Arabic Am / Is / Are Sentences

Arabic Am / Is / Are Sentences

Am / Is / Are Sentences

Every sentence in English requires a verb. You have to use at least one verb to make any complete, meaningful, sentence in English. In Arabic and Semitic languages, it is also the same, but there is one exception; If we have an English sentence in the present tense that contains a verb “be,” the Arabic equivalent will not contain a verb “be.” In fact, it will not contain any verb at all.

Thus, there can be full sentences in Arabic that do not have any verbs. The verb-less sentences will be those like “Tom is here,” “they are in the room,” and “where am I?” That is, again, sentences containing verbs “to be” in the present tense.

Examples:

الْسَّمَاْءُ صَافِيَةٌ

‘as-samaa’(u) saafiya(tun)

= the sky (is) a clear (sky)

Translation: the sky is clear

الْمُعَلِّمُونَ هُنَا

‘al–mu”allimoon(a) hunaa

= the teachers (are) here

Translation: the teachers are here

مُحَمَّدٌ مُسْتَعِدٌّ

muhammad(un) musta”idd(un)

= Muhammad (is) a ready (man)

Translation: Muhammad is ready

لَيْلَىْسَعِيْدَةٌ

laylaa sa”eeda(tun)

= Layla (is) a happy (woman)

Translation: Layla is happy

أَنْتَ شَخْصٌ طَيِّبٌ

‘ant(a) shakhs(un) tayyib(un)

= you (are) a person a kind

Translation: you are a kind person

*Remember that an adjective has to follow its noun in everything, including the state of definiteness.

أَيْنَ هُمْ ؟

‘ayn(a) hum

= where (are) they

Translation: where are they?

All these sentences belong to the category that is called in Arabic “nominal sentences.” Those are the sentences which begin with a noun word. The part of the sentence that is before the hidden (be) (i.e. the subject) is called mubtada'< الْمُبْتَدَأُ ≈ the start. The part after the (be) is the predicate, in Arabic khabar الْخَبَرُ = the predicate.

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَاْلَمِيْنَ

‘al-hamd(u) li-l-laah(i) rabb(i) (‘a)l-“aalameen(a)

= the thanking/praising (is) for the God (the) lord (of) the worlds

Translation: praise God the lord of the worlds

• اللَّهِis in the ablative case (‘al-jarr) because it is preceded by a preposition (لِـ).

• رَبِّis in the ablative case because it is an adjective of اللَّهِ . It is also in the construct state.

• رَبِّ الْعَاْلَمِيْنَis a genitive construction.

• الْعَاْلَمِيْنَ is an annexed masculine plural in the genitive case.

Multiple Predicates

One mubtada'< (starter=subject) can have multiple predicates.

Example:

هَذَاْ هُوَ الْشَّرِيْفُ الْنَّبِيْلُ الْكَرِيْمُ

haathaa huw(a) (‘a)sh-shareef(u) (‘a)n-nabeel(u) (‘a)l-kareem(u)

= this he (is) the honest the noble the generous

Translation: this is a very honest, noble, generous man

Huw(a)= he, is a pleonastic pronoun. Employing subject pronouns before the predicate in this manner will be covered in detail in the pronouns section.

Coordinators may be used between the different predicates:

هَذَاْ هُوَ الْشَّرِيْفُ وَالْنَّبِيْلُ وَالْكَرِيْمُ

haathaa huw(a) (‘a)sh-shareef(u) wa-(‘a)n-nabeel(u) wa-(‘a)l-kareem(u)

= this he (is) the honest and the noble and the generous

Translation: this is a very honest, noble, generous man

The coordinators must be placed between all the predicates, not only before the last one.

An interesting example of multiple predicates is that of “the Finest Names of God” 🙂

Note that the verb “to be” will show up in the past and future tenses. It will be just like English for those two tenses.

Thus, we hereby have covered the only case of verb-less sentences in Arabic.

Exercise

Can you translate those sentences to Arabic by using the following Arabic words?

Answers