#albaitas

[reallygemstonesbrasil]

ALBAITAS Lindas gemas extras limpas, 100% Brasileiras. 🇧🇷 🇧🇷 🇧🇷 Oportunidade com certificado Beatiful extra clean, 100% brazilian. Certificate opportunity. Lote com 11.60 quilates 11.60 carat lot. #albaitas #pedrasespeciais #pedraspreciosasbrasileiras #pedraspreciosas #pedraazul #gemstonejewelry #bluegemstones #raregemstones #promoção #blackfriday #designerjewelry #designerjoias #jewelry #jewelrydesign #jewellery #joalherias #jewelrynyc #dubaijewelry #dubai❤️ #nycjewelry #nycjewelrydesigner #aaa #luxo #mercadodeluxo #vidadeluxo #reallygemstonesbrasil (em Santo André, Brazil) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5V9VZxBtcY/?igshid=s4syhzpdjnny

[arabic-langblr]

Lesson 6 : punctuation marks in Arabic

[Previous lesson : types of taa’]

[Grammar check list]

In this lesson, we will be studying the most used punctuation marks in Arabic, their uses and have some examples.

Before we begin, there’s an important question that we need to answer:

What is punctuation?

Punctuation in Arabic language is putting certain marks in writing to indicate the places where speech begins, and where it stops and continues after stopping.

Which means that basically, the aim of the punctuation marks are to tell the reader where there is a pause in the sentence or group of sentences for the reader. And they’re also used to help the reader identify the tone of the text as well as the purpose of the words being said (whether the words are meant as a question or are used to express surprise for example).

While this information may seem too obvious for many of you, it’s very important to know this because in Arabic, when there is a comma (which marks a temporary stop of the sentence) or a full stop (which marks the complete stop of a sentence), the haraka on the last word before the comma or fullstop is not pronounced.

For example:

Uhibbu haatha albait. (I love this house).

[audio]

Uhibbu haatha albaita alwaasi’. (I love this spacious house)

[audio]

And it’s the same in case there’s a comma, for example:

Another important use of punctuations is that it helps us understand the context of the phrases, which can be very helpful especially since most advanced or intermediate Arabic books don’t have the harakaat, so having the punctuation marks can be very helpful.

Punctuation marks in Arabic are:

1-      The comma الفاصلة ، (al faasila) [audio]

Notice how the comma in Arabic looks like a small number 6 while in English it looks like a small number 9.

It’s used after “yes” نعم or “no” لا، كلا  or بلى*(which is the positive response to a negative question)

Example :

هل رأيت القمر؟(halra’aytal-qamar?)

نعم، رأيته. (na’am, raya’ytuh)

-Did you see the moon?

-Yes, I saw it.

[audio]

[For more information about yes/no questions check this lesson]

· Between short sentences or parts of a paragraph.

·There an additional use for the comma: when someone is calling someone else in Arabic, we add “ya” before the name of the person. It can be translated in “Oh” as in “Oh, Mike. Open the door.” 

Although this structure isn’t commonly used in English and sounds like something from a literature book, it’s widely used in Arabic, and the noun that follows “ya” is a noun in the invocative case which we will study about in detail later.

For example:

يا أمجد، افتح الباب.  (Ya Amjad, iftah al-baab) [audio] which can be translated to: Oh Amjad, open the door.

In this sentence, someone is calling Amjad (Oh Amjad) so the word “Amjad” is followed by a comma.

2-      The Fullstop . النقطة (annuqta) [audio]

It’s used when the meaning of the sentence is complete.

For example: .ذهب الفتى إلى الحديقة ليلعب مع أصدقائه / the boy went to the park to play with his friends/  thahaba alfataa ela al hadeeqati li yal’aba maa’ asdiqaa’ih

[audio]

The meaning of the sentence is complete so we write a fullstop.

3-      Quotation marks علامتا التنصيص"   " alaamata attansees [audio]

They’re used at the beginning and at the end of quoted speech, when you’re repeating someone else’s speech word by word.

