All The Arabic You Never Learned The First Time Around

A: The Equational Sentence

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Arabic Instructor

There are two kinds of sentences in Arabic, those with a verb and those without a verb. For the first few lessons we will deal with those sentences which have no verb. These sentences have the fancy name “equational sentences” but do not be put off by the terminology.

Equational sentences are sentences which would have the verb “to be” conjugated in the present tense if they were in English. For example, “I am Jim” would be “I Jim” in Arabic. Equational sentences can become quite complex; an entire paragraph may consist of a number of equational sentences or of one long equational sentence. Alas, the American student all too often never masters even this basic element of the language. Over the next few chapters we will learn to use equational sentences of increasing complexity. It will be easy.

In this lesson we will limit ourselves to very basic vocabulary in the examples and in the drills. All of the vocabulary items should already be very familiar if you have studied Arabic before.

Look at the Arabic sentences below.

  I am Samiir

أنا سمير
  You are Muhammad

أنتَ محمد
  She is Samiira

هي سميرة

 

Each of these sentences contains a subject that is a pronoun. Each of these sentences also contains a predicate (something that tells us about the subject) which is a proper name. The meanings of the sentences should be obvious if you have had Arabic before. If you have not, you now have examples of the most basic equational sentences.

The subject of an equational sentence does not have to be a pronoun. It can be any noun or proper noun. We could have sentences such as:

  Muhammad is a student.

محمد طالب

 

Here Muhammad is the subject and “student” is the predicate. Thus the predicate can also be any kind of a noun. In fact, the predicate can also be an adjective. For example:

  Muhammad is a tall

محمد طويل

 

Here the predicate ” طويل ” is an adjective.

Comments

9 responses to “A: The Equational Sentence”

  1. The Haal Construction

    […] a verb, a participle, or it can be an equational sentence. First, we will look at examples using equational sentences. Study the sentences below, then read the commentary which […]

    Reply
  2. t.ahmed Avatar
    t.ahmed

    hello,
    have you got any lessons that cover nominal sentences in detail? and also adjectival phrases in detail?

    thanks

    Reply
    1. أحمد Avatar
      أحمد

      I found this on a web.
      As we said before that the first item of the nominal sentence is the Subject or Al-Mubtada المبتدأ which is the noun that we talk about. This noun is always in the Nominative (Marfoo’) Case. Now what are the types of the Subject (Mubtada) ?

      Types of the Mubtada أنواع المبتدأ

      The Mubtada can be any of the types of the following words:

      1) A Plain Noun اسم صريح : The Mubtada can be a clear noun;

      e.g. – محمدٌ كريمٌ = Mohammad is generous.

      – الطالبُ مجتهدٌ = The student is hard-working.

      – الشجرةُ كبيرةٌ = The tree is big.

      2) A Pronoun ضمير : The Mubtada can be a (subject) pronoun;

      e.g. – أنا مسافرٌ = I am traveling. Or – I am a traveler.

      – هو كريمٌ = He is generous.

      – هم مجتهدون = They are hard-working.

      3) A Demonstrative Noun (particle) اسم إشارة :

      e.g. – هذا أديبٌ = This is a scholar.

      – هؤلاء شعراءٌ = These are poets.

      – هذه شجرةٌ = That is a tree.

      4) A Relative Noun اسم موصول :

      e.g. – الذي فاز بالجائزة طالبٌ = (He) who won the prize is a student.

      – ما قلته صحيحٌ = What I said is right.

      5) An Interrogative Noun (Particle) اسم استفهام :

      e.g. – من فاز بالسباق ؟ = Who won the race?

      – ما اسمُك ؟ = What is your name?

      6) A Conditional Noun (Particle) اسم استفهام :

      e.g. – منْ يذاكر , ينجح = (He) who studies, will succeed.

      – إذا جريتَ , ستلحق القطار. = If you run, you will catch the train.

      7) To + Infinitive مصدر مؤول :

      e.g. – أن تنام مبكراً , خيرٌ لك . = To sleep early is better for you.

