Present-tense Lebanese adjective and participle predicates normally stand directly after their subject: رنا جاهزة “Rana is ready,” رامي ناطر “Rami is waiting.” There is no general present-tense word corresponding to English is/are. The predicate itself carries gender and number agreement.
Predicate nouns behave differently. In هاي الغرفة مكتب “this room is an office,” مكتب remains the noun “office”; it does not acquire feminine form merely because الغرفة is feminine. A copular pronoun used in a definite equation agrees with the subject, not with the following predicate noun.
Adjective predicates agree with the subject
A singular adjective distinguishes masculine and feminine. Human plural subjects normally take the shared urban plural form.
رامي جاهز للاجتماع.
Rāme zhēhez lal-izhtimēʿ.
Rami is ready for the meeting. (masculine singular predicate)
رنا جاهزة للاجتماع.
Rana zhēhze lal-izhtimēʿ.
Rana is ready for the meeting. (feminine singular predicate)
الموظفين جاهزين يبلشوا.
el-mwaẓẓafīn zhēhzīn yballsho.
The employees are ready to start. (human plural predicate)
English adjectives never change between ready and ready. Lebanese makes the subject’s features audible, so learning only the masculine citation form leaves a sentence unfinished.
| Subject type | Example | Predicate form |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | رامي جاهز Rāme zhēhez | جاهز |
| feminine singular | رنا جاهزة Rana zhēhze | جاهزة |
| human plural | الموظفين جاهزين el-mwaẓẓafīn zhēhzīn | جاهزين |
| nonhuman plural, grouped | الطلبات جاهزة eṭ-ṭalabāt zhēhze | جاهزة |
| nonhuman plural, individuated | هالطلبات جاهزين haṭ-ṭalabāt zhēhzīn | جاهزين |
The final two rows are living Lebanese alternatives, not free spelling variants. Grouped feminine singular and individuated plural are explained on nonhuman plural agreement.
Participles agree the same way
Active and passive participles function as state-like predicates in many everyday clauses. Their time interpretation depends on the verb and context, but their gender-number shape follows the subject.
كريم ناطر برا، ورنا ناطرة بالسيارة.
Karīm nāṭer barra, w-Rana nāṭra bis-sayyāra.
Karim is waiting outside, and Rana is waiting in the car. (masculine and feminine active participles)
الشباب رايحين عالمطار هلق.
esh-shabēb rāyḥīn ʿal-maṭār hallaʾ.
The guys are going to the airport now. (human plural participle)
السيارة واقفة قدام البناية.
es-sayyāra wāʾfe ʾoddēm el-binēye.
The car is parked in front of the building. (feminine singular participle)
هالصناديق محطوطين حد الباب.
haṣ-ṣanādīʾ maḥṭūṭīn ḥadd el-bēb.
These boxes are placed beside the door. (individuated nonhuman plural participle)
Do not translate a participle mechanically as English -ing. واقفة here describes the car’s resulting location; رايحين can report current motion or an arranged departure. Agreement is regular even when the temporal meaning is lexical.
Predicate nouns do not inflect merely to copy the subject
A predicate noun classifies or identifies. It retains its own lexical gender and number because it is an independent noun phrase, not an agreeing adjective.
هاي الغرفة مكتب مؤقت.
hāy el-ghorfe maktab mwaʾʾat.
This room is a temporary office. (feminine subject, masculine predicate noun)
هاد المكان عيادة جديدة.
hād el-makēn ʿiyēde zhdīde.
This place is a new clinic. (masculine subject, feminine nominal predicate)
هالموظفين فريق واحد.
hal-mwaẓẓafīn farīʾ wāḥad.
These employees are one team. (plural subject, singular predicate noun)
The adjective مؤقت agrees inside the predicate noun phrase with masculine مكتب; جديدة agrees with feminine عيادة. Neither adjective reaches backward across the phrase to agree with الغرفة or المكان.
This is a major difference from adjectival predication. Compare هاي الغرفة جديدة “this room is new,” where جديدة directly predicates a property of الغرفة.
Copular pronouns agree with the subject
Lebanese can insert هو، هي، هني in definite identity and specification clauses. This is not a general translation of English is. When used, the linker points back to the subject and agrees with it—even if the following predicate has another gender or number.
هاي القاعة هي مركز التدريب.
hāy el-ʾāʿa hiyye markaz et-tadrīb.
This hall is the training center. (feminine linker agrees with القاعة; predicate مركز is masculine)
هاد المبنى هو المدرسة القديمة.
hād el-mabna huwwe l-madrase l-ʾdīme.
