ALI139 – Arabic Grammar I

ALI139 – Arabic Grammar I Week 6

Outline • Demonstrative Pronouns (الإشارةأسماء) • Relative Pronouns (الموصولةأسماء) • Interrogative Particles (الإستفهامأسماء)

Qur’anic Language Made Easy Hafiza Iffath Hasan Review of Lesson 1.18 (p. 65)and Lesson 1.19 (p. 67) Demonstrative Pronouns الإشارةأسماء

Demonstrative Pronouns (الإشارةأسماء) • To ‘demonstrate’ is to show or indicate, therefore demonstratives are words which indicate the particular person or object you are talking about. The demonstratives in English are this, that, these and those. • Demonstrative pronouns can be used in sentences (e.g. This school is good) or in phrases (e.g. That boy). • In Arabic, demonstrative pronouns are always definite. • For singular, the demonstrative pronouns are: • هٰذَا (this (m.)) andهٰذِهِ (this (f.)) • ذٰلكَ (that (m.)) andتِلكَ (that (f.)) • Note that the demonstrative pronoun must agree with the noun in gender – masculine or feminine.

Demonstrative Pronouns (الإشارةأسماء) • Demonstratives are used both, in sentences (This is…) and phrases (This…). • When a demonstrative pronoun is followed by a definite noun, it will be a phrase e.g. الرجلهٰذَا(This man),الجامعةهٰذِهِ(This university),البنتهٰذِهِ(This girl),المكتبهٰذَا(This office),المكتبةهٰذِهِ(This library) • When a demonstrative pronoun is followed by an indefinite noun, it will be a sentence e.g. رجلٌهٰذَا(This is a man),جامعةٌهٰذِهِ(This is a university), etc. • When you need to construct a sentence with a demonstrative pronoun followed by a definite noun then a personal pronoun must be introduced between them e.g. الرجلهوهٰذَا(This is the man), الجامعةهيهٰذِهِ(This is the university).

Qur’anic Language Made Easy Hafiza Iffath Hasan Review of Lesson 1.20 (p. 69) Relative Pronouns الموصولةأسماء

Relative Pronouns (الموصولةأسماء) • You have seen adjectives and how they describe a noun and agree with it in number and gender. Sometimes a noun is not described with one word (i.e. an adjective) but rather a complete sentence instead e.g.القاهرةفيتسكنبنتهٰذِهِ • The ‘sentence’ following the noun بنتٌ is like an adjective but because it’s an entire sentence on its own (القاهرةفيتسكن), it’s called an “Adjective Sentence” (الصفةجملة) • When the noun being described is definite, it is connected to the sentence describing it (الصفةجملة) with a relative pronoun (الموصولاسم). The most common relative pronouns are الّذي (مذكّر), الّتِي (مؤنث), الّذين (مذكّرجمع human)

Relative Pronouns (الموصولةأسماء) • In English, the common relative pronouns are who, whom, whose, which, or that. In English, the relative pronoun is sometimes omitted e.g. “The man I met in school” instead of “The man whom I met in school”. • In Arabic, the relative pronoun (e.g. الّذي) is always omitted if the noun preceding it is indefinite and it is always written if the noun is definite.

Relative Pronouns (الموصولةأسماء) • Examples: • قرأتُهاالّتِيالجريدة • قرأتُهاجريدة • فيهأسكنبيتٌ • فيهأسكنالّذيالبيت • …الّذيالموّظف • …الّتِيالبنت • …الّذينالموّظفون

Qur’anic Language Made Easy Hafiza Iffath Hasan Review of Lesson 1.21 (p. 71) Interrogative Particles الإستفهامأسماء

Interrogative Particles (الإستفهامأسماء) • Arabic has two words which are used mostly in written Arabic, to indicate that follows is a question. These two words are هل and أ • And since these prefixes already indicate that what follows is a question, the word order does not change and remains the same as a statement. • For example, in English, “The book is useful” is a statement. To change it to a question, you would rearrange the word order to “Is the book useful?” In Arabic, you don’t change the statement. You only add a prefix. For example: • نافعالكتاب becomes نافع؟الكتابهل • طالبةأنتِ becomes ؟طالبةأنتِهل or طالبة ؟أأنتِ • Both هل and أ serve the same purpose. With time though, you may notice a pattern e.g. هل is used with words starting with the definite article and أ used with pronouns and proper nouns, etc. but there is no hard and fast rule.

Interrogative Particles (الإستفهامأسماء)

ALI139 – Arabic Grammar I