Grammar summary Below is a very brief summary of some of the more important grammatical and structural points. It is not a complete description of the grammar of spoken Jordanian Arabic. Nouns definite/indefinite: funduq (a) hotel sharika (a) company il-funduq the hotel ish-sharika the company singular/plural: type 1 mudarris - mudarrisiin teacher(s) type2 Taaliba - Taalibaat female student(s) sharika - sharikaat company(ies) baaS - baaSaat bus(es) type 3 (various patterns), e.g. si9ir - as9aar price(s) ghurfa - ghuraf room(s) maktab - makaatib office(s) (type 1 for certain human nouns only; type 2 for certain female human nouns, feminine nouns ending in -a, and most foreign borrowings; type 3 the 'broken' plurals, which occur in various patterns, and are the commonest type) gender: masculine (most): funduq hotel feminine: by meaning: hint girl by ending -a: sharika company by convention: suu' market Adjectives - follow nouns and agree with them in gender and definiteness: funduq kbiir a big hotel il-funduq il-kbiir the big hotel sharika kbiira a big company ish-sharika il-kbiira the big company (if you say il-funduq kbiir, it means 'the hotel is big') - are plural if they follow a 'human' plural noun, feminine after non-human plurals: fanaadiq kbiira big hotels il-fanaadiq il-kbiira the big hotels banaatkbaar big girls il-banaat il kbaar the big girls (if you say il-banaat kbaar, it means 'the girls are big') Comparison - comparative adjectives are of the general pattern aCCaC, where the Cs represent the consonants of the ordinary adjective: so rxiiS cheap, arxaS cheaper. 'Than' is min. Soil-baaS arxaS min is-sarfiis means 'the bus is cheaper than a service taxi'. The superlative is formed by putting the comparative adjective in front of the noun: arxaS funduq the cheapest hotel, or by treating the comparative like an ordinary adjective: il-funduq il-arxaS. There is/are use fii, negative maa fiih: (maa) fii naas fi 1-ghurfa there are (no) people in the room GRAMMAR SUMMARY 217 Possession -for 'my', 'your' etc. add the following to the noun -i my -na our -ak your (m.) -kum your (pl.) -ik your (f.) -uh his/its -hum their -ha her/its (so beeti my house, beeti il-kbiir my big house. beeti kbiir means 'my house is big') - between two nouns: method 1: put the 'possessor' noun after the 'possessed': kitaab aHmad Ahmed's book nouns ending in -a (e.g. sayyaara car), change to i and add at when they are the 'possessed' noun: sayyaarit aHmad Ahmed's car the 'possessor' noun can be definite (with il-) or indefinite, but in either case the 'possessed' noun doesn't have il-: miftaaH il-sayyaara the car key miftaaH sayyaara a car key method 2: as an alternative you can use taba9: il-miftaaH taba9 is-sayyaara the car key miftaaH taba9 sayyaara a car key -'to have': there is no verb 'to have' in Arabic. Use 9ind (with) +the endings for 'my', 'your' listed above: 9indi tluus I have money. The negative is formed using maa: maa 9induh sayyaara he doesn't have a car. Verbs past tense endings are added to the past tense stem(= the 'he' form). Simple verb stems are of five types. Type 1 stems end in -aC or -iC (where Cis any consonant); type 2 end in -aCC; types 3 and 4 end in a vowel; and type 5 stems end in aaC, which always changes to -uC, -aC, or -iC (depending on the verb) before '1', 'you' and 'we' forms. Stem Type: 2 3 4 5 example: Hajaz Habb Haka nisi shaaf I Hajaz-t Habb-eet Hak-eet nis-eet shuf-t you (m.) Hajaz-t Habb-eet Hak-eet nis-eet shuf-t you (f.) Hajaz-ti Habb-eeti Hak-eeti nis-eeti shuf-ti he/it Hajaz Habb Haka nisi shaaf she/it Hajaz-at Habb-at Hak-at nisy-at shaaf-at we Hajaz-na Habb-eena Hak-eena nis-eena shuf-na you (pl.) Hajaz-tu Habb-eetu Hak-eetu nis-eetu shuf-tu they Hajaz-u Habb-u Hak-u nisy-u shaaf-u Derived verbs also follow these patterns: 1: :xallaS, Haawal, takallam, ishtaghal 2: none 3: :xalla, laa'a 4: none 5: istafaad (short vowel a), iHtaaj (short vowel i) 218 GRAMMARSUMMARY non-past tense (present and future) prefixes and endings are added to the non-past stem: Stem Type: 2 3 4 5 example: -Hjiz- -Hibb- -Hki- -nsa- -shuuf- I a-Hjiz a-Hibb a-Hki a-nsa a-shuuf you (m.) ti-Hjiz t-Hibb ti-Hki ti-nsa t-shuuf you (f.) ti-Hjiz-i t-Hibb-i ti-Hki ti-ns-i t-shuuf-i he/it yi-Hjiz y-Hibb yi-Hki yi-nsa y-shuuf she/it ti-Hjiz t-Hibb ti-Hki ti-nsa t-shuuf we ni-Hjiz n-Hibb ni-Hki ni-nsa n-shuuf you (pl.) ti-Hjiz-u t-Hibb-u ti-Hk-u ti-ns-u t-shuuf-u they yi-Hjiz-u y-Hibb-u yi-Hk-u yi-ns-u y-shuuf-u The vowel of the stem types 1 and 2 may be a, i, or u and aa, ii or uu in the case of type 5 - this has to be learnt with each verb. Two common exceptions are the verbs 'to take' and 'to eat' which have aa-, taa-, yaa- and naa- prefixes rather than a-, ti, yi-, ni-: yaaxud he takes, naakul we eat. Verbs, the first letter of whose stem is w, are partially exceptional, for example -wSal- to arrive. 