هذا كتاب.

this

Breakdown of هذا كتاب.

• كتاب: book

Questions & Answers about هذا كتاب.

What part of speech is هذا and what does it do in the sentence?

هذا is a demonstrative pronoun/determiner meaning this (masculine singular, for something near). In هذا كتاب it “points to” the noun that follows, so the sentence is essentially this (is) a book.

Why is there no word for is in هذا كتاب?

Arabic often makes present-tense “to be” sentences without an explicit verb. So هذا كتاب is a nominal sentence (a sentence made of nouns/pronouns), and the meaning this is a book is understood without saying is.

What is the grammatical structure of هذا كتاب?

A common analysis is:

• هذا = مبتدأ (topic/subject)
• كتاب = خبر (comment/predicate)

So it’s a basic subject + predicate nominal sentence.

Why is كتاب indefinite (no الـ)?

Because the sentence means this is a book, not this is the book. In Arabic, indefiniteness is usually shown by absence of الـ. If you wanted the book, you’d say هذا الكتاب.