Posts from May 2009

The accusative case

Posted by aziza No Comments
May 16 2009

The accusative case ( حالة النصب) is the case of nouns used as object in verbal sentences, and their modifying adjectives. Nouns and adjectives that are accusative are called (المنصوب) in Arabic. There are various endings used to mark the accusative case; depending on the number, gender and definiteness of the noun or adjective in question.

Definite singular (and broken plural) nouns and adjectives are marked by (فتحة) which is written as (ـَ), and sounds like a short /a/

قابلتُ الطالبَ الجديدَ.

“I met the new student.”

Indefinite singular (and broken plural) nouns and adjectives are marked by (تنوين الفتح) which is written as (اً) and has the sound / an/

قابلتُ طالباً جديداً.

“I met a new student.”

 

It should be noted that (تنوين الفتح) when written on nouns ending in ta’ marbouTa appears only as (ـً) without the associated alif.

قابلتُ طالبةً جديدةً.

“I met a new student (feminine).”

 

 

Dual nouns and adjectives are marked by the suffix (ين)

قابلتُ طالبين جديدين.

“I met new students (masculine dual).”

 

Sound masculine plural nouns and adjectives are marked by the suffix (ين)

قابلتُ المدرسين اللبنانيين.

“I met the Lebanese teachers.”

Marking the nominative case

Posted by aziza 5 Comments
May 12 2009

As was mentioned before, the nominative case is the case of nouns used as subject and predicate of the nominal sentence as well as subject of verbal sentences, and their modifying adjectives. There are various endings used to mark the nominative case; depending on the number, gender and definiteness of the noun or adjective in question.

Definite singular (and broken plural) nouns and adjectives are marked by (ضمة) which is written as (ـُ), and sounds like a short /o/

الطالبُ يدرس في الجامعة.

“The student studies at university.”

كتب الولدُ الواجب.

“The boy wrote the homework.”

 

Indefinite singular (and broken plural) nouns and adjectives are marked by (تنوين الضم) which is written as (ـٌ) and has the sound /un/

هو طالبٌ جديدٌ.

“He is a new student.”

جاءت بنتٌ إلى الحفل.

“A girl came to the party.”

 

Dual nouns and adjectives are marked by the suffix (ان)

هما طالبان جديدان.

“They are new students (2 male students).”

جاءت بنتان إلى الحفل.

“Two girls came to the party.”

 

Sound masculine plural nouns and adjectives are marked by the suffix (ون)

هم مهندسون سعوديون.

“They are Saudi engineers.”

جاء المدرسون اللبنانيون.

“The Lebanese teachers came.”

Story tellers around the Arab world

Posted by aziza No Comments
May 12 2009

Stories (الحكايات) form a very important part of all cultures, and storytelling (السرد) is one of the oldest arts known to human beings. Storytelling is an integral part of Arabic popular culture (الثقافة الشعبية). In all parts of the Arab world, storytelling has been a very popular and much-appreciated form of entertainment for the general public, especially lay people.

The traditional storyteller has different names in different countries and has distinctive styles of presenting his stories. In Syria, he is called (الحَكَواتي), and he presents his stories in cafés where he sits on a high seat and tells his stories to his audiences. In Egypt, he is called (الرَّاوي), and he tells his stories with traditional music. In Libya, the storyteller (الرَّاوي) stands on a stage while telling his story which is usually in poetry. In Morocco, storytellers stand in the middle of a circle of audiences and act the stories as they tell them. Some storytellers use old books to read sections of their stories, but the great majority tell their stories orally.

Stories can be long or short, but they usually extend over many nights. They deal with the stories of famous popular heroes who played important historical roles in supporting kings or clans, resisting occupation, or helping the weak and poor against aggressors. All heroes of stories are strong, brave, loyal and true, and they all face betrayal and blots against them. The story teller interrupts his story at a very critical point every night and leaves his audiences anxious about the rest of the story until the following night.

In rural communities, these stories provide a good opportunity for people to talk and speculate about how the story would progress. Only the storyteller knows, or he may not know because a lot of the stories are made up at the time of telling!

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The three cases of nouns and adjectives

Posted by aziza 4 Comments
May 5 2009

Nouns and adjectives that modify them must agree with each other in everything. I have pointed out in previous posts that they must agree with each other in gender, number and definiteness. They must also agree with each other in case. There are 3 cases for nouns and adjectives to mark their functions as subject, object or their position after a preposition or as part of idafa.