This building is the old school. (masculine linker agrees with المبنى; predicate المدرسة is feminine)
هالطلاب هني الفريق الفايز.
haṭ-ṭollēb hinne l-farīʾ el-fēyez.
These students are the winning team. (plural linker with a plural human subject)
See copular pronouns for the identity-versus-property distinction.
Compound predicates keep their internal agreement
When two adjective or participle predicates share one subject, both agree with it. A prepositional predicate has no gender-number form, while a coordinated adjective beside it still agrees.
رنا تعبانة ومعصبة، بس بعدها مركزة.
Rana taʿbāne w-mʿaṣṣbe, bass baʿda mrakkze.
Rana is tired and upset, but she's still focused. (three feminine predicate forms)
كريم بالبيت وجاهز يحكي معك.
Karīm bil-bēt w-zhēhez yiḥke maʿak.
Karim is at home and ready to speak with you. (invariant place phrase plus masculine adjective)
الموظفين بالمكتب وناطرين المدير.
el-mwaẓẓafīn bil-maktab w-nāṭrīn el-mdīr.
The employees are in the office waiting for the manager. (place phrase plus plural participle)
Agreement targets the relevant predicate word; it does not add morphology to every element after the subject.
Predicate-first order is marked by context
Subject–predicate order is neutral when the subject is the topic. Predicate-first order can occur in an echo question or confirmation when the state itself is under focus.
رنا جاهزة للسفر.
Rana zhēhze las-safar.
Rana is ready to travel. (neutral subject–predicate order)
جاهزة رنا للسفر، ولا بعدها؟
zhēhze Rana las-safar, walla baʿda?
Is Rana ready to travel, or not yet? (predicate-first confirmation question)
The second is not ordinary English-style inversion. It foregrounds جاهزة and is licensed by a context in which readiness is already at issue.
Dialogue: matching several predicate types
وين الفريق؟ بعدن بالمكتب؟
wēn el-farīʾ? baʿdon bil-maktab?
Nadine: Where's the team? Are they still in the office? (member-level plural resumption)
إيه، هني بالمكتب وجاهزين يبلشوا.
ē, hinne bil-maktab w-zhēhzīn yballsho.
Karim: Yes, they're in the office and ready to start. (place plus plural adjective)
ورنا؟
w-Rana?
Nadine: And Rana?
رنا هي المسؤولة، بس بعدها ناطرة اتصال.
Rana hiyye l-masʾūle, bass baʿda nāṭra ittiṣāl.
Karim: Rana is the person in charge, but she's still waiting for a call. (identity linker plus feminine participle)
Common Mistakes
Leaving a feminine adjective in masculine form
❌ رنا جاهز للاجتماع.
Incorrect — the adjective predicate must agree with feminine Rana.
✅ رنا جاهزة تحكي مع المدير.
Rana zhēhze tiḥke maʿ el-mdīr.
Rana is ready to speak with the manager.
Using singular agreement with a human plural
❌ الموظفين جاهز وناطر.
Incorrect — both predicates require human plural agreement.
✅ الموظفين جاهزين وناطرين برا.
el-mwaẓẓafīn zhēhzīn w-nāṭrīn barra.
The employees are ready and waiting outside.
Making a predicate noun feminine by adding ة
❌ هاي الغرفة مكتبة المدير.
Wrong for ‘the manager's office’ — مكتبة means ‘library’; a predicate noun does not copy the subject's gender.
✅ هاي الغرفة مكتب المدير.
hāy el-ghorfe maktab el-mdīr.
This room is the manager's office.
Agreeing the linker with the following noun
❌ هاي القاعة هو مركز التدريب.
Incorrect — the linker agrees with feminine subject القاعة, not masculine predicate مركز.
✅ هاي القاعة هي مركز التدريب الجديد.
hāy el-ʾāʿa hiyye markaz et-tadrīb el-zhdīd.
This hall is the new training center.
Inserting a pronoun as a general present copula
❌ رنا هي تعبانة اليوم.
Incorrect as the intended neutral property sentence — without contrastive topic structure, no copular pronoun is needed.
✅ رنا تعبانة اليوم وبدها ترتاح.
Rana taʿbāne l-yōm w-baddha tirtēḥ.
Rana is tired today and wants to rest.
Key Takeaways
Adjective and participle predicates agree with the subject in gender and number. Human plurals take plural predicates; nonhuman plurals follow the grouped feminine-singular versus individuated plural system. Predicate nouns keep their own lexical gender and number, while adjectives inside those noun phrases agree locally. A copular pronoun is limited to identity and focus structures and agrees with the preceding subject, not the following predicate.
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