Complete Sentences in Arabic

A complete sentence in Arabic consists of two words which provide the listener with enough information so that he understand completely what has been said and remain silent.

For example, consider the following

قَامَ زَيْدٌ

Qaama Zaidun

Zaid stood

This is  a verbal sentence in Arabic. It consists of two words - namely Qaama and Zaid(un). Both words give enough information to the listener that he understands what has been said and remains silent. This is opposed to if one simply said:

زَيْدٌ

Zaid

Here the the listener would say upon hearing this 'What about Zaid?" That is because complete information has not been provided about Zaid.

Verbal Sentences in Arabic

Sentences in Arabic are either

• Verbal Sentences 
• Nominal Sentences 

Let's concentrate on Verbal Sentences as the one in the above example.

A verbal sentence begins with a verb. Anytime you see a sentence beginning with a verb, in Arabic, you know it is a verbal sentence.

The verb in our sentence is Qaama

Qaama, as you can see, is composed of three letters which are Qaaf Alif Meem The vowels which make up this word are

• Fatah which is on the Qaaf
• Fatah which is on the Meem

The interesting thing to note is that these are not actually the root words of this verb. The actual root words of this verb are

• Qaaf
• Waw
• Meem

The word is actually

قَوَمَ

Qawama

But since the Arabs found this hard to articulate, the replaced the Waw with a Alif!

The verb literally means "He stood." However, if it has a subject which follows it, the inherit pronoun "he" disappears and the following subject becomes the subject of the verb.

Zaid(un)

This is the second word of this verbal sentence. This word is a proper name of a person. It is a noun.

Note that the last letter of this word has a vowel sign on it which is written twice. The vowel sign is Dammah and it is written twice and pronounced "un." This is known as Tanween.

The last letter could also have kasrah or fatha - the other two vowel signs- written on it as:

• Zaid(in)
• Zaid(an)

This change in the vowel sign on the last letter of a word is what constitutes Arabic grammar. 

The vowels on the other letters of Zaid remain constant as do in every word. It is the vowel on the last letter of the word which changes, and the grammar of the Arabic language depends on these vowels.

• When the last letter of a word has Dammah (single or double) it is said to be Marfoo or in the nominative case
• When the last letter of a word has Fatha (single or double) it is said to be Mansoob' or in the accusative case
• When the last letter of a word has Kasrah (single or double) it is said to be Majroor or in the genitive case

Since Zaid(un) has two Dammah on the last letter it is in the nominative case. It is Marfoo. 

The subject of a verbal sentence is always in the nominative case. It is always Marfoo. It has a single or double dammah on the last letter.

Thus, when you have these rules in mind, you know that Qaama is the verb and its subject (the noun which performed) the action is Zaid. We have the complete sentence

Zaid stood.

Another thing to note is the order of words in Arabic. In English the Subject comes first followed by the Verb.

But in Arabic, the verb comes first followed by the Subject.

Summary of what you learned

In this lesson you have learned

• Arabic consists of two types of sentences: Verbal and Nominal
• A verbal sentence is one which begins with a verb
• The grammar of Arabic depends on the vowel sign on the last letter of a word
• A word can be Marfoo, Mansoob, or Majroor
• A word which has dammah on the last letter is Marfoo
• A word which has fatha on the last letter is Mansoob
• A word which has kasrah on the last letter is Majroor
• Marfoo means nominative case, Mansoob means accusative case, and Majoor means genitive case
• The subject of a verbal sentence is in the nominative case
• In Arabic the word order is Verb, Subject, and if present Object

Do not feel overwhelmed by all of the information you have to digest. In subsequent lessons these rules will be reiterated by means of examples. Unlike print books, which have limited space, online resources such as this one enable the teacher to provide countless examples to help students better understand concepts.