'I arrive' is awSal, as expected. But the other forms of the verb have yuu-, tuu-, nuu- as prefix, e.g. yuuSal he arrives. Derived verbs also follow the patterns exemplified above: 1: -xalliS-, -Haawil-, -tkallam-, -shtaghil- 2: none 3: -xalli-, -laa'i- 4: -stanna- 5: -statiid-, -Htaaj- Non-past verbs expressing present time or a general truth normally have a b- prefix: baHki 9arabi I speak Arabie/I'm speaking Arabic. Commands To make the command form, first remove the prefix from the non-past verb. If the result starts with two consonants, prefix i-. If not, add nothing, e.g. masculine feminine plural type 1 i-Hjiz i-Hjizi i-Hjizu (reserve!) type3 i-Hki i-Hki i-Hku (talk!) type5 ruuH ruuHi ruuHu (go!) type 3 (der.) Salli Salli Sallu (pray!) Negative commands are the same as the ordinary verb preceded by maa not and followed by -sh: maa taakulsh haada Don't eat that! Can, Must, May, Want, etc. must/have to/had to: laazim +past or non-past verb laazim yruuH he must/has to go laazimraaH he must have gone kaan laazim yruuH he should have gone/had to go may/might: yumkin or mumkin + verb mumkin yruuH maybe he'll go mumkin raaH maybe he went kaan mumkin yruuH he could've gone (but e.g. didn't) GRAMMAR SUMMARY 219 want/need to: bidd + possessive ending + non-past verb bidduh yruuH he wants to go/needs to go can/could: 'adar + non-past verb byi'dar yruuH he can go 'idiryruuH he was able to go/could go Non-past verbs which follow any of the expressions for 'must', 'can', etc. listed above, or which are the object of another verb do not have the b­ prefix: e.g. baHibb asbaH ktiir I like swimming a lot (NOT baHibb basbaH ... ). Participles active participle This is roughly equivalent to English ' ... ing/having ... ed' or 'a person or thing which ... s' examples: type 1: 9aarif knowing/have known type 2: maarr passing by/having passed by/passer-by type 3: m.aashi going/having gone(= O.K.) type 4: naasi forgetting/having forgotten type 5: shaayif seeing/having seen To form the active participles of derived forms simply put m- or mi- in front of the non-past stem, e.g. m-xalliS finishing/having finished, mi-stafiid benefitting/having benefitted/beneficiary etc. The only slight exception to this are stems like -tzawwaj- which always change the last a to an i: mitzawwij marrying/having married/married person. passive participle These are often equivalent ot English 'is/was ... ed': type 1: ma9ruuf known type 2: maHbuub liked, loved (hence: popular) type 3 & 4: maHshi stuffed (e.g. vegetables) type 5: mabyuu9 sold To form the passive participles of derived verbs change the final i or ii of the active p!lrtciple to a or aa; if it is already aa, it stays the same: mxallaS finished, completed, miHtaaj needed. Subject Pronouns The subject pronouns are as follows: ana I niHna (or iHna) we inta you (m.) intu you (pl.) inti you (f.) huwwa he/it humma they hiyya she/it These pronouns are not usually used with verbs except for emphasis, e.g. compare ruHt is-suu' I went to the market, with ana ruHt is-suu', mish huwwa I went to the market, not him. However, in verbless sentences, these pronouns are normally used: huwwa mish mawjuud he isn't here. 220 GRAMMAR SUMMARY Object Pronouns - for 'me', 'him', etc. add the same endings to the verb as are added to the noun to indicate possession, except that 'me' is -ni, not -i: shaafi:J.i he saw me, aHibbuh I like him. When these endings are added to a verb form which ends in a vowel, lengthen the vowel: a9Tiini 1-kitaab give me the book!, xallaani aruuH he let me go. When -uh (him) is added to a verb ending in a vowel, the u is dropped: xalliih yruuH let him go! Verbs and Tenses To say things like 'I am English', 'she is here', 'they are businessmen' you don't need a verb in Arabic.