Thread: How would you say the phrase "Fire and Ice" in Arabic?

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate spot to ask this question but it made sense in my head ;) Please give me the letter spelling and not the Arabic writing. Thank you!

I'm a pretty elementary speaker of Arabic, but I think that would be "Nar wa Talg" literally "Fire and Ice"

Talg is the Egyptian pronunciation, other Arabic speakers and I think Fusha use "Thalj" for "ice."

As an aside, "ice cream" in Egyptian Arabic is pronounced "ice cream" as I figured out one hot day!

I'm sure some more fluent bhuzzers will be along in a bit...

Yes Philly got it right :)

The dictionaries I checked say "thalj" ثَلْج is "snow" and "jaleed" جَلِيد is "ice." I'm finding "tathallaja" تَثَلَّجَ as the verb for "to snow or freeze (over)" and "ajlada" أَجْلَدَ as the verb for "to freeze or solidify." Then again, I also found that "jaleed" can mean things like "hardy" and "sturdy," and "tajallada" تَجَلَّدَ has some meanings referring to hardening, coagulating, or curing cement, so it seems the jeem-laam-daal skeleton has to do with things firming up. "Thalj" is the word in the idiom for "snowball" كُرَةُ ثَلْج, so that leans toward referring to the softer winter precipitate. These are subtle variations in meanings that I'm not qualified to navigate.

Meanwhile, I've come across the phrase "bein ganna o nar" meaning "between Heaven and Hell" in colloquial Egyptian, so sometimes "nar" can apparently be slang for "Hell," in addition to its usual meanings having to do with fire. Per the usual advice, if this is going to be for a troupe name or an event's publicity, you may want to talk this over with a native speaker before investing too much interest in the name. I don't have any idea whether Arabs have an expression similar to English's "snowball's chance in Hell"/"when Hell freezes over"/"it'll be a cold day in Hell," but you might not want to accidentally stumble onto it if they do.

Originally Posted by phillyraqs

As an aside, "ice cream" in Egyptian Arabic is pronounced "ice cream" as I figured out one hot day!

As an aside to your aside...