Arabic 1A
2013 Summer Session (August 11 to October 13)
Class taught by Shaikh Jamaal Zarabozo
General information about the class
When: Sundays August 11 - October 13, 2:00 - 3:30 PM PT
Long-term goals of the class
Be able to read and directly understand the Qur’an and hadith of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
Be able to translate texts from Arabic into English
Be able to understand the proper Arabic speech of khutbahs
The goal is to reach a modest advanced level in approximately 3-4 years, depending on the success of the students and the demand for the course each successive semester
Overview of the course
This is not a course on conversational Arabic or any colloquial dialects. This is a course on grammar—in particular, Modern Standard Arabic but while noting the differences between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic
Required textbooks
1. Elementary Modern Standard Arabic 1 - available from Amazon.com and other places
Footnote: According to archive.org this book is out of copyright and the entire text is available for download. However please respect copyrights and use this PDF only if you have already purchased the book http://archive.org/details/ModernArabic_223
2. The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Arabic – Easily available as well.
This book has a plethora of information within it but one needs to know how to use and understand it. Hence, we will teach how to use this book and will eventually use it in class as well. However, most likely, we will not need this until the next session.
Note: There are numerous excellent works on Arabic grammar available in English as well as other, newer textbooks. However, I have taught the above on many occasions now and still find it the best for the ultimate goal of mastering understanding Arabic (in particular reading Arabic) in a systematic and consistent fashion.
Grading criteria
Homework 10% (I will not grade them but will just look them over…)
Quiz 5% (one, very short pop quiz sometime during the semester)
Midterm 25% (One short midterm)
Final Exam 60% (One final, October 6, one week before last week of class)
Handouts
Vocabulary List 1 (Lesson 1 through Lesson 5 of the textbook)
2013-08-11 Class Notes
There is a big difference between colloquial arabic and formal or modern standard arabic. The only time most Arabs hear formal Arabic is during Friday khutbah.
You will be able to get a good understanding of the Quran and Hadith. But we are not restricting ourselves to the vocabulary of the Quran itself. Our goal is to be able to access all of the knowledge available in Arabic, we should be able to read any book published in Arabic.
The required textbook has been published in 1967 and it needs a refresh. Students start out hating the book but by the end of the class they love the book and be able to appreciate the book. The last update to the book was in 1983.
Since we are meeting once a week for just 1 1/2 hours, this course would take at least two years to finish volume one. After you finish volume one, you will have built a good foundation, you will also need to spend time on your own every day of the week. You have to review the vocabulary list, the lesson notes, the rules etc. You have to start the course from the beginning in order to benefit from it, that is the reason why Sh Jamaal does not allow students to join the class later mid stream.
In order to understand the Quran you have to first build the vocabulary, the grammar, and then dive into learning the language of the Quran. There are stylistic issues (balagah) that you have to understand Quran.
Students are expected to turn in the homework on time. Exams are your friends. There will be a quiz in the fifth week and exam in the ninth week.
The handouts will contain words without vowels but there are occasionally some words that are difficult to decipher without the vowel hints, for example the first word in the Vocabulary List 1 has the fatha for the first alphabet.
American converts are at a disadvantage when learning the vocabulary because the English language does not share a common vocabulary with the Arabic language, whereas many immigrants know a language that has shared vocabulary with Arabic. But be careful, since the shared words might have different meanings.
During the earlier quarters, please try to stick with the classes, to get the most out of the course.
Starting with page 101 of the textbook which is Lesson One of the textbook. Nass means text
You and I - Ana wa anti
Ana Salim. Man Ant
Man means who
Man Ant versus Man Anti
Ant is you for a male. Anti is you for a female. And you know which way to read it depending upon the context. You have to read ahead in order to find out if it anta or anti.
There is no neuter gender in Arabic. Every noun in Arabic is either masculine or feminine. Spanish and french have the same approach to nouns.
Ana is the same for both male or female speakers.
I’m Jalal - Ana Jalal is missing a verb. This is not complete sentence in English, but we can have sentences without verbs in Arabic.
Man hadha - Who is this?
Hadha Jalal - This is Jalal
Man hadhihi
Hadhihi Maryam - This is Maryam
Hal signifies a yes or no question.
Hal anta Farid? Are you Farid?
La. No
Hal anti Maryam?
Hal hadha Muhammad? Is this Muhammad?
Hal hadhihi Maryam? Is this Maryam?
Hal anti Maryam? Are you Maryam?
Two types of sentences in Arabic language
Sentences with verbs are called verbal sentences. Sentences without verbs are called equational sentences.
Ana Salim - this sentence has two parts, a subject and a predicate. Subject is the main focus of the sentence. Arabic is very much different from English, the word order in much more flexible in Arabic.
The word table is feminine in Arabic, the word book is masculine. So when I ask you to move hadha when referring to the table, this is a common mistake made by non Arabic speakers, you should have said, move hadhihi.
He and She - Hua and Hiya
He is Jalal - Hua Jalal
Interrogatives
We studied three different types of interrogatives, man, hal and
Man means who
Man hadhihi who is this?
Man hiya who is she?
Hal implies yes or no question
In Arabic, it is proper or polite to start a sentence with the first person, Ana wa Jalaal went to the market. But in English we say, Jalal and I went to the market.
Same with dua in the Quran, you start by asking for yourself and then ask for others.
When you call out somebody’s name in Arabic, you say Yaa Jalal, translated as Oh Jalal, and this usage is basically non existent in English.
If you want to ask the professor a question, you would say, Yaa Ustad, Oh professor.
