Archive for 'Grammar'
How to use the Dual form الْمُثَنَّى in Arabic? Part one Posted by yasmine on Jan 23, 2019
Learning Arabic plurals is not easy, I’ll admit, but… we cannot forget the dual form in Arabic الْمُثَنَّى which is a separate form for talking about two people, things, or actions. It’s important to know how to use the dual in Arabic because we cannot simply use the plural form instead. The dual form can…
Arabic Attached Pronouns Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Oct 23, 2018
الضَّمِيْر ‘the pronoun’ in Arabic is either overt or covert. The covert is called مُسْتَتِر, and it is neither written nor pronounced. The overt is called ظَاهِر, and it can be separate مُنْفَصِل or attached مُتَّصِل. This post is primarily about the attached pronouns in Arabic. الضَّمِيْرُ المُنْفَصِل The Separate Pronoun: الضَّمِيْر المُنْفَصِل ‘the separate…
Adjective Agreement in Arabic Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Oct 18, 2018
An adjective is word that describes a noun. In Arabic it is called صِفَة (or نَعْت). It follows the noun, and it must agree with it in definiteness (i.e. نَكِرَة or مَعْرِفَة), number (i.e. مُفْرَد, مُثَنَّى, or جَمْع), gender (i.e. مُذَكَّر or مُؤَنَّث), and case (i.e. مَرْفُوع, مَنْصُوب, or مَجْرُور). This post is about the…
Arabic Demonstrative Pronouns Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Oct 17, 2018
Generally, demonstrative pronouns are words like ‘this’ and ‘that’. In Arabic, they are called ‘demonstrative nouns’ أَسْمَاءُ الإشَارَة. A demonstrative noun by itself is an ambiguous word until defined by a subsequent word. As regards gender, a demonstrative pronoun is either masculine or feminine. As for number, it is either singular, dual, or plural. As…
Some Insights into Arabic Verb Usage (2) Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Oct 11, 2018
In an earlier post, we looked at how intransitive verbs are made transitive and vice versa. This is done by adding or dropping a letter or letters to the basic verb. A verb like نَزَلَ ‘to get down’ is made transitive in two ways: adding hamzah or doubling the middle letter, hence أَنْزَل or نَزَّلَ…
Basic Arabic: Diacritical Marks Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Sep 25, 2018
In an earlier post, you learned that short vowels الحَرَكَات القَصِيْرَة in Arabic are not represented by letters; rather, they are diacritical marks that are placed over or below regular consonant letters. These short vowels are the fatHah الفَتْحَة, the kasrah الكَسْرَة, and the DHammah الضَّمَّة. In addition, there are two other essential marks: the…
Tricky Prepositions Posted by aziza on Sep 24, 2018
Prepositions can be a very tricky aspect of learning a foreign language. Often, we find correspondence between languages in the basic meaning and usage of certain prepositions, e.g. in Arabic (في) usually translates into (in) in English and (على) usually translates into (on) in English. However, this is not always the case, as there are…