Example:

“.قال عماد لأخيه : "لا تنس أنني سأكون دائمًا معك، فلا داعي للقلق

 Emaad told his brother “don’t forget that I will always be there with you, so there’s no need to worry.”

Qaala Emaadu Li Akheehi : “ La tansa annanee sa akoonu da’iman ma’ak, fa laa daa’i lil qalaq.

[audio]

Note: usually in English, the quoted speech comes first then the verb follows (Example: “Be careful,” said Jane) while in Arabic the verb comes first like in the sentence above. I translated the sentence in English and kept the Arabic structure to make it easier to understand.

4-      The brackets () القوسان الهلاليان al qawsaan al hilaaliyyaan [audio]

When someone is adding more information or explanation to the sentence. Note that the additional sentence (the one between brackets) can be removed from the sentence and meaning will not change. It will be less nuanced, of course because there is a detail lost but the general meaning is still the same.

 Example : 

.الظروف الطبيعية القاسية (البرد الشديد ثم الجفاف) أفسدت موسم الفواكه هذا العام

Ath-thuroofu attabee’iyyatu al qaasiya (al bardu ash-shadeedu thumma al jafaaf) afsadat mawsima al fawaakiha haatha al’aam.

The harsh environmental conditions (the extreme cold and the drought) have ruined the entire fruit crop this year.

[Audio]

5-      Colon : النقطتان الرأسيتان annuqtataan arra’siyyataan [audio] (literally : the horizontal dots)

They are used after statements and reported speech

Example : 

“.قال عماد لأخيه : "لا تنس أنني سأكون دائمًا معك، فلا داعي للقلق

Emaad told his brother: “don’t forget that I will always be there with you, so there’s no need to worry.”

Qaala Emaadu Li Akheehi : “ La tansa annanee sa akoonu da’iman ma’ak, fa laa daa’i lil qalaq.”

[audio]

They are also used when you’re stating the different types of something, for example:

.رأيت في السلة أنواعًا مختلفة من الفاكهة : البرتقال، و التفاح، و المشمش، و الفراولة

I saw different types of fruit in the basket : oranges, apples, apricots, and strawberries.

Ra’aytu fe-ssallati anwaa’an mukhtalifatan min alfaakiha: al burtuqaal, wattufaah, wal mishmish, wal faraawila.

[audio]

In this example, the speaker is stating the different types of fruits, which is why they used the colon.

6-      Dash الشرطة assharta [audio]

It is used at the beginning of a conversation, and to separate the speech of two people.

Example : 

هل أعدت لندى ساعتها التي نسيتها؟-

بالطبع، أعدتها لها بالأمس-

ممتاز-

-Did you return Nada’s watch that she forgot?

-Of course, I gave it back yesterday.

-Excellent.

-Hal a’adta li Nadaa saa’ataha allati nasiyat-ha?

-Bittab’, a’adtuha laha bi ams.

-Momtaaz.

[audio]

The two dashes are also used in a manner that is similar to the use of the brackets, when we put them at the beginning of end of an additional sentence that is used to give extra meaning but if it’s omitted, the meaning of the original sentence will be the same.

Example:

.كنت جالسًا في فناء الدار، فسمعت- ولم أكن أتجسس- مشاجرة بين جاري وزوجه

I was sitting in the backyard, so I heard –and I wasn’t eavesdropping- a fight between my neighbor and his spouse.

Kuntu jaalisan fi finaa’i addaar fa sami’tu –wa lam akun atajassass- mushaajaratan bayna jaari wa zawjihi

[audio]

So as you can see, the example that is between the two dashes is an additional piece of information, if we remove we will still be able to understand the sentence.

7-      Question mark علامة الاستفهام alaamatul istifhaam [audio]

Used after a question.

Example : 

ما اسمك؟

Maa ismuk?

What’s your name?

[audio]

8-      Exclamation mark علامة التعجب alaamatu-ttaa’jub [audio]

Used to express the speaker’s surprise.

