Posts from August 2009

vocabulary – space

Posted by aziza 1 Comment
Aug 13 2009

In this post, I compile a list of vocabulary items related to the topic of space. It is one of the topics that often appear in newspapers, yet not many books of Arabic as a foreign language deal with it. Below is a list of words that are relevant to the topic of space:

Space

الفضاء

Earth

الأرض

Globe

الكرة الأرضية

The world

العالم

The atmosphere

الغلاف الجوي

Planet(s)

كوكب / كواكب

Star(s)

نجم / نجوم

Sun(s)

شمس / شموس

Moon(s)

قمر / أقمار

Galaxy

مجرة / مجرات

Heat

الحرارة

Energy

الطاقة

Light

الضوء

The universe

الكون

The solar system

المجموعة الشمسية

Mercury

عُطارد

Venus

فينوس /الزُهرة

Earth

الأرض

Jupiter

المُشتري

Mars

المَريخ

Saturn

زُحَل

Uranus

أورانوس

Neptune

نِبتون

Pluto

بلوتو

This list could form the beginning of a bigger list in which you add relevant verbs, expressions, adjectives and other useful vocabulary items that you need to learn about this topic. You can also add some sentences or short news items you collect from newspapers or magazines, etc.

Verbal Noun (Form VI-X)

Posted by aziza 1 Comment
Aug 9 2009

In this post, I explain the verbal noun (المصدر ) and how we can derive it from form VI- form X verbs.

مثال

المصدر

الماضي

Verb form

تبادُل

تبادَل

تفاعُل

تفاعَلَ

Form VI

انتظار

انتظر

انفِعال

انفعَلَ

Form VII

احترام

احترم

افتِعال

افتعَلَ

Form VIII

اخضرار

اخضرّ

افعِلال

افعَلَّ

Form IX

استقبال

استقبل

استِفعال

استفعَلَ

Form X
  • Form VI verbs which follow the pattern (تفاعَلَ), have a verbal noun following the pattern (تفاعُل), e.g. (تبادَل) “to exchange” has a verbal noun (تبادُل) “exchanging”.

يوجد برنامج لتبادُل الطلاب بين جامعتي وجامعة نيويورك.

“There is a student exchange scheme between my university and New York University”.

  • Form VII verbs which follow the pattern (انفعَلَ), have a verbal noun following the pattern (انفِعال), e.g. (انتظر) “to wait” has a verbal noun (انتظار) “waiting”.

لا نستطيع الانتظار لأكثر من ربع ساعة.

“We cannot wait for me than 15 minutes”.

  • Form VIII verbs which follow the pattern (افتعَلَ), have a verbal noun following the pattern (افتِعال), e.g. (احترم) “to respect” has a verbal noun (احترام) “respect”.

احترام آراء الآخرين من صفات الشخص المتحضر.

“Respecting others’ views is one of the traits of a civilized person”.

  • Form IX verbs which follow the pattern (افعَلَّ), have a verbal noun following the pattern (افعِلال), e.g. (اخضرّ) “to turn green” has a verbal noun (اخضرار) “turning green”.

اخضرار أوراق الأشجار دليل على بداية فصل الربيع.

“Leaves turning green is a symbol of the beginning of spring”.

  • Form X verbs which follow the pattern (استفعَلَ), have a verbal noun following the pattern (استِفعال), e.g. (استقبل) “to receive” has a verbal noun (استقبال) “receiving/reception”.

استقبال الرئيس خلال الزيارة الأخيرة كان رسمياً.

“The reception of the president during the latest visit was formal”.

Verbal Noun (Form II-V)

Posted by aziza 2 Comments
Aug 7 2009

In the previous post, I explained that the verbal noun (المصدر) is a very important noun that refers to the action implied in the verb, e.g. (كتابة) “writing” -as a process-, derived from the verb (كتب) “to write”. I also explained that there is not a single pattern to follow to form the verbal noun from form I verbs. In this post, I explain how we can derive (المصدر) from form II- form V verbs.

Verb form

الماضي

المصدر

مثال

Form II

فعَّلَ

تفعيل

درّس

تدريس

Form III

فاعَلَ

مُفاعَلة / فِعال

ناقش

مناقشة / نقاش

Form IV

أفعَلَ

إفعال

أشرف

إشراف

Form V

تفعَّلَ

تفعُّل

تعلَّم

تعلُّم
  • Form II  verbs which follow the pattern (فعَّلَ), have a verbal noun following the pattern (تفعيل), e.g. (درّس) “to teach” has a verbal noun (تدريس) “teaching”.

