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Arabic Essential Grammar #7 - Dual Verbs and Pronouns

Helllooo! Sorry that this weeks is a little late!

Following on from last week's introduction of the dual, I thought it might be a good time to look at the dual form of verbs and the dual pronouns.

These are used for saying phrases like "both of you ate the food", "they both looked strange" etch., specifying two people! This is something built into the grammar, and all in all, it's not as common as other forms (how often do you refer to just 2 of something??) but it's an important feature of Arabic!

With that let's get started~

Dual Pronouns

The bad news - you have to learn another 2 pronouns. The good news - thankfully, the dual is used for both genders ( you don't have a separate pronoun to refer to"2 women", for example.) NOTE: if you are using a gendered dual ( e.g. 2 girls (البنتان)), then you must use the corresponding gendered verb. Only the pronouns are non-gender specific.

Here they are:

انتما

هما

the top one is 'antumma (you two) and the bottom is humma (them two).

Subject Verb agreement is very important in Arabic, so here's how to form a dual verb to match these pronouns.

Dual verbs

Like nouns, the dual marker with verbs is ـان. However, if the verb is in the accusative or the genitive (see this post for more info on cases), the ن is dropped. For example:

أكل -- يأكلان --تأكلان -- يأكلا--تأكلا

Above from right to left we have:

I/he ate (past tense sing/masc)

those two eat (masculine e.g. the two boys eat, nominative, present tense)

those two eat ( feminine, e.g. the two girls eat, nominative, present tense)

those two eat (masc, gen/acc, present)

those two eat (fem., gen/acc, present)

Try out some other form 1 verbs ( if you want to know more about forms, check out this post!)

See you again soon~

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Arabic Essential Grammar #6 - The Dual

Hello hello, back again with something that really stumped me when I first started learning Arabic. The Dual!

In most languages, there is a singular form and a plural form, but in Arabic, they also have a Dual form! Used to refer to pairs of something or two people, it adds an ending to verbs/nouns which, you guessed it, then have their own conjugations!

It sounds really overwhelming, but in practice it isn't too difficult. In colloquial Arabic, the dual is really only used in regards to periods of time ( two hours ) or the parts of the body ( two eyes).

Endings

The nominative dual ending is: انِ

The accusative and genitive ending is: ...يْنِ

This is added to the singular of the word after removal of the case ending. For example:

From right to left: two books (nom.dual), book (nom)

كِتَابَانِ ------- كِتَابٌ

From right to left: two books (acc/gen.dual), book (acc)

كِتَابَيْنِ -------- كِتَابً

Special notes

If the noun ends in a taa marbuuta (), it becomes a regular ta () before the ending is added.

From right to left: Lady ( nominative), two ladies (nom.dual), two ladies (gen/acc.dual

سَيِّدَةٌ -------سَيِّدَتَانِ -------سَيِّدَتَيْنِ

If the noun ends in a hamza (), it changes into a waw () before the ending is added.

From right to left: desert ( nominative), two deserts (nom.dual), two deserts (gen/acc.dual)

صَحْرَاءٌ ------ صَحْرَاوَانِ ------- صَحْرَاوَيْنِ

Adjectives must agree with the nouns, and so they are also in dual.

عَندها عَيْنَانِ كَبِيْرَتَانِ

she had two large eyes.

If you're confused by what I mean by nominative, accusative and genitive, then please check out Arabic Essential Grammar #1!

Thanks for reading! Next week, I'm thinking of explaining either comparative/superlative or focusing on prepositions and their accompanying cases. Let me know what you want me to cover!

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Arabic Essential Grammar #4

Hello again! Sorry it’s been 2 weeks but I am *almost* done with my summer school woo!

ANYWAYS today’s topic was requested by somebody, but I can’t find who, so if you’re reading this, this is for YOU. 

Today we are looking at - 

Inna (إ��) and Kaana (كان) and their sisters!

Sisters? in Grammar? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??

Don’t worry! I will do my best to explain. To understand this, you’ll need to know how cases work in Arabic, so go check out my post on this to get a basic understanding on the function of each case  and how it is represented. 