Allah swt says man khalaqa ardus samawati, who created the earth and the heavens.
I am Yusuf and this is my brother
Ana Yusuf wa hadha akhi
Lesson Two (page 108) - Conversation between professor and student
Interrogative
Ma - What
Man aina ant? Where are you from?
Many verses begin with wa. Wa has more than one meaning. It is a conjunction.
Classical arabic does not have capital letters or periods. The wa is used to indicate the beginning of a new sentence, it does not mean “and”, sometimes it indicates the beginning of a new sentence.
2013-08-18 Class Notes
Started with review of Lesson Two page 108 of the textbook.
Ask female, where are you from?
Min ayna anti
Ask male, where are you from?
Min ayna anta
A male student Talib would end with damma talibun
A female student Talibatun
Vowels are doubled known as tanveen. Sometimes the vowels are doubled and sometimes they are not. In general the damma or tanveen is a sign of general noun or indefinite noun.
Aliph Lam is the sign of definiteness of the noun and the damma is the sign of indefiniteness.
The female student has al at the beginning of the word talibat and it does not have damma or tanveen at the end.
Similarly, the male student al talib also does not have the damma at the end of the word.
This student (male) is from Damascus
at talibu min damask
She is a student from Damascus
Hiya talibatun min damask
In the above noun for student, you have to pronounce the vowel at the end of the word.
In most dialect of Arabic, they drop the case marker of the talibatun if it is in the middle of the sentence. However if you
Maa hadhihi? What is this? (pointing to a table)
Hadhihi tawila (This is a table)
The table is from Makkah
At tawilatu min Makkah
Maa hadhahah
Hadhah bab (with damma but not pronounced)
The door is from Madinah
Al babu min al Madinah
How many vowels are there in the Arabic language, considering tanween and non tanween as the same?
Fatha
Damma
Kasara
Is this English sentence grammatically correct?
He saw the movie.
Yes
How about this sentence?
I saw he.
No, the correct usage is
I saw him.
Why did we use different words for the noun?
Because in one case, it is subject in one case and in the second case it was the object. However most nouns do not have the case, it does not have word order.
Arabic is very powerful and flexible. It distinguishes the word based on the vowel on the word. The vowel is going to tell us how the word is
A book
Kitaab
Kitaabun (damma tanween at the end) Nominative
Kitaabaah (fatha tanween at the end) Accusative
Kitaabeen (kasra tanween at the end) Genitive
The book
Al Kitaab
Al Kitaabu (single damma at the end) Nominative
Al Kitaaba (single fatha at the end) Accusative
Al Kitaabi (single kasra at the end) Genitive
These vowel endings are telling us what role is the noun playing in the sentence. The three cases are Nominative, Accusative and Genitive.
The accusative tells us that the noun is object of the verb.
The genitive tells us that the noun is the object of the preposition.
The mouse is above the barn. Here the barn is the preposition and the mouse could above the barn, below the barn, in the barn etc
Verbs do not have case endings or case markings.
These case markings are tellings us whether it is the object or the subject of the sentence.
Nominative Case
Damma either single damma for indefinite nouns or two damma - damma tanveen for definitive nouns at the end of the noun
1. This is the default case. If you are telling students a new word, you will tell it in the nominative case, hence it is known as the default case.
2. Nominative case is also used in titles. The title of Quran will say Quranu which is the nominative case. The beginning of each lesson is also in the nominative case, al darsu.
3. We have been studying equational sentences which are sentences that are missing verbs. They are made up of two parts, the subject and the predicate. An equational sentence is general, the subject and the predicate will be nominative.
For example: Mohamed is a student. Mohamadun Talibun.
How would say, Mohamad is a messenger. Mohamadun Rasulun. Both of the nouns are in nominative case.
Fatima is a student
Fatimatu Talibatun
Is Fatimatu nominative?
If it has damma at the end, it is nominative, irrespective of it being single damma or tanween damma.
Rule: Female proper names never take tanween. The vowel has to be singular at the end of the proper name of a female.
Some male names also never take tanween. To master the Arabic language, you have to master the exceptions of the Arabic language.
4. In general, the subject of a verbal sentence.
We are not studying verbal sentences yet, however if you see damma at the end of the noun, then it is in the nominative case.
5. In general, the nouns after the evocative (yaa) will always be in the nominative case
Yaa Shaikhu
Yaa Ustaadu
It will always be nominative without the tanween, even if it a proper name of a person.
Yaa Mohamadu
Yaa Fatimatu
Yaa Maryamu
The indefinite noun after the Evocative (Yaa) will always be without Al. And irrespective of indefinite or definite noun, either male or female, the noun will always end in a single damma.
Drill
I am a student and I am from Morocco
Ana talibu wa Ana min al Maghribi
The ayna is only used for interrogative, when you say I am from Morocco, you just say, Ana min al Maghrib.
Kitaab is masculne and there is no case markings that can change it from masculine to feminine. Similarly table, etc
Every city name will be feminine. It does not matter the origin of the original name of the city, for example Washington DC will be feminine. The reason is that the word city is madinah which is feminine, and in Arabic language, you say the city of Washington DC, Madinah Washington DC which makes it feminine.
Every country name will be feminine.
Any word brought from foreign language would be feminine. And other words
Ta marbutah is the sign that the word is feminine, but not always.
The word khalifa ends with ta marbutah, but it is masculine. Usama ends with ta marbutah but it is masculine.
Waraqah (paper) is feminine.
