Thursday, May 19, 2016

2:02 AM

I. ARABIC ROOTS AND PATTERNS

Checklist of Goals
Find the "

" or roots of words from a "

Find the "

" or pattern of words

Use the dummy root "

" or "sound" root.

" to name patterns

Understand the meanings of four patterns:

"

" and "

"

Learn how to look up a "sound" root in the dictionary

Learn how to find words from that root in the dictionary
Understand that there are several different types of

"

" or "unsound" roots

Roots

" is the root of an Arabic word. Most "

- The "

- The letter " " cannot be a part of a "

- Words that share the same "

" have three letters

", but the hamza "

" can.

" generally have similar meaning

Some Arabic Words/Adjectives:

Word Meaning

Root

Pattern

"

"

"

"

Beautiful
Nice/Friendly
Big/great

Small
Long
Short

All these words have the "

" pattern.

Sound Roots
- A"

" that is "

" or "sound" has three consonants and no vowels

- Roots that are "

" have neither " " or " " in their letters

- For a root to be "

", its second and third consonants must be different

Word Meaning

Root
"

"

Man

Girl/Daughter
Boy/Son
LANGUAGE NOTES Page 1

Boy/Son
Library

Building
Short
*Note that "

" and "

" have " " and " " as root letters, these types of words have unsound roots or "

"

Identify the Root

Word

Meaning

Long

Student

Sure/Indeed

Office

Question Possible/Maybe

Root
Patterns
- The "

" is the pattern of an Arabic word

- The "

" is the pattern of vowels and consonants around "

- Words share a similar "

" generally have a similar function

- Arabic grammar gives each "

" a name

- To find the name, substitute the dummy root "

- This root "

" letters

" for the word's root.

" indicates "to work"

- The name of the "

" for "

" and "

" is "

", for example

- There are around 35-40 patterns, some more common than others.
Some patterns

Word
Meaning
Pattern
Identify the Pattern Part I

Word
Meaning Book

Library Friend

Close

Healthy Dog

Easy

Worn out; Good

Exhausted

Okay

Assignment; Sick;
Duty;
Ill
Homework

Pattern
Root
Identify the Pattern Part II
Word
Meaning Juice

New

Pattern
Root
Common Patterns

"

LANGUAGE NOTES Page 2

Pen

Problem Ready; Weird;

Prepared Strange

University Veil;
Screen

I. "

This pattern usually creates adjectives.

So "

Its real meaning is something that has had the "

" also forms many nouns as well, as Arabic grammar have a blurry line between nouns and adjectives

- Some examples "

II. "

" done to it

", "

,"

", "

", "

", "

"

"

This pattern usually creates adjectives and nouns

So "

Its real meaning is something that performs the action of the "
" is often the "do-er" or active participle of its "

- Some examples "

ready),"

","

"(Student; a requester of "knowledge"), "

" (A person that is

"

"

- The pattern whose name is "

", creates adjectives and nouns

- Its real meaning is something that the action of the "

- So "

" has been done to.

" is often the "do-ee" or the passive participle of its "

- Some examples "

IV. "

"

" (Writer; Author; A person doing the writing), "

" (A person that is gathering, i.e. a mosque), "

III. "

"

", "

", "

", "

".

" (Something that has been gathered, i.e. a collection), "

"

- The pattern whose name is "

" , creates nouns.

- It denotes the place where action of the "

- The plural for "

" is "

- Some examples, "

", "

" happens

"

", "

","

", "

", "

" (Graveyard; cemetery).

Using the Dictionary

- Dictionary in Arabic is "
- The dictionary "

", and the plural form is "

" arranges words by "

".

" in alphabetical order.

