Arabic: An Essential Grammar

(a) َم ْن؟ man, ‘who? whom? whose?’ This pronoun may occur as subject, object or in any other nominal function in the sentence. ...

ِم ْن َأ ِّي َم َكا ٍن min
ayyi maka ̄nin, from any place ي ِة َحا ٍلَِّ في/ َعَ لى َأ fı ̄ /  ala ̄
ayyati h ̇ a ̄lin, in ...

س ِفي ِرَّ َس َعا َد ُة ل sa  a ̄datu s-safı ri, His Excellency the Ambassador becomes in the vocative: س ِفي ِرَّ َ يا َس َ ...

etc. Note that َغ ْي ُر then appears without article or nunation (i.e. in the form called construct state), e.g. َغ ْي ُر َقا ِد ...

َع َد ُم ْل ُو ُجو ِد^  adamu l-wug ̆u ̄di, non-existence َع َد ُم ْلـ ِخ ْب َر ِة^  adamu l-h ̆ ibrati, inexperience, lack ...

ل ْلـ َي ْو ِمُّ ُكـ kullu l-yawmi, the whole day, all day long ل  ْلـ َو ْق ِتُُّكـ kullu l-waqti, the whole time, all the ti ...

(a) The accusative and genitive forms are ِكَل ْي kilay (masc.) and ِكْل َت ْي kiltay (fem.). These forms are used only when the ...

24.9 ُه َنا َك huna ̄ka The adverb ُه َنا َك means ‘there’, but, like its English equivalent, it is also used in nominal sentenc ...

Exercises Practise your reading: 1 اَي 2 ُيِف !ِذاَتْسْ لأ َةَرْضَح 3 ؟َتْنَأ ٍةَعِماَج ِة َّيَأ 4 َةَّ يَأَو 5 ٍةَّ داَم 6 يِف ...

1 ىَلِإ ِةَكِر َّ شل ُريِدُم َث َّ دَحَت 2 ْنَع َنيِفـ َّ ظَوُمـْل َ ّلُك 3 ِمَدَع 4 ِةَكِر َّ شل ِلوُبُق 5 َعْفَر 6 .) ٌرْجَ ...

1 ْلَه 2 َنيِنُكْسَت 3 ِهِذه يِف ِكَدْحَو 4 ِةَّقـَّ شل 5 ؟ِةَعِساَوْل (10) 1 Are you (f.) 2 living 3 alone in this 5 large 4 ...

181 Chapter 25 Adjectival patterns, relative adjectives (nisbah), comparatives and superlatives, diminutives 25.1 Adjectives (^) ...

25.3 Relative adjectives, ِنـ ْس َبـ ٌة nisbah The relative adjective is called in Arabic ِنـ ْس َبـ ٌة nisbah, which means ‘rel ...

25.4 The feminine ending ta ̄
marbu ̄t ̇ ah ...ـة is elided with the noun when adding the nisbah suffix يٌّ ِـ ... /...iyyun/ ...

Note: Plural nisbah forms often have a collective meaning, e.g. يا ُتَّل َسا ِنََّأل
al-lisa ̄niyya ̄tu ‘linguistics’, from th ...

25.9 Comparative and superlative (^) تـ ْف ِضي ِلََّأ ْف َع ُل لـ As mentioned in 25.2, the pattern َأ ْفـ َع ُل
af  alu (di ...

using َأ ْكـ َثـ ُر
akt ̄ aru ‘more’, دَُّأ َشـ
asˇaddu ‘stronger, more’ or لُّ َأ َق
aqallu ‘less’, followed by an accusa ...

25.14 Some adjectives having the superlative pattern َأْ َلأ ْف َع ُل
al-
af  alu can also have a feminine superlative form ...

Remember: Both د َو ُلُّ َأل and َأْلـ ُح ُرو ُب refer to non-human entities and therefore take the superlative adjective in the ...

Exercises Practise your reading: 1 ُةَنْبِإ 2 ُةَنْبو ي َ ّمَع 3 يِلاَخ 4 اَمُه 5 ِةَعِماَجـْل ِتاَبِلاَط ُرـَثـْكَأ 6 ًلااـَم ...