What do you think about the Arabic language? Do you think it's hard or difficult? Because if you think it is, this article is definitely for you…
Arabic is quite easy and flexible if you know and are able to master Arabic sentences and the Arabic system of putting words together to form a sentence. That's what this article is about.
The Arabic sentence consists of words, and Arabic words have three types. By knowing the three types of Arabic words in addition to understanding the Arabic language system, you can be like a native speaker. Being that Arabic is a very rich language in vocabulary and meanings, you will be able to express your words through various vocabulary.
Arabic Words
All single مفرد Arabic words are classified into one of three types:
- Noun اسم
- Verb فعل
- Particle حرف
Every word in the Arabic dictionary fits into one of these three categories. Guaranteed.
Arabic nouns consist of:
- Names أحمد ، محمد
- Things كتاب ، قلم
- Pronouns الضمائر
- Question tools أين؟ كيف؟
- Connecting tools الذي ، التي
- Signal tools هذا ، هذه
- Some direction words فوق ، تحت ، أمام etc.
Arabic nouns are not countable. Although Arabic is rich in vocabulary, it's still growing more and more. So, don't feel bad when you first start learning Arabic if you don't know them all. Even a native Arabic speaker doesn't know them all.
Arabic verbs have three tenses:
- Past tense: an action that happened in the past and has nothing to do with the future.
- Example: أكل = ate
- Present tense: an action that is happening now in the present and continues happening.
- Example: يأكل = eats
- Command: indicates when someone is in front of me and I order him or her to do something.
- Example: كُل = eat
Some of you may ask, what about the future? Isn't there a future tense in the Arabic language?
In fact, there is. We use the present tense with a prefix س ، سوف to refer to the future.
- Example: سيأكل ، سوف يأكل = He will eat.
Some Arabic particles are:
- from مِن
- to إلى
- on على
- with بِ
There is a huge difference between Arabic particles and Arabic letters: a letter alone doesn't have any meaning, but a particle has meaning.
Arabic words can be:
- Singular مفرد
- Dual lمثنى (only in Arabic)
- Plural جمع
Singular كتاب means one book, dual كتابان / كتابين means two books, and plural كتب means books. But in this case, the plural starts from three items and not from two like any other language.
Arabic Sentences
We use words to form sentences, and Arabic sentences are named according to what they start with, meaning if an Arabic sentence starts with a noun اسم it's called اسمية. And if it starts with a verb فعل it's called فعلية.
That means we have two types of sentences in Arabic:
- noun sentence جملة اسمية
- verb sentence جملة فعلية
Tip: Some sentences are beneficial and some are not, according to the meaning. If the sentence gives a full meaning, it's beneficial. If it doesn't give a full meaning, it's not beneficial.
The Arabic Language System
Every language has a system. Our minds have been created to understand and use the language according to each system.
There are some fundamentals of the Arabic system that I think they are important and I will share them with you in this article.
Six Rules for the Arabic System that You Should Know if You Are Learning Arabic
Rule #1: Every verb in the Arabic language has a subject فاعل , even if it's invisible مستتر . Sometimes there must be a subject in the active sentence الجملة المبنية للمعلوم. And in the passive sentence الجملة المبنية للمجهول, even though we don't know the subject, we use the accusative المفعول به as a vice actor نائب فاعل.
Rule #2: The subject comes after the verb, and if it comes before the verb it's called مبتدأ . There should be a pronoun with the verb that refers to the subject.
Rule #3: Every Arabic word has its own mood إعراب , and that is a suffix. It’s a vowel or special state on the last letter of the word. It preserves the shape and meaning of the word and is one of the greatest things about Arabic because we can change the order of the words in a sentence and it still has the same meaning.
Rule #4: If we want to describe a word in Arabic, the adjective comes after this word and not before it like English. For example:
- A beautiful girl - beautiful comes before girl.
but in Arabic we say:
- بنت جميلة - the girl comes first then the adjective comes after
This means there is no order for adjectives in Arabic (size, shape, color…). We can freely describe things using a thousand words in no particular order.
Rule #5: Also, the adjective should be singular if the word described is singular ولد صغير , and the same thing occurs with dual ولدان صغيران and plural أولاد صغارThis means the word being described and its adjective follow each other and the adjective changes according to the word described.
Rule #6: When connecting words or sentences we use و which means and, but we don't use it only at the end like in English. For example:
- Sarah, Mona, Hany and Kamal
In Arabic, we use و between them all:
- Sarah و Mona و Hany و Kamal
Summary
Just as one big goal can be divided into smaller goals to be achieved, the Arabic language consists of sentences (two types), and these sentences consists of words (three types). And words contain some letters (twenty eight letters)… it's just that simple. You have no excuse now, and don't say Arabic is difficult, because it's not. So, what are you waiting for?
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