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    Fi’l Amr: The Imperative

    Saturday, May 10th, 2008

    Fi’l amri–the command form (or imperative form) of the verb–is derived from the second-person present-tense. You make three changes to the second-person present-tense verb to make the amr. We also discuss how to conjugate for anta, antum, anti, and antunna for the imperative.

    Badal: Something that Stands in for Something Else

    Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

    Badal–something that stands in for something else. The badal passes on the grammar to the next word. The rules for badal are three: the badl must be an ismul-ishaara, and the word following it (which it displaces the grammar onto) must be a common noun that’s definite (usually with alif-lam).

    The Nominal Sentence

    Saturday, April 26th, 2008

    The simplest Arabic sentence is the nominal sentence. It has a mubtada (a first part), and a khabr (a description of that first part). They must match in number and gender, and the mubtada must be definite and marfoo’. The khabr can also be more complicated than this. We explain and expound through some basic sentences.

    Intermediate Topics in Masdar

    Saturday, April 19th, 2008

    Some intermediate topics in masdar–for example, you can replace the masdar with the particle “an” and the equivalent verb. You can translate the masdar two ways–as a verbal noun, or even as a noun. In either case, the meaning is more or less the same. Why? Because of the formula: verb + the particle “an” = masdar, which holds true in Arabic.

    Masdar: The Verbal Noun

    Saturday, April 12th, 2008

    In English, we have something called “the verbal noun.” This is when you have adverb, and you refer to the act of doing that verb. Since we’re talking about the act of that verb, the verbal noun is a noun. In Arabic, this is called the masdar (مَصدَر). The masdar takes the pattern of فُعُول (fu’ool). And, like in English, the masdar is a noun, not a verb. It can take any tanween, can be definite or indefinite, can be maf’ool bihi, mudaaf, etc.

    Al-Maqsuwr

    Friday, April 4th, 2008

    Arabic has a class of words called “Maqsuwr” (meem qaaf saad waw ra). Maqsuwr words end with alif-maqsuwr, the ya with no dots. This letter is special–it has a sukoon on it, and that’s understood. So it doesn’t show case via a change of tashkeel, unlike other words. So how can you add a possessive-case ya with kasra on the previous letter? The answer is, you write a ya with fatha!

    Negating With Maa and Laa

    Saturday, March 29th, 2008

    In Arabic, you can negate sentences with maa and laa. Maa, you can use to negate the past (eg. I didn’t eat), or the present (eg. I’m not eating right now). Laa, you can use to negate the present (eg. I don’t drink tea)–and you CAN negate the past tense, if you repeat the laa–as Allah says in Suratil Qiyaama: falaa saddaqa wa laa salla!

    Some Arabic Patterns

    Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

    Arabic has a very distinct quality to it–while at first, it appears to be complex and difficult, that complexity is removed by use of patterns. Almost everything in Arabic follows patterns–and if you know how to spot the patterns, you can get an idea of what the word means, even if you don’t understand everything. We discuss a few patterns–doers, places, verbs, things like that.

    Spot the Fa’il

    Saturday, March 15th, 2008

    What is the fa’il? The word fa’il (فاعِل) means doer, the one who does the action. It is the person doing the action. It is always definite, marfoo’, and it comes after the verb. But sometimes, you can construct a sentence (incorrectly) which has a double fa’il–if you have a verbal sentence where the verb has the fa’il (like thahabuw) and you add people to it, you can create a grammatically-incorrect sentence with two fa’ils!

    Comparative and Superlative

    Saturday, March 8th, 2008

    Ism Tafdiyl is the comparative/superlative–in English, things like “smarter” and “smartest.” Both take the pattern of af’alu. The comparative takes min (sometimes a hidden min), while the superlative takes a mudaf ilayh. Read some examples, it helps clarify.

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