Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Thursday, 25 June 2015
Sunday, 14 June 2015
Non-human Plurals
- Non-human Plurals are treated as feminine singular in terms
of adjective, pronoun, and
subject-verb agreement.
السيَّاراتُ جديدةٌ. هي جميلة ٌ أيضاً.
The cars are new. They are pretty, too.
I wrote twenty letters
and I read twenty books
- Multiples of 10 do not show gender distinction. Consider the following sentence:
کتبتُ عشرينَ رسالة ً وقرأتُ عشرينَ کتاباً.
A Hundred and One Rules !
Mohammed Jiyad
Saturday, 13 June 2015
The Phonological Environment for Form VIII Verb.
- The Phonological Environment for Form VIII Verb. The
Characteristic feature of Form VIII
is the reflexive affix / ـتـَ / which is inserted after the first
radical of the root. That / ـتـَ / will create the environment for a
phonological rule of assimilation that applies itself if the first radical is a
dental stop or fricative. The result is that the inserted / ـتـَ /
is assimilated. Involved here are the following consonants:
ت ث د ذ ز ص ض ط ظ
Compare the following examples:
(a)
a fully pronounced / ـتـَ / جَمَعَ
إجتَمَعَ
(b)
a fully assimilated / ـتـَ / زادَ - إزدادَ
، دَعا - إدَّعی
Luckily, Arabic does not have many
verbs of this type. However, you need to remember the three following related
phonological rules:
(1). After the emphatic consonants ص ض ط
the inserted / ـتـَ / becomes emphatic
ط, as in صَدَمَ - إصطدَمَ
(2). After the fricatives ت ظ
there is a complete assimilation and the resultant
double consonant is written with Shadda, as in
ظَلـَمَ – إظـَّلـَمَ
ظَلـَمَ – إظـَّلـَمَ
(3). If the first radical of the verb is ( و)
as in وَصَلَ
, the ( و)
will be completely
assimilated by the inserted / ـتـَ /, and thus the use of the Shadda would
be required. Consider the following example:
وَصَلَ – إتـَّصَلَ
A Hundred and One Rules !
Mohammed Jiyad
The Verb Form Numbers
- The Verb Form Numbers system is quite
old, going back to the earliest European Arabic grammars such as that of
Guillaume Postal, Paris, ca. 1538 and Pedro de Alcala' ca. 1613. Their order of numbering is the same as that which
we are familiar with today. Another grammar was published in
- The system, an extremely useful mnemonic device is not entirely unrelated to the traditional work of صَرف, for it follows the order of المجرَّد and المزيد .The use of numbering, however, is the Latin, European innovation which might have been a claque on some aspect of the study of Latin grammar. At the very least, it is well known that Latin grammar traditionally numbers the different classes of conjugation. De Sacy is careful to make clear in his presentation the verb forms that they fall into groups of
المزيد بحرف ، المزيد بحرفين، المزيد بثبلثةِ حُروف
Most verbs in
Arabic can be classified into ten forms. These forms are:
1.
فَعَلَ دَرَسَ 6. تَفاعَلَ تَراسَلَ
2. فَعَّلَ دَرَّسَ 7. إنفَعَلَ إنقَلـَبَ
3. فاعَلَ شاهَدَ 8. إفتَعَلَ إرتَفَعَ
4. أفعَلَ أقبَلَ 9. إفعَلَّ إحمَرَّ
5. تَفَعَّلَ تَحَدَّثَ 10. إستَفعَلَ إستَخدَمَ
Furthermore, each transitive
pattern has an automatic passive counterpart where the stem short vowel Ftha
and Kasra are replaced by Dhamma and Kasra.
To learn more about these forms, please check the computer program
ARAFORM. You will find it and other programs at the following website:
www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/mjiyad/
A Hundred and One Rules !
Mohammed Jiyad
3-Letter Root Form
- The Roots. Most Arabic words can be attributed to some 3-letter root, where radicals are referred to by means of a prototypical root, فَعَلَ. ف stands for the first radical, ع for the second, and ل for the third. This 3-letter root form is the entry you need to use when you want to check out any word in any Arabic dictionary. You should know by now how to dissect words in order to get to that root. Mainly, you need to drop off any gender and number markers of the noun/adjective. In case of the verbs, you need to drop off any subject, tense, and mood markers.
A Hundred and One Rules !
Mohammed Jiyad
Thursday, 11 June 2015
Feminine Sound Plurals
- Feminine Sound Plurals take the genitive marker for the accusative case.
شاهدنا الطالباتِ في مَکتبِ البريدِ.