This is a piece of paper and it is from Morocco
Hadhihi waraqatu wa hiya min al Maghribi
The word Muslim if you want to make is feminine then add ta marbutah at the end - Muslimah is a female Muslim.
Adjectives can also have ta marbutah at the end to make it feminine.
Jadeed means new
Jadeedah with ta marbutah makes it feminine
It is new (Pointing to a table that is new)
Hiya Jadeedatun
If you stop then pronounce it as Hiya Jadeeda
Homework is on pages 116-117
Drills 6 through 8
Make sure you submit it to Sh Jamaal
Drill #9 Variable Substitution
1 Anti talibatuun min Lubnaana (You is indefinite case)
2 Huwa talibun min Lubnaan
3 Nancy talibatu min Lubnaan
4
5
6
Answers sent by Br Jalal
Ana talibun min Lubnan
I am a student from Lebanon
1. anti talibatun min lubnan
You (f) are a student from Lebanon
2. huwa talibun min lubnan
He is a student from Lebanon
3. nancy talibatun min lubnan
Nancy is a student from Lebanon
4. nancy ustadatun min lubnan
Nancy is a professor from Lebanon
5. anta ustadun min lubnan
He is a professor from Lebanon
6. hadhihi ustadatun min lubnan
This is a professor from Lebanon
7. hadhihi taawilatun min lubnan
That is a table (f) from Lenanon
2013-08-25 Class Notes
Handout: Gender of Arabic Nouns
Gender of Arabic Nouns
We have already seen the importance of knowing the gender of Arabic Nouns. For example, when referring to a noun by a pronoun or demonstrative pronoun, one has to use the correct gender of that pronoun. When modifying a noun by an adjective or when an adjective is the predicate of a nominal sentence, one has to use the correct gender of the adjective.
There are only two genders in the Arabic language, male and female. All nouns and adjectives are either masculine or feminine. When the noun refers to an animate being (that is, a human being), its gender will agree with the natural gender of the referent.
Masculine Gender
Nouns referring to male animate beings will be male.
Most but definitely not all nouns that do not end in with the feminine suffix ta marbootah ة are masculine.
Feminine Gender
Nouns referring to animate beings who are female, such as humans or “higher animals” whose sex or gender is usually distinguished. This would include female proper names as well as the following examples:
All city names are feminine. One can remember this by thinking of city names as being short for “the city of ...” and the word for city ( مدينة ) is feminine.
Therefore most country names are feminine, but there are a number of exceptions to this category.
Ta Marbootah
In general, nouns with the feminine suffix ة known as ta marbootah will be feminine.
This includes words like ورقة “a sheet of paper” and طاولة “table”.
This suffix is also what is used to derive a feminine noun from a masculine noun., as in the examples above such as طالبة “female student”.
It is also what is added to make an adjective feminine, as in جديدة “new”.
Is is similar to the feminine ending “a” in Spanish and Italian.
One of the exceptions of the ta marbootah ending rule is the word خليفة “caliph”.
There are other patterns that would signify that the word is feminine but for now this is sufficient.
Some words are always used as feminine:
Body parts that exists in pairs are feminine, such as:
The plural of inanimate objects is treated like a feminine singular. Thus “books” for example, will be referred to as feminine singular pronoun “she”. Thus one says while referring to books on a table
Note: Some words have been traditionally treated and accepted as either masculine or feminine.
Review of Drill 6, Drill 7 and Drill 8
City names such as Michigan and Washington do not have any case markings or damma since they are modern borrowed words. Basically they are foreign words or borrowed words that are a recent occurring and they do not add case markings to them.
The word and ( wa ) is typically joint with the word that comes after it.
Sentences are written in the order of first person, second person, third person and so on.
In Arabic you have to read ahead to determine how to read the sentence properly, so you have to be intelligent in order to read properly.
Quiz #1 - Arabic 1A
1. What are the three cases of the nouns
Nominative, Accusative, Genitive
Nominative is used for the subject
2. What are the signs or vowel markings for each of those cases?
Nominative is damma or damma tanveen at the end of the word - it indicates the subject of the sentence
Accusative is fatha or fatha tanveen at the end of the word - it is the object of the verb of the sentence
Genitive is kasra or kasra tanveen at the end of the word - it is the object of a preposition.
3. How to distinguish a definite noun from an indefinite noun
A definite noun will have “Al” in front of it
An indefinite noun will have tanveen (two vowel markings at the end of the word)
4. What is an equational or nominative sentence?
A sentence that does not have a verb, or a sentence that contains only a subject and a predicate.
5. Write all of the interrogatives we have studied so far and which one signifies a yes or no question.
Hal signifies a yes or no question
Man is who
Ma is what
Ayna is where
Min Ayna is from where
Man is used for human beings and Ma is used for inanimate objects. In stylistic speech such as the Quran, there are exceptions to these rules. We have to get the basic rules before we can get into the Quran.
Example of stylistic speech from Quran: Wa ma khalaqah
Here ma means man. Translated into “Who created the heavens and the earth?”
Notes Lesson #3 - Page 118
أَلدَّرْسُ آلثّالِتُ
The word “Lesson Three” uses the nominative case since it is the title. There is only one damma for the word lesson since it has an al in front of it which indicates a definite noun.
Case marking on the sentence “in the office” or “fi al maktabi”
Fi al maktabi - Maktab is in the genitive case since it is the object of the preposition fi.
Anta should have hamzah on top of aliph
Similarly al Ustad should have hamzah on top of the aliph
Ana mudarissun - I am a teacher
This is nominative since it is an equational sentence, here both the subject and object of an equational sentence is in nominative case. It has two dammas since it is an indefinite noun.