Okay, so what are Inna (إن) and Kaana (كان)?

They represent categories of words which affect the case of what follows them.  Yes, these are their “sisters”. So Inna and her sisters all follow one rule, and Kaana and her sisters follow another. Think of it as two different households, each having their own way of life  and their schedule. 

In grammatical terms, this “way of life” and “daily schedule” refers to the word order and the case of the different components of the sentence they’re in. 

These two households are important, since the words that fall into the categories are very common and necessary to have a nice written command of Arabic. 

Now before we get into the nitty gritty, make sure you have a good idea of what the subject ( المبتدا) and the predicate (الخبر) is in an Arabic nominal sentence. ( my post here introduces the concept quite succinctly!) . These are the two components whose cases are affected by Inna and Kaana!

Okay let’s go!

إن و أخواتها  - Inna and her sisters

Here are Inna and her sisters + their meanings - (note the shadda ّ  for some of them) 

 - إنّ - indeed ( inna)

- أنّ - that ( e.g. I heard that) (anna)

- كأنّ - as if, (ka’anna) 

- لكنّ - but (lakinna)

- ليت - i wish (layt)

- ّلعل - perhaps / i hope (la3alla) ( in comparison to “layt” which is wishful, “la3alla” implies something is more likely to occur)

- لأنّ - because (li’anna) 

now these are all used at the beginning of a sentence to have the desired meaning. However these have a catch  - whenever you use these, the subject of the sentence becomes mansuub (accusative) and the predicate becomes marfu’3 ( nominative). 

example sentence :المطرُ غزيرٌ - the rain is heavy - (al maṭaru ġazīrun) - both are in the nominative. 

- with Inna and akhwaatu-ha, this changes to - 

ليت المطرَ غزيرٌ - (layt al maṭara ġazīrun) I wish the rain was heavy - Here , the subject ( al maṭara)  is in the accusative as opposed to the nominative and the predicate remains in the nominative. 

This is the case, regardless if you wanted to say “ indeed the rain is heavy” or “as if the rain was heavy” or “ I heard that it was going to rain”. 

Why not give those sentences a try!! 

Okay now

كان و أخواتها - Kaana and her sisters

Kaana has a much bigger household lol - i have only included the most commonly used of her siblings. 

- كان - (past tense indicatior e.g. عندي = “i have” but كان عندي = “i had” ) (kaana)

- أصبح = to become (asbaḥa) 

- ظلّ - to stay, to remain (ẓalla)

- ليس - (negation indicator  - ليس عندي = “i don’t have”) (laysa)

- ما برح - ( indication of continuity) (maa bariḥa)

- مازال - to stay, remain ( sth that is continous to the present e.g. “has remained”) ( maa zaala) 

note - kaana and her sisters CONJUGATE to match their subject e.g. if you use ليس in the past tense first person singular, it will become لستُ ( i’m thinking of covering past tense conjugations next week! it’s a big one!) 

The catch when using these is the opposite to inna wa akhwaatu-ha - the subject of the sentence becomes marfu’3 ( nominative)  and the predicate becomes mansuub (accusative).

 so using the same example sentence , let’s use kaana wa akhwaatu-ha!

كان المطرُ غزيرً - (kaana maṭaru ġazīran) - the rain was heavy. 

Again, the same goes for everything else in kaana’s family. 

the end?? 

Okay, that about explains inna and kaana! It’s easier once you get your head around it. no I don’t know why it exists either. 

I know that some bits I have left quite vague ( like what the heck is an indication of continuity and how does negation work) but I’ve done that on purpose, because honestly those all belong their own posts and I want to focus on one topic at a time, to avoid getting you ( and myself!) all muddled~ 

Of course, you can explore any of the topics you want online - don’t feel like you have to wait for me! 

For books, I recommend the Routledge Arabic Grammar and the Modern Literary Arabic  by David Cowan ( old but gold!) - please try to buy them secondhand from somewhere other than amazon! let’s not support terrible working conditions! Even better - buy it local - support a charity! or your local bookshop, they definitely need it right now! 

also recommend Arabic.desert-sky.com for fantastic blog posts that are much more to the point than mine!

