Lesson 58 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّامِنُ وَالْخَمْسُونَ

The nominal sentence  - الجُمْلَةُ الاِسْمِيَّةُ

The types of  the predicate –أَنْوَاع الخَبَر

  • We are still in lesson fifty eight of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • We learnt earlier that the Arabic nominal sentence consists of two essential parts: the subject (الْمُبْتَدَأ /almubtada’/) and the predicate (الْخَبَر /al khabar/).  We also learnt that the subject is always a noun, so it cannot be a verb, a sentence, or a quasi sentence.  We studied the types of the subject, and we clearly understood that they are the same types of a single noun.
  • In this part we will study, In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing), the types of the second part of the nominal sentence, the predicate (الْخَبَر /al khabar/). 
  • The predicate is the part which completes the meaning of the sentence. The subject without the predicate is just a single word that does not give us the complete understanding of the sentence.
  • The predicate gives us a certain information about the subject, and thus the complete meaning appears.
  • Unlike the subject, the predicate can be a verbal sentence (نَامَ), a nominal sentence (جِسْمُهُ قَوِيٌّ) , a single noun (كَرِيمٌ), or a quasi sentence (a phrase) i.e. preposition + noun (فِي البَيْتِ).
    So there are three types of the predicate:
    - Single noun.
    - Sentence (verbal or nominal)
    - Quasi sentence (a phrase) i.e. preposition + noun.
    The following table shows some examples of these types:

Picture

Type of predicate

Predicate

English meaning

Arabic example

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Single noun

مُفْرَد

كَرِيمٌ

/karīmun/

You are a generous man

أَنْتَ رَجُلٌ كَرِيمٌ

/anta raĵulun karīmun/

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Single noun

مُفْرَد

أَخُوكَ

/akhūka/

Is this your brother?

هَلْ هَذَا أَخُوكَ؟

/hal hādhā akhūka/

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Single noun

مُفْرَد

جَدِيدٌ

/ĵadīdun/

The book is new

الكِتَابُ جَدِيدٌ

/al kitābu ĵadīdun/

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Quasi sentence

شِبه جُمْلَة

عَلَى الطَّاوِلَةِ

/ξala aŧ ŧâwilati/

The glass is on the table

الكُوبُ عَلَى الطَّاوِلَةِ

/al kūbu ξala aŧ ŧâwilati/

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شِبه جُمْلَة

Quasi sentence

فِي الحَقِيبَةِ

/fī al ħaqībati/

The cloths are in the suitcase

المَلابِسُ فِي الحَقِيبَةِ

/al malābisu fī al ħaqībati/

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Quasi sentence

شِبه جُمْلَة

مِنْ سُورِيا

/min sūria/

I am from Syria

أَنَا مِنْ سُورِيا

/anā min Sūria/

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Verbal sentence

جُمْلَة فِعْلِيَّة

كَبُرَت بِسُرْعَةٍ.

/kaburat bisurξatin/

The girl grew quickly

البِنْتُ كَبُرَت بِسُرْعَةٍ.

/al bintu kaburat bisurξatin/

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Verbal sentence

جُمْلَة فِعْلِيَّة

يُحِبُّ السَّفَرَ

/yuħibbu as safari/

Ahmed likes travelling

أَحْمَدُ يُحِبُّ السَّفَرَ

/Aħmadu yuħibbu as safari/

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Nominal sentence

جُمْلَة اِسْمِيَّة

جِسْمُهُ قَوِيٌّ

/ ĵismuhu qawiyyun/

The boy, his body is strong

الوَلَدُ جِسْمُهُ قَوِيٌّ

/al waladu ĵismuhu qawiyyun/

  • You may notice that the predicate in the above mentioned examples is divided into three types as follows:
    1-The single (isolated) predicate (
    الْخَبَرُ المُفْرَد)
    The single predicate consists only of one word (a noun). It is like the subject in this respect. You can see this in the first three examples, i.e. the words (
    كَرِيمٌأَخُوكَ - جَدِيدٌ). Each of these words is a single noun.
    The predicate in this case is signed with /đammah/ on its last letter. The /đammah/ is the original sign of the predicate which is always in nominative case. You will notice from the following points that only the single predicate is signed with the evident /đammah/. The other two types are nominative but without an evident /đammah/.
    2- The second type of the predicate is the quasi sentence (the phrase). The phrase in this type of predicate is neither a single word nor an entire sentence. The quasi sentence is a compound of a preposition (or an adverb) and a noun. You can see examples for this kind of predicate in sentences number 4, 5, and 6.(
    عَلَى الطَّاوِلَةِ - فِي الحَقِيبَةِ - مِنْ سُورِيا).
    3- The third type of the predicate is the sentence predicate.
    In this type the predicate is an entire sentence, i.e. the information that we provide about the subject is a full sentence consisting of the two essential parts. The predicate sentence can further be divided into two kinds:
  • The verbal predicate sentence, as the examples number 7 and 8 above (يُحِبُّ السَّفَرَ - كَبُرَت).
  • The nominal predicate sentence, the last example shown above (جِسْمُهُ قَوِيٌ).
  •  It is noticeable that both kinds of the sentence predicate cannot be signed with the regular sign of the nominative case. The sentence here is in a place of nominative case, but its sign is not evident, it is supposed, or virtual.
  •  We should now be able to understand that this third type of predicate (the sentence predicate) makes with the subject a compound sentence which has the following forms:

Nominal sentence = subject + verbal sentence

Form 1

Nominal sentence = subject + nominal sentence

Form 2

  • In these two forms we find that we have one complete nominal sentence that consists of two parts – the subject is the first part and the nominal or verbal sentence is the second part of this complete sentence.  So if we take the two parts together we have one single sentence even though we also have a complete sentence within the predicate itself:

(هو) السَّفَرَ

يُحِبُّ

أَحْمَدُ

Form 1

Small sentence (verbal)

Predicate

Subject

Bigger  sentence

قَوِيٌّ

جِسْمُهُ

الوَلَدُ

Form 2

Predicate

Subject

Subject

Small sentence (nominal) – Predicate

Bigger  sentence