Jadeed is masculine, to make it feminine, you add a ta marbootah to the end.
Jadeed is an adjective. Mudarris is a noun.
The parts of a sentence includes “Ism”, Harf” and Verbs
Ism includes both nouns and adjectives. A lot of rules will be the same for nouns and adjectives.
Harf or particles
Verbs will not be seen for a long time.
One of the main uses of the genitive case is for the object of the preposition.
In the house: In is a preposition and house is the object of the preposition.
Prepositions always have an object and the object is always a noun. You are in, over, above etc with respect to a noun.
In the office
Fi al Maktabi
Where is the book?
A. Ayna fi al Kitab? The kitab has one damma on it.
The book is in an office
B. Al Kitabu fi maktabin (two kasras at the end of maktab)
Sentences A and B both have fi in it. However in sentence A you say fil instead of fi al. You can see it in some copies of the Quran.
We have short vowels and long vowels in Arabic.
Kasra is short vowel - Pronounced e
Kasra followed by ya is long vowel - Pronounced ee
Uu is short vowel - Pronounced u
Uu followed by waw is the long vowel - Pronounced uu
Fatha is short vowel - Pronounced a
Stretched fatha is the long vowel - Here the pronunciation pattern changes it becomes ah instead of aa
Huwa fi bayrut
Huwa fi al-Qahira
In the above two sentences, the city names are feminine proper names. They do not take tanveen for the case markings.
However some city names have al in front of it. Since it is noun and it is never going to take tanveen and since it is genitive case, it is ends in kasra.
Under normal circumstances, the noun in a preposition would have two kasras as case marking. Since female proper names do not take tanveens, and the genitive case marking requires two kasras, those two kasras are replaced by one fatha
Rule: Female proper name in genitive case will take one fatha as its case marking
Speaking about a table, how would you say, “this is from Fatima”
Hadhihi min Fatimatah - one fatha at the end
How about, “this (table) is from Muhammad”
Hadhihi min Muhammadin - two kasras at the end
It is hadhihi since the table is feminine and hadhihi is referring to the table.
Min al jannati
Jannah is in the genitive case
Min al jannati wan nassi
Preposition: Ala على
Ala is another preposition.
The book is on the table
Al kitab ala al Tawilati
The ala and al are combined into alal and because ta is a shamshi letter, it becomes alat tawilati
Al kitab alat Tawilati
Helping Vowel
Did anyone notice, we were adding vowels that were not there, such as in line #5 of Lesson #3
We added kasra at the end of nuun.
Man al Mudeer?
The aliph in Al has a sukkun, the only time you pronounce the aliph is when it is at the beginning of the sentence.
Rule: In Arabic language you cannot pronounce three consonants in a row without a vowel.
For example, in english we can pronounce words such as gangster, here ngst are four consonants in a row.
However in Arabic, we add helping vowels. In the Quran script, these helping vowels are given to us. And the helping vowel is not always kasra
Correct pronunciation of line #5
Man il Mudeer?
Another example of helping vowel is in line #8, but it is fatha instead of kasra. You have to know the rules for the helping vowels.
In general, there is only case when the helping vowel is a fatha. The only time the helping vowel is fatha, it is after the word min
Correct pronunciation of line #8
Huwa mina al Qahira
There are few cases when the helping vowel is a damma, but we will tackle it later when we come across that vocabulary.
Rule: In general, the Helping vowel is always a kasra, except after the word “min” the helping vowel is fatha.
Drill: Writing sentences on the board
Oh Salim, is Maryam a student from Beirut?
Ya salimu hal maryamu taalibatun min bayruta
يا سليم هل مريم طالباتن من بيروت
No homework, expect a pop quiz for the next class.
2013-09-01 Class Notes
Pop quiz
Demonstrative Pronoun - Hadha or Hadhihi
This is a table versus This table
Hadhihi tawilatun versus hadhi al tawila tu
This table is not a complete sentence, it is a phrase.
This table refers to a specific table, it is definite. And the same rules apply in Arabic and as a consequence we have to add “al” in front tawilatun and change the case marking from tanween to single damma.
This is a table
This table
هذه طاولةٌ
هذه الطاولةُ
Reminder: Exam in two weeks
Examples of demonstrative pronouns
Read the basic text of Lesson Three.
Reminder the vocabulary for counting numbers:
There are many rules for numbers and we will discuss them later
Copy from page 129 above
Lesson Four
There should be hamzah is Al Ustada
Homework is Drill #3 on pages 134 - 135
2013-09-08 Class Notes
This is a door.
Which one is the correct answer?
A. Hadhihi babu
B. Hadha Al Babu
C. Hadha Baabun
Al Baab is masculine.
An indefinite noun will have tanveen.
So the correct answer is C.
This door.
Hadha Al Baabu.?????? I am confused?????
When I am referring to book, how do I say “this is new”
????
This book is new
Hadha Al Kitabu jadidun
She is new.
Hiya jadeedatun
Adjective predicate will take tanveen
She is not new.
Laysat hiya jadeedatan
In order to say No, we have to introduce the verb laysa and conjugate it properly.
Since we have a verb, we have an object of the verb, the case of the object will be accusative. If it is definite, it will not take tanveen, regardless of the case.
In Arabic verbs, the pronoun is captured in the verb, it maps directly to a pronoun.
The correct answer is
Laysat jadidatan
لَيْسَت جديدةً
Laysat hiya jadidatan is gramatically correct, but you are putting emphasis on “she” twice.
