<font color="#000000" size="2" face="Verdana">Arabic has no word which is equal to the English word "is" which is referred to as a copula in grammar.  We can see this rule demonstrated above where we see the words for </font><font color="#000000"><a title="Transliteration: Hadhaa Baytun" href="http://www.madinaharabic.com/Arabic_Language_Course/Lessons_Audios/Hadha.mp3" style="font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none"><font size="6" face="Traditional Arabic"><font color="#000000">هـ</font></font><font color="#000000"><font size="6">ٰ</font></font><font color="#000000" size="6" face="Traditional Arabic">ذ</font></a><font color="#000000" size="6" face="Traditional Arabic"><a title="Transliteration: Hadhaa Baytun" href="http://www.madinaharabic.com/Arabic_Language_Course/Lessons/MB1_Lesson_001/Audio/AL2a.mp3" style="font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none"><font color="#000000">ا</font></a></font><font size="2" face="Verdana"> and the noun/object </font><font color="#660066" size="6"><a title="Transliteration: Hadhaa Masjidun" href="http://www.madinaharabic.com/Arabic_Language_Course/Lessons_Audios/Masjidun.mp3" style="font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none"><font color="#000000">مَسْجِد</font></a></font><font size="2" face="Verdana"> being referred to without any copula. i.e.  </font><font color="#000000" size="6"><a title="Transliteration: Hadhaa Masjidun" href="http://www.madinaharabic.com/Arabic_Language_Course/Lessons_Audios/Hadha%20Masjidun.mp3" style="font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none"><font color="#000000">هـٰذا مَسْجِدٌ</font></a></font><font size="2" face="Verdana">  If read literally this sentence would read "This Mosque", however, the word "is" can be implied in this sentence so that it reads "This is a Mosque".</font></font>

<font color="#000000"><font size="2" face="Verdana">There is no word in Arabic corresponding to "a" in English as in: "This is a book". The n-sound, i.e. the tanween (doubled vowel sign) at the end of the Arabic noun (<a href="http://www.madinaharabic.com/Arabic_Language_Course/Lessons_Audios/Kitabun.mp3"><font color="#000000">kitabu-n</font></a>, <a href="http://www.madinaharabic.com/Arabic_Language_Course/Lessons_Audios/Baitun.mp3"><font color="#000000">baitu-n</font></a>, <a href="http://www.madinaharabic.com/Arabic_Language_Course/Lessons_Audios/Masjidun.mp3"><font color="#000000">masjidu-n</font></a>) is the Arabic indefinite article corresponding to the English "a/an". </font></font>

<font color="#000000"><font size="2" face="Verdana">Please click on the button for part 2 below to move onto the next section where we will practise this principle further Insha'Allah.</font></font>