ُالج ْملَ ُة ِال ْس ِمييّ ًة The Nominal Sentence

This lesson is about the types of sentences in the Arabic language.

There are 2 types of sentences in the Arabic language:

1) jumlatu al ismiyyah ( the nominal sentence )

2) jumlatu al fi'liyyah ( verbal sentence )

Just by looking at the names of these two, they tell you what it is about. Nominal comes from "noun", so that means that a jumlah ismiyyah is any sentence that starts with a noun. If you look at the first word in the sentence and see that it is a noun, then you know that this is a nominal sentence. And if the first letter is a verb, then it is a verbal sentence / jumlah fi'liyyah.

A jumlah ismiyyah is made up of two things:

مبتدأ .Mubtada - subject

خبر .Khabar - predicate

AL MUBTADA'

There are certain characteristics of the mubtada: a) The mubtada ( subject ) is from the Arabic word 'Al Ibtidaa' ' which means the beginning or starting, and from its origin is that it comes at the beginning of a sentence. b) it is an ism which is the subject of talk or discussion c) al mubtada' is marfoo', meaning it takes dammah or dammatan on the last letter of the ism. d) The mubtada' in its origin precedes the khabar ( predicate ) e) al mubtada' in its origin is ma'rifah ( definite ) AL KHABAR Just like al mubtada', also al khabar has certain characteristics: a) al khabar is that which comes after the mubtada' ( subject ) b) al khabar gives information about the subject, and by which it completes a benefit with the subject c) the khabar in its origin is nekirah ( indefinite ) d) the khabar is marfoo', meaning, it takes dammah or dammataan on the last letter of the ism.

An example of a jumlah ismiyyah is:

.meaning - Allah is All-Powerful , ا ٌقدير - Allahu qadeerun

Allah is the mubtada since it is the first word; here Allah is being spoken about.

The khabar then informs us about Him, i.e. that He is All-Powerful.

So let us have a look at Madinah Book 1, and some new words we can use for the khabar:

( the moon ( is used for mubtada - َالق َم ُر old - َق ِد ٌيم ------new ------opposite - َج ِد ٌيد clean - نَ ِظ ٌيف ------dirty ------opposite - َو ِس ٌخ cold - َب ِار ٌد ------hot ------opposite - َح ّار big - َكبِ ٌير ------small ----- opposite - َص ِغ ٌير light - َخ ِف ٌيف ------heavy ------opposite - ثَ ِق ٌيل sitting - َجالِ ٌس ------standing --- opposite - َواقِ ٌف opened - َم ْف ُت ٌوح broken - َم ْك ُسور beautiful - َج ِم ٌيل

' Al qamaru jameelun= The moon is beautiful' َالق َم ُر َج ِم ٌيل .i.e

Al qamaru is MUBTADA

jameelun is KHABAR

( The apple ( used only as mubtada - ُالت ّف ُاح

( The shop ( used only as mubtada - ُالد ّك ُان sick - مريض sweet - ُح ْل ٌو short - َق ِص ٌير ------tall ------opposite - ٌطويل

( poor ( one in need/ beggar - َف ِق ٌير ------rich ( free of need ) ------opposite - َغنِ ّي Ar Rajulu faqeerun = The man is needy/ begging ّالر ُج ُل َف ِق ٌير .i.e

Ar Rajulu is the MUBTADA

faqeerun is the KHABAR

But what about when we have something saying:

( in the house ) ' في ْالبَ ْي ِت'

Then we say that this is an incomplete sentence, but rather a phrase. In Arabic this phrase is called . ِش ْــب ُــه ُج ْــمــلَ ٍــة

( ِش ْــب ُــه ُج ْــمــلَ ٍــة) and a phrase ( ُج ْــمــلَ ٌــة) Difference between a Sentence

A sentence is a group of words that provides a complete meaning and sense.

Example: (.I am a human) .أنا بَ َش ٌر

The above group of words provides a complete meaning.

A phrase is a group of words that does not provide us a complete meaning or sense. Phrase is incomplete in meaning.

Example:

(on the wall) َعلى الجِ َد ِار

The above group of words lack the meaning. Like a simple question to this phrase can be “What is there on the wall ?”. Thus it needs an answer to make it meaningful.

NOTE: DO NOT continue other lessons in order to haste with learning until the subject that you were learning sits, which inclues vocabulary and the definiteness and indefiniteness.