Muhammad is a student
Muhammadun Talibun (damma tanveen)
Muhammad is not a student
Laysa Muhammadun Taliban (fatha tanveen)
He is not Muhammad
Laysa Muhammadan (fatha tanveen)
She is not Fatima
Laysat Fatimata (Fatima cannot take tanveen)
Proper names are definite. So the fatha tanveen on Muhammad is counter intuitive. Farid and male names take tanveen, however there are some exceptions. Male proper names taken tanveen. You have to learn the exceptions. For now take it for granted.
You (f) are from Khartoum.
Anti min al khartoumi (single kasra at the end and helping vowel fatha on nun of min)
You (f) are not from Khartoum.
Lasti min al khartoumi
Anti is captured in lasti. We don't have an object of the verb, rather we have a prepositional phrase min. The object of the preposition is in the genetive case and is marked by one kasra or kasra tanveen,
You should not add the helping vowel in the examination answers unless asked for specifically.
You are new here.
Anta jadidun huna.
You are not now here.
Lasta jadidan huna.
Huna is an adverb, it is not the object or subject of the verb, or the object of the preposition, it is invariate.
I am a new student
New student is a noun adjective phrase. In English you add the adjective before the noun.
Ana (hamza on aliph) talibun (damma tanveen) jadidun (damma tanveen)
Adjective comes after the noun. This is called a noun-adjective phrase.
She is not a new student.
The subject is “She” and the object is “a new student”.
Subject is in accusative case.
You have to conjugate laysa properly.
Laysat talibatan (fatha tanveen) jadidatan (fatha tanveen)
Fatima is not a new student
Laysat Fatimatu (damma) talibatan jadidatan
I am not a new student
Lastu (damma) taliban (fatha tanveen) jadidan (fatha tanveen)
All nouns and adjectives have case markings. Verbs don’t have case markings. The preposition itself does not have any case markings.
Lastu
Lasta
Lasti
Laysa
Laysat
Perfect tense verbs are made of stems and subject markers.
The above markers on laysa have captured all of the subject markers.
There are two stems - las and lays which is a unique quality of laysa. Most verbs only have one stem.
The verb endings tu, ta, ti, a, at are the endings for all perfect tense verbs to capture first person, second person and third person masculine and feminine subject markers.
I maps to tu. Lastu
You (m) maps to ta. Lasta
You (f) maps to ti. Lasti
He maps to a (added fatha only). Laysa
She maps to at Laysat
Stem + Subject marker
How to tell which stem to use?
Look a the subject marker, either you have a vowel or consonant of the subject marker. If the first thing to be added from the subject marker is the consonant (t) then use the shorter stem. If the first thing added from the subject marker is the vowel (a) then use the longer stem.
Shorter stem is las
Longer stem is lays
Las goes with tu, ta, ti
Lays goes with a and at
Interrogative questions
A (hamza with a fatha ): This interrogative introduces a yes or no question just like hal.
Hal hiya min al Bakistan
Is she from Pakistan?
Instead of saying hal hiya, you can say a (hamza fatha) hiya
a hiya min al Bakistan
So both of them have the same meaning.
If you wanted to use a negative, such as laysa kadhilaka, you will never use hal in front of it, you will use hamza-fatha instead.
Muhammadun Talibun
Muhammad is a student
Laysa muhammadun taliban (changes from damma to fatha tanveen)
Muhammad is not a student
Preposition or harf
Bi connects with the word after it
Laysa muhammadun bi talibin (kasra tanveen)
Bi is introduced because of laysa and it converts the talib into genitive case.
A lastu bi rabbikum
The A at the beginning is the interrogative, Am I not. The bi is the preposition used for emphasis.
Surah Teen: A lays Allahu bi ahkaam al haqeemin
Isn’t Allah .... and then the bi is the preposition or harf that we are discussing now.
Muhammad is not a new student
Laysa muhammadun taliban jadidan
Laysa muhammadun bi talibin jadidin
Both of the laysa statements are correct, one is with bi for emphasis and the first one is without the bi. Once we added bi the new student becomes a noun-adjective phrase and it is in the genitive case marking (kasra tanveen).
Al Maktab means library
Baidah means distant
Karibah means close
Jiddan means very
What will be the case markings on: Al Maktabah baidah jiddan
Al Maktabatu baidatun jiddan
Jiddan will always remain the same, it does not change. Notice it comes after what it is modifying.
The library is not far.
Laysat al maktabatu baidatan (changes from damma to fatha tanveen) jiddan (it does not change).
We need helping vowels, since the aliph in the middle are never pronounce.
Laysatil maktabatu baidatan jiddan
Read text of lesson #4 (page 130)
Fil jamiati
Marhaba
Marhaba Kayfal hal
Bikhairin (kasra tanveen) al hamdullillahi (damma)
Hal anti secritiriyahtu (damma single)
La lastu (first person - damma single) secritiriyahtan (fatha tanveen)
Ana ustadatun (damma tanveen)
A laysa al ustadu faridun mawjudun huna
Huwa fi al maktabati (kasra because of the fi preposition)
Hal al maktabatu baidatun ?????
La laysat baidatan jiddan
Shukran ya ustadatu (after evocative of ya, the case marking is nominative and since it is definite, it is single damma)
Afwan
Homework:
Drill 9 page 127
Drill 7 page 136 - 137
p-127, drill -9 and P-136-137, Dril
Exam next week
2013-09-15 Class Notes
Review of Homework #2
Arabiyan (fatha tanveen) should have aliph after the Yaa and fatha tanveen is on the aliph.