      – أن تشرب اللبن مفيدٌ لصحتك = To drink milk is useful to your health.

      (Note 1 : In general, the Mubtada should start the sentence, however in a few cases, it can be delayed and the predicate comes first)

      (Note 2 : The Mubtada can be deleted from the sentence if it is understood or if there is an evidence that refers to it or makes it clear like when you give a short answer to a question.)

      ( Note 3 : The general rule is that the Mubtada is a definite noun. However, in some other cases it can be an indefinite noun.)

      Reply
  3. Muhammad Hasan Avatar
    Muhammad Hasan

    Hi,

    We know in English there are many different tenses (you can see them here http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/tenses). But in Arabic there are basically two types of tenses i.e, Past and present which can be made to express in different tenses by prefixing different words to the verbs. I am wondering if Arabic has the ways of expressing tenses like English. For example; how would we translate tenses like: He had been speaking, He will be speaking, He will not have spoken, He would have been speaking etc?

    Your reply would be much appreciated. Thank you.

    Reply
    1. Oscar Avatar
      Oscar

      I am not an expert, but I think that what you need to read about is not just “tense” but “aspect.” The helping verb “had” indicates aspect. I think in Arabic these are usually expressed through participles. So while the narrative would be in past tense, the actions happening in the past tense (continuous aspect), would be in the “present tense” in Arabic.

      Some people say that what we call “present tense” in Arabic is more properly “imperfect aspect” and what we call “past tense” is more properly “perfect aspect.” Teachers of ancient Hebrew likewise teach that Hebrew verbs have no tenses—only aspects.

      Translating something like “he will not have spoken” or “he would have been speaking” into Arabic sounds pretty confusing to me. I don’t really know—I think it would involve lengthening the sentence considerably.

      Reply
      1. Fouad Avatar
        Fouad

        Here is I might suggest:

        – He had been speaking: كان يتكلم (Kaana yatakalam) – We used the verb “كان” in the past tense which denotes that the sentence that follows occurred in the past. “كان” is also known to precede nominal sentence (Here the subject here is not visible but it stands for pronoun “him”. The original meaning of the sentence is: “كان هو يتكلم”. Also the predicate came in the form of a verbal sentence “يتكلم”; the verb is in the present tense). Technically, “كان” refers to the subject “He” being described by the predicate “been speaking” in the past tense.

        – He will not have spoken: If you were intending to use the “future perfect tense” then I think you should have added “by then” or “by tomorrow” for example. Here once again, we will use the verb “كان” in the present tense form preceded by “لن” (its role is to negate the occurrence of the verb in the future), Afterward we use the verb to speak in the past tense “تكلم” preceded by “قد” to stress the verb it precedes. Here is the final result: “لن يكون قد تكلم”
        – The last sentence is in the Perfect Continuous Conditional; meaning that if something had happened (which is not the case) then something would have happened. In Arabic, “لو” is like “if” since here you are wishing for something which will not occur since the chance had already passed by. In the main clause, we will introduce “ل” (it shows that the verb that comes after it is the result of the “if clause”) before “كان يتكلم”. Here is the outcome: لكان يتكلم

        Please keep in mind that Arabic is a language just like all other languages in the sense that learning it requires time and effort. Just because one ignores a language he deems it to be incomprehensible and complicated. It that was the case, Arabic wouldn’t have survived of these centuries along with its literature works. It is the only language that remained as exactly as it used to be spoken thousands of years ago (By this i mean classical Arabic). It is such a rich language that just changing the order of words in the same sentence can lead to another meaning for example. For such, God chose Arabic to be the language of His final messenger and the everlasting miracle that will stand until the final day.
        Here just a simple example: if you try to translate this one word you will need 6 words in English: سألتمونيها (You have asked me about her).

        Allah knows best

        Reply
  4. Reds Avatar
    Reds

    seems like the last example above should be “Muhammad is tall” ?

    Reply

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