In this lesson, we will study three types of phrases whose usage differs between Arabic and English. The three types of phrases in Palestinian-Jordanian Levantine Arabic are: adjectival, demonstrative, and genitive phrases.
Table of Contents
- Adjectival Phrases
- Demonstrative Phrases
- Genitive Phrases
- Adjectives in a Genitive Phrase
- ة (tā’ marbūṭah) in a Genitive Phrase
- Phrases Using تَــبَــع (taba‘)
- Level III – Intermediate I (B1)
Adjectival Phrases
Consider the English phrase, ‘the old, important, and useful book.’ Notice the following characteristics of this adjectival phrase in English:
- Adjectives precede the noun.
- When there is more than one adjective, the conjunction ‘and’ is used only before the last adjective.
- The definite article is used only once before the first adjective.
Now, let us consider the Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic equivalent:
| الِــكْــتَــاب اِلْــقَــدِيْـــم واِلْــمُــهِـــمّ واِلْــمُــفِــيْــد li-ktāb il-qadīm w-il-muhimm w-il-mufīd the old, important, and useful book |
Notice the following general rules for Arabic adjectival phrases:
- The noun precedes the adjectives.
- The conjunction و (w) ‘and,’ if used, must be placed before each additional adjective.
- The definite article precedes the noun and each adjective describing it, ensuring agreement in definiteness.
- The noun and each adjective that describes it agree in gender.
Here are more examples of adjectival phrases:
| Indefinite Nouns | Definite Nouns |
| كْــتَــاب قَــدِيْـــم ktāb qabīm an old book | الِــكْــتَــاب اِلْــقَــدِيْـــم li-ktāb il-qadīm the old book |
| يُـــوم طَـــوِيْــل وصَـــعْـــب yowm ṭamīl w-sa‘(i)b a long and difficult day | اِلْــيُـــوم اِلــطَّـــوِيْــل واِلــصَّـــعْـــب il-yowm iṭ-ṭawīl w-iṣ-ṣa‘(i)b the long and difficult day |
| سَــيَّــارَة جْـــدِيْـــدِة وسَـــرِيْــعَــة sayyārah jdīdeh w-sarī‘ah a new and fast car | اِلــسَّــيَّــارَة الِــجْـــدِيْـــدِة واِلــسَّـــرِيْــعَــة is-sayyārah li-jdīdeh w-is-sarī‘ah the new and fast car |
Demonstrative Phrases
Consider the Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic demonstrative phrase:
| هَــاذَا الِــكْــتَــاب hādha li-ktāb this book |
Notice that in Arabic, nouns following the demonstrative pronoun are always preceded by the definite article in a demonstrative phrase.
An adjectival phrase can also follow the demonstrative pronoun, provided the adjectives agree in definiteness and gender with the noun. For example:
| هَــاذَا الِــكْــتَــاب اِلْــقَــدِيْـــم واِلْــمُــهِـــمّ واِلْــمُــفِــيْــد hādha li-ktāb il-qadīm w-il-muhimm w-il-mufīd this old, important, and useful book |
Notice that in Arabic, each adjective following the noun is preceded by the definite article, ensuring agreement in definiteness.
Here are more examples of demonstrative phrases:
| هَــاذَا الــشَّـــارِع hādha -sh-shāri‘ this street | هَــاذِي الــسَّــاعَــة hādhi -s-sā‘ah this hour |
| هَــذَاك اِلْــقَــلَــم hādhāk il-qalam that pen | هَـــذُولَاك اِلْــكُــتُــب hadhowlāk il-kutub those books |
In Levantine Arabic, the near demonstrative pronoun can be shortened to the prefix هَــ (ha), which attaches to the definite noun in a demonstrative phrase. For example:
| هَــاذَا الِــكْــتَــاب hādha li-ktāb this book | = | هَــالِــكْــتَــاب ha-li-ktāb this book |
| هَــاذَا الْــبِــيــت hādha -l-beyt this house | = | هَــالْــبِــيــت ha-l-beyt this house |
| هَــاي اِلــسَّـيَّــارَة hāy is-sayyārah this car | = | هَــالــسَّـيَّــارَة ha-s-sayyārah this car |
| هَـــذُولَا الــنَّـــاس hadhowla -n-nās these people | = | هَـــالــنَّـــاس ha-n-nās these people |
Genitive Phrases
The genitive phrase construction in Arabic is called إِضـافَـة (’iḍāfah) ‘annexation,’ and consists of two parts:
- مُـضـاف (muḍāf): The ‘annexed’ object, which is always indefinite.