In general you should not have aliph hamza followed by aliph, this last aliph is dropped, however when you read, you read it as if the aliph is there.
Jadidatan - missed what he said about it.
Convert the following into a yes or no question
Al Jamiatun baidatun huna
Hal il Jamiatun baidatun huna
il is the helping vowel
Hal is the yes or no question prefix
This teacher is Sami, convert it into a question.
Noun Adjective Phrase
Hadha fil quranil karimi
This is in the noble Quran
Noun adjective phrase have to agree in gender, case, definiteness, and number.
How would you say, This is in a new book.
Hadha fi kitabin jadidin
Both kitab and jadid are indefinite and are marked with the genitive case marking of kasra tanveen.
This is in his book
Hadha fi kitabihi al jadidi
His book makes the book definitive.
There is no al in front of the book, but it is still definitive since it is marked with the case marking of single kasra. This single kasra tells us that the book is definitive.
Museum - Mathaq
Famous - Mashoor
The famous museum is in Beirut
Al mathaqu al mashuru fi bayruta (the kasra becomes fatha because of ????)
This famous museum is in Beirut
Hadhal mathaqu al mashuru fi bayruta
This is a famous museum
Hadha mathaqun mashurun
Famous museum is a noun adjective phrase
2013-09-22 Class Notes
Most common mistake was to distinguish between demonstrative noun.
Hadha kitab and Hadhal kitab
This is a book versus This book
The female proper name will look different but it is still in the genitive case when it is the object of the preposition.
All city names are feminine and feminine proper names in the genitive case take a fatha instead of a kasra.
Al masjidu binaun baidun jiddan
bina is building
baid means distant
Noun adjective phrase have to agree in gender, number, case, and definiteness
Adverb comes after the noun, jiddan is the adverb which means far
The masjid is far away.
Al masjidu bina-un kabirun qadimun
Kabir means big
Qadim means old
The masjid is a big old building
In this example there were more than one adjective, you could have a list of adjectives.
Can you add jiddan to the above sentence?
This masjid is a very old and big building
The jiddan modifies the last adjective in the list.
Adverbs are invariate and as a rule they will be in the nominative case.
Demonstrative pronoun - Huwa or Hiya
Hadha and Hadhihi - This
Hadha mudarris - This is a teacher
Hadhal mudarris - This teacher... (This is a phrase and it is a demonstrative phrase)
How can we say, this is the teacher?
We need to separate the demonstrative pronoun from the noun. This is known as pronoun of separation which signifies it is not demonstrative
Hadha huwa al mudarrisu - This is the teacher
Huwa is the pronoun of the separation. It has to agree with the demonstrative pronoun in gender and number.
Hadhihi hiya al mudarrisatu
Huwa al mudarrisu - He is the teacher
Al Ustad means the professor
All of the above examples below the title “Demonstrative pronoun are complete sentences, except “This teacher...” which is a phrase.
Al Ustadu Salimu
Al Ustadu Salimun min bayruta
Ustad and Salim are referring to the same noun, we are using two things to identify the same noun. In English, this is known as “apposition”. In Arabic, this is known as badal.
We are using two names for the same thing. They are two words for the same thing.
If we want to separate these two names, then we need the noun of separation.
The professor is Salim - Al ustadu huwa Salimu
Since the nouns in apposition are referring to the same noun, you can move them around and they mean the same thing. However in noun adjective phrase you cannot move them around.
Salimun al ustadu min bayruta - Salim the professor is from Beirut
Salim is the professor from Beirut - Salimun huwa al ustadu min bayruta
This is the museum - Hadha huwa al mathab
Relative adjectives - Nisbah
A person from America is known as American, and so on for other countries. However in English we don't have consistent patterns to describe the adjectives.
In Arabic it is nice and easy adjective to create.
American professor, British writer are all adjectives. In Arabic these adjectives are known as nisbah.
Male : Lubnan plus kasra on the last letter plus shaddah on the yaa : Lubnaniya
Female : Lubnan plus kasra on the last letter plus yaa with shaddah and fatha plus ta marbootah : Lubnaniyatah
This is the Egyptian professor
Hadha huwa al ustadu al mariyatu
Noun and adjective have to agree in gender (both are masclune), case (both are damma), number (both are singular), definiteness (both have al in front of it).
This egyptian professor is from Cairo
Hadhihi al ustadatu al misriyatu min al qahirati
He is an American student
Huwa talibun amrikiyun
Usool means principle, you can make it an adjective by following the above rules of nisbah, to make it a nisbah adjective.
How to make nisbah adjectives from names of the country
Al Iraq
You drop al
iraqi plus ya with shaddah
Al Qahira has ta marbootah at the end
Drop al and drop the ta marbootah
Qahiri plus ya with shaddah
Makkah has ta marbootah at the end
Makki plus ya with shaddah
Hajj - Hajji
Al Jamiyya Al Islamiyaa
If the base word ends in a (aliph) or ya, you have to drop it to. IN the case of Amrica, you drop the last a and it becomes amriki
Suriya
You have to drop the ya
Suri plus ya with shaddah (pronounced suri)
Suriya - Suri
Libya - Libi
A university textbook (In english university is both a noun and adjective)
kitabun jamiyyin
The university textbook
Al kitabu al jamiyyi
The university professor (f)
Al ustadatu al jamiyiyya
Makkah is a Saudi city
Makatu madinatun saudiyatun
Makkah is the Saudi city
Makatu hiya al madinatu al saudiyatu (we need the hiya to separate the pronouns)
Balad is not a city, it means land, as in this is my land.
