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Showing posts with the label Characteristics of the Arabic language

The original word

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The word masdar ( مَصْدَر ) linguistically means means "source" and from the perspective of Arabic linguistics it denotes the word which all other derived verbs and nouns originally came from . There has been a debate by Arabic linguists  as whether this original word was in fact the verbal noun or the verb The verbal noun is a noun that denotes an action devoid of a time frame For example: eating, sleeping, reading, writing are all considered verbal nouns. If we say " Eating adequate fruit and vegetables is essential for preventing a wide variety of health conditions". The word Eating  denotes the act of eating without a specific time frame linked to it. In Surat Al Naba, Allah (Most High) says: وَجَعَلْنَا نَوْمَ كُمْ سُبَاتًا And made your sleep [a means for] rest Once again sleep denotes the act of sleeping without an associated time frame. A verb on the other hand denotes an action with a time frame. such as in the sentence نَامَتْ فَاطِم...

The richness of the Arabic Language ( Sentence structures)

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Dr Fadl Samarai a famous Arabic Grammarian in the Arab world compared the Arabic language to a highly sophisticated, state of the art computer alongside the English language (or any other language) which he compared to an obsolete and outdated computer. This might sound a bit biased considering he is an Arab, a Muslim and a famous Arabic Grammarian on Arab TV, however he has very good reason to make this comparison once we examine the Arabic language in a bit more detail. Before we can understand this comparison we need to understand the difference between a declining language like Arabic and a non-declining language like the English language. Let's take the following 3 simple sentences in both Arabic and English: 1. Khalid came جَاءَ خَالِدٌ 2. I saw Khalid رَأَيْتُ خَالِداً 3. I went with khalid ذَهَبْتُ مَعَ خَالِدٍ In all 3 sentences Khalid is written the same way in English regardless of what role it plays in the sentence. On the other hand you wil...