... and assume that you have never (consciously) read the verb "انتهك".

 

 

The classical way: Meaning by translation

You can look it up in a classical dictionary like Wehr:

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VIII to waste, emaciate, enervate, exhaust (ه s.o.); to violate, abuse, defile, profane, desacrate (هـ s.th.); to infringe, violate (ه a law), trespass (هـ on rights, freedom of s.o.), offend against (ه s.o.); to rape, ravish (ها a woman); to insult, defame, malign, slander, abuse, brutalize (ه a man)

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Or you can look up the phrase "ينتهك قانون" in an translation memory like reverso context , yielding "violate the law".

In both cases, you will have spend much mental energy looking at translations. This will give you "meaning by translation" as opposed to "native meaning" -> "meaning by collocation". The meaning of a word is (partially) defined by the way it is used.

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The Muraija way: Meaning by collocation

Looking up انتهك قانون in Muraija leads to the entry for قانون, where the collocation figures along with its synonyms: خَالَف قانون ، تَجَاوَز قانون ، خَرَق قانون .

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If you know any of the synonyms, you'll not only know the meaning of the expression ("violate a law"), you will also have seen alternative ways to express this idea. If the meaning is still not clear, looking at the examples on the left will help. (On mobiles ...)

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Surfing the language

Of course, the verb انتهك cannot only be used in conjunction with قانون. Clicking on the verb in the title of the collocation details pane on the left takes you to the entry for انتهك.

انتهك

Besides "قانوت", what can be "violated"? حَقّ (a right), حُرِّيَّة (a freedom), قَاعِدَة (a principle), قَرَار (a decision), اِتِّفَاقِيَّة (an agreement) - among others. Let's have a look at "اتفاقية"!

اتفاقية

Interesting, you can use the adjective ثنائي to express the idea of a bilateral agreement. ( Side track: What else can be ثنائي? Well: علاقة and تعاوم take up the lions share.)

Which verbs can be used to express the idea of making an agreement? وَقَّع, أَبرَم, أَقَرّ and عَقَد - among others. Let's investigate "وقّع"!

وقّع

You can وَقَّع a مذكرة, too. Let's look into that!

مذكرة

Ah, you can say مذكرة تفاهم for "memory of understanding"! And there is both مذكرة توقيف and مذكرة اعتقال for "warrant of arrest".

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As the Arabic language is said to be an ocean, surfing seems to be the most appropriate way to discover it. Happy surfing!