Learn Arabic › B2 › حَفْنَة
حَفْنَة
handful /ˈħaf.na/
nounB2#3758 most common
Also: scoop, a small number or group (figurative)
Example sentences
أَخَذَتِ الفَتاةُ حَفْنَةَ حَلْوى.
The girl took a handful of candy.
أَعْطاني حَفْنَةً مِنَ الفُولِ السُّودانِيِّ.
He gave me a handful of peanuts.
رَمى الفَلَّاحُ حَفْنَةً مِنَ البُذورِ في الأَرْضِ.
The farmer threw a handful of seeds onto the ground.
لَمْ يَحْضُرِ الاجْتِماعَ سِوى حَفْنَةٍ مِنَ المُوَظَّفينَ.
Only a handful of employees showed up to the meeting.
تَتَحَكَّمُ حَفْنَةٌ مِنَ الشَّرِكاتِ الكُبْرى في مُعْظَمِ السُّوقِ العالَمِيَّةِ.
A handful of major companies control most of the global market.
رَغْمَ أَنَّ الثَّرْوَةَ تَتَرَكَّزُ في أَيْدي حَفْنَةٍ مِنَ الأَفْرادِ، فَإِنَّ المُجْتَمَعَ بِأَسْرِهِ يَتَحَمَّلُ عَواقِبَ سِياساتِهِمُ الاقْتِصادِيَّةِ.
Although wealth is concentrated in the hands of a handful of individuals, all of society bears the consequences of their economic policies.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | حَفْنَةٌ | حَفَنَاتٌ |
| Genitive | حَفْنَةٍ | حَفَنَاتٍ |
| Accusative | حَفْنَةً | حَفَنَاتٍ |
| Vocative | يا حَفْنَةُ | يا حَفَنَاتُ |
Word family
حَفَنَto scoop up with cupped hands
حافِنone who scoops
حَفَنَاتhandfuls
Etymology
حَفْنَة comes from the Semitic root ح ف ن (ḥ-f-n), which carries the sense of scooping something up with the hands. The noun follows the فَعْلَة pattern, which marks a single instance of an action, so حَفْنَة literally means one scoop, the amount cupped hands can hold. Arabic is a Semitic language, not Indo-European, so it has no Proto-Indo-European root.
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