Let's Learn Arabic

Let's Learn Arabic

When conjugating verbs, there are three aspects about the subject (i.e. the one doing the verb) to keep in mind:

· person (third, second, and first): The third person is used when you are talking about the subject and the subject is not present, the second person is used when you are addressing the subject, and the first person is used when you yourself are the subject.
· gender (masculine and feminine)
· plurality (singular, dual, and plural)

Arabic uses all three persons and it uses the masculine and feminine genders with no neutral. Furthermore, plurality in Arabic is of three types: singular, dual, and plural. Dual indicates on two entities and plural indicates on three or more entities.

Multiplying 3 persons with 2 genders with 3 pluralities yields 18 conjugations. So we would expect Arabic conjugation tables to look something like the following.

Conjugation
English Pronoun
3rd person
Masculine
Singular
He
Dual
They (2 male)

الاسم الموصول
a relative pronoun
صلة الموصول
a relative clause

Recall that nouns, phrases, and sentences are indefinite by default. There are certain groups of nouns, however, that are definite; these are personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, proper nouns, and the word “Allah”. But this is a very exclusive list.

So, even if a noun does not fall into one of these categories, it can still be rendered definite using certain mechanisms such as becoming the object of vocation or become مضاف to something that it definite. But, again, these mechanisms are very specific and one may wish to render a noun definite without resorting to one of these structures.

مبتدأ
topic (the subject of a nominal sentence)
خبر
comment (the predicate of a nominal sentence)

Both the topic and comment are nominative. The agent that renders the topic nominative is not explicit; rather, it is the very fact that it is the topic. And the agent that renders the comment nominative is the topic.

The Topic

The topic of a sentence may be a single word, or it may be a phrase of undetermined length. But it cannot be a complete sentence. It is true, however, that when the topic of a sentence is a phrase, that phrase may itself contain embedded sentences. Consider the examples below.

Topic Type
Translation
Example
word
The pearl is a type of gem
اللؤلؤ جوهرة
phrase
Polishing the diamond is mandatory
صقال الماس واجب
phrase with an embedded sentence
The sapphire which I lost yesterday is valuable
الصفير الذي فقدته أمس قيّم

Moreover, the topic of a sentence cannot be one of the following two things.

Arabic
English
أتى يأتي
to come
أخَذ يأخُذ
to take
أكَل يأكُل
to eat
أمَر يأمُر
to command
بحَث يبحَث
to (re)search
بدَأ يبدَأ
to begin
بدَل يبدُل
to replace
برَز يبرُز
to emerge
بسَط يبسُط
to spread (something)
بعَث يبعَث
to dispatch
بقِي يبقى
to remain
بكى يبكي
to cry
بلَغ يبلُغ
to reach
بنى يبتي
to build
بان يبين
to become clear
تبِع يتبَع
to follow
ترَك يترُك
to leave/abandon
تمّ يتِمّ
to complete
تاب يتوب
to repent
ثبَت يثبُت
to be firmly established

Exercise: translate the following into Arabic
· she began to eat solid foods when she reached the age of one
· he sent many men to build it before it was finally complete
· stay with me, otherwise I will just keep following you
· I was ordered to take these
· don’t cry over me
· it is abandoned




Arabic
English
جرَح يجرَح
to wound
جرى يجري
to flow (literally or abstractly)
جعَل يجعَل

In a sentence, words can play many roles. They can be the subject of the sentence, the object of a verb, possessive, etc. So how do we know what role a word is playing? If we can’t figure this out, the meaning will be ambiguous.

In English, we solve this ambiguity by using word order. For example, “Zaid sat on the bus” is clearly different from “The bus sat on Zaid.” How do we know it’s different? It’s the order that tells us.

Arabic doesn’t use order to achieve disambiguation; it uses the vowels (long or short) near the end of words. For example, “ضرب زيدٌ عمراً” is different from “ضرب زيداً عمرٌ”. Why is it different; the order of words didn’t change? It’s because of the vowels at the end of the words. This concept has been thoroughly introduced in the tutorial entitled The Heart of Arabic Grammar.
What is this Tutorial About?

My eye, o my eye,o my eye
bring the tears
the soul be cheap if she leave my side
Nor leave lovable i residence in my heart
God swear I not forget him o eye
Whatever the leave long me
Nor love but him whatever sells me

My eye,o my eye, o my eye
bring the tears

Joy and appeared to me after a long patience
she was for me, O Lord,in my life
she was dream in the night
and wake up early
nor my heart joy in it nor my eye
My eye,o my eye, o my eye


Ya ean ya ean (يا عين ياعين)

يا عين يا عين يا عيني ... بالدمع وافيني

تهون عليا الروح ... لو فارقت جمبي
ولا فراق محبوب ... سكنته في قلبي
يا عين يا عين يا عيني ... بالدمع وافيني

والله انا ما انساه يا عين ... مهما البعاد طال بي
ولا نحب سواه ... مهما يبيع عيوني
يا عين يا عين يا عيني ... بالدمع وافيني

فرحة وبانت لي ... من بعد طول صبري
هيّ اللي كانت لي ... يا رب في عمري
كانت منام بالليل ... وصحيت من بدري
ولافرح بيها قلبي ... ولا عيني
يا عين يا عين يا عيني ... بالدمع وافيني

