Archive for 'Arabic Language'
English Words of Arabic Origin Posted by Transparent Language on Mar 8, 2010
A brief list of English words that have Arabic origin.
Arabic Irregular Verbs: Weak Verbs Posted by aziza on Feb 24, 2010
This post deals with conjugation of verbs that have a final vowel. They are called weak verbs(الفعل الناقص), e.g. (رَمَى) “threw” and (نما) “grew”, etc. In the past tense, the final vowel is returned to its origin, and it disappears with some pronouns, i.e. (هي), (هم) and (هما) feminine only for the last one. Consider…
Expressing Opinions in Arabic Posted by aziza on Jan 15, 2010
There is a range of expressions that we can use to express opinion (التعبير عن الرأي) in Arabic. Following is a list of expressions that can be used in this context: In my opinion… في رأيي… I think that… أظن أنّ… I believe that… أعتقد أنّ… It seems to me that… يبدو لي أنّ… As…
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…
Arabic Conditionals: Whenever and Wherever Posted by aziza on Dec 15, 2009
There are some particles which are generally regarded as conditionals, e.g. (لمَّا) and (كلَّما). However, they express a temporal relationship rather than a condition. There are still 2 actions that are related to each other by a temporal relationship, for example: لمَّا سافرَ أخي، سافرتُ معه. “When my brother traveled, I traveled with him.” كلَّماسافرَ…
The expression “There is” in Arabic Posted by aziza on Dec 6, 2009
The expressions ‘there is’ and ‘there are’ are expressed in two ways in Arabic. The first one is using (هُناكَ) which literally means ‘there’. This expression is used in a nominal sentence with a fronted predicate, and the subject of the sentence is usually indefinite, e.g. هُناكَرَجُلٌ في الشارِع. “There is a man in the…
The Arabic Imperative (Part 4) Posted by aziza on Nov 30, 2009
In this post, I explain the imperative (الأمر) of verb forms VII, VIII and X. In these three verb forms, the imperative is expressed by changing the voweling of the verb so that a short i (كسرة) is placed on the letter before last, as follows: Form VII(انفعل) اِنْتَظَر (wait) اِنْشَغَل (keep busy) أنتَ اِنْتَظِرْ…