Learn the basic rules of Arabic sentence structure
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Intro |
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| Michael: How are sentences structured in Arabic? |
| Nora: And are the rules rigid? |
| Michael: At ArabicPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben, a college student, thinks he sees a famous Egyptian singer. He gestures to his friend, Farida, and says, |
| "I know him, it's Amr Diab." |
| .أَعرِفُه. إنَّهُ عَمرو دِياب (ʾaʿrifuh. ʾinnahu ʿamrū diāb.) |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: .أَعرِفُه. إنَّهُ عَمرو دِياب (ʾaʿrifuh. ʾinnahu ʿamrū diāb.) |
| Farida Fahmy: .أَنا أَيْضاً أَعرِفُه (ʾanā ʾayḍan ʾaʿrifuh.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: .أَعرِفُه. إنَّهُ عَمرو دِياب (ʾaʿrifuh. ʾinnahu ʿamrū diāb.) |
| Michael: "I know him, it's Amr Diab." |
| Farida Fahmy: .أَنا أَيْضاً أَعرِفُه (ʾanā ʾayḍan ʾaʿrifuh.) |
| Michael: "I know him too." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at Arabic sentences. Arabic sentences can have one of two forms: sentences that start with a noun or |
| Nora: جٌملَة إسمِيَّة (ǧunmlah ʾismiyyah) |
| Michael: and sentences that start with a verb or |
| Nora: جُملَة فِعلِيَّة (ǧumlah fiʿliyyah) |
| Michael: Both are used just as frequently. You use noun sentences, when you want to highlight the subject, while you use verb sentences when you want to highlight the action or the verb. For example, this sentence is a noun sentence: |
| Nora: .فَريدَة تَعرِفُ عَمرو دِياب (farīdah taʿrifu ʿamrū diāb.) |
| Michael: This means “Farida knows Amr Diab.”, while the following sentence is a verb sentence with the same meaning: |
| Nora: .تَعرِفُ فَريدَة عَمرو دِياب (taʿrifu farīdah ʿamrū diāb.) |
| Michael: As you can tell, Farida, the subject of the sentence, comes first in the noun sentence, highlighting the fact that she is the one that knows Amr Diab. On the other hand, the verb comes first in the verb sentence, highlighting the action, which is knowing Amr Diab. Most of the time, they are interchangeable, unless the sentence, instead of a verb, has an object or a description instead—which is normal in Arabic. In that case, the noun sentence must be used. For example: |
| Nora: .أَنا سَعيد (ʾanā saʿīd.) |
| Michael: This means “I’m happy.” In this sentence, many elements can potentially come after the subject, such as adjectives, nouns, verbs, and prepositional phrases. Here is another example: |
| Nora: .أَنا في السَيَّارَة (ʾanā fī al-sayyārah.) |
| Michael: meaning “I’m in the car.” There is no verb "to be" in Arabic, which is why description sentences have to be noun sentences. So, basically, if the sentence has the verb "to be" in English, then it's definitely a noun sentence in Arabic. Simple, right? Now, let’s go back to the verb sentence |
| Nora: .تَعرِفُ فَريدَة عَمرو دِياب (taʿrifu farīdah ʿamrū diāb.) |
| Michael: There are three components in this sentence. A verb, |
| Nora: تَعرِفُ (taʿrifu) |
| Michael: a subject, |
| Nora: فَريدَة (farīdah) |
| Michael: and an object, |
| Nora: عَمرو دِياب (ʿamrū diāb) |
| Michael: This is because the verb “to know” is a transitive verb, meaning that it takes an object to create a complete, meaningful sentence. Some other verbs, however, are intransitive, meaning they don’t take an object to form a complete sentence, like for example: |
| Nora: .نامَ رامي (nāma rāmī.) |
| Michael: meaning “Rami slept.” You can add prepositional phrases, like “in the bedroom” and adverbs like “peacefully” to this sentence, but you can’t add an object. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Now let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Ben says "I know him, it's Amr Diab?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nora as Ben Lee: .أَعرِفُه. إنَّهُ عَمرو دِياب (ʾaʿrifuh. ʾinnahu ʿamrū diāb.) |
| Michael: The first word is |
| Nora:أَعرِفُه (ʾaʿrifuh) |
| Michael: meaning “I know him”. This, on its own, is a verb sentence. This is not surprising since Arabic verbs are all conjugated, so |
| Nora:أَعرِف (ʾaʿrif) |
| Michael: on its own means “I know”, and adding the suffix |
| Nora:ه (uh) |
| Michael: which means “him”, completes this sentence. Arabic is a fusional language, meaning that many different conjugations, inflections, and suffixes can be added to the body of the verb creating a full sentence out of that one word. Then, we have: |
| Nora: إنَّهُ عَمرو دِياب. (ʾinnahu ʿamrū diīāb.) |
| Michael: meaning “he is Amr Diab”. This is a noun sentence. First is |
| Nora: إنَّهُ (innahu) |
| Michael: which means “he is”, and next |
| Nora: عَمرو دياب (ʿamrū diāb), |
| Michael: which is the full name of the most famous Egyptian singer. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Farida says "I know him too?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nora as Farida Fahmy: .أَنا أَيْضاً أَعرِفُه (ʾanā ʾayḍan ʾaʿrifuh.) |
| Michael: This is a noun sentence as well, since it starts with the noun |
| Nora: أَنا (ʾanā) |
| Michael: meaning “I”. Then, we have |
| Nora: أَيْضاً (ʾayḍan) |
| Michael: meaning “also”, and last is |
| Nora: أَعرِفُهُ (ʾaʿrifuh), |
| Michael: meaning “I know him”. Note how Farida said “I” before mentioning “to know”, because she wants to bring attention to the fact that SHE, also, knows who he is. It might feel strange to have a full verb sentence like “I know him” inside a bigger noun sentence, but it is necessary since Arabic verbs have to be conjugated even if they are inside a noun sentence. |
| Michael: Using noun sentences and verb sentences correctly takes a lot of practice and trial-and-error. The easiest way to think about it is to start with the noun or action you would like to highlight or bring attention to the most. |
| Review |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker, focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Ben says "I know him, it's Amr Diab?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Nora as Ben Lee: .أَعرِفُه. إنَّهُ عَمرو دِياب (ʾaʿrifuh. ʾinnahu ʿamrū diāb.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Nora as Ben Lee: .أَعرِفُه. إنَّهُ عَمرو دِياب (ʾaʿrifuh. ʾinnahu ʿamrū diāb.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Nora as Ben Lee: .أَعرِفُه. إنَّهُ عَمرو دِياب (ʾaʿrifuh. ʾinnahu ʿamrū diāb.) |
| Michael: And do you remember how Farida says "I know him too?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Nora as Farida Fahmy: .أَنا أَيْضاً أَعرِفُه (ʾanā ʾayḍan ʾaʿrifuh.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Nora as Farida Fahmy: .أَنا أَيْضاً أَعرِفُه (ʾanā ʾayḍan ʾaʿrifuh.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Nora as Farida Fahmy: .أَنا أَيْضاً أَعرِفُه (ʾanā ʾayḍan ʾaʿrifuh.) |
Outro |
| Michael: Now you know the difference between noun sentences and verb sentences in Arabic. That's all there is to it! |
| Be sure to download the lesson notes for this lesson at ArabicPod101.com—and move onto the next lesson! |
| Nora: !سلام (Salam!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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