First thing's first, sis.
Did I tell you, in step 1 that Arabic nouns have endings?
These endings are quite a story in itself, but in order to keep it short, sweet and memorable the one common denominator are the type of vowel endings and can be categorised into 3.
Arabic nouns have 3 types of vowel endings namely:
- -mar.foa' (مرفوع): i.e the last letter of the Arabic noun has a comma-like symbol (dum.ma) above it, having the vowel sound /ʊ/
- -man.soob (منصوب): i.e the last letter of the Arabic noun has a slanted line above it (, having the vowel sound /æ/
- maj.roor (مجرور): i.e the last letter of the Arabic noun has a slanted line below it, having the vowel sound /ɪ/
The above mentioned form endings can be duplicated. What does that mean? What is it called? How does it look like in an Arabic word? If those are questions popping up in your mind then you need to pause here, and start my interactive bitesize minicourse series titled 'Afrabics - Arabic with a splash of Africa' for beginners.
Otherwise. Are you with me thus far, sis?
If not then you can reach out to me here. If you are, then let's continue!...
Last post, I mentioned that we'll be looking at articles in Arabic.
In Arabic, do they have the definite and indefinite articles 'a', 'an' and 'the' like how we do in English?
The short answer is yes, with the exception of 'an'. As you're fully aware, we in English use the indefinite article 'an' before a countable singular noun whose first letter is a vowel. In Arabic they do have vowel sounds - not as letters, though. Instead they have them as symbols located above or below the line.
Before I go off at a tangent, a gentle reminder that Arabic nouns in their natural state are 'mar.foa'. Depending on the noun's position within a sentence, the noun can change from being mar.foa' to being man.soob, or maj.roor.
Definite articles in Arabic
Just like in English, the definite article 'the' in Arabic precedes the Arabic noun. It is pronounced /æl/, and looks like this => ( ال ). However, unlike in English 'the' ( ال )
isn't separated from its noun, but is connected via a connector to the Arabic noun. The connecter is merely a horizontal line. A tid bit like cursive writing. However, unlike in Arabic you can't choose whether to join the letters or not. To better understand how the Arabic letters are joined and which one's aren't depending on their position within an Arabic word do go to the beginner's section.
Indefinite articles in Arabic
Now unlike above, the indefinite article 'a' takes a symbolic form rather than Arabic letters. When the Arabic noun is in its natural form, the symbol is always situated above the last letter & sounds like this => /ʊn/. It looks like either 2 comma-like symbols (below), or like in the picture above (middle word).
