Lesson 58 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّامِنُ وَالْخَمْسُونَ

The nominal sentence  - الجُمْلَةُ الاِسْمِيَّةُ

Introduction  - مُقَدِّمَةٌ

  • This is lesson fifty eight of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In this lesson we will learn the second type of the Arabic sentence: the nominal sentence/In-Shā’-Allâh/ (God willing). We have already learnt the Arabic verbal sentence structure in earlier lessons.  The Arabic nominal sentence consists of two parts; the subject and the predicate, and it is mostly started with a noun which is the subject. See the following examples (please read from right to left):

Picture

English meaning

Arabic sentence

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

The student is hard working

الطَّالِبُ مُجْتَهِدٌ

/aŧ ŧâlibu muĵtahidun/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

The horse is fast

الحِصَانُ سَرِيعٌ

/al ħiŝânu sarīξun/

  • We will also learn the different forms of the subject ( المبتدأ /al mubtada’/) which is an essential part of the nominal sentence.  The /mubtada’/ is the first part of a nominal sentence. In the following table there are some examples of the different forms of the subject (المبتدأ /al mubtada’/):

the type of the subject

The subject

English meaning

Arabic example

Demonstrative

هَذَا

/hādhā/

This is a house.

هَذَا بَيْتٌ

/hādhā baytun/

Pronoun

أَنْتَ

/anta/

You are generous

أَنْتَ كَرِيمٌ

/anta karīm/

Noun

الطَّالِب

/aŧ ŧâlibu/

The student is hard working

الطَّالِبُ مُجْتَهِدٌ

/aŧ ŧâlibu muĵtahidun

  • We will also learn the different types of the predicate (الْخَبَر /al khabar/) which is the second part of the nominal sentence. See the following examples of the different types of the predicate:

the type of The predicate

The predicate

English meaning

Arabic example

Isolated (single)

بَارِدٌ

/bāridun/

The weather is cold

الجَوُّ بَارِدٌ

/al ĵawwu bāridun/

Quasi-sentence (a phrase) i.e. preposition + noun

 

عَلَى المَكْتَبَ

/ξala al maktabi/

The book is on the desk

الكِتَابُ عَلَى المَكْتَبِ

/al kitābu ξala al maktabi/

Verbal sentence

حَضَرَ

/ħađara/

Ahmed has come

أَحْمَدُ حَضَرَ.

/Aħmadu ħađara/

Nominal sentence

بَيْتُهُ جَمِيلٌ

/baytuhu ĵamīlun/

 

Ahmed, his house is beautiful

أَحْمَدُ بَيْتُهُ جَمِيلٌ

/Aħmadu, baytuhu ĵamīlun/

  • We will learn the original structure of the nominal sentence, in which the subject comes first, then the predicate. The situations in which the structure is re-arranged, i.e. the predicate comes in the beginning of the nominal sentence, is supposed to be learnt in another lesson In-Shaa'-Allaah.