"The"-the definite article In Arabic the word ال "el/èl" does what the English word "the" does. It is pronounced [ al ] but the "a" at the beginning is often elided (not pronounced, because the previous word ended in a vowel). Examples: رَجُل rajuluń = a man Pronounced: ra-jul الرَّجُل èl rajul= the man pronounced: ar-ra-jul. الرجل èl rajul is pronounced ar-ra-jul instead of al-rajul, because "r" is a sun letter. Whenever el is prefixed to a sun letter the transliteration system will indicate this by writing èl instead of el. There is no need to memorize sun letters. e.g. الشمس èl shams is pronounced ash-shams (meaning: the sun). Add ال el to the beginning of a word, is like adding "the" before a word in English.
Writing it
Here is an example of what not to do:
Incorrect: ال رجل
Correct: الرجل
Notice that the ل (laam) must connect to the next letter, which was a ر (raa') in the case above.
ال el also has a second use. When you find ال it usually has the same function as "the" in English. It is also often used to talk about a thing in general.
man إنسان
mankind الإنسان
The previous example shows one word meaning "a man." The second is the same word with the prefix "ال" (al), and it means man in general (i.e. mankind). So in English where one says "owls go to sleep at night" in Arabic we would say "the owl goes to sleep at night." This would indicate owls in general and not a specific owl.
So what word holds the same functions as the word "a", you might ask? In Arabic there is no word that holds that function.
So "a man" is just one word, رجل There is no word, or prefix, that has the same funciton as "a".
Equational Sentences
Here are some examples of Equational sentences in English:
The boy is big.
The girl is small.
The girl is big.
The man is tall.
Remember the following:
"the" = ال (el/èl)
ال (el) always connects to the word following it, it leaves no space between it and the word it connects to.
There is no word for "a" in Arabic.
First let's translate the first sentence:
The boy is big.
So what we need to know is the word for "boy" and "big" in Arabic. The word for "the" in Arabic (it is "ال" (el)). The word for "is" can be ignored.
boy=وَلَد
waladuń
(wa-lad)
big= كَبـِيـْر
kabiiruń
(ka-biir)
So now we have the words boy and big.
ولد كبير
(wa-lad--ka-biir)
waladuń kabiiruń
wa-la-dun-ka-biir A big boy.
But we wanted to say "The boy is big", we did not want to say "a big boy". Let's try again. I must have forgotten something. Can you guess what it is.
I forgot the word ال el. I need that word to inidicate "the boy" instead of "boy/a boy". Let's add it to the word that means boy. ولد walad means boy.
ال +ولد كبير
الولد كبير
(al-wa-lad--ka-biir)
el waladu kabiiruń
al-wa-la-du-ka-biir The boy is big.
The first word means "the boy" the second means "big". So how come there was no word meaning "is" in the sentence, you might ask. This is because in Arabic "is" is not used for such sentences, it is understood, by the sentence structure (the way the words are placed).
The sentence structure of
The _______ is/are ________ .
in Arabic is.
الـ ــــــــ ــــــــــ
(al)____________ ___________
The first word has "ال" and the second word doesn't. That is all.
Now here are some examples, memorize these, and practice building your own:
الرجل كبير
el rajulu kabiiruń
al-ra-jul-ka-biir (ar-ra-jul--ka-biir)
The man is big.
الرجل رجل
el rajulu rajuluń
ar-ra-ju-lu-ra-jul (ar-ra-jul--ra-jul)
The man is a man.
الإمرأة إمرأة
el imra'ätu imra'ätuń. al-im-ra-a-tu-im-ra-ah (al-im-ra-a--im-ra-a)
The woman is a woman.
Vocabulary to learn: كبير
(ka-biir)
big
جـميل
beautiful
