ALI139 – Arabic Grammar I Week 6

Outline Demonstrative Pronouns (الإشارة أسماء) Relative Pronouns (الموصولة أسماء) Interrogative Particles (الإستفهام أسماء)

الإشارة أسماء Qur’anic Language Made Easy Hafiza Iffath Hasan Review of Lesson 1.18 (p. 65) and Lesson 1.19 (p. 67) Demonstrative Pronouns الإشارة أسماء

Demonstrative Pronouns (الإشارة أسماء) To ‘demonstrate’ is to show or indicate, therefore demonstratives are words which indicate the particular person or object you are talking about. The demonstratives in English are this, that, these and those. Demonstrative pronouns can be used in sentences (e.g. This school is good) or in phrases (e.g. That boy). In Arabic, demonstrative pronouns are always definite. For singular, the demonstrative pronouns are: هٰذَا (this (m.)) and هٰذِهِ (this (f.)) ذٰلكَ (that (m.)) and تِلكَ (that (f.)) Note that the demonstrative pronoun must agree with the noun in gender – masculine or feminine.

Demonstrative Pronouns (الإشارة أسماء) Demonstratives are used both, in sentences (This is…) and phrases (This…). When a demonstrative pronoun is followed by a definite noun, it will be a phrase e.g. الرجل هٰذَا (This man), الجامعة هٰذِهِ (This university), البنت هٰذِهِ (This girl), المكتب هٰذَا (This office), المكتبة هٰذِهِ (This library) When a demonstrative pronoun is followed by an indefinite noun, it will be a sentence e.g. رجلٌ هٰذَا (This is a man), جامعةٌ هٰذِهِ (This is a university), etc. When you need to construct a sentence with a demonstrative pronoun followed by a definite noun then a personal pronoun must be introduced between them e.g. الرجل هو هٰذَا (This is the man), الجامعة هي هٰذِهِ (This is the university).

Qur’anic Language Made Easy Hafiza Iffath Hasan Review of Lesson 1.20 (p. 69) Relative Pronouns الموصولة أسماء

Relative Pronouns (الموصولة أسماء) You have seen adjectives and how they describe a noun and agree with it in number and gender. Sometimes a noun is not described with one word (i.e. an adjective) but rather a complete sentence instead e.g. القاهرة في تسكن بنت هٰذِهِ The ‘sentence’ following the noun بنتٌ is like an adjective but because it’s an entire sentence on its own (القاهرة في تسكن), it’s called an “Adjective Sentence” (الصفة جملة) When the noun being described is definite, it is connected to the sentence describing it (الصفة جملة) with a relative pronoun (الموصول اسم). The most common relative pronouns are الّذي (مذكّر), الّتِي (مؤنث), الّذين (مذكّر جمع human)

Relative Pronouns (الموصولة أسماء) In English, the common relative pronouns are who, whom, whose, which, or that. In English, the relative pronoun is sometimes omitted e.g. “The man I met in school” instead of “The man whom I met in school”. In Arabic, the relative pronoun (e.g. الّذي) is always omitted if the noun preceding it is indefinite and it is always written if the noun is definite.

Relative Pronouns (الموصولة أسماء) Examples: قرأتُها الّتِي الجريدة قرأتُها جريدة فيه أسكن بيتٌ فيه أسكن الّذي البيت …الّذي الموّظف …الّتِي البنت …الّذين الموّظفون

الإستفهام أسماء Qur’anic Language Made Easy Hafiza Iffath Hasan Review of Lesson 1.21 (p. 71) Interrogative Particles الإستفهام أسماء

Interrogative Particles (الإستفهام أسماء) Arabic has two words which are used mostly in written Arabic, to indicate that follows is a question. These two words are هل and أ And since these prefixes already indicate that what follows is a question, the word order does not change and remains the same as a statement. For example, in English, “The book is useful” is a statement. To change it to a question, you would rearrange the word order to “Is the book useful?” In Arabic, you don’t change the statement. You only add a prefix. For example: نافع الكتاب becomes نافع؟ الكتاب هل طالبة أنتِ becomes ؟ طالبة أنتِ هل or طالبة ؟ أأنتِ Both هل and أ serve the same purpose. With time though, you may notice a pattern e.g. هل is used with words starting with the definite article and أ used with pronouns and proper nouns, etc. but there is no hard and fast rule.

Interrogative Particles (الإستفهام أسماء) Who? مَن؟ Where? أينَ؟ When? مَتَى؟ Why? لِما ؟ / لِماذا Which? أَيُّ؟ What? ما ؟ / ماذا How? كيفَ؟ How Many? كَم؟