We saw the students (f) at the post office.
A Hundred and One Rules !
Mohammed Jiyad
Object Pronouns of Prepositions
- Object Pronouns of Prepositions. The object pronouns for transitive verbs are the same for the intransitive verbs which take prepositions. An exception to this is the object pronoun for the first person, أنا , which becomes (ي) for some prepositions.
ذهَبَتْ معي إلی السوق ِ.
She went with me to the market.
Please remember that the object pronouns in
such linguistic environment are attached to prepositions, not the verbs.
The list of verb and preposition object
pronouns suffixes includes the following:
Object Subject Independent
1. أنا ـتُ
ـني / (ي)
2. أنتَ ـتَ
ـكَ
3. إنتِ ـتِ
ـكِ
4. هو -َ ـهُ
5. هي ـتْ ـها
6. نحن ـنا ـنا
7. أنتم ـتُم ـکُم
8. أنتُنَّ ـتُنَّ ـکُنَّ
9. هُم ـوا ـهُم
10. هُنَّ ـنَ ـهُنَّ
- Prepositions which end with Alif MaQsura, (ی) will reclaim their original (ي ) form when any object pronoun is attached to them. Check the following example:
سَلـَّمَ عليها عندما شاهدَها في مَحطةِ القطاراتِ.
He greeted her when he saw her at the train station.
A Hundred and One Rules !
Mohammed Jiyad
Verb Object Pronouns
- Verb Object Pronouns. We mentioned earlier that object pronouns are suffixed to the transitive verbs.
شاهدَها في
مَحطةِ القطاراتِ.
He saw her at the train station.
A Hundred and One Rules !
Mohammed Jiyad
Wednesday, 10 June 2015
The question word -"Which"
- أيَّـة ُ / أيُّ both mean “which” (as a question word). The first is used for masculine while the second is used for feminine. The noun which follows either one of them has to be in the genitive case. The implication is that the two nouns create Idaafa. Please notice that أيَّـة ُ / أيُّ carry the vowel of the original case of the noun you ask about.
أيَّـة ُ مَجلـَّةٍ هذهِ؟
a. Which magazine (subject-nominative) is this?
أيَّ طالبٍ شاهدتِ؟
b. Which student (m) (object-accusative) did you (f) see?
إلی أيـَّةِ مدينةٍ سافرتَ؟
c. To which city (object of a prep.-genitive) did you travel?
A Hundred and One Rules !
Mohammed Jiyad
Plurals
- Plurals. There are three types of plural in Arabic:
a. The Masculine Sound plural is
created by ( ونَ ) suffixed to the noun in the
nominative case, and ( ينَ) in
both genitive and accusative cases.
teachers (m) مُدرِّسونَ
، مُدرِّسينَ ، مُدرِّسينَ
b. The Feminine sound plural is created
by dropping the Taa’ MarbuuTa and replacing it with ( اتٌ)
for the nominative case and ( اتٍ ) for the accusative
& genitive cases.
teachers
مُدرِّساتٌ ، مُدرِّساتٍ
، مُدرِّساتٍ
c.
The Broken plural is an irregular form. Even though several nouns may exhibit
the same "broken" pattern, one has to learn the words individually.
dog(s), cat(s) کلبٌ / کِلابٌ ،
قِطـٌّ / قِططـٌّ
A Hundred and One Rules !
Mohammed Jiyad
De facto Case of the Noun and Adjective
- The De facto Case of the Noun and Adjective in Arabic is Nominative. A noun case is changed to accusative if it becomes an object of a verb (There are other cases where a noun should carry the accusative case marker. Check Kaana & Inna points). A noun is said to be in the genitive case if it follows a preposition
or it is a second term of Idaafa. No matter what is the case of the noun, the adjective will follow, marked by the same case.
The Egyptian man is in his house. الرجُلُ المِصريُّ في بَيِتِهِ.
I saw the Egyptian man. شاهدتُ الرجُلَ المصريَّ.
I said hello to the Egyptian man. سلـَّمتُ علی الرجُل ِ المصريِّ.
- لِماذا (why) has to be followed by a verb because it asks about action/activity (verbs usually express those).
Why did you (m) go back to the room? لِماذا رجعتُ إلی الغرفةِ؟
- When it means “how many,” کَم has to be followed by an indefinite noun, in the accusative case. Unlike English, it has to be singular. Arab grammarians call it a particle of "The Accusative of Distinction," or تَمييز.
How many students are there in the class? کم طالِباً في الصفِّ؟
A Hundred and One Rules !