ALI139 – Arabic Grammar I Week 2

Outline Importance of Definiteness, Gender and Number Agreement in Nouns Adjectives (الصفة) in Arabic and how they complement Nouns Phrases vs. Sentences The Nominal Sentence (الاسميّة الجملة)

Qur’anic Language Made Easy Hafiza Iffath Hasan Review of Lesson 1.11

Importance of Definiteness, Gender and Number Agreement Adjectives in Arabic and how they complement Nouns It is important to pay attention to the gender of nouns because the gender of adjectives, pronouns and verbs that refer to them must agree, whether in phrases or in sentences. Agreement in definiteness between nouns and the adjectives that describe them is very important as it can change words from being a phrase to being a sentence. Generally, adjectives must match nouns in definiteness. (Unlike in English, adjectives always follow nouns, and they don’t precede them i.e. “A tall, dark, handsome man” is written in Arabic as “A man tall, dark, handsome”. It is also important for adjectives, pronouns and verbs to agree with the nouns in number except in special circumstances e.g. if the noun is plural and non-human or if the verb precedes the plural noun. Important: Non-Human Plurals are treated as Singular Feminine words for agreement purposes i.e. the pronoun, adjectives, verbs, etc. treat the non-human plural as if it was feminine singular E.g. “الكبيرة الكتب”, “الواسعة الشوارع”, and so on.

The Nominal Sentence (الاسميّة الجملة) Nominal sentences start with a noun or pronoun Nominal sentences are divided into subject (المبتدأ) and predicate (الخبر) The first part of a sentence is always definite – even if the predicate came first, then the predicate would be definite and the subject would be indefinite There are three ways to tell where the predicate (الخبر) begins: Where the verb occurs onwards If there is no overt verb then where the noun/adjective is indefinite Another way of saying this is where the unwritten “TO BE” verb occurs, which typically conjugates as “is / are / am” The nouns and adjectives in المبتدأ and الخبر must agree in gender and number

Qur’anic Language Made Easy Hafiza Iffath Hasan Review of Lesson 1.13

Phrases vs. Sentences Examples: A tall boy -> طويل ولد The tall boy -> الطويل الولد The boy is tall -> طويل الولد A big school -> كبيرة مدرسة The big school -> الكبيرة المدرسة The school is big -> كبيرة المدرسة