- مُـضـاف إِلَـيْـه (muḍāf ’ilayh): The ‘annexer,’ which is often a definite noun, but can also be indefinite.
Here are some examples:
| حَــجْــم الِــكْــتَــاب ḥaj(i)m li-ktāb size of the book | حَــجْــم كْــتَــاب ḥajm (i) ktāb size of a book |
| اِسْــــم اِلْــوَلَــــد ism il-walad name of the boy | اِسْــــم وَلَــــد is(i)m walad name of a boy |
| لَاعِــبِــيْــن اِلْــفَــرِيْــق lā‘ibīn il-farīq players of the team | لَاعِــبِــيْــن فَــرِيْــق lā‘ibīn farīq players of a team |
| عُـــمَّــال اِلْــمَــصَــانِـــع ‘ummāl il-maṣāni‘ workers of the factories | عُـــمَّــال مَــصَــانِـــع ‘ummāl maṣāni‘ workers of factories |
A special case of a genitive phrase consists of a noun followed by an attached pronoun, which functions as a possessive pronoun and is considered a مُـضـاف إِلَـيْـه (muḍāf ’ilayh) ‘annexer.’
| بِــيــتِــيْ beyti my house | كْــتَــابُـــه ktābuh his book |
| مَــدْرَسِــتْـــنَــا madrasitnā our school | بْـــيُـــوْتْـــهُــم byūthum their houses |
The noun that precedes the attached pronoun in these phrases is never preceded by the definite article because it functions as a مُـضـاف (muḍāf) ‘annexed,’ which is always indefinite.
Adjectives in a Genitive Phrase
It is also possible to add adjectives that follow the مُـضـاف إِلَـيْـه (muḍāf ’ilayh) ‘annexer.’ For example:
| حَــجْــم الِــكْــتَــاب الِــكْــبِــيْــر ḥaj(i)m li-ktāb li-kbīr size of the large book (or) large size of the book | حَــجْــم كْــتَــاب كْــبِــيْــر ḥajm (i) ktāb (i) kbīr size of a large book (or) large size of a book |
Notice that the adjective can describe either the مُـضـاف (muḍāf) ‘annexed’ or the مُـضـاف إِلَيْـه (muḍāf ’ilayh) ‘annexer,’ depending on the intention of the speaker.
Sometimes, the meaning or the gender agreement is enough to indicate the noun that the adjective describes. For example:
| حَــجْــم الِــكْــتَــاب اِلْــمُــفِــيْــد ḥajm li-ktāb il–mufīd size of the useful book |
| شَــكْــل اِلــسَّــيَّــارَة الِــجْــدِيْــدِة shakl is-sayyārah li–jdīdeh shape of the new car |
| شَــكْــل اِلــسَّــيَّــارَة الِــجْــدِيْــد shakl is-sayyārah li–jdīd (the) new shape of the car |
Genitive phrases can express annexation, possession, ownership, content, part-whole relationships, or any other relationship. Here are some examples:
| لُـــون الِــكْــتَــاب lown li-ktāb color of the book | مُــدِيْـــر اِلْــمَــدْرَسِـــة mudīr il-madraseh director of the school |
| كَــاسِــةْ مَـــيّ kāsit mayy glass of water | قِــطْـعَــةْ خُـــبْـــز qiṭ‘at khub(i)z piece of bread |
From a grammatical point of view, such a relationship is not necessarily a real annexation relationship. For example:
| سَــرِيْــع اِلْــفَــهْــم sarī’ il-fah(i)m quick (in) understanding |
| قَــلِــيْــل اِلْأَدَب qalīl il-’adab deficient (in) politeness = impolite |
Note that the above examples do not represent real or literal annexation relationships. However, these sentences follow the same grammatical rules, and the two words of each of the genitive phrases above are referred to as مُـضـاف (muḍāf) ‘annexed’ and مُـضـاف إِلَيْـه (muḍāf ’ilayh) ‘annexer.’
