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    • Archive for June, 2008

    Why Mi’atun has an Alif

    Saturday, June 21st, 2008

    Mi’atun, the word for 100, has an alif in it, and the letter before has a kasra. What’s more, the alif isn’t even pronounced! What’s up with that? In this post, we discuss the history of this word (and the history of Arabic writing), which explains precisely why this word has an alif.

    Separating Mudaf and Mudaf Ilayh

    Sunday, June 15th, 2008

    In the possessive case, the mudaf follows the mudaf ilayh. Check this out:
    هَاذا قَلَمُ مُحَمَّدٍ
    In this sentence, the mudaf is qalam, and the mudaf ilayh is Muhammad. Let’s play with this sentence; we want to say “this is Muhammad’s new pen” instead of just “this is Muhammad’s pen.” How would we accomplish [...]

    Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

    Saturday, June 7th, 2008

    In English and Arabic, we can classify verbs as both transitive and intransitive. (Does anyone know the Arabic terms for these words?)
    Transitive verbs are verbs that take a maf’ool (an object, or recipient of the verb). In English, transitive verbs include: eat (eat what?), and say (say what?).
    Intransitive verbs take no maf’ool–they’re [...]