- Remember " " cannot be a root letter but " " can.
- So our order is "

"

- All words from the same root are in the same entry in the "

"

I. NOUNS AND THEIR ATTRIBUTES

Checklist of Goals
Understand how Arabic understands the category of "

Learn about the "

Learn about the "

" or noun

" or gender of a noun; differentiate between masculine from feminine

" or number of a noun; singular, dual and plural

Understand the concept of "

Understand the concept of "

" or definiteness; differentiate definite from indefinite

" or intellect

Learn the rule that non-human plural is feminine singular

Be able to identify "

" or case markings and know the names of the cases.

Nouns
- A noun is a name; literally. Like all words, nouns have roots and patterns
- The Arabic term for noun is "

", and the plural form is "

"

- Nouns in Arabic are rather more complicated than nouns in English

LANGUAGE NOTES Page 3

", "

".

- Nouns in Arabic are rather more complicated than nouns in English

- A noun represents a person, place, thing or idea. E.g. "

" (Culture-idea), "

" (Book-thing), "

" (City-place), "

" (Mother-person)

Genders
- The word "

" can mean sex, gender, type or grammatical gender.

- The plural form of "

", is "

".

- Arabic makes no distinction between sex and gender

- There are two genders in Arabic: "

" or masculine and "

" or feminine.

- All nouns in Arabic have gender: there are no neuter nouns

- Usually we indicate gender with adjectives "

" and "

"

- Other than people, the relationship between a noun and its grammatical gender is arbitrary.
Masculine Gender
- The word "

" can denote both ordinary and grammatical masculinity

- The word "

" is a noun; "

" is an adjective

- Masculine is the default gender in Arabic

- Nouns that denote male people are "

" with almost no exceptions

- Nouns that do not end with " " are nearly always "

"; there are a couple of dozen common exceptions to this. (E.g. "

" the sun, this noun

is feminine despite not having the " ")

Feminine Gender
- The word "

" can denote both ordinary and grammatical femininity

- The word "

" is a noun; "

" is an adjective

- Nouns that denote female people are "

" with almost no exceptions

- Nouns that end in " " are effectively always "

- Plural nouns denoting non-humans are always "

"
", regardless of the gender of the singular noun.

Identify the gender and root

Word
Meaning Father Mother Son;
Boy

Daughter; Book
Girl

Library

Root
Gender
Numbers
- The word "

" can mean a number you count or grammatical number

- The plural form of the word "

", is "

- There are three numbers in Arabic: "

"
" or singular, "

" or dual, and "

" or plural

- In Arabic, we never the number two to count two of anything; instead, we call it

and use a pair of special ending to mark it.

Singular

- Words from the "

" root mean individual or unique

- If there is one of any object or person, we call it "

- The plural of "

" is "

" or singular

", which is the word for library.

Dual
- The word for grammatically dual come from the same root as "
- If there's two of any object or person, we call it "
We mark nouns that are "

".

" or dual

" by adding the ending "

LANGUAGE NOTES Page 4

", the number two. The root is really "

". More often than not, for grammatical reasons the "

" becomes "

".

- We mark nouns that are "

" by adding the ending "

". More often than not, for grammatical reasons the "

" becomes "

Plural
- All words from the "

" root have something to do with gathering

- If there are more than two of any person or object, we call them "

" or plural.

- Only nouns denoting humans can truly be plural, but for the purposes of terminology we call all plural nouns "
Identify the "

"

" of each word and indicate whether it's singular, dual or plural

Word

Meaning Student Students (2) Students University Universities (2) Universities

Root
Number

Definiteness
- The word "

" comes from the root "

", to know.

- Definiteness is a concept that doesn't carry over that well from English, but isn't that difficult to understand.
- Definite or "

" refers to a noun that's a particular, specific example of its kind; think the car or my car, NOT a car.

- Definite or "

" is always the default; when in doubt, use it instead of using "

" or indefinite.

Definite

- The word "

" means something that has been made known.

- Definite or "

" refers to a noun that's a particular, specific example of its kind; think the car or my car, NOT a car.

- There are four ways to make a noun "

":

1. Add " " or "the"

2. Add a possessive suffix

3. Make it owned by another noun
4. Make it a proper noun
Indefinite

- The word "

" translates into English prefix non-, un-, etc.

