Definiteness and indefiniteness markers

Definiteness and indefiniteness markers

Definite article al- ال The definite article in Arabic is spelled with alif-laam and is attached as a prefix.

The CasesThe basic functions of the three noun cases are as follows: The nominative case is used for

the subject and predicate noun or adjective.

The accusative case is used for the direct object, predicative complement in verbal sentences, and for most adverbs.

The genitive case is used for expressing possession and after prepositions.

Definiteness and indefiniteness markers

The definite article ... ل# al... is used more أfrequently in Arabic than in English. One of the reasons for this is that nouns referring to abstract things, whole collectives and generic terms, generally take the definite article, e.g.

Sun and moon lettersThe Arabic consonants are phonetically divided into two major classes called:

sun letters, ة مسي حروف ش#assimilating

moon letters, ة حروف ق#م#ريnon-assimilating

Sun lettersThe sun letters have received their name from the Arabic word for ‘sun’, مس ,//ش ... ,whose first letter , ش#belongs to the class of assimilating letters. There are fourteen sun letters. These letters are pronounced with the tongue touching the teeth or front part of the mouth:

ص ض ط ظ ل ن ت ث د ذ ر ز س ش

Sun lettersWhen the definite article ... ل# al.../ is/ أattached to a word which begins with a sun letter, the sound ... ل /l/ of the definite article is assimilated to the sound of the following sun letter. Owing to the assimilation, the first consonant of the word is doubled, which is indicated by a şaddah above it.

Moon lettersThe other fourteen letters are called moon letters, because the first letter, ق, of the Arabic word for ‘moon’, ق#م#ر, represents the class of non-assimilating letters: أ ب ج ح خ ع غ ف ق ك م ه و

ي

Moon lettersWhen the definite article ... ل# is // أattached to a word beginning with a moon letter, the lam ... ل /l.../ of the article is not assimilated and retains its pronunciation, e.g.

#لق#م#ر a moon ق#م#ر the أmoon#اب #اب a book كت #لكت the أbook

AdjectivesAn adjective normally follows the noun it qualifies and agrees with it in gender, number and case, except when the noun refers to non-humans, i.e. animals and things.

When the adjective functions as predicate in a nominal sentence (predicative construction), it is always indefinite, even when the subject is definite:

#لم#تح#ف ج#ميل The museum (is) أbeautiful/nice.

#يت و#اسع The house (is) ألبlarge.

AdjectivesWhen the adjective functions as a modifier of a noun (attributive construction), it also agrees with the head noun in terms of definiteness.

#يت #لب the large لو#اسع أhouse

#يت و#اسع a large house بOR A house is large

Nominal and verbal sentences

A nominal sentence does not contain a verb and consists of two components: subject and predicate. The subject is usually a noun (phrase) or pronoun in the nominative case. The predicate may be a noun (phrase), pronoun, an indefinite adjective, or an adverb of place or time.

Nominal and verbal sentences

A nominal sentence refers to the present tense and does not require the copula to be, e.g.

Nominal and verbal sentencesA verbal sentence contains a verb, and has the following basic word order:

verb + subject + object or complement

The subject is normally in the nominative case. The direct object, which may occur only with transitive verbs, is in the accusative case

ج# ط#الب #ل# .A student went out خ#ر# #ك أ#لب خبزا .A dog ate bread ك

NOUNS - Gender

There are two genders in Arabic. The term used for gender is #لجنس which literally means , أ‘sex, race, kind’.

(a) Masculine nouns, ر #لمذ#ك are أwithout special form.

(b) Feminine nouns, ث #لمؤ#ن أhave several forms

NOUNS - Gender

Tâ marbûtah When the letter hâ ه is written with two dots above ة it is pronounced as /t/, exactly like the letter ت . It is then called tâ

marbûtah and occurs only at the end of a word, mostly to indicate thefeminine gender of nouns or adjectives.

The most common way to derive feminine nouns and adjectives is by

adding the ending .# ة to the masculine form, e.g.

NOUNS - Gender

NOUNS - Gender Most parts or organs of the body which occur in pairs are feminine e.g. د ع#ين# رجل ي There are words which are feminine by nature, e.g.

.A few nouns are feminine by usage, e.g ح#املأم ع#روس

#رض ح#رب أمس ش#

Number - Dual and pluralArabic nouns and adjectives are inflected for three numbers:

singular د #نى dual مفر# ج#مع plural مثDual

The dual is used for pairs, namely for two individuals or things of the same kind or class, e.g. two boys, two girls, two hands, two books, etc.

ان for nominative ين for accusative and genitive

Number - Dual and plural

The pluralThere are two plural types in Arabic:

(a) The sound plural may be compared to the English external plural or regular plural.

(b) The broken plural may be compared to the English internal or irregular plural.

The pluralThe sound masculine plural of nouns and adjectives is formed by replacing the case endings of the singular with the following two suffixes:

#ون .. in the nominative #ين . in the accusative and genitive

Sing. (masc.) Plur. nom. (masc.) Plur. acc. and gen. (masc.)

مون# م مع#ل مع#لمين# مع#ل

The pluralThe sound feminine plural is formed by adding the following two suffixes to the singular word stem:

ات .#. / in the nominative ات .#. / in the accusative and genitive

TENSESThere are two main tenses in the Arabic language. 1.Perfect Tense, 2.Imperfect Tense or the Present Tense. The action is completed in the perfect tense. Alternately, in the second tense, i.e., the imperfect, the action is still continuing.

To form future tense in Arabic the prefix is added to the present tense "” (ســ)verb, or (سوف) ”".

PRONOUNS

PREPOSITIONS

Numbersصفر ٠

١ واحد

٢ إثنان

ثالثة ٣٤

أربعةخمسة ٥ستة ٦

سبعة ٧ ثمانية ٨ تسعة ٩

عشرة ١٠إحدى ١١

عشرإثنا ١٢

عشرثالثة ١٣

عشر عشرون ٢٠

ثالثون ٣٠أربعون ٤٠خمسون ٥٠

ستون ٦٠سبعون ٧٠

ثمانون ٨٠تسعون ٩٠

مائة ١٠٠ألف ١٠٠٠ مائة ١٠٠٠٠٠

ألفألفين ٢٠٠٠

١٠٠٠٠٠٠٠ مليون

Resources Books

Arabic – Verbs and Essentials of Grammar / Jane Wightwick, Mahmud Gaafar

Arabic: An Essential Grammar / Faruk Abu-Chacra

Easy Arabic Grammar / Jane Wightwick, Mahmud Gaafar

A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic / KARIN C. RYDING

Websites

http://arabic.tripod.com/

http://www.languageguide.org/arabic/

http://www.arabic-language.org/