The Arabic Sun and Moon Letters Posted by aziza on Feb 14, 2009
The Arabic alphabet (الأبجدية العربية) contains 28 letters, which are classified into 14 sun letters (الحروف الشمسية) and 14 moon letters (الحروف القمرية). This classification is based on the way these letters affect the pronunciation of the definite article (ال) at the beginning of words. The definite article is assimilated into the sun letters and…
Number Agreement in Arabic Posted by aziza on Feb 9, 2009
In English, words are either singular or plural, yet in Arabic, words can be singular (مفرد), dual (مثنى) or plural (جمع). Singular words refer to one person or thing only, dual nouns refer to two persons or things, while plural words refer to more than two. It is often the case that learners of Arabic…
Be My Friend! Posted by aziza on Feb 6, 2009
“Be My Friend!” (كن صديقى) is a beautiful poem by the famous Kuwaiti poet, critic and writer Suad al-Sabah. She was born in 1942 to the ruling family of Kuwait. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Cairo University in 1973, and a PhD also in economics from Sari Guilford University in the UK in 1981…
Noun Gender in Arabic Posted by aziza on Feb 6, 2009
All Arabic nouns carry grammatical gender whether they refer to animate or inanimate objects. For living creatures, grammatical gender corresponds to biological gender, e.g. (رجل) “man” is masculine, while (امرأة) “woman” is feminine. For inanimate objects, the relationship between grammatical gender and objects is arbitrary, e.g. (كرسي) “chair” is a masculine noun, while (طاولة) “table”…
Arabic calligraphy Posted by aziza on Jan 31, 2009
Arabic calligraphy (الخط العربي) is a very important aspect of Arabic art and culture that has enjoyed an important status in Arabic culture for centuries. Calligraphy is defined as beautiful or decorative handwriting, which is a feature of the majority of writing systems around the world. In Arabic and Islamic culture, calligraphy has enjoyed a…
Arabic sentence structure: nominal and verbal sentences Posted by aziza on Jan 29, 2009
Arabic has 2 types of sentences: nominal and verbal. Nominal sentences begin with a noun or a pronoun, while verbal sentences begin with a verb. Nominal sentences have 2 parts: a subject (مبتدأ) and a predicate (خبر). When the nominal sentence is about being, i.e. if the verb of the sentence is ‘to be’ in…
Colors and Nature in Arabic Posted by aziza on Jan 23, 2009
In Arabic, many words referring to colors are derived from things that are found in nature and that have the color as pertinent to them, e.g brown is derived from coffee beans, pink is derived from flower, golden is derived from gold, and so on. These words are formed by adding a (ي) at the…