- An indefinite noun is a non-specific example of its category

- Arabic has no words for a or an
", we usually translate it into English with a or an added: read "

- So when we see a noun that's "

Identify the "

" as "a pillow".

" of each word and indicate whether it is definite or indefinite

Word
Meaning

Egypt

Muhammad

Root
Definiteness
Intellect
- Arabic treats nouns denoting beings that can reason differently from other nouns.
- The word "

" is a noun, intellect; "

- Only nouns that are "

- In theory, "
Identify the "

" is an adjective, reasoning

" can be truly plural; nouns that are "

" become grammatically feminine singular when plural

" denotes angels, and djinn, and other superstitions, but for our purposes, "

" of each word and indicate whether it is reasoning or not

Word

LANGUAGE NOTES Page 5

" denotes human beings.

".

Word
Meaning Couch

Student Book

Computer Daughters

Root

Intellect
Non-Human Plural is Feminine Singular

" will become grammatically feminine and singular when there are more than two of it.

- Any noun that is "

- This is true regardless of the noun's gender when singular

- So for our purposes only humans can be truly plural in Arabic.
- This is the most difficult rule of basic Arabic; if you can master this, you'll have relatively few other problems.

Identify the "

" of each word and indicate whether it is "

" or "

"

Word

Meaning Mosque Mosques Dog

Dogs

Girl

Girls

Boy

Boys

Root
Gender
Case-Markings
-

Case is a concept that barely applies in English. Case means marking words to indicate their grammatical function.
The only place we see case in English is with pronouns: we say I kissed him, but he kissed me.
In Arabic, all nouns and adjectives are marked for their case
For now, you need to learn to recognize case marking; a later lesson will explain how to know what a word's case should be.

Nominative Case (

- The root "

" means to raise or lift something; so the "

- Definite nouns and adjectives that are "

" are marked with a single "

- Indefinite nouns and adjectives that are "

Accusative Case

" case translates as the lifted case

" at the end: "

" are marked with the character "

" becomes "

".

", which looks like this " " and is pronounced un.

)
" means to delegate or set up something; so the "

- The root "

- Definite nouns and adjectives that are "

- Indefinite nouns and adjectives that are "

" case translates as the delegated case

" are marked with a single "

" at the end: "

" are marked with the character "

" becomes "

".

", which looks like this " " and is pronounced an. An

extra " " is often added for historical reasons.

Genitive Case (
- The root "

)
" means to pull down something; so the "

- Definite nouns and adjectives that are "

- Indefinite nouns and adjectives that are "
Identify the "

" case translates as the pulled down case.

" are marked with a single "

" are marked with the character "

" of each word and indicate its case

Word

Meaning The mosque A mosque The father A father A pen The pens
Root
Case

LANGUAGE NOTES Page 6

" at the end: "

" becomes "

".

" which looks like this " " and is pronounced in.

III. ADJECTIVES AND AGREEMENT

Checklist of Goals

Understand how Arabic conceive of the category of

" " or adjective.

Learn about how adjectives must agree with their nouns.

Learn how to make an adjective agree in gender.
Learn how to make an adjective agree in number.
Understand how to form the "
" or sound human plurals of adjectives.
Understand that many adjectives have irregular human plurals.
Learn how to make an adjective agree in definiteness.
Learn how to make an adjective agree in case.
Introduction

" means to describe.

- An adjective is a description, literally. The root "

- Classical Arabic grammar thinks of nouns and adjectives as the same thing.
- Most but by no means all adjectives have the "
" pattern.
Examples
Meanings Big

Small Simple Complicated

Phrases
-

We can pair a noun with an adjective to make a phrase.

In Arabic, the adjective comes after its noun, not before.
The adjective must agree with its noun in gender, number, definiteness and case.
For many phrases, this will make the words rhyme or otherwise sound similar.