Thank you for reading! Please let me know of any glaring mistakes , suggestions and requests! I will do them allllll

and of course, if you have any questions dm me!

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Arabic Essential Grammar #5 - The Article

Hello everybody! It has been a while since I did one of these - I’m going to try to do this on a weekly basis again. This time, I am going off of  the book Modern Literary Arabic by David Cowan, but will add my own points and simplify where I can. Every Tuesday, I will aim to cover a topic that is essential to forming a strong basis in Arabic

I also need to work on my Arabic T.T so this is great for me too!

Today, we're talking about The Article - The Definite Article:

In English, we have "the" as the definite article and "a/an" as the indefinite articles. However, Arabic only has the definite article - ال. The indefinite is indicated by its absence.

Th article is prefixed to the word it defined, and the word loses its "n" ending ( Check Arabic Essential Grammar 1 to see why a noun might have different endings!).

e.g. اَلْكتَابُ كِتَابٌ

On the left, we have kitaabun and on the right we have al-kitaabu.

Here we can see the differnce between the indefinite ( left) and definite (right).

Pronunciation-wise, if a word comes before the "al", then it merges together with the previous consonant. e.g.

اَلْقَلَمُ و الكِتَابُ

is pronounced - al-Qalamu wal kitaabu.

The meaning is "the pen and the book".

The "al" is elided.

If there is a sun letter ( look these up and learn them!) following "al", then the "l" is skipped in favour of a shadda (doubled consonant) and the letter in front of it.

E.g.

اَلرّجُلُ

The Man - is pronounced arrajulu.

Hope that was helpful - try it out yourselves with a few different words - see if you can notice the pronunciation changes in a short video on Playaling!

See you next week!

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@mrchicsaraleo @britomartis @el-shab-hussein @paintedwiththecolorsofthewind @stephanemiroux

this is vile

STANDING ROCK INDIAN RESERVATION, S.D. — Ray Taken Alive had been fighting for this moment for two years: At his urging, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council was about to take the rare and severe step of banishing a nonprofit organization from the tribe’s land.

The Lakota Language Consortium had promised to preserve the tribe’s native language and had spent years gathering recordings of elders, including Taken Alive’s grandmother, to create a new, standardized Lakota dictionary and textbooks.

But when Taken Alive, 35, asked for copies, he was shocked to learn that the consortium, run by a white man, had copyrighted the language materials, which were based on generations of Lakota tradition. The traditional knowledge gathered from the tribe was now being sold back to it in the form of textbooks. 

Keep reading

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German is ongoing

I went to Berlin for a few days! 

My first time in Germany despite having a literal degree in German lol I am going to rest my sore feet because I covered ALOT and then post my pics + some Deutsch!

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胡小鱼Huai on weibo

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Grinding!

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Diary Challenge day 3

Lol @ me attempting to make this a bi-weekly challenge - I’ve barely managed once a week! But what’s important is that I’ve kept on going~

THis is my temporary work space - not the best for my back but it does the job while I start classes again. As well as German these days, I’ve started learning kanji again because I’m going to JAPAN in June!!! And while my speaking and that is okay, my kanji is hella rusty - I’m following the Kodansha Kanji Learner’s course from #200 onwards if anyone’s curious. 

Now I’m going to practice from all the feedback I got on my written German from Langcorrect.com  - such a great website, I’m eternally grateful for the corrections I get and it really guides me in terms of what my weaknesses are! You can’t improve what you don’t know!

