السيارة برتقالية.

car

Breakdown of السيارة برتقالية.

• برتقالي: orange (color)

Questions & Answers about السيارة برتقالية.

How do I pronounce السيارة برتقالية in Levantine?

A natural Levantine-style pronunciation is:

es-sayyāra burtuqāliyye

A few helpful notes:

• السيارة is pronounced es-sayyāra, not al-sayyāra, because the ل in ال blends into the س.
• برتقالية ends with -iyye in Levantine pronunciation.
• In everyday speech, some vowels may get shortened or reduced, but es-sayyāra burtuqāliyye is a good solid learner pronunciation.

Why is there no word for is in the sentence?

In Arabic, the present tense often does not use a word for is/am/are.

So Arabic simply says:

• السيارة برتقالية
• literally: the car orange

This is completely normal. Arabic calls this a nominal sentence.

If you wanted other tenses, then a verb can appear, for example in the past:

• السيارة كانت برتقالية = the car was orange

In Levantine, leaving out is in the present is one of the most basic sentence patterns.

Why does the adjective come after the noun?

Because in Arabic, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So the order is:

• السيارة = the car