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Names and Titles in Arabic Culture Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Oct 19, 2017
In the Arab World الوَطَن العَرَبِي or العَالَم العَرَبِي, choosing a name for a newborn is in the main influenced by religion, that is it is always Islamic and derived from Arabic language. Some name their babies after a famous or influential person, some after an elder family member, and others follow what is à…
Indefinite Nouns and Definite Nouns in Arabic Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Oct 12, 2017
The Noun الاسم alism in Arabic, any noun that is derived from the verb, can be either Indefinite نَكِرَة nakirah or Definite مَعْرِفَة ma‘rifah. The Indefinite النَّكِرَة an-nakirah is almost always changeable to Definite following to two morphological rules. Not every Definite, however, is changeable to Indefinite. That is, there are certain nouns that exist…
Arabic Numbers 1—10: MSA vs. Dialects Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Oct 5, 2017
Deemed as one of the most difficult languages to learn, some may wonder what makes Arabic so. Well, one aspect of difficulty is the variation between the standard formالفُصْحَى (formal, educational form) and the dialectal, colloquial, conversational form العَامِّيَّة. As to numbers, as is the case with most variations, the difference is morpho-phonological. That is…
20 Common Verbs in Arabic with Examples Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Sep 28, 2017
In a previous post, you learned how to make a basic verbal sentence*, a sentence that is essentially composed of فِعْل ‘a verb’ and فَاعِل ‘a subject’*, and whatever follows is called a complement. The complement can be مَفْعُول ‘an object’*, شِبْهُ جُمْلَة ‘a prepositional phrase’*, or حَال ‘an adverb’*. In this post, you will…
A Taste of Yemeni and Arabic Oud Music Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Sep 21, 2017
العُوْد ‘the oud’ is a musical instrument used in the Middle East and North Africa. Its name was derived from the Arabic word عُوْد ‘a piece of wood’ as it is made of wood. Although it is an ancient instrument, it is still very popular in many countries. In Yemen, a piece of music without…
Basic Sentence Structure in Arabic (I) Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Sep 14, 2017
Structurally, there three types of sentences in Arabic: the basic الأَصْلِيَّة, the compound الكُبْرَى, and the clausal الصًّغْرَى (i.e. a clause). The basic, which can be either verbal فِعْلِيَّة or nominal اِسْمِيَّة, has two parts. In the case of the verbal, which is our focus here, the first part is the verb الفِعْل and the…
What is the Active Participle in Arabic? (II) Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Sep 4, 2017
In the previous post, I explained what the active participle (AP) اِسمُ الفَاعِل means, when it functions as an adjective and when it is used as a noun, and how it is formed from active verbs. This post is about its derivation from intransitive verbs الأَفْعَال اللازِمَة and complex verbs الأَفْعَال المَزِيْدَة. Also, I will…