LinguaTwo words make a sentence
In the present Arabic has no verb “to be”. أَنَا طَالِبٌ (ʾanā ṭālibun) is “I (am) a student”: first who or what you talk about, then what you say about it. The second word, the predicate, is indefinite and carries tanwin: طَالِبٌ, كَبِيرٌ. The first can be a pronoun or a word with the article: الْبَيْتُ كَبِيرٌ – “the house (is) big”.
| Pronoun | Meaning | Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| أَنَا | I | أَنَا طَالِبٌ. |
| أَنْتَ | you (a man) | أَنْتَ مُهَنْدِسٌ. |
| أَنْتِ | you (a woman) | أَنْتِ مُدَرِّسَةٌ. |
| هُوَ | he | هُوَ مُوَظَّفٌ. |
| هِيَ | she | هِيَ طَبِيبَةٌ. |
Professions are the first predicates: طَالِب (ṭālib, student), مُهَنْدِس (muhandis, engineer), مُوَظَّف (muwaẓẓaf, employee), صَحَفِيّ (ṣaḥafiyy, journalist). Said of a woman they add ـَة, as in the table – more on that in the next lesson.
الْبَيْتُ كَبِيرٌ، وَالْغُرْفَةُ صَغِيرَةٌ.The house is big, and the room is small.
هُوَ صَحَفِيٌّ مِنْ لُبْنَانَ.He is a journalist from Lebanon.
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| أَنَا | I | أَنَا مُدَرِّسٌ I am a teacher. |
| أَنْتَ | you (to a man) | أَنْتَ طَبِيبٌ. You are a doctor. |
| أَنْتِ | you (to a woman) | أَنْتِ طَالِبَةٌ. You are a student. (to a woman) |
| هُوَ | he; it | هُوَ طَبِيب he is a doctor |
| هِيَ | she; it | هِيَ مِنْ مِصْرَ. She is from Egypt. |
| طَالِب | student (a man) | مُوسَى طَالِبٌ. Musa is a student. |
| مُدَرِّس | teacher (a man) | مُدَرِّسٌ وَطَبِيبٌ a teacher and a doctor |
| طَبِيب | doctor | طَبِيب نَشِيط an active doctor |
| مُهَنْدِس | engineer (a man) | سَمِيرٌ مُهَنْدِسٌ. Samir is an engineer. |
| مُوَظَّف | employee, clerk (a man) | أَبُو أَحْمَدَ مُوَظَّفٌ. Abu Ahmad is an employee. |
| صَحَفِيّ | journalist (a man) | كَرِيمٌ صَحَفِيٌّ. Karim is a journalist. |
| كَبِير | big; old (of a person) | الْكِتَابُ كَبِيرٌ. The book is big. |
| صَغِير | small; young | الْقَلَمُ صَغِيرٌ. The pen is small. |
Exercises
This lesson has 11 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 3
- fill the gap: 3
- match the pairs: 1
- build the sentence: 1
- translate the sentence: 2
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
Which word means “student (a man)”?
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.