Tag Archives: Arabic grammar
Categorical Negation in Arabic Posted by aziza on Dec 3, 2010
The negative particle (لا) is typically used to negate verbal sentences in the present tense. In this way, it is used before the present tense verb to negate it, e.g. لا أشرب الكحول. “I do not drink alcohol.” There is another use of (لا) for categorical negation (لا النافية للجنس). In this way, (لا) negates…
Some constructions involving nouns Posted by aziza on Nov 2, 2010
In this post, I bring together some constructions that are based on nouns or that involve nouns in them. These can be confusing to new learners of Arabic. The reviewd constructions are nominal sentence (الجملة الاسمية), nouns and adjectives (الاسم والصفة) and idaafa constructions (الإضافة). The Nominal Sentence: A nominal sentence begins with a noun or a pronoun…
Connectors in Arabic – Condition Posted by aziza on Sep 25, 2010
It is very important when we write in any language to create logical relationships between the ideas that we present. There is a number of relationships that we can create like addition, contrast, among others, and there are many words and expressions that we can use to express these relationships. In this post, I present…
Connectors in Arabic – Contrast Posted by aziza on Sep 20, 2010
It is very important when we write in any language to create logical relationships between the ideas that we present. There is a number of relationships that we can create like addition, contrast, among others, and there are many words and expressions that we can use to express these relationships. In this post, I present…
Connectors in Arabic – Addition Posted by aziza on Sep 16, 2010
It is very important when we write in any language to create logical relationships between the ideas that we present. There is a number of relationships that we can create like addition, contrast, among others, and there are many words and expressions that we can use to express these relationships. In this post, I present…
Punctuation in Arabic Posted by aziza on Sep 10, 2010
Punctuation marks (علامات الترقيم) are not always used correctly in Arabic. In this post, I explain some of the rules related to the use of punctuation marks. First of all, it should be noted that some punctuation marks in Arabic look different from the English counterparts, e.g. the English comma is (,) while the Arabic…
Negating verbal sentences in Arabic Posted by aziza on Sep 3, 2010
In this post, I explain how to negate verbal sentences, and provide some exercises to practice it. To negate the present tense, we use the particle (لا) immediately before the verb. Remember, nothing should separate (لا) from the verb. Consider the following examples: الولد يحمل حقيبة. “The boy carries a bag.” الولد لا يحمل حقيبة…