Questions & Answers about الفأر قارض صغير.
Why doesn't قارض صغير have the definite article الـ like الفأر does?
This is a classic nominal sentence (a sentence without a verb like 'is'). The subject الفأر (the mouse) is definite. The predicate قارض صغير (a small rodent) must be indefinite to complete the sentence. If you added الـ to all of them, making it الفأر القارض الصغير, it would just be an incomplete phrase meaning 'the small rodent mouse'.
The word قارض (rodent) looks like a verb pattern. Where does this word come from?
You spotted it! It comes from the root ق-ر-ض (q-r-D), meaning 'to gnaw' or 'to bite'. It follows the active participle pattern فاعِل (faa'il), which means 'the one doing the action'. So قارض literally means 'a gnawer', which makes perfect sense for a rodent.
If I wanted to say 'Mice are small rodents,' how would I make الفأر and قارض plural here?
Both take 'broken' (irregular) plurals. فأر becomes فئران (fi'raan) and قارض becomes قوارض (qawaariD). Because 'mice' is a non-human plural, Arabic grammar treats it as a single female. So you would say الفئران قوارض صغيرة using the feminine singular adjective صغيرة.
How do I correctly pronounce the middle letter in الفأر?
The letter in the middle is a hamza seated on an alif (أ). Here it has no vowel (it has a sukoon), so it acts as a glottal stop. You briefly catch your breath or stop the airflow in your throat right after the 'fa' sound, before making the 'r' sound. It is similar to the little catch in your throat in the English expression 'uh-oh'.