Jonne

THE DEFINITE ARTICLE if you can't remember it

So, in this lesson you'll learn to use the definite article, which is "al" (English "the"). It is attached to the word and the letter l often assimilates to the letter starting the word.

When a word is indefinite, it gets the ending "un", which is done by adding a double damma above the last letter. So, there is no indefinite articly, but a suffix that indicates it.

When the article is attached to the word, the ending -un looses it's n.

http://www.natlas.talkhost.info/Othe...article-al.JPG



qalamun - a pen
al-qalamu - the pen

shamsun - sun
ash-shamsu - the sun

rajulun - a man
ar-rajulu - the man

You can see that the article isn't always "al", but "ash" "ar" etc. too. This is called assimilation. L from Al assimilates to the consonant starting the actual word. Fortunately, there's a rule to this. Only some consonant can assimilate. They are pronunced in the front of your mouth and are called the sun letters. They include
taa' ت thaa' ث daal د dhaal ذ raa' ر zay ز siin س shiin ش saad/9aad ص daad/'9aad ض taa'/6aa' ط DHaa'/'6aa' ظ laam ل and nuun ن

You can understand why this happens- isn't it easier to say "ashshams" than "alshams" or "arrajul" than "alrajul" ??

First step now is to learn those letters by heart.

The second would be knowing how to attach the article to a word starting with a sun letter.
It isn't exactly same as with a "moon letter" (rest of the letters).

When adding the article, you need to take the sukun (ْ ) away from laam and add shadda and a needed vowelmark *look at the picture*


TA' MARBUU6A

Ta' marbuu6a looks like haa' with two dots on it. It occurs only in the end of a word, and gives it a feminine gender (though lots of feminine words don't have it). In MSA it is treated as a consonant taa' but in dialects it is usually ignored. Therefore a the word "kilmatun" (a word) would be just "kilma" in a dialect (dialects ignore the ending -un too).

When adding a suffix to a word ending with ta' marbuu6a, you change it to t.
سيارة سيارتي

a car سَيَّارَةٌ sayyaaratun
a table مائِدَةٌ maa'idatun


EXERCISES:

1. Attach the article to the word.


http://www.natlas.talkhost.info/Othe...e2-article.JPG

2. Read aloud:


http://www.natlas.talkhost.info/exercise3-read2.JPG

3. Add needed "little signs" to the words.

بيت بنت الولد العربية الكلمة أب

SOME WORDS:

a girl - بـِنْـتٌ bintun
a boy - وَلَدٌ waladun
big - كَبـيـرٌ kabiirun
small - صَـغيـرٌ saghiirun/9aghiirun
town/city - مَدينَةٌ madiinatun
a car - سَـيَّـارَةٌ sayyaaratun
egypt - مـِـصْرٌ mi9run
egyptian (m.) - مـِـصْر ِيٌّ mi9riyyun

NOTE ON THE PRONUNCIATION
When 'a' is followed by an emphatic consonant, it is pronounced like the a in car or father. Not like the a in mad or cat.
Emphatic consonants are ض ص ق خ ح ط ظ and partly ر and غ as well. (R when it's doubled, like in marrah.)


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GENITIVE

So let's start with genitive. You know that a noun gets the ending -un, which is made by doubling the damma (tiny waw). Genitive has it's own ending too, -in which is done by doubling a kasra :D
For example:
Nominative: محمدٌ mu7ammadun
Genitive: محمدٍ mu7ammadin

Genitive is used with

a) all the prepositions

في fii = in
بيتٌ Baytun = A house

في بيتٍ fii baytin = in a house

على `ala/3ala = on *note that 3ala is written with ى!!*
مائدةٌ Maa'idatun = a table
على مائدةٍ `ala maa'idatin = on a table

مِن Min = from
من بيتٍ Min baytin = From a house

Note that if you add al- to the word, you have to take the n off from the "in"

في البيتِ fi l-bayti

مِن البيتِ Min al-bayti

Prepositions with one syllable are written together with the word

بــ Bi = by, with, in
بـِـسَـيَّـارَةٍ bi-sayyaaratin = by a car

لِــ Li = to *someone*
لِـمحمدٍ li-mu7ammadin = to mu7ammad

b to show owning

man's car = sayyaaratu r-rajuli سيارةُ الرجلِ

It is important to remember that the owned word never gets the article or the -n of -un!!

boy's book = Kitaabu l-waladi كتابُ الولدِ

If you want to add an adjective, it'll be attached into the end of the sentence.

A man's new car = Sayyaaratu r-rajuli l-jadiidatu
سيارةُ الرجلِ الجديدةُ

New = Jadiid, Jadiida (f.)
Old = Qadiim, Qadiima (f.)

