Lesson 19

Idafa in Arabic

It is common in Arabic to modify a noun by another noun standing in the genitive case, e.g.:

student’s notebook — دَفْتَرُ طَالِبَةٍ

Such an attribute is not in agreement, unlike attributes that agree with the modified noun in gender, number, case and state (adjectives or demonstrative pronouns).

Such a modification by a noun in the genitive case is called in Arabic إِضَافَةٌ — addition. We will use the term idafa to refer to the whole word combination like دَفْتَرُ طَالِبَةٍ, where the modified noun (دفتر) we will call the first member of idafa, and the attribute (طالبة) is the second member of idafa.

The first member of idafa has neither article nor tanween, but it can be either definite or indefinite in meaning, which depends on the state of the second member of idafa: if the second member is definite, then the first member is also considered definite despite the absence of the article, e.g. دَفْتَرُ ٱلطَّالِبَةِ and vice versa — if the second member is indefinite, then the first member is also considered indefinite despite the absence of the tanween, e.g. دَفْتَرُ طَالِبَةٍ.

The first member of idafa can be in any case, depending on its role in the sentence, e.g.:

The second member of idafa can be in any state, depending on the specific content of the statement, but always in the genitive case.

In some cases idafa word combinations can be translated into Englilsh by combining a noun with an adjective, for example:

مُعَلِّمُ ٱلْمَدرَسَةِ — the school teacher
خِزَانَةُ كُتُبٍ — bookcase (lit.: cupboard of books)
جَرِيدَةُ ٱلْحَائِطِ — the wall newspaper (lit.: the newspaper of the wall)

Exercise 1. Read, write down and translate the following phrases into English.

١) محاضرة الاستاذ. ٢) في محاضرة الاستاذ. ٣) سمعن محاضرة الاستاذ. ٤) كلمات الدرس. ٥) من كلمات الدرس. ٦) فهمنا كلمات الدرس. ٧) باب الشقة. ٨) دخلت باب الشقّة. ٩) من باب الشقّة. ١٠) خزانة كتب. ١١) على خزانة كتب. ١٢) رأت خزانة كتب. ١٣) عاملات المعمل. ١٤) من عاملات المعمل. ١٥) رأيتن عاملات المعمل. ١٦) غرفة الرفيق. ١٧) الى غرفة الرفيق. ١٨) دخلتم غرفة الرفيق. ١٩) جريدة الحائط. ٢٠) فى جريدة الحائط. ٢١) رأوا جريدة الحائط. ٢٢) فنجان قهوة. ٢٣) من فنجان قهوة. ٢٤) شربت فنجان قهوة. ٢٥) خريطة العراق. ٢٦) على خريطة العراق. ٢٧) أخذتن خريطة العراق. ٢٨) حقل حنطة. ٢٩) فى حقل حنطة. ٣٠) رأى حقل حنطة.

Exercise 2. Translate from English into Arabic using idafa (answers on hovering).

1) The students of the institute; from the students of the institute; he saw the students of the institute. 2) The farmer’s house; from the farmer’s house; she saw the farmer’s house. 3) The writer’s article; in the writer’s article; they (m) read the writer’s article. 4) The school teachers (f); from the school teachers; we saw the school teachers. 5) A cup (glass) of tea; in a cup of tea; she drank a cup of tea. 6) The village school; in the village school; you (m, pl) entered the village school. 7) Wheat fields; on wheat fields; they (f) saw wheat fields. 8) The engineers’ apartments; In the engineers’ apartments; I saw the engineers’ apartments. 9) The Arabic language (The language of the Arabs); in the Arabic language; you (f, sing) heard the Arabic language. 10) The floor of the room; on the floor of the room; we saw the floor of the room.

The agreement of attributes in idafa

Each member of idafa can have other attributes (adjectives and demonstrative pronouns). These attributes are in agreement.

A. The adjective to the second member of idafa is placed after it, and the demonstrative pronouns are placed before it, e.g.:

B. The adjective to the first member of idafa is placed after the second member with all its definitions, and the demonstrative pronouns to the first member take the very last place, e.g.:

As can be seen from the above examples, the attributes to the first member of idafa agree with it, as usual, in gender, number, case and state. However, the state of the first member of idafa is not determined by the article, but by the state of the second member of idafa, as stated earlier.

