Old letters, new words
Family stories are full of words you already know, but several of them hide a second word with the same letters. Arabic is printed without short vowels, so the sentence has to tell you which one you are reading.
| you know | the new word |
|---|---|
| مِثْل like, such as | مَثَل proverb |
| قَدَّرَ to value | قَدَر fate |
| سَارَ to walk | سَارّ pleasant (news) |
| سِرّ secret | سَرَّ to delight |
| دَارَ to spin | دَار home, house (formal) |
| كَوْن universe | كَوَّنَ to form |
| نَفْس self, same | نَفَس breath |
Nouns sit where nouns sit
After a preposition or the article, the word is a noun:
| My grandmother believes in fate. | تؤمن جدتي بالقدر. |
بالقدر carries ب and ال, so it is fate, not to value.
| She said to herself: take a deep breath. | قالت لنفسها: خذي نفسا عميقا.qâlat linafsihâ: khudhî nafasan `amîqan. |
نفسها after ل is herself; نفسا, the object of خذي, is a breath.
| As the proverb says: the neighbor before the house. | كما يقول المثل: الجار قبل الدار. |
A real proverb: the neighbor before the house. دار is the formal word for a house or home, and it is the usual word in the names of institutions, such as دار للمسنين, a home for the elderly.
Verbs come first
A verb has a subject after it. In سر الخبر والديها كثيرا. the subject is الخبر, so سر is delighted, not secret. يسرني أن… it delights me to… is the polite way to open a speech:
| It delights me to welcome you to my home. | يسرني أن أرحب بكم في بيتي. |
كَوَّنَ doubles its middle letter: you hear it, but you do not see it.
| My parents married and formed a big family. | تزوج والداي وكونا عائلة كبيرة. |
Walking or pleasant?
سَارّ ends in a doubled ر and follows the noun it describes, usually خبر:
| My mother walked to her neighbor's house to tell her the pleasant news. | سارت أمي إلى بيت جارتها لتخبرها بالخبر السار. |
سارت has a subject (أمي): walked. السار agrees with الخبر: the pleasant news. Without the article it still comes straight after its noun:
| I have pleasant news for you. | عندي خبر سار لك. |
