By ArabicTree | April 26, 2008
In Arabic, the easiest type of sentence to understand is the nominal sentence (or the noun sentence). The nominal sentence tells you about a thing. It has two parts–the mubtada (the subject), and the khabr (information about the subject).
The mubtada and khabr have only a few simple rules:
- They must match in gender
- They must match in number.
- The mubtada must be definite
- The mubtada must be marfoo’
Let’s run through some simple examples.
Al-masjidu qabiyrun: the masjid is close. The mubtada is al-masjid, which is definite (because it has alif-lam), and the khabr is kabiyrun. Both are singular and masculine.
‘Aishatu jaalisatun: ‘Aisha is sitting. The mubtada is ‘Aisha (which is feminine, singular, and definite–it’s a name), and the khabr is jaalisatun (which is singular and feminine).
At-tullaabu jududun: the students are new. At-Tullaab is the mubtada, and it’s masculine, definite (with alif-lam), and plural; jududun is masculine and plural.
Nominal sentences are really as easy as that! But you can make them much more complex if you throw in prepositions, possessive case, or if the khabr becomes a full, stand-alone verbal sentence. (And that the khabr doesn’t have to be marfoo’–which it isn’t in this example):
Al-Imaamu fiy al-masjidi: The imam is in the masjid. Here, the mubtada is the imam, and the khabr is “fiy al-masjidi,” a preposition and a majruwr noun.
And that’s nominal sentences in a nutshell.