Gender Agreement
- When we learn a new adjective, it's "

" or masculine by default.

- An adjective describing a masculine noun must be masculine.

- An adjective describing a "
" or feminine noun must be feminine.

- To make an adjective feminine, we simply add " " to its end.

Identify the "

Meaning

" of each word and make it agree with its noun.

Large gate Small room Pretty girl Handsome man Hard lesson Easy lesson Easy lessons New library Old libraries Nice gurl

Root
Final version
Number Agreement
- A " " or singular noun will take a singular adjective.
- A"

" or dual noun will take a dual adjective. The dual endings are the same for adjectives as they are for nouns.

- Non-human plural nouns will take feminine singular adjectives, because non-human plural is feminine singular.
- Human plural nouns will take plural adjectives. For most adjectives, we add endings to make them plural.
Identify the "

Meaning

" of each adjective and make it agree with its noun.

Large gate 2 small doors 2 large

rooms

Root

Final version
Sound Masculine Plurals

LANGUAGE NOTES Page 7

Small rooms 2 smart girls Good boy Good boys Good gurl 2 good gurls Good gurls

- Regular adjectives modifying masculine or mixed groups of people take the "
- They take "

" in the "

" or nominative case, and "

- In colloquial Arabic, the ending is always "

" in the "

" or "

" endings

" or accusative case and then "

" or genitive case.

".

- Most common adjectives have irregular human plural forms; for now, learn to use the regular ones.
Identify the "

" of each adjective and make it agree with its noun.

Meaning

Egyptian guy Egyptian guys Egyptian guys' Nice guy Nice guys

Root
Final version
Sound Feminine Plurals
- Regular adjectives modifying groups made up entirely of women or girls take the "
- The "

" ending.

" ending is the same for all three cases

- There are no irregular human female plural endings

- Where a human female plural adjective would take the " " ending, in the indefinite accusative, it takes the " " ending instead.
Identify the "

" of each adjective and make it agree with its noun.

Meaning

Short student (f) Short students' (f) Tall woman Tall women Tall women

Root (noun)
Root (adjective)
Final version
Definiteness Agreement
- Definite nouns take definite adjectives; indefinite nouns take indefinite adjectives.
- This is true regardless of gender, number or case.
- The only way to make an adjective definite is to add " " to it.

Identify the "

Meaning

" of each adjective and make it agree with its noun.

A skinny girl The skinny girl's A fat guy (young) The fat guy (young) The fat guys' (young)

Root
Final version
Case Agreement
- An adjective is always in the same case as the noun it modifies
- This usually means they'll have the same ending.
- But because many types of words behave a little bit differently in the case system, there will be many exceptions.
- Learn the basics for now and apply the exceptions as you learn them.
Identify the "

Meaning

" of each adjective and make it agree with its noun.

An easy lesson The simple lesson The hard lessons Tough lessons (2) The hot guys (young)

Root
Final version

IV. SIMPLE NOMINAL SENTENCES

LANGUAGE NOTES Page 8

IV. SIMPLE NOMINAL SENTENCES

Checklist of Goals

Define and understand the "

" or nominal sentence.

Differentiate between a nominal sentence and a "

Learn to identify the "

" or subject and "

" or phrase

" or predicate of a sentence

Learn to identify the different types of subjects and predicates

Learn to identify and use personal and possessive pronouns
Learn to use prepositions and prepositional phrases
Learn to flip subject and predicate for "there is/are" sentences
Introduction
-

A nominal sentence in Arabic is one that doesn't begin with a verb

Beginners often have difficulties telling sentences from phrases.
Sentences have two parts: a subject and a predicate
By default, both subject and predicate are in the "
" case.

Examples:
A smart girl. The girl is smart The nice man The man is nice
Subjects
- A nominal

I. SIMPLE IDAFAS
II. DEMONSTRATIVES AND ELATIVES
III. HAS, WAS, AND ISN'T

LANGUAGE NOTES Page 9