ة (tā’ marbūṭah) in a Genitive Phrase
In Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic, ة (tā’ marbūṭah) ‘tied-t’ is pronounced “h,” except at the end of a مُـضـاف (muḍāf) ‘annexed noun,’ where it is pronounced “t.”
In the following examples, compare the pronunciation of the ة (tā’ marbūṭah) in genitive phrases versus non-genitive phrases:
| Genitive Phrase | Non-Genitive Phrase |
| جَـــامْــعَـــةْ أُكْــسْــفُـــورْد jām‘at ’uksford University of Oxford | جَـــامْــعَـــة مَــشْــهُـــوْرَة jām‘ah mash hūrah famous university |
| مَــكْــتَــبِـــةْ اِلْــمَــدِيْــنِــة maktabet il-madīneh city’s library | مَــكْــتَــبِـــة وَطَــنِــيِّــة maktabeh waṭaniyyeh national library |
| غُـــرْفِـــةْ اِلــنُّــــوم ghurfet in-nowm bedroom | غُـــرْفِـــة زْغِــيْـــرِة ghurfeh zghīreh small room |
Phrases Using تَــبَــع (taba‘)
The word تَــبَــع (taba‘), a possessive particle meaning ‘belonging to’ or ‘pertaining to,’ can be used in its masculine, feminine, or plural form to express a similar meaning to a genitive phrase.
The possessive articles تَــبَــع (taba‘), تَــبَــعِــة (taba‘et), and تَــبَــعُــوْن (taba‘ūn) can also be used to replace the standard way of expressing possession using an attached pronoun.
In Levantine Arabic, this is a common way to emphasize the possessed object.
Here are some examples that contrast standard genitive phrases with equivalent expressions using تَــبَــع (taba‘):
| حَــجْــم الِــكْــتَــاب ḥaj(i)m li-ktāb size of the book | اِلْــحَــجْــم تَـــبَـــع الِــكْــتَــاب il-ḥaj(i)m taba‘ li-ktāb the size belonging to the book |
| عُـــمَّــال اِلْــمَــصَــانِـــع ‘ummāl il-maṣāni‘ workers of the factories | اِلْــعُـــمَّــال تَــبَــعُـــوْن اِلْــمَــصَــانِـــع il-‘ummāl taba‘ūn il-maṣāni‘ the workers belonging to the factories |
| كْــتَــاب خَــالِــد ktāb khālid Khaled’s book | الِــكْــتَــابتَــبَــع خَــالِــد li-ktāb taba‘ khālid the book belonging to Khaled |
| سَــيَّــارِةْ أَخُـــوْي sayyāret ’akhūy my brother’s car | اِلــسَّــيَّــارَة تَــبَــعِــةْ أَخُـــوْي is-sayyārah taba‘et ’akhūy the car belonging to my brother |
| كْــتَــابِــيْ ktābi my book | الِــكْــتَــابتَــبَــعِــيْ li-ktābtaba‘i the book belonging to me |
Note that in a genitive phrase, the مُـضـاف (muḍāf) ‘the annexed object’ is always indefinite, whereas the corresponding noun in the equivalent expression preceding تَــبَــع (taba‘) is often definite but can also be indefinite depending on the intended meaning.
| اِلـسَّــيَّــارَة تَــبَــعِــةْ أَخُـــوْي is-sayyārah taba‘et ’akhūy the car belonging to my brother | سَـــيَّــارَة تَــبَــعِــةْ أَخُـــوْي sayyārah taba‘et ’akhūy a car belonging to my brother |
Other lessons in Level III:
Level III – Intermediate I (B1)
2. Expressing Desire – “To Want”