Example : 

!ما أجمل لوحتك

Maa ajmala lawhatak!

Your painting is so beautiful!

[audio]

9- The semicolon الفاصلة المنقوطة  al faasila al manqoota [audio]

It’s used to separate two sentences in which one sentence is a cause and the other is a consequence.

Example:

.اجتهد الطالب في مذاكرته، فكان الأول على رفاقه

Ijtahada attaalibu fee muthaakaratihi; fa kaana al awwala ‘alaa rifaaqihi.

The student studied hard; so he ranked first among his peers.

[audio]

The second sentence in the consequence of the first.

 It is also used to separate sentences in which the meaning is complete but the sentences are linked with a certain preposition.

Example : 

.إن الناس لاينظرون إلى الزمن الذي عمل فيه العمل ؛ وإنما ينظرون إلى مقدار جودته وإتقانه

People don’t pay attention to the time that has been taken to complete a task; but they pay attention to the quality and accuracy in which it has been performed.

Inna annaasa la yanthuroona ela azzamani allathee ‘umila feehi al ‘amal; wa innamaa yanthuroona ela miqdaari jawdatihee wa itqaanihee.

[audio]

Instead of putting these two long sentences next to one another, we separated them which the semicolon so that it will be easier to understand the meaning.

10-   The ellipsis  : علامة الحذف ‘alaamatul-hathf [audio]

It’s also known as نقط الحذف (nuqat al-hathf) [audio]

These points are added in the place of the omitted speech. The person can omit parts of a sentence for many reasons. 

For example, if someone is quoting a long paragraph from a book and they think that not everything in the paragraph is relevant, they can omit parts of the paragraph and write these three dots ... to indicate that there are missing parts. 

We can see that the punctuation marks and their uses in Arabic are very similar to other languages, but it’s still important. 

References and sources :

Videos : [link 1] // [link 2]

Websites : [link 1] // [link 2] // [link 3] // [link 4]

Books : [link 1] // [link 2] 

Next lesson : 

This lesson was a bit long because of all the examples, but next lesson will be easier and more fun, it will be about the dual form of nouns in Arabic.

[Next lesson : dual forms in Arabic]

Other links : [check-list] // [grammar tag]

[arabic-langblr]

Grammar lesson 5 : Types of Taa’

Previous lesson : [Tanween : the mark of the indefinite noun]

This will be a relatively simple lesson, but it’s still very important to know.

As we all know, the letter taa’ ت can be written in many different ways depending on its location in the sentence :

I mentioned previously that the letter ت at the end of the word can be written in two different ways : the first way is what we see in the first and second example : ياقوت (ruby) and  بيت (home), this first type of taa’ is called تاء مفتوحة (taa’ maftouha, the open taa’).

The second way to write it is what we see in the two last examples دراجة (bicycle) and زهرة (flower), the second type is called تاء مربوطة (taa’ marbouta, the tied taa’).

Of course it’s important to stress that if the letter taa’ comes in the middle of the word or at the beginning, we won’t have taa’ marbouta or maftouha as mentioned in the table above.

I. At-taa’ al-maftouha/ at-taa’ al-maftou7a/  التاء المفتوحة

[audio]

This type of taa’ can be found in verbs, nouns and prepositions, but I will focus only on nouns and verbs.

a) Nouns

If the taa’ comes at the end of the singular noun, and the letter that comes before it has fat’ha (fat7a) on it, then the taa’ will be written as taa’ maftouha (maftou7a).

Examples :

ياقوت  (yaqout)>>>>>> ruby [audio]

بيت (bayt)>>>>> home [audio]

بنت (bint)>>>>> girl  [audio]

حوت (hout/ 7out) >>>> whale [audio]

Notice how the letter that came before the taa’ in all four cases does not have fat-ha (fat7a) on it.

