object, so one word says 'I carried it'.
فقال البائع أنت أحمق، كان ينبغي أن تحمله مقلوبًا وأنت تسير على رأسك حتى لا يسيل
The seller said: You are foolish; you should have carried it upside down while walking on your head so it wouldn't spill!
تَحْمِلَهُ you carry it
A present-tense verb 'carry' with 'you' built in, in the subjunctive after the 'that' before it; the changed -a ending marks the carrying as the proper-but-unfulfilled aim. The attached -hu 'it' is its object.
فَتَزَوَّدَ وَحَمَلَ شَنَّةً لَهُ فِيهَا مَاءٌ
So he took provisions and carried a bundle for himself that contained water.
وَحَمَلَ and he carried
Joined by wa- 'and', adding a second action onto the provisioning. Its 'he' subject is built into the verb, the same actor as before.
إِذْ جَاءَهُ لُقْمَانُ وَقَدْ حَمَلَ حُزْمَةً عَلَى ظَهْرِهِ
When Luqman came to him, carrying a bundle on his back.
حَمَلَ he carried
A past verb, 'carried', with the 'he' subject built in, governed by the preceding 'qad' to read as a completed circumstance, 'having carried'. It takes the noun after it as what was carried. The verb-internal subject keeps Luqman as the doer.
Common questions
- How do you say "to carry" in Arabic?
- حَمَلَ (ḥamala).
- What does حَمَلَتْ (of a woman) mean?
- It means she became pregnant, or conceived.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).