Posts tagged with "Grammar"

Answer of exercise on the use of ذو

Posted by aziza No Comments
Jul 24 2011

In this post, I present the answers of the exercise presented in my previous post. There are notes at the end of the post to explain the reason for the answers

1-      أحب القصص ذات النهايات السعيدة.

I like stories with happy endings.

2-      صديقي ذو الشعر القصير اسمه محمد

My short-haired friend is called Mohammed>

3-      حدثت صديقي ذا الشعر القصير.

I talked to my short-haired friend.

4-      المهندسون ذوو الخبرة الطويلة مطلوبون للعمل في الشركة.

Engineers with long experience are required to work at the company.

5-      هل تعرف الرجال ذوي الصوت العالي؟

Do you know the man with the high voice?

6-      تكلمت مع الولد ذي الذاكرة القوية.

I spoke with the boy who has a strong  memory.

7-      هل تعرف الفتاة ذات الفستان القصير.

Do you know the girl with the short dress?

8-      زرت المدينتين ذاتي الأسوار العالية.

I visited the cities with high walls.

Notes:

1-      القصص is a non-human plural, therefore, its agreement is singular feminine.

2-      صديقي is singular, masculine, subject (nominative)

3-      صديقي is singular, masculine, object (accusative)

4-      المهندسون is plural, masculine, subject (nominative)

5-      الرجال is plural, masculine, object (accusative)

6-      الولد is singular, masculine, after preposition (genitive)

7-      الفتاة is singular, feminine

8-      المدينتين is dual, feminine, object (accusative)

 

More words in combination or not?

Posted by aziza 6 Comments
Apr 22 2011

I got an interesting question from Juan about the word (لمّا) which means ‘when’, and he asked whether it involves a combination of (ما) with another word, the answer is ‘possibly’! I do not know for sure because I do not know the etymology, i.e. origin of the word, but it is likely for a very interesting reason (لمّا) has two sisters that mean the same thing and that involve (ما) as well, i.e. (عندما) and (حينما). So, (لمّا), (عندما) and (حينما) mean ‘when’, and we can use them interchangeably. The three words are conditionals in Arabic. Consider the following examples:

عندما تأتي صديقتي، سنسافر معاً إلى الريف.

حينما تأتي صديقتي، سنسافر معاً إلى الريف.

لما تأتي صديقتي، سنسافر معاً إلى الريف.

When my friend arrives, we will travel to the countryside together.

Now, I will tell the difference between two words that involve (ما), but not in combination with anything. These are two words that are often confused because they look very similar, i.e. (أمّا) and (إمّا).

(أمّا) is a linking word that joins two sentences with contrasting meaning, it means ‘as for’.

ماجد طالب، أما علي فهو موظف.

Maguid is a student. As for Ali, he is an employee.

(إمّا) means ‘either’ as in ‘either …or’, and it is used to give choices, e.g.

-          ماذا ستطلب؟

-          إما الشاي أو القهوة.

-          What will you order?

-           tea or coffee.

 

 

Word search and drills

Posted by aziza 2 Comments
Nov 27 2010

In this post, I have created an Arabic word search game for you. Can you find the 8 words below in the table? They are all names of Arab countries.

1- تونس

2- ليبيا

3- مصر

4- اليمن

5- الكويت

6- الأردن

7- عمان

8- قطر

In the following section of the post, I present a short paragraph with the prepositions missing. Can you complete the paragraph by adding the appropriate prepositions.

جاسم طالب عربي —— الكويت يدرس —— الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية ليحصل —— درجة الدكتوراة —— الرياضيات. جاسم يحب السفر كثيراً، و—— الشهر الماضي سافر —— نيويورك —— صديقه حمد. وهناك زار أماكن شيقة وتعرف —— أصدقاء جدد وحضر محاضرة —— تاريخ الشرق الأوسط.

The answer of the word search game and the prepositions exercises will be presented in the next post.

How to negate nominal sentences

Posted by aziza No Comments
Aug 3 2010

Nominal sentences in Arabic are negated using (ليس). It should be noted that (ليس) should be conjugated according to the subject of the sentence. The following table shows the conjugation of (ليس) with different pronouns.

لستُ

أنا

لستَ

أنتَ

لستِ

أنتِ

ليس

هو

ليست

هي

لسنا

نحن

لستما

أنتما

ليسا

هما m

ليستا

هما f

لستم

أنتم

لستن

أنتن

ليسوا

هم

لسنَ

هنّ

The following examples present nominal sentences negated by (ليس).

أنا طالبة.

لستُ طالبة.

أنتِ طالبة.

لستِ طالبة

أنتم طلاب.

لستم طلاب.

هن طالبات.

لسن طالبات.

It should be noted that nominal sentences with a fronted predicate, i.e. sentences expressing possession or existence are negated using ليس or ليست according to the gender of the sentence. We cannot use other conjugations in these sentence, e.g.

عندي بيت.

ليس عندي بيت.

“I have/don’t have a house”

عندي سيارة.

ليس/ليست عندي سيارة.

“I have/don’t have a car”

Exclamation

Posted by aziza 6 Comments
Mar 15 2010

Expressing exclamation in Arabic is done using a special style called (أسلوب التعجب). The particle used in this style is (ما), and it should be followed by the form (أفعل) of the appropriate adjective, e.g.

الشارع واسع.

“The street is wide.”

ما أوسع الشارع!

“How wide the street is!”

It should be noted that the (أفعل) form does not change whether the subject is masculine, feminine or plural.

البنت جميلة.

“The girl is beautiful.”

ما أجمل البنت!

“How beautiful the girl is!”

العرب كرماء.

“The Arabs are generous.”

ما أكرم العرب!

“How generous the Arabs are!”

The noun that follows the (أفعل) form can be substituted by a pronoun suffix, e.g.

البنت جميلة، ما أجملها!

العرب كرماء، ما أكرمهم!

Can you make exclamation statements about the following sentences?

الجو بارد.

الولد طويل.

Here is a very nice video to illustrate exclamation, suggested by Josef: 

YouTube Preview Image 

Back to the Top