 

The nominative case (حالة الرفع)

The nominative case applies to nouns that function as subjects in verbal sentences, and also to both subjects an predicates in nominal sentences, and all adjectives the modify them. In the following sentences, the nominative (مرفوع) nouns and adjectives are underlined:

يخرج الطالب مع أصدقائه كل يوم.

“The student goes out with his friends every day.”

البنت مشغولة.

“The girl is busy.”

المدرّس الجديد مصري.

“The new teacher is Egyptian.”

 

Notes:

Student: subject of the verb.

Girl: subject of a nominal sentence.

Busy: predicate of a nominal sentence.

Teacher: subject of a nominal sentence.

New: Adjective of a nominative noun

Egyptian: predicate of a nominal sentence.

 

 

The Accusative case (حالة النصب)

The accusative case applies to nouns that function as objects in verbal sentences, and all adjectives the modify them. In the following sentences, the accusative (منصوب) nouns and adjectives are underlined:

قابلنا الطالب الجديد.

“We met the new student.”

أكل الولد تفاحة صغيرة وأكلت أخته برتقالة كبيرة.

“The by ate a small apple, and his sister ate a big orange.”

شاهدت الحادث.

“I saw the accident.”

 

Notes:

Student, apple, orange, accident: objects

New, small, big: adjectives of accusative nouns

 

The Genitive case (حالة الجر)

The genitive case applies to nouns that occur after a preposition, and also to nouns that occur as second nouns in idafa constructions, and all adjectives the modify them. In the following sentences, the nominative (مجرور) nouns and adjectives are underlined:

 

نحن من المغرب.

“We are from Morocco.”

 

أنا أدرس في جامعة كبيرة.

“I study at a big university.”

كتاب الأدب صعب جداً.

“The literature book (=book of literature) is very difficult.”

غرفة الأولاد أكبر من غرفة البنات.

“The boys’ room is bigger than the girls’ room.”

Notes:

Morocco, university, room: after preposition

Big: adjective of genitive noun

Literature, boys, girls: second nouns in idafa constructions

The case marking system – introduction

Posted by aziza 1 Comment
May 3 2009

The case marking system (الإعراب) is one of the most important concepts in Arabic grammar. The word (إعراب) means expressing, and it is true of the system, as it expresses relationships between different elements of an utterance in very clear and explicit way. In the case marking system, each word is marked by a certain vowel or suffix for its case, i.e. its function in the sentence. Consider the following sentence:

أكلَ الولدُ تفاحةً.

“The boy ate an apple.”

ذهبَ التلميذُ إلى المدرسةِ.

“The pupil went to school.”

In the previous examples, the word (الولدُ) is the subject and it is marked by the short /o/ at the end according to this function, while the word (تفاحةً) is an object and it is marked accordingly.

The case marking system can disambiguate sentences and make relationships between different elements clear. In the following examples, the same words are used, but the case marking system makes the meaning of the first one almost the opposite of the second one.

ساعدَ الأبُ الابنَ.

“The father helped the son.”

ساعدَ الأبَ الابنُ.

“The son helped the father.”

Because of this important function, all highly valued texts such as the Qur’an and the Bible have case marking clearly marked on each and every word to avoid any possible confusion about meaning.

It should be noted that not all words in Arabic can be marked for their case; there are words that have fixed pronunciation regardless of where they occur in the sentence, and these are primarily functional words, e.g. pronouns, prepositions, particles, etc. For example, the preposition “from” (منَ) is marked by a short /a/ at the end and this does not change under any circumstances. On the other hand, nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs have special endings to mark their position and function in the sentence. Consider the following examples:

يعمل الأستاذُ في المدرسة.

“The teacher works at the school.”

قابلت الأستاذَ في المدرسة.

“I met the teacher at the school.”

تكلمت مع الأستاذِ في المدرسة.

“I talked to the teacher at the school.”

The word (الأستاذ) takes different endings according to its function as subject or object, or its location after a preposition.

The case marking system is a very challenging aspect of Arabic grammar, yet it is very systematic and logical. In future posts, I will explain different cases related to different categories of words.

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