Archive for 'Grammar'
Arabic Conditionals: Who, What, When, and Where Posted by aziza on Dec 12, 2009
In this post, I explain 4 more conditionals in Arabic, more specifically (مَنْ) “who”, (ما) “what”, (متى) “when”, and (أين) “where”. As explained earlier, conditionals are used with 2 actions; one of them depends on the other. Therefore, there must be 2 embedded verbal sentences in each conditional sentence. With (مَنْ) and (ما), both the…
Arabic Conditionals Using If Posted by aziza on Dec 3, 2009
Conditional sentences are made up of 2 parts or 2 sentences, one of them contains a particle for condition (أداة الشرط), and this sentence is called (جملة الشرط). The other one provides the outcome of the condition, and it is called (جواب الشرط). The most common type of conditional in English involves ‘if’. There are…
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…
The Arabic Imperative (Part 3) Posted by aziza on Nov 28, 2009
In this post, I explain the imperative (الأمر) with verb forms V (تفعَّل) and VI (تفاعل). In these two verb forms, the imperative does not involve changing the internal voweling of the verb; therefore, the imperative is expressed as follows: Form V (تفعَّل) تَحَرَّك(move) تَنَقَّل (move around) تَوَقَّف (stop) أنتَ تَحَرَّكْ تَنَقَّلْ تَوَقَّفْ أنتِ تَحَرَّكي…
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…
verb to ‘be’ Posted by aziza on Nov 9, 2009
English sentences that are expressed using verb to be are often translated into nominal sentences in Arabic, and verb to be does not appear at all in the present timeframe, e.g. “I am a student” is translated into (أنا طالبة); and “she is young” is translated into (هي صغيرة). When talking about the past or…
Arabic case marking with feminine plurals Posted by aziza on Nov 3, 2009
In this post, I explain the use of the case marking system with sound feminine plurals. Sound feminine plural nouns and adjectives end with (ات). They are marked for their case with vowels like singular nouns. However, they have special markings. In the nominative case, i.e. when the noun is used as the subject of…