Arabic Headline Analysis #6

شَهر

root: ش-ه-ر / noun / plural: أَشهُر or شُهور / definition: month

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Seeing as it’s the first week of Ramadan (!رمضان مبارك)—and hopefully it still is by the time I finish this post—I’ve chosen a fitting headline to analyse in our latest addition to the series.

Let’s begin our word-by-word vocabulary and grammar explanation of the following headline:

ـ 12 أبريل / نيسان 2021

غرة رمضان الثلاثاء في أغلب الدول العربية

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Time for the analysis:

غرة

root: غ-ر-ر

noun

غُرّة = “the first day of”

e.g. غرّة الشهر = “the first day of the month”, غرّة العام = “the first day of the year”

this word is the first in a two-word إضافة (so it can’t take الـ or tanween), hence we’d pronounce it غُرّةُ

رمضان

root: ر-م-ض

noun

رَمَضان = “Ramadan”

this noun is a diptote (ممنوع من الصرف) which means that:

• it doesn’t take tanween
• when مرفوع, it takes a damma
• when منصوب or مجرور, it takes a fatha

these rules apply to diptotes unless they have the الـ prefix or they’re the non-final word in إضافة (neither of which is the case here)

seeing as رمضان is the final word of an إضافة, its case is مجرور—but as it’s a diptote, it ends in a fatha

so غرّةُ رمضانَ = “the first day of Ramadan”

this phrase is the subject (مبتدأ) of the nominal sentence (جملة اسمية)

الثلاثاء

root: ث-ل-ث

noun

الثُّلاثاء or يَوم الثُّلاثاء = “Tuesday”

this is the start of the predicate (خبر) of the sentence, so it would be مرفوع by default and hence take a damma

(fun fact seeing as we’re talking about days: I only realised a matter of months ago that the word أُسبوع (week) is from the same root as سَبعة (seven)—because, if it hasn’t clicked yet, there are seven days in a week!)

في

preposition

في = “in”

أغلب

root: غ-ل-ب

superlative

أَغلَب = “most”

this word is مجرور as it directly follows a preposition

like رمضان, the word أغلب is a diptote—but this time, the word can take kasra because it’s the first word in a two-word إضافة

note: all superlatives/comparatives with the form أَفعَل are diptotes!

الدول

root: د-و-ل

plural noun

الـ = the definite marker

دُوَل = “countries” or “states” (plural of دَولة)

this is the second and final word in the إضافة, so it’s مجرور

في أَغلَبِ الدولِ = “in most countries”

العربية

root: ع-ر-ب

nisba adjective

عَرَبيّة = “Arab”

this adjective is describing the plural, definite noun الدول, hence it has to agree in gender, number, definiteness, and case:

• gender/number: seeing as non-human plural nouns are treated as the feminine singular in terms of grammar, the describing adjective is feminine and singular

• definiteness: the noun is definite, so the adjective also is definite (with the الـ prefix)

• case: الدول is مجرور in this context, so العربية must be too

so الدولِ العربيةِ = “Arab countries”

(I’ve talked a lot about the zero article in previous headline analyses and step-by-step literature translations—it’s the reason why the الـ in الدول doesn’t get translated as “the” in English here!)

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Let’s take a look now at the full translation:

غرة رمضان الثلاثاء في أغلب الدول العربية

The first day of Ramadan is Tuesday in most Arab countries

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Ta daaa! That’s the literal translation but how would you make it more snappy? Let us know in the comments below!

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Don’t forget to check out last week’s post about the three Arabic particles for “if”, and I’ll see you on my next post.

!إلى اللقاء

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