The Equational Sentence

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

You are Muhammad

She is Samiira

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
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
Here the predicate is an adjective.

The Definite Article

Words are made definite in Arabic by attaching to the beginning of the word. For example,
means a teacher. The teacher is rendered by . The only difference is that
we have attached the definite article to the noun. The definite article is always attached to the
noun. Note that there is a sukuun over the of the definite article and that the is written in
initial form.

If a word begins with the letters or with a hamza (which will be

seated on an alif), we place a sukuun on the of the definite and pronounce the . Thus
is pronounced almudarris.
If a word begins with any of the rest of the letters of the alphabet something else happens. Lets
take the Arabic word for sun, and make it definite. We add to just as we would
to any other word and we get . Can you see what is different? First of all, there is no
sukuun on the of the definite article. Second, there is a shadda over the which is the first
letter of the indefinite noun. The has been assimilated into the and will not be pronounced.
Consequently is pronounced ash-shams. In this situation you can tell that the word is
definite by the sound of the hamza and the fatha and by hearing the shadda on the . You

will not hear the at all. However, the must be written. The letters which cause the to be
assimilated are:

This group of letters is known as the Sun letters because they all
assimilate the does in the word The first group of letters, those which
just as the

require that a sukuun be placed on the , are known as moon letters

because the word for moon begins with which does not require assimilation of the .

Students usually balk when they first learn of this phenomenon. Often they try to memorize which
letters are sun letters and which are moon letters. Normally, I do not recommend that a student do
so. Instead, under normal circumstances, a student can learn when to assimilate the
and when
not to by listening to the instructor, to the tapes that usually accompany the standard Arabic text
books and by speaking Arabic in class. However, if you are reading this book it is likely that you
are not studying Arabic under normal circumstances and you may wish to memorize the sun and
moon letters. One thing that may help you a lot (and also facilitates learning which letters are
which when you practice speaking and listening) is that the sun letters are all pronounced near the
front of the mouth, while the moon letters, with the exception of the and the , are
pronounced further back.

Since Arabic texts are virtually never vocalized, you will not see the shadda on the first letter of a
definite word beginning with a sun letter, nor will you see the sukuun on the when a word
begins with a moon letter. You will already have to know what to do every time you see a word
with the definite article. At the end of this chapter is a drill which will give you some practice.

Lest you think that Arabic is a tough language and that even making a word definite entails quite a
hassle, be aware that the definite article in Arabic does not show gender, number, or case, unlike
other languages supposedly easier than Arabic.
It might also interest you to know that the definite article is often part of Arabic names, especially
surnames. This is why you may have seen Arabic names in the newspapers beginning with al
and then with a dash separating the article from the name. Since most (but not all) American
journalists working the Middle East are so unfamiliar with the language that they do not even
know how to use the definite article, you sometimes will see names such as spelled al-
Sadat at one point and as-Sadat at another point. When radio and television journalists read these
names out loud, they do not know what to do with the al. Sometimes, it becomes a middle
initial L as in Anwar L. Sadat. Dont be an ignoramus like an American journalist. Learn how
to pronounce the definite article. Go do Drill 1 at the end of this chapter now. Then come back
and start reading below.

Complete this drill after reading the section on the Definite Article in Part 1, Chapter 1, Section B.
Pronounce each word below, one at a time. Pay no attention to what the word means.

There is no doubt that at least some of the vocabulary below is new to you. Focus on the first letter
of each word. If that letter is pronounced near the front of the mouth near the teeth, then indicate
that it is a sun letter by making the word definite and writing a shadda over the sun letter. If the
letter which begins the word is pronounced farther back in the mouth or on the lips, indicate that
the letter is a moon letter by making it definite and putting a sukuun on the
of the definite
article. When you complete this drill, compare your answers with the Answer Key below.

If you like, you may also take an online quiz based on this drill. The link below will take you to a
different website and will ask you whether each word begins with a sun or moon letter.
testmoz.com/151209













Answer Key for Drill 1 on the Definite Article. Below are the words from the drill made definite.


Nouns and adjectives in Arabic are declined for case. Part One of this book will focus a great
deal of attention. If you are new to the language, it may interest you to note that American
students of this language have a very tough time with cases. But cases in Arabic are very easy.
Although case may seem to be a foreign concept to you, you should have little trouble with it
here. Many languages have many more cases than Arabic does and they are much more
complicated.