Here’s what I’m listening to recently: https://open.spotify.com/track/3l5qctI4FqhfjIZzs06cbk?si=335834e7e9994de7 

“Call for Help” by Pearly Drops

It’s some cute and chill electronic music, and I KNOW it doesnt sound like Bjork, but it gives me Björk vibes

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i don’t know why but i’m really amused by the winner of some ‘new kanji’ contest:

compare with the real kanji

座 (seat/gathering), but the two 人 (person) radicals have been moved from next to each other within the 土 (earth) radical to diagonally from each other, making this “social distance(d seating/gathering)”

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reblog and put in the tags what comes up when you type "i want"

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Butt generator

I made a little butt generator in P5.JS just now. Feel free to give it a try and make ur own little butt graphic.

https://editor.p5js.org/sanaa-asim/full/Qp3swQSni

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Adding these to my list theyre so fun! Especially etepetete

English words I learnt through fanfiction + German/French translations

to titter - kichern - glousser

glib - wortgewandt - éloquent

to skedaddle - türmen - filer

to canoodle - schmusen - se faire des mamours

disingenuous - hinterlistig - sournois

thingummy - Dingsda (n.) - bidule (m.)

hoity-toity - etepetete - prétentieux

apoplexy - Schlaganfall (m.) - apoplexie (f.)

to gripe - maulen - se plaindre

insipid - abgestanden/fahl - insipide

incense - Räucherwerk (n.) - encens (m.)

pesky - nervtötend - embêtant

scrooge - Geizhals (m.) - avare (m./f.)

ludicrous - lächerlich - ridicule

to balk (at sth.) - (vor etw.) scheuen - regimber (contre qc.)

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hallo und herzlich willkommen! today i will be going over some transitional words and phrases you might find in conversations! all information gathered and examples used are from fluentu; please let me know if anything's incorrect or outdated! <3

weil - because when using "weil" in anyway, you'll have two clauses; your regular and subordinate clause. in subordinate clauses, in this case the sentence using "weil", your conjugated verb should go at the end! ich bin müde, weil ich nicht gut geschlafen habe ( i am tired because i didn't sleep well )

(immer) noch - still "immer noch" stresses time or continuity and has a stronger attitude than "noch", although both still translate as "still". ich habe gewartet und gewartet und der Zug war immer noch nicht da. (I waited and waited, and the train was still not there.)

deshalb - therefore a clause that begins with "deshalb" requires a different construction. in these clauses, the conjugated verbs always appear in the second position, like in the main clause. ich bin müde, deshalb möchte ich schlafen. (I am tired, therefore I would like to sleep.)

vorher - before "vorher" and "vor" both mean “before,” but they are used differently in german. "vorher" is used as an adverb to indicate that something happened before a specific point in time. "vor" is a preposition that triggers dative case. ich habe ein Buch gelesen und vorher habe ich eine Serie geschaut. (I read a book, and before that I watched a TV series.) vor dem Treffen, habe ich Kaffee getrunken. (Before the meeting, I drank coffee.)

danach - after "nachher" and "nach" are similar to "vorher" and "vor". "nach" is used as a presposition that triggers dative, and "danach" is an adverb. ich habe meine Hausaufgaben gemacht und danach habe ich geschlafen. (I did my homework, and after that I slept.) nach dem Unfall ist er nicht mit dem Auto gekommen. (After the accident he didn’t come by car.)

trotzdem - nevertheless this works the same as "deshalb" es ist kalt, trotzdem gehe ich spazieren. (It’s cold, nevertheless I’m going for a walk.)

schließlich - finally schließlich habe ich mich entschlossen, ein Taxi zu finden. (Finally I decided to find a cab.)

bald - soon entschuldigung, ich bin zu spät dran, aber ich komme bald! (Sorry, I’m late, but I’m coming soon!)

Ganz im Gegenteil - on the contrary Ganz im Gegenteil, mein Fahrrad hat meine Reise verlängert. (On the contrary, my bike made my journey longer.)

that's all for today!! thank you for reading and coming with me on my language learning journey, bye!!

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Signed up for an intensive creative coding course! Im so tired but it is really interesting! Despite all my doodles~

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Mesmerising

the sea, the sea

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yall look at this shit ad*be is tryna pull now on ppl who have outdated software:

(note for context: i’m all for piracy, but in this case my copy of CS6 was downloaded years ago when they were giving it away to students. i got it totally legally.)