Maryam is a Pakistani student
Maryamun talibatun bakistaniyyatun
Madinah is the city
al madinatu madinatun
She is the new Arab employee
Hiya al muwadatu al arabiyatu al jadidatu
Wa is used to introduce a sentence. Many times it is added in front of huwa and hiya. There is sometimes a sukun on top of ha and you pronounce it as wahwa or wahya instead of wa huwa or wa hiya. Both are correct.
Homework drills 2 and 3 on page 142 and 143, plus drills 6 and 7 on page 146
2013-09-29 Class Notes
The final exam will be now in the last lecture for the quarter which is October 13 2013.
Pronoun Suffixes with Nouns
The pronouns are different whether they are subjects, objects or possessive pronouns. My book, his book etc
In Arabic you add a prefix to a word in order to indicate to whom it belongs.
Kitab - a book
His book - implies the book is definitive. We never say, His the book to make the book definitive. Similarly in Arabic.
So kitab will never take tanveen, neither will it take “al” in front of it.
Homework: There is one verse in the Quran which says Alayhu instead of Alayhi. Find out that verse.
His big book is here
Here is huna
Big book is nominative
Noun comes first
Kitabuhu al kabiru huna
The adjective kabir needs al in front of it, since it has to match the four attributes of a noun. Case, gender, number and definiteness
Homework: Drill #10 and #11 on pages 149 and 150
Page 138 - The Fifth Lesson
We read the lesson on page 138 and made the following observations:
Al nas al asisi - Al asisi is a nisbah - adjective
Amam should begin with hamzah
Amam is a preposition and it means “ in front of”
Al mathaf
Al wataniy - nation - nisbah adjective which means national. Again there is shaddah missing on ya. In the exam you have to put a ya.
The al in front of wataniy tells you that it is not my country. We needed the shaddah on it to signify it correctly. But the book is missing it.
Ahadha huwa al mathafi al wataniyyu al qadimu am al hadith????
The huwa is the noun of separation.
Hadha huwa al mathafu al hadith.
Al mathafu al qadimu bina un baidun min huna.
Hal anta muwadhafa huna (muwadhafa does not have ta marbuta, so that tells us it is anta and not anti)
Nam
Man al mudiru
Al Doktary brown huwa rajulun ajanabiyyun mashur (ajanabiyyun should have hamzah on aliph)
Min ayna huwa
Huwa min amrika (should have hamzah)
Hal anta amrikiyyi
La ana franshi
Hal al mudhiru
Nam
Huwa fi maktabihi
Ayna maktabuhu
Maktabuhu huwa al maktabu al kabiru al qaribu min al babi
wa ayna (hamzah missing) maktabuka (if you are stopping maktab)
Maktabi amama maktabihi (if you are stopping maktabi)
Amam will have hamzah in the front and fatha at the end.
Lesson Six - The definite article: Generic use on Page 153
Many times in English we don't use the definite article “the”, but in Arabic we use the definite article “al”.
Which of the following definite nouns would have al in front of it
Poetry holds a central place in Arabic culture and this importance is reflected in the high esteem accorded to poets.
Poetry, Arabic culture, this importance, high esteem, poets
In ancient times the poet was among the most important members of his tribe
ancient times, poet, members
tribe will not have al in front of it, since it will be captured by the pronoun.
Lesson Six - Verbs: Perfect tense, 3 m.s. and 3 f.s. on Page 154
Perfect tense means the action has been done, completed, finished.
He read the book yesterday.
You don’t need yesterday, just “He read the book”.
Imperfect tense
He is working hard
He is going to respond
Book discusses perfect tense for a while until you master it.
Perfect tense Verbs have a stem and pronoun suffix. It does not have a prefix. Imperfect tense verbs have prefixes and suffixes.
Perfect tense verbs are stated in third person masculine singular form.
darasa - means he studied - but this is how the perfect tense verbs are stated
When you conjugate the verbs you change the suffix. We studied laysa which was an exception since it had two forms.
The stem of this verb (he studied) is daras (no fatha on s)
When you add fatha on s (seen), you get the 3rd person masculine singular form of the verb.
Darasa
When you at, fatha on seen and ta with sukun, you get the 3rd person feminine singular form of the verb.
Darasat
Second person masculine singular
Add sukun to seen and ta with fatha
Darasta
Second person feminine singular
Add sukun to seen and ta with kasra
Darasti
First person (gender does not matter)
Add tu
Darastu
These are similar to the subject markings we added to laysa
We add a, at, ta, ti, tu
All we have to do is learn more verbs.
Raja means returned
I have returned to Makkah
rajatu fi al makkahta
Darrasa means to teach (shaddah on ra)
She taught in Beirut
????
I taught
Darrastu
He taught
Darra????
I entered the mosque
Hadaratu ila al masjid????
I moved from Morocco to Syria
intakaltu min al maghribi ila suria
Suria ends with ya and aliph, because of that ending it remain invariant to case markings.
2013-10-06 Class Notes
We conjugated verbs last time and now we will learn how to form verbal sentences.
He studied.
Darasa
Darasa by itself is a complete sentence, the subject is captured in the verb, and if you stopped at the end of the sentence, then you drop the last vowel???
She returned.
Raja3t
Kataba means wrote
Katabta means I wrote, but if you stop you say katabt
I wrote
You wrote
He wrote
When you have verbal sentences, there is usually more than one noun.
Raja3t at-talibatu
The female student returned.
The subject of the verbal sentence will be in the nominative case.
Do you need a helping vowel? Yes, the helping vowel is kasra
Raja3ti talibatu
Make sure we put the verbs first
The male student returned.