Case refers to the form a noun or an adjective takes depending on its function in a sentence.
For example, a noun functioning as the subject of a sentence will have a different case than it
would have if it were the direct object. In general, different cases are indicated by changes in
the voweling attached to the ends of nouns and adjectives. In Arabic there are three cases. We
will do one case in this lesson, another in the next lesson and the last case will be covered in
lesson three. At that point you will know about 90 percent of everything you will ever need to
know about case. The rest of what you will need to know will be treated at appropriate times
in this book.

Case endings in Arabic are applied to most nouns and adjectives. They are not applied to the
pronouns such as and , nor do they apply to singular demonstratives such
as and . Case is not applied at all to words used to form questions such
as
and
Furthermore, this text will not use any cases with proper nouns. There will be
plenty of examples below so you will see what is going on and how easy it really is.

The Nominative Case

The nominative case is used in an Arabic sentence primarily in two situations. The first is for
the subject of any sentence. That is to say, until I tell you otherwise, the subject of any
sentence will always be in the nominative case.

The only other time a word will be in the nominative case is if it is the predicate of
an equational sentence. (See note 1 below)

The nominative case is indicated by placing a dhamma over the last letter of a word. For
example, to put the word in the nominative case we will write a dhamma over the and
get .

Notice that is definite. When a word is in the nominative and is indefinite, we will write
two dhammas over the last letter instead of one. The second dhamma is pronounced as
a and not as a u. Thus a student is written and is pronounced taalibun. Arabic
does not have an indefinite article; thus the second dhamma serves the purpose instead.

Many texts, including this one, use a modification of the two dhammas instead of writing
them both. The modification consists of the first dhamma being written, but with a tail
attached to it which represents the presence of the second dhamma. Our word taalibun
would look like this instead of this

This text will use the one dhamma with a tail instead of the two dhammas.

The pronunciation of the sound instead of the actual sound of the second of the two case
markers is called in Arabic , literally nunation, meaning the pronouncing of the
letter at the end of the word. Thus a teacher is ( mudarrisun). A book
is ( kitaabun), and a moron is ( baliidun).

Thus the nominative case is indicated by one dhamma if a word is definite and by two
dhammas if the word is indefinite. The second dhamma is pronounced as a and is often
written as a little tail added to the first dhamma as a sort of short hand.

As I said above, in an Arabic sentence, the nominative occurs primarily in two situations.
First, the subject of an Arabic sentence is in the nominative. Look at the sentence below.

In this sentence is the subject and it is definite. Therefore it is in the nominative case and
has just one dhamma. There is no nunation since the definite article and nunation are
mutually exclusive. The sentence means The student is new. The predicate of this sentence
is . Since the predicate of an equational sentence is also in the nominative case we need to
put in the nominative also. Question do we write only one dhamma, or do we write one
dhamma with a tail (the equivalent of two dhammas)? We write the dhamma with a tail
because is indefinite. So you have .

Here are a few sentences. Write in the correct case endings and then look at the explanation
below.
The first three sentences all begin with a definite subject. The subject of these three should
each have one dhamma. The first two sentences have an indefinite predicate which is an
adjective, while the third sentence has an indefinite noun as its predicate. Remember that the
predicate of an equational sentence can be either a noun or an adjective. The predicates of
these three sentences will all have nunation (that is, they will have one dhamma plus the tail
indicating the presence of the second dhamma), since the predicates are indefinite.

The last two sentences begin with pronouns which are themselves the subjects of those
sentences. The pronouns do not have case endings. The predicates of both sentences are
nouns: the first of the two is indefinite and thus has two dhammas; the second is definite and
will have only one dhamma. Here are the same sentences with the case endings included.

The book is new. .

The student is handsome. .

The director is a student. .
You are a director. .
I am the teacher. . .

Some other things you need to know before you can do the drills at the end of this
chapter:

1. Question words
2. Helping vowels
3. Demonstrative pronouns
4. Masculine and feminine
5. Pausal form

Note 1 The nominative case is also the case used in word lists, or in what is often referred to
as citation form. It is a sort of default case when a word is listed outside of usage in a
sentence. Students of Elementary Modern Standard Arabic, by Abboud, et.al., will be familiar
with this. In addition, there are other uses of the nominative case, such as after the vocative
particle You need not worry about such uses for now. Focus on what is in this chapter.