Arabic has 2 types of sentences: nominal and verbal.
Nominal sentences begin with a
noun or a pronoun, while
verbal sentences begin with a
verb.
Nominal
sentences have 2 parts: a subject (مبتدأ) and a predicate (خبر).
When the
nominal sentence is about being, i.e. if the verb of the sentence is ‘to be’ in
English, this verb is not given in Arabic. Instead, it is implied and
understood from the context. This can be confusing to some learners who speak
European languages and are used to having a verb in each sentence. Consider the
first 3 examples below where verb to be is not given in the Arabic sentence.
The subject
of the nominal sentence is a noun or a pronoun, while the predicate can be a
noun, adjective, preposition and noun, or adverb. In the following examples the subject
is underlined:
هذه مقالة ممتازة.
“This is an
excellent article.”
والدها لبناني.
“Her father
is Lebanese.”
نحن من مصر.
“We are in
Egypt.”
الولد يلعب.
“The boy
plays.”
The subject
of a nominal sentence is usually definite, yet an indefinite subject is allowed
in some types of sentences that express existence or possession, and in this
case the subject comes after the predicate.
In the following examples the subject
is underlined:
هناك أولاد في الحديقة.
“There are
kids in the park.”
لي أخ.
“I
have a brother”
عندي سيارة.
“I
have a car.”
Verbal
sentences begin with a verb, and they have at least a verb (فعل) and a subject (فاعل).
The subject can be indicated
by the conjugation of the verb, and not written separately, for example:
أعمل.
“I work.”
درسنا.
“We
studied.”
يعمل جدّي في
التجارة.
My
grandfather works in trade.
Some people
prefer verbal sentences to nominal sentences whenever a verb needs to be used
in the sentence, however, this is not necessarily the case and the choice of
which word to use at the beginning of a sentence depends on what you want the
focus of the sentence to be:
يعمل جدّي في التجارة.
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