EXERCISE:
Translate:
a) Boy's old book
b) Man's big house
c) Girl's small car


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TO OWN

Arabic doesn't use the verb "to own". Instead, it is shown by prepositions. Most used are:

1. Li لِ, which means "to someone"

*i changes to a before personal suffixes (see below for them)

Lahu sayyaaratun
لَهُ سَيَّارَةٌ
He has a car

Lii baytun
لي بَيْتٌ
I have a house

2. 3inda (=with, by)

3indii 7adiiqatun jamiilatun
عِنْدي حَديقَةٌ جَميلَةٌ
I have a beautiful garden (7adiiqatun = a garden)

3. Ma3a (=with)

ma3a is used only when you're talking about something with someone.

ma3ahu dinaarun
مَعَهُ دينارٌ
He has a dinar (with himself)

Compare:
3indi sayyaaratun jadiidatun
'I have a new car'
ma3i sayyaaratun jadiidatun
'I have a new car with me'


ALL of these can be made negative by placing 'maa' (ما) into the sentence.

ما لَهُ زَوْجَةٌ
He doesn't have a wife


POSSESSIVE SUFFIXES

While in English you say "my book", in Arabic it's "kitaabii"

My book
Kitaabii

Arabic uses suffixes instead of perpositions.

I ...-ii ـي
You m. ...-ka ـكَ
You f. ...-ki ـكِ
He ...-hu ـهُ
She ...-haa ـها

We ...-naa ـنا
You plural m. ...-kum ـكُمْ
You plural f. ...-kunna ـكُنَّ
They m. ...-hum ـهُمْ
They f. ...-hunna ـهُنَّ

You (dual, ie. you two) ...-kumaa كُما
They (dual) ...-humaa ـهُما

And a table, which is propably much clearer :D


Examples:


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TEXT:



Vocabulary:

مَغْرِبٌ Morocco
مَصْنَعٌ A factory
مُديرٌ A boss
على البَحْرِ By sea (ie. near sea)
نَعَمْ yes
فَقيرٌ poor (as no money)
لا no
غَنِيٌّ rich

Other words you should know already.



EXERCISES:
Transliterate and translate the text. Learn the words by heart.

__________________
-Jonne
Guess how to pronounce it

Nadine

Jonne,

Shouldn't "your book" be "kitabuka(ki) instead of kitabi ?

__________________
In the summer I stretch out on the shore and think of you. Had I told the sea what I felt for you,
It would have left its shores, its shells, its fish, and followed me.Nizar Qabbani.
When I drown my eyes in your eyes, I glimpse the deepest dawning and see the ancient times;
I see what I do not comprehend and feel the universe flowing between your eyes and mine. Adonis.

Nadine

I tried the exercise, this is the result :

Mohamed el maghrebiyyu. Mohamed fi l maghreb, huwa maghrebiyyun. Mohamed fi masna3-i. Huwa mudeeru-l-masn3-i. El masna3-u fi-l-medinati wa el medinatu 3la elbahr-i. Hal masna3-u muhammi-in (?) kebirun ? Na3m, masna3uhu kebirun. hal mohamed faqeerun? La, huwa ghanni - lahu masna3-un wa baytun wa sayyaratun.

Mohamed the Moroccan. Mohamed is from Morocco, he's moroccan. Mohamed is in the factory. He is director of the factory. The factory is in the city and the city is by the sea. Is Mohammi (mohamed's?) factory big. Yes, his factory is big. Is Mohamed poor. No, he is rich, he has a factory and a house and a car.


Nadine

__________________
In the summer I stretch out on the shore and think of you. Had I told the sea what I felt for you,
It would have left its shores, its shells, its fish, and followed me.Nizar Qabbani.
When I drown my eyes in your eyes, I glimpse the deepest dawning and see the ancient times;
I see what I do not comprehend and feel the universe flowing between your eyes and mine. Adonis.

Nani

Excellent Jonne .. this is really impressing

there are two typoes , maybe you can correct them :
ما لَهُ زَةْجَةٌ
He doesn't have a wife

should be ما له زوجة


the other typo is :

على بَحْرِ By sea (ie. near sea)
and it should be as written in the text : على البحر

Jonne

Oh god I just noticed these mistakes I will correct them.

__________________
-Jonne
Guess how to pronounce it

Jonne

And also, a letter is missing from the text-
mu7ammadin = Muhammad's, not mu7ammain.

__________________
-Jonne
Guess how to pronounce it

Jonne

Corrected

__________________
-Jonne
Guess how to pronounce it