مُقابَلة root: ق-ب-ل / noun / plural: مُقابَلات / definition: interview I woke up very early on Monday morning to a sprawling breakout across my forehead and scratches across my chest that weren’t there the night before—two signs telling me I was stressed. Not that I didn’t know it, because I had a 7:30am interviewContinue reading “Using إيّا and an Object Pronoun”
Tag Archives: grammar
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #14
دِفْء root: د-ف-ء / noun / definition: warmth December has brazenly blustered in with its frost and chill and here I am, sitting at my desk with my right foot pressed against the radiator beside me, hoping for a semblance of warmth to spread to the rest of my body. I may as well typeContinue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #14”
Fixed-Form Passive Participles with Prepositions
شَرْح root: ش-ر-ح / form I verbal noun / definition: explanation One of my classmates, a while back, asked me if I could clarify the grammar of the phrase غير المُبلَغ عنه, which translates as “unreported”. We’ve talked before about the different meanings of غَير—here, it gives the word its un- prefix in English, soContinue reading “Fixed-Form Passive Participles with Prepositions”
Delving into لَلأَسَف
اِكفِهْرار root: ك-ف-ه-ر / form IV quadriliteral verbal noun / definition: gloom It’s mid-November and my winter blues are bursting vibrantly into full swing. I sort of feel like I’m in a gloomy room with a heartbroken flamenco dancer who keeps passionately swishing her black skirt in my face whilst I’m trying to draft anContinue reading “Delving into لَلأَسَف”
Arabic Headline Analysis #9
ساعة root: س-و-ع / noun / plural: ساعات / definition: hour, clock So the clocks went back by an hour here on the weekend, and I felt like I turned back time in another sense a few days ago when my new purchase—a 1928, first-edition Ottoman Turkish book about arts—arrived in the post. “What areContinue reading “Arabic Headline Analysis #9”
Arabic and Akkadian Case Endings
إعْراب root: ع-ر-ب / form IV verbal noun / definition: inflection Thanks to an unexpected but very welcome email from one of my Akkadian teachers I met during my summer course, I’m happily resuming my Akkadian language studies this week! I wrote about some of the Arabic-Akkadian lexical similarities I noticed back in July, butContinue reading “Arabic and Akkadian Case Endings”
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #13
اِستِسلام root: س-ل-م / form X verbal noun / definition: surrender I was torn this week between: writing about Arabic-Akkadian case endings; adding to the Uncommon Arabic Words for… series; and dedicating my time to a step-by-step literature translation. As you can see from the title, I settled on the third option. It only seemedContinue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #13”
The Exclamation of Lament
أَسَف root: ء-س-ف / noun / definition: grief We’re all familiar with the vocative particle (حَرف نِداء) that is يا, which we use to call on someone. (And you can find another use of يا explained in the comments under Wehr Wednesdays #174…) But how many of us have heard of the particle وا, whichContinue reading “The Exclamation of Lament”
The Archaic Particle لاتَ
زِفاف root: ز-ف-ف / noun / definition: wedding After 24 hours of travel (each way), I’ve returned (very jetlagged) from a blissful week in Malaysia where I got to celebrate my friend’s wedding after not having seen her for eight whole years! Ah, the lush tropical greenery juxtaposed with glass skyscrapers… and the awe-inspiring viewsContinue reading “The Archaic Particle لاتَ”
Root Exploration: ج-ن-ح
طائِرة root: ط-ي-ر / active participle of form I / plural: طائِرات / definition: airplane A wise woman I met in the Jordanian desert told me to always have my next flight booked before the end of a trip. Good advice that I didn’t take at the time, and that now has me searching forContinue reading “Root Exploration: ج-ن-ح”
The Plural of Few and the Plural of Many
قِلّة root: ق-ل-ل / noun / definition: few I’m writing this post in between kneading and leaving-to-rise the Cypriot hellimli zeytinli I’m making in the kitchen, and the smell of black olives is stirring up hunger pangs despite the fact fasting is over (!عيد مبارك). But this post isn’t about halloumi or olives, it’s aboutContinue reading “The Plural of Few and the Plural of Many”
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #12
طَبيعة root: ط-ب-ع / noun / definition: nature My appointment to reconnect with nature is approaching and it can’t come soon enough. I’ve been feeling sort of anxiously suspended between buildings and roads here in London and—whilst local parks have been somewhat of a refuge from all things grey—sandy beaches, turquoise waters, and sunshine areContinue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #12”
Plural of the Plural
فَتْح root: ف-ت-ح / verbal noun of form I / definition: opening We’re somehow nearing the end of the second semester and this academic year seems to have zoomed by faster than the time it takes for students to open Arabiyyat al-Naas and flick to the right page. Writing about semesters again reminds me thatContinue reading “Plural of the Plural”
Arabic Headline Analysis #8
مِقْرَعَة root: ق-ر-ع / noun / plural: مَقارِع / definition: door knocker In the photo above is the newspaper page, dated 1991, that was used to wrap up the ornate brass door knocker I bought from an artisan workshop on my last day in Agadir. The newspaper page is now folded up and nestled betweenContinue reading “Arabic Headline Analysis #8”
Case Endings of the Sound Feminine Plural
مُؤَنَّث root: ء-ن-ث / passive participle of form II / definition: feminine Most of us will have learnt that sound masculine plurals in Arabic have one of two endings: ـونَ when مرفوع, and ـينَ when منصوب or مجرور. But the sound feminine plural ending (ـات) doesn’t change in spelling. Instead, we use either damma/dammatayn (ـاتُ/ـاتٌ)Continue reading “Case Endings of the Sound Feminine Plural”
Reading Arabic Literature: An Interesting (?) Structure
تَرْكيب root: ر-ك-ب / verbal noun of form II / plural: تَراكيب / definition: (grammatical) construction If it seems like the last post in the Reading Arabic Literature series was almost a year ago… that’s because it was, unfortunately. (January, apparently?!) And this doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading any Arabic literature—because as you mightContinue reading “Reading Arabic Literature: An Interesting (?) Structure”
Verbal Nouns of Hollow Roots
مَصْدَر root: ص-د-ر / noun / plural: مَصادِر / definition: verbal noun, source Back in June, when we looked at the different types of Arabic roots, we mentioned that hollow roots are those with either و or ي as the middle letter. Like ق-و-ل and غ-ي-ر. Verbal nouns (مصادر) derived from hollow roots sometimes followContinue reading “Verbal Nouns of Hollow Roots”
The Verb يتسبّب and its Prepositions
مُتَنَوِّع root: ن-و-ع / active participle of form V / definition: various In one of the examples in Arabic Observations: Words with Antonymic Meanings, we saw how changing the preposition following a verb could produce two completely opposite meanings. While the meaning of the form V verb تَسَبَّبَ / يَتَسَبَّبُ doesn’t change that drastically, it stillContinue reading “The Verb يتسبّب and its Prepositions”
Form I Active Participles of Geminate Roots
مُضَعَّف root: ض-ع-ف / passive participle of form II / definition: doubled, geminate As we saw in the post Arabic Roots: the Different Types, geminate roots are those whose final two letters are the same. Like م-س-س or ح-ر-ر. When it comes to the form I active participle of geminate roots then, we might expect itsContinue reading “Form I Active Participles of Geminate Roots”
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #11
مُواصَلة root: و-ص-ل / verbal noun of form III / definition: continuation This week we’re continuing on from last week’s literature translation where we went through the first part of our extract:
The Arabic Pages 