Archive for 'Arabic Language'
The Arabic Imperative (Part 2) Posted by aziza on Nov 25, 2009
In this post, I explain the imperative (الأمر) with verb forms II – IV. 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 II (فعَّل) شجَّع(encourage) كَسَّر (break) رَتَّب (arrange) أنتَ شَجِّعْ…
The Arabic Imperative (Part 1) Posted by aziza on Nov 23, 2009
The imperative (الأمر) is used to make orders. It is addressed to a person or persons; therefore, verbs are conjugated with second person pronouns only, i.e. ‘you’ (أنتَ – أنتِ – أنتما – أنتم – أنتن). Verbs that contain three letters follow the pattern (افعلْ) and take the appropriate endings according to gender and number…
Ibn Khaldoun Posted by aziza on Nov 14, 2009
Ibn Khaldoun (ابن خلدون) is a famous medieval Islamic historian and scholar who was born in Tunis in 1332 AD/732 AH, and who travelled extensively. He is a famous historian, sociologist, philosopher, among others. He was born to a rich and well-educated family of politicians and scholars, with ancestry in Andalusia. In his childhood, he…
Subject-Verb Agreement in Arabic Posted by aziza on Nov 7, 2009
In this post, I explain an important yet simple rule related to subject-verb agreement in Arabic. When the verb follows the subject, it must agree with it in number and gender, e.g. الطلاب يدرسون في الجامعة. “Students (masc.) study at university.” الطالبان يدرسان في الجامعة. “Students (dual, masc.) study at university.” الطالبات يدرسن في الجامعة…
Computer terms in Arabic Posted by aziza on Oct 28, 2009
Computer terminology has become part of everyday language of people, especially young people in the Arab world. Computer technology develops very fast and reaches Arab markets and consumers before Arabic words have been made to accompany them. Therefore, computer technology reaches Arab societies in English. Of course there are Arabic words for a great deal…
Arabic Vocabulary: Nationalities Posted by aziza on Oct 22, 2009
Nationalities (جِنْسِيَّات) are formed as adjectives in Arabic by adding the suffix (يّ) to the end of the country name. For example, Egypt is (مِصْر), and Egyptian is (مِصْري); Algeria is (الجَزَائِر), and Algerian is (جَزَائِري), Brazil is (البَرَازيل), and Brazilian is (بَرَازيلي). There are some changes done to certain country names when we form…
The Jussive Case in Arabic Posted by aziza on Oct 13, 2009
In previous posts, I explained two cases of the present/imperfect tense. The default case in which present tense verbs take short /o/ (الضمة) which is called (المضارع المرفوع), and the subjunctive (المضارع المنصوب); in which verbs take short /a/ (الفتحة), and if the verb ends in one of suffixes (ون، ان، ين), the final (ن)…