كلمات: محمود بيرم التونسي

جائع ga-i hungry
عطشان atshan thirsty
لديه طعام كافي ladayhi ta-am kafi eaten enough
افطار iftar breakfast
غذاء ghadha lunch
عشاء ashara dinner
الخبز alkhubz bread
اللحم allahm meat
الحساء alhasa soup
الفاكهة alfakiha fruit
السلطة assalata salad
الشاى ash-shay tea

اسم الإشارة
demonstrative pronoun

A demonstrative pronoun is a noun (اسم) which is used to point to something that has already been mentioned in some form or another. The pointing is either near (“this”), medial, or distant (“that”). For example:

هذا كتاب مبين
This is a clear book

And:

كلما رُزقوا منها ... قالوا هذا الذي رُزقنا من قبل
Whenever they are to be given sustenance therein,
they shall say, “this (i.e. this sustenance) is what we have been given prior.”

The demonstrative pronoun itself is definite.

The Demonstrative Pronouns and Their Meanings

The demonstrative pronouns are as follows. The purpose of displaying these is not for the reader to memorize them; they are simply presented here for reference and the ones that are popularly used are discussed further down.

ذا، ذاءِ، ذائِهِ، ذاؤُهُ، آلِكَ
Masculine
ذي، تي، ذِهْ، ذِهِ، تِهْ، تِهِ، تا، ذاتُ
Feminine

Arabic grammar is centered around a single topic; grammatical inflection. Anything studied in the language is studied only because it relates to this issue. It is a feat of staggering genius on the part of medieval grammarians that almost all aspects of the language are covered just by concentrating on the issue of grammatical inflection. We start with this topic, and it branches out to cover the entire language.

The following is a breakdown of how we approach and study grammar. This approach allows us to cover all the core issues.

1. some basics
a. words – a look at the different types of words in the language and how they’re divided and categorized
b. phrases – a close look at some of the more common phrasal structures, serving to introduce some key concepts and terminology
c. sentences – a look at the different types of sentences as preparation for more advanced topics

واحد wahed one
اثنين ethnein two
ثلاثة thalatha three
أربعة arba-a four
خمسة khamsa five
ستة sitta six
سبعة sab-a seven
ثمانية thamanya eight
تسعة tis-a nine
عشرة ashara ten

Who do you want me to forget, love?
Where did you get these words from?
I'm your love, too
And if I left you, where would I find someone like you?

Basically, let me tell you something
My heart has completely melted
My love for you is getting bigger
Every second, and it won't stop

Ask the stars, even
They'll tell you that everyday
I stay up late and never sleep, thinking of you

Even the moon up in the sky
I'd always take pictures of it
I'd go it and it would come to me, and we'd talk about you

I swear by how precious you are to me
That you, my love, are to me
The world and everything in it, and I have no one but you

You're the only one, believe me
In this whole world who captivated me
And filled up my world and made me forget about everyone else

Who do you want me to forget, love?

Put your heart at ease, love
Tell it that you swear you love it
And no matter what happens between us
I'll never leave you

With you, I see the world

There are seven types of derived nouns. Each one of these is a class of noun that comes with a set of patterns (and perhaps some morphological rules) that tell us how to construct it, as well as a connotation that it adds to the base meaning which helps us understand its meaning.

We will discuss each of these seven nouns in turn by explaining how to take a set of base letters and construct the noun, and we will precisely define the connotation the noun adds to the base meaning. Here we give an overview and loose definitions as a gentle introduction.

· اسم الفاعل (active participle): the one that enacts the base meaning
· اسم المبالغة (hyperbolic participle): the one that enacts the base meaning exaggeratedly
· اسم المفعول (passive participle): the one upon whom the base meaning is enacted
· الصفة المشبهة (resembling participle): the one who enacts (or upon whom is enacted) the base meaning intrinsically

Recall that nominal sentences must have at least two components; they must contain a topic and a comment. Either of the two components may be hidden, but they are always assumed to be there in some shape or form. Similarly, verbal sentences must also have two components at the very least; they must have the verb itself as well as the verb’s subject. And, just as with nominal sentences, it is possible for either of these two to be hidden, but they will both be present in some capacity.

Verbs may have other associates apart from their subjects, all of which are optional. They include the verb’s objects, adverbs, and prepositional links. All of these are considered to be the details of the verb and are not part of the subject nor the predicate of the sentence.

Definitions

فعل
the verb (which is the predicate of the sentence)
فاعل
the subject of the verb (which is the subject of the sentence)
مفعول
a detail of the verb (refers to objects and adverbs)
مفعول به

Direct Object: المفعول به

Definition & How to Recognize it

A direct object is that thing upon which an action is enacted. For example, when Zaid hits Amr, Zaid is the one doing the hitting and Amr is the one upon whom the hitting is done. Thus Amr is the object.

The following things can become direct objects:
· a single noun, whether declinable or indeclinable
· many types of phrases (but not all; e.g. not جار-مجرور directly)
· a sentence (but it must be introduced by أنّ, for example)

And the entities that can have direct objects are:
· verbs
· gerunds
· active participles
· active participles on the exaggeration patterns
· passive participles (exercise: how?)

The entities that can have direct objects may have one, two or three of them. In the following example, there is one object and it is a sentence introduced by انّ:

I heard that you failed your test
سمعت أنّك رسبت في امتحانك