Lesson 78 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّامِنُ والسَّبْعونَ

The followers (1) The adjective - التَّــوَابِع(١) النَّعْتُ

The definition of the adjective, and its conditions –النَّعْتُ تَعْرِيفُه وَشُرُوطُهُ

• We are still in lesson seventy eight of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
• The adjective (the descriptive) is called in Arabic (النَّعْت), and it can also be called (الصِّفَة). It is a follower that indicates one of the qualities related to a preceding described noun.
• The adjective follows the described noun in four things as follows:

1-    Gender (masculine or feminine)

2-    Number (singular, dual, or plural)

3-    Definition (or non definition)

4-    Declension case (nominative, accusative or genitive)

Consider the following examples:

• There are some exceptions of the accordance between the adjective and the described noun in the gender and the number. These exceptions are as follows:
• The non rational (inanimate) objects  Consider the following examples:

• In the above mentioned examples you may notice that the described nouns (الْكُتُبَ – بُيُوتٌ - الأَقْلامَ) are in the plural masculine form, while the adjectives are in the singular feminine (الْعَرَبِيَّةَ – كَثِيرَةٌ - الزَّرْقاءَ). This is because the described nouns refer to a plural of non rational (inanimate) objects. In Arabic the plural of the non rational (inanimate) objects is treated as singular masculine nouns.
• More examples:

• The collective plural noun

The collective plural noun is that which is a singular in its form, and plural in its meaning. It refers to more than two items, but it is treated in the sentence as a singular noun. Not all Arabic nouns has a collective plural, but it is commonly used with fruits, foods, and some insects and animals. Consider the following types of plurals giving a certain attention to the collective nouns:

• The collective nouns in the above mentioned table are respectively: تُفَّاح – شَجَر – سَمَك – بَيْض - دَجَاج. Although these nouns indicate the plural meaning, it will be treated as singular nouns, as in the following examples:

• The adjective is originally supposed to be a derived noun. There are four kinds of derivatives that can be adjectives as in the following table:

• Sometimes the adjective can be formed of a non-derived noun (i.e. a noun which has no verbal root).
• The following table shows the kinds of the non-derived nouns that can form the adjective:

• The adjective can be also formed of a vague indefinite noun (ما mā) to refer to an unknown person or thing (someone or something). We will study this kind of adjective in detail because it is commonly used in Modern Standard Arabic. Consider the following examples (please read from right to left):
• Example (1)

• Example (2)

·        Example (3)

·        The adjective can be separated from the described noun by the annexed noun (مُضَاف إلَيْه), we learnt the annexation structure in lesson 5 of this course. The described noun can be an annexing noun (مُضاف) which is the first part of (iđâfah), so it has to be followed by the (muđâf ilaihi) directly, and then the adjective has to be delayed and placed after the second part of the (iđâfah). Consider the following examples:

·        You may notice in the examples above that the two adjectives (الْكَبِير - الآخَر) are related to the two described nouns (كِتاب - باب) respectively, and they are placed after the annexed nouns.