Raja3 at-talib (ends with damma but if you stop but then we don't pronounce it)
Verbal sentences can also have prepositional phrases
The student returned to Saudi Arabia.
Verb - prepositional phrase - Noun adjective phrase (NAP)
Hadhara ila al-jamiati zairatun ajnabiyatun
A female foreign visitor came to the university
Hadhara ila -- means he came to
Al jamia - the university - in this sentence it is a preposition, it’s case marking is genetive which is kasra
Ajnabiya - foreigner - is the nisbah adjective
Zairatun ajnabiyatun - Noun adjective phrase - damma tells us that this is the subject of the sentence
The word order in Arabic is much more powerful and much more flexible. And the reason is because of the case markings. We can tell from the case markings whether it is a subject or object etc.
In this sentence, the verb is for a male and not female, but the NAP tells us that it is female.
If the subject is feminine singular noun and it is separated from the verb (by the prepositional phrase), you can use either a third person masculine or third person feminine conjugation of the verb. If the subject is not separated from the verb, then you have to use the proper gender conjugation for the verb.
Hadharat zairatun ajnabiyatun ila al-jamiyati
Here we have the correct conjugation of the verb hadhara which is hadharat for the female subject. The NAP is no longer separated from the verb.
Verb begins the sentence
Subject is nominative
Subject does not have to necessarily follow the verb
Karima and Muhammad returned.
How can we make the verb properly conjugated with the subject since we have pair of masculine and feminine noun.
We use the word order to conjugate the verb properly.
Raja3t karimatu wa muhammadun
Raja muhammadun wa karimatu
Female proper names cannot take tanveen (two vowels)
Hadhara - present at
Hadhara min - came from????
Hadhara ila - came to
Verbal Sentences (Page 157)
Some verbs are transitive and some are intransitive. Verbs that take an object are transitive.
I returned. This is a complete sentence, you don't need an object for the verb. This is an intransitive verb.
I read. What did you read? It is impossible to say I read without meaning that you read something. Read is a transitive verb.
Object of the verb is in the accusative case which means fatha (single or double). Double fatha for the indefinite noun and single fatha for the definite noun.
VSO - VO Word Order
One common word order in Arabic is VSO, verb followed by subject followed by object. But as we know the verb can conjugate the subject, you can have verb followed by the object.
I studied the lesson
Darastu ad-dars
Verb - Object only in the arabic, no subject since the verb captures it.
We can also have a Verb-Object-Subject word ordering in a verbal sentence.
Page 158
Darasat widadu al-lughata al 3rabiyata
Widad studied the arabic language.
al-lughatal 3rabiya is a NAP
She studied a foreign language
Darasat lughatan ajnabiyatan
In this sentence we changed the NAP from definite to indefinite and the case markings changed from fatha to fatha tanveen.
He studied Arabic in Riyadh.
Darasa al-lughata al 3rabiyata fi ar-riyadh
Kasra for Riyadh since there is al in front of Riyadh, otherwise since city names cannot take tanveen kasra, they end with a single fatha, such as bayruta, lubnana, baghdada etc.
Darasa huwa - incase you want to emphasize the subject of the sentence.
“In Riyadh” is an adverbial clause.
After a year
B3da sanatin
Adverbials of time will be in accusative case.
After a year, he studied Arabic in Riyadh.
Homework Page 159 Drill 3 in order to prepare for your exam.
The Idhafah Constructions Page 159
Rasul Allah
Both are nouns, next to each other. This is an idhafah. We translate the sentence as “The Messenger of Allah” or “Allah’s Messenger”.
This relation between two nouns is that of possession.
Idhafah is made of two nouns. Much later we will study idafa constructions with adjectives.
The first term is called Al Mudhaf and the second term is called Al Mudhafilay
In this text book, they refer to the two terms as possessor (second term) and the possessed (first term).
Maktab al-Mudhir
The director’s office
The office of the director
This piece of paper is from the director’s office
Hadhihi waraqatu min maktab al mudhir
The case marking is always on the mudhaf which is the first term, the mudhafilay is always in the genitive case marking.
The mudhaf can never take tanveen.
The mudhafilay could take tanveen.
The mudhaf will never take al, which is the definitive prefix.
The idhafah can be definite or indefinite. If the mudhafilay is definitive, then the mudhaf is definite and if the mudhafilay is indefinite then the mudhaf is indefinite.
A student’s pen
A pen of the student
Are two examples of indefinite constructs. So we can have indefinite idhafah constructs.
A director’s office
Maktab mudhir
If the first term has an “al” in front of it, then it is a NAP.
If the first term does not have “al” in front of it, then it is an idhafah construct.
Have you (f) studied the book of the professor?
Hal darasti kitaba al ustadhi
Hal makes it interrogative
You is the subject in this case a female
Studied should be conjugated for a second person feminine - Darasti
Kitaba is the object of the verbal sentence, there is no al in front of it and the case marking is accusative which is fatha singular
Ustad is the mudhafilay and it’s case marking is genetive.
Have you (f) taught the book of the professor?
Hal darrasti kitaba al ustadhi
Darrasti - means taught. The ra has a shaddah on it.
The museum of the university is famous.
Mathatu al jamiyati mashoorun
The Museum - Al Matha
The University - Al Jami3
Famous - Mashoor
Matha will not take al because of idhafa
Jamiatun will have al and it will take damma tanveen.
Mashoor will also be in the nominative case marking which is damma tanveen since it is indefinite
Exam will be all of the topics until the end of Lesson Six (page 164)