أحب تدريس اللغة العربية.

“I like teaching Arabic”.

 

  • Form III verbs which follow the pattern (فاعَلَ), have a verbal noun following two patterns (مُفاعَلة) and (فِعال), e.g. (ناقش) “to discuss” has a verbal noun (مناقشة) “discussion” and (نقاش) “discussion”. Sometimes, there are fine differences between both words in meaning, and sometimes they have very similar meanings and are interchangeable. Sometime, we have only one form only in use and the other one is not, e.g. (بادل) “to exchange”, we have (مبادلة) only.

لن أناقش هذا الموضوع مرة أخرى لأن النقاش لا جدوى منه.           

“I will not discuss this topic again because the discussion is useless”.

 

  • Form IV verbs which follow the pattern (أفعَلَ), have a verbal noun following the pattern (إفعال), e.g. (أشرف) “to supervise” has a verbal noun (إشراف) “supervision”.

 

وجدت إشراف أستاذتي على بحثي مفيداً جداً.

“I found the supervision of my professor very useful”.

 

  • Form V verbs which follow the pattern (تفعَّلَ), have a verbal noun following the pattern (تفعُّل), e.g. (تعلَّم) “to learn” has a verbal noun (تعلُّم) “learning”.

تعلُّم اللغة العربية يتطلب الكثير من الجهد.

“Learning Arabic requires a lot of effort”.

 

Verbal noun – Verb form I

Posted by aziza 2 Comments
Aug 3 2009

Verbal noun (المصدر) is a very important derivative in Arabic. It is a noun derived from the verb to refer to the action or activity implied in the verb, e.g. drive/driving, eat/eating, work/working, etc. They can be used in similar contexts to the use of verbal nouns in English, e.g.

“I like swimming.”

(أحب السباحة)

“My favorite hobby is reading.”

(هوايتي المفضلة هي القراءة)

Verb forms are extremely important for the formation of verbal nouns. Verbal nouns from form (II – X) follow certain patterns. Yet, there is no rule for deriving verbal nouns from form I. Although there is no rule to tell us how to derive a verbal noun from form I, there are some patterns that are common in this form, e.g.

(فعل), e.g. (عَمَل) “working”, (جَمْع) “collecting”, (زَرْع) “growing”, (فَتْح) “opening”

(فِعالة), e.g. (دراسة) “studying”, (تجارة) “commerce”, (قراءة) “reading”, (كتابة) “writing”

(فعال), e.g. (نجاح) “success”, (ذهاب) “going”

(فَعيل), e.g. (رحيل) “leaving”, (بريق) “glimmering”

(فعولة), e.g. (سهولة) “ease”, (صعوبة) “difficulty”

These are only few of the patterns that can be used to make verbal nouns from form I verbs. Sometimes, there could be more than one verbal noun from the same verb. There are usually some differences between them in meaning or usage or both, e.g. from (صَنَع) which means “to make”, we have 2 verbal nouns (صِناعة) which means “industry” and (صُنْع) which means “making”; and from (زَرَع) which means “to plant”, we have 2 verbal nouns (زِراعة) which means “agriculture” and (زَرْع) which means “planting”.

In the following posts, I will explain the rules for forming verbal nouns from other verb forms.

School days – The morning line

Posted by aziza No Comments
Aug 1 2009

School days in the Arab world have a very interesting and special ritual, i.e. the morning line (طابور الصباح). It usually begins half an hour before teaching begins, i.e. at 7.30. When the bell (الجرس) rings, all pupils line up together. They stand in twos in a special place for each class. The class teacher or the teacher of the first period (الحصة الأولى) stands in front of the line. PE teachers organize pupils through performing simple exercises. Then, the school news program (الإذاعة المدرسية) begins. It begins by reading verses of the Quran (القرآن الكريم), prophetic saying (الحديث الشريف), current affairs (الأحداث الجارية), and interesting information (معلومات شيقة). Announcements are also made for students during this time. One of the most important ceremonies in the morning line is singing the national anthem (النشيد الوطني) and saluting the flag (تحية العلم). At the line, teachers usually go around to check that students wear the school uniform (الزي المدرسي), and they give warning to students who do not comply with school uniform.

Most pupils do not enjoy the morning line. When I was a pupil, I did my best to avoid the boredom of the line by being one of the readers of the news program. However, I now look back at these days with great appreciation. I think that the morning line plays an important organizational role and prepares pupils for the rest of the school day.

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