Arabic: An Essential Grammar

• The genitive case is used for expressing possession (explained in

chapter 12) and after prepositions.

Note: Often the case endings are not pronounced, except for the indefinite

accusative ending -an in adverbs, e.g. ُش ْك ًرا sˇukran ‘thank you!’.

8.4 The definite article َأْلـ...

al... is used more frequently 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.

َأْل ِعْل ُم^

al-



ilmu, science

َأْل ِك َلا ُب َح َي َوا َنا ٌت^

al-kila ̄bu h

̇

ayawa ̄na ̄tun. Dogs are animals.

8.5 Nominal and verbal sentences

There are two types of Arabic sentence: nominal sentences ي ٌةَُّج ْمَل ٌة  ْس ِم

g ̆umlatun ismiyyatun, and verbal sentences ي ٌة َُّج ْمَل ٌة ِف ْعِل g ̆umlatun

fi



liyyatun.

8.6 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. A nominal sentence refers to the present tense and does not require

the copula to be, e.g.

ط َم ِري ٌضُّ َأْلـ ِق^

al-qit

̇

t

̇

u marı

• d
  ̇

un. The cat (is) ill.

َأ َ نا َطاِل ٌب^

ana ̄ t

̇

a ̄libun. I (am) a student.

َأْل َوَل ُد ُه َنا َك^

al-waladu huna ̄ka. The boy (is) there.

ما ٌلَّ ُه ْم ُع hum



umma ̄lun. They (are) workers.

Definite

article,

nominal

and verbal

sentences,

adjectives

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