Archive for 'Grammar'
How to Order and Make Suggestions in Arabic (2) Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Feb 22, 2018
In a previous post, I showed how to give orders/instructions in Arabic. We almost always use the imperative form of the verb الفِعْلُ الأَمْر which is derived from the present form of the 3rd person singular masculine. This post focuses on conjugating the imperative form with the 2nd person singular feminine, dual, and plural. Also…
Basic Sentence Structure in Arabic (IV) Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Feb 20, 2018
In a previous post, you learned about the types of sentence in Arabic. It is either nominal اِسْمِيَّة or verbal فِعْلِيَّة. The nominal must start with a noun called the subject/topic مُبْتَدأ. It is called مُبْتَدَأ because it is the focus of the sentence. Other words that follow (or may precede) state something about it…
Word-formation in Arabic: Blending in Egyptian Dialect Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Feb 13, 2018
Colloquial use of Arabic is associated with mistakes in grammar, pronunciation, and word-formation. This is not new; it’s been around since the early days of Islam, mainly in the speech of non-Arabs. It first emerged in the wrong assignment of final diacritical marks, that is parsing or I‘raab إِعْرَاب. Except for borrowed words, colloquial usage…
Almanqoos (Part 3) Posted by aziza on Feb 9, 2018
This post deals with a tricky type of nouns in Arabic (الاسم المنقوص). This is a noun that ends in ي /ii/ sound, e.g. النادي ، القاضي ، المحامي. It has been dealt with in previous posts: https://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/almanqoos/ https://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/almanqoos-part-2/ In this post, I present how this noun appears in dual and plural forms. Dual…
How to Order and Give Instructions in Arabic Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Feb 8, 2018
To give orders or instructions in Arabic, full verbs in the imperative form are used. In Arabic, ‘order’ is أَمْر and its plural is أَوَامِر and ‘instruction’ is تَوْجِيْه and its plural is تَوْجِيْهَات. A full verb is the verb that indicates an action, as لَعِبَ ‘to play’, كَتَبَ ‘to write’, وَعَدَ ‘to promise’ and…
Basic Sentence Structure in Arabic (III) Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Dec 1, 2017
Previously, you were acquainted with the types of sentences in Arabic. Based on the part of speech of the word with which it starts, the sentence is verbal فِعْلِيَّة or nominal اِسْمِيَّة. The verbal must at least have a verb فِعْل and a subject فَاعِل to be meaningful. In this post, you learn the common…
Plural or singular? Posted by aziza on Nov 24, 2017
Some English words are always plural, e.g. trousers, jeans, socks, scissors, tweezers, glasses, spectacles, among others. When translating these words into Arabic, we have singular nouns, e.g. trousers = سروال / بنطال هذا السروال قصير جداً. These trousers are very short. jeans = جينز هل هذا الجينز جديد؟ Are these jeans new? socks = جورب…