Archive for January, 2010
Irregular Verbs in Arabic (Part 1): Doubled Verbs Posted by aziza on Jan 9, 2010
Doubled verbs (الفعل المضعف) in Arabic end in a doubled letter, i.e. one with shadda (ـّ), e.g. (شدّ) ‘pulled’, (ظنّ) ‘thought’, (استعدّ) ‘got prepared’, (استمرّ) ‘continued’, etc. What is special about these verbs is that with some pronouns, the doubled letter has to be repeated twice, while with others, it remains one letter with shadda…
Arabic nouns: Proper nouns vs. Generic nouns Posted by aziza on Jan 6, 2010
There are 2 types of Arabic nouns, with sub-types of each type. The first type is proper nouns (اسم عَلَم) which refer to a particular person, place, etc. Examples of these are (محمد), (يوسُف), (مَكّة), (فلسطين), etc. These nouns are definite because they are names of particular people or places; therefore, they cannot be made…
Talking about the weather in Arabic Posted by aziza on Jan 3, 2010
The weather is one of the most important topics of conversation for people in the West, since the weather is always changeable and unpredictable. However, in the Arab world, the situation is different, as the weather is more predictable and less changeable. People often talk about the weather when it is extreme, i.e. too hot…