The taa’ also comes at the end of the regular feminine plural noun which is preceded by alif like : معلمات mulaallimaat [audio], مكتبات maktabaat [audio] طالبات taa’libaat [audio].

b) Verbs

There are two cases :

Case 1: the taa’ can be in the origin of the word itself and not additional

For example :

مات (maata) >>>> to die[audio]

نبت (nabata) >>>> to grow [audio]

بات (baata) >>>>> to come to, to overnight [audio]

Case 2: the taa’ is additional to the verb

There are two taa’s that can be additional to the verb :

تاء الفاعل المتحركة Taa’ul Faa’il Al-Mutaharrika [audio] which is a pronoun that it added to the verb to mark the subject. For example : أكل akala (he ate), أكلت akaltu (I ate) [audio comparison].

تاء التأنيث الساكنة  Taa'ut-Ta'neeth Ass-Saakinah [audio] it is not a pronoun, but it is a letter (حرف) added to the past tense of the verb to mark that the subject is feminine such as أكل akala (he ate) >>>> أكلت akalat (she ate). [audio comparison].

The verb in both cases is أكل akala (to eat) and it doesn’t have the letter taa’ at the end, the taa’ is additional to give some information about the subject.

Note : I will not elaborate much of these two types of taa’  at the time but I will make a detailed lesson about them in the future after I finish the basic grammatical notions. The aim here is to show you how the verbs can have taa’ maftouha at the end. In the meantime, read this small note about huroof.

II. Taa’ marbouta تاء مربوطة 

[audio]

This can only accompany a noun, and it’s one of the marks of the noun (meaning, if you see it, you know for sure that the word is a noun).

It’s important to note that when this taa’ is in the middle of the sentence it’s pronounced as a normal taa’.

However, when the ـة comes at the end of the sentence or before a comma, it is pronounced as a ـه (ha’).

In words that end with taa’ marbouta, if you stop at that word you need to pronounce it as a ـه (ha’) with sukoon, however with words ending with taa’ maftouha, if you stop at that word you’ll pronounce it as a taa’ saakina, and not haa’.

Example :

Uhibbu haatha albait. (I love this house).

[audio]

Uhibbu haatha albaita alwaasi’. (I love this spacious house)

[audio]

Click on this link [link] which contains audio files for the pronunciation of the “taa’ al marbouta” in case it’s in the middle of the sentence and in case it’s at the end of the sentence.

Use the two sentences above and the information on the link to compare the pronunciation of the two types of taa’ when they are at the end of the sentence.

There are many cases for nouns with taa’ marbouta, but I will mention the most important ones 

1- To differentiate the female adjective and the male adjective

لطيف lateef gentil (masc)>>>> لطيفة lateefa gentil (fem.) [audio]

طويل (taweel) tall (masculin) >>طويلة (taweela) tall (fem.) [audio]

2- Arabic nouns in which the letter before the taa’ has fat-ha فتحة

ابنة، حديقَة ، مدْرَسَة، فاطمَة ، زهرَة ، فَتاة [audio]

Notice how all these nouns which end with taa’ are preceded with a letter that has fat-ha on top of it.

Also notice how the word بنت bint (girl) has taa maftouha and the word ابنة ibna (daughter) has taa marbouta because of the haraka of the letter before the taa’.

3-The taa’ isn’t only to indicate female names, there are Arabic male names which end with taa’ marboota, for example : طلحة, خليفة، حنظلة، جمعة، حمزة [audio]

Note : the taa’ can also be used in irregular plural in case the singular does not have a taa’ for example : راعٍ  raa’in >>>>> رعاة ru’aa. [audio]

Important note in case of noonation  : in the case of tanween al-fat’h, the nouns that end with taa’ marbouta don’t get an extra alif, unlike the nouns that end with taa’ marbouta.

Example :

A noun that ends with taa’ marbouta + tanween fat-h 

A noun that ends with taa’ maftouha + tanween fat-h

Next lesson : [Punctuation marks in Arabic]

References and more information [1], [2],[3], [4], [5]