Exercise 3. Write down with vowel marks and translate it into English.

١) محاضرة هذا الاستاذ الجديد. ٢) من كلمات الدرس العربى هذه. ٣) دخلت باب الشقة الجديدة الكبير. ٤) خزانة كتب جديدة. ٥) فى غرفة ذلك الرفيق القديم الجديدة هذه.

Exercise 4. Translate from English into Arabic.

1) The diligent students of this new institute. 2) In this new article by that famous writer. 3) I drank a big cup (glass) of tea. 4) In (lit.: On) the large fields of this good company. 5) These beautiful and new Russian workers’ houses.

Idafa chain

Idafa word combination can be not only binomial, but also polynomial, forming a kind of chain, for example:

Such a chain may consist of two, three, etc. idafa pairs, with the second member of the first idafa simultaneously being the first member of the second idafa, the second member of the second idafa being the first member of the third idafa, and so on, as shown in the scheme:

Words appearing in such a ‘dual’ role (استاذ and معهد in this example), always appear in the genitive case and have neither article nor tanween.

Exercise 5. Translate from English into Arabic.

1. The notebook of the student (m) of the institute. 2. The door of the school teacher’s (m) house. 3. The window of the factory worker’s (m) room. 4. The company member’s letter. 5. The dress of the student (f) of the Teacher’s Institute.

Fused pronouns in idafa

The second member of idafa can be personal pronouns in the genitive case, i.e. fused pronouns, which are written and pronounced together with the first member of idafa.

Fused pronouns in the role of the second member of idafa coincide in meaning with English possessive pronouns, for example:

بَيْتُكَ /bajtuka/ — your house (lit.: house of you)
مَعْهَدُنَا /ma’hadunа̄/ — our institute (lit.: institute of us)

The noun to which the fused pronoun is joined is the first member of idafa and, therefore, cannot have either an article or a tanween. It can be declined if necessary:

بَيْتُكَ، فِى بَيْتِكَ، رَأَيْتُ بَيْتَكَ

When joining a fused pronoun to feminine nouns, the letter ة in the ending changes to ت, e.g.:

غُرْفَتُهُ /ɣurfatuhu/ — his room
فِي مَدْرَسَتِنَا /fī madrasatinа̄/ — in our school

The 1^st person singular fused pronoun ـِ ـي attached to a noun replaces its final vowel, as if ‘obscuring’ its case form:

بَيْتِي /bajtī/ — my house (nom.)
فِي بَيْتِي /fī bajtī/ — in my house (gen.)
رَأَيْتَ بَيْتِي /ra’ajta bajtī/ — you saw my house (acc.)

All fused pronouns are phonetically part of the word to which they are attached, thus increasing the number of its syllables. The main stress is often shifted, for example: /ma'’hadukum/, /madra'satunа̄/

The 3^rd person pronouns ـهُمْ، ـهُ and ـهُنَّ (except ـهَا), when joining a word ending in the vowel /i/ or diphthong /ai/, change the vowel mark /u/ of the letter ه to /i/, for example:

A noun with a fused pronoun has no article, but is considered definite, because the fused pronoun, acting here as the second member of idafa, is definite (in the meaning). Therefore, adjectives referring to nouns with fused pronouns have the article, e.g.:

Exercise 6. Write down with vowel marks, translate into English. Transcribe the examples 1, 5, 6, 13, 24, 27 and mark the main stress in them.

١) لغته العربية. ٢) دفترى الجيد هذا. ٣) رأيت فستانك الجميل ذلك. ٤) على طاولتهم الطويلة هذه. ٥) نافذتنا المقفولة. ٦) بدلتك الجيدة تلك. ٧) في شركتنا الرياضية. ٨) استعراضكم الرياضى. ٩) فى غرفتهن الكبيرة. ١٠) سمعنا محاضرته الجديدة. ١١) أستاذكن المشهور. ١٢) دخلت مسرحهم الجديد. ١٣) في مدننا هذه. ١٤) من حديقتكن تلك. ١٥) عن معلماتكم الجديدات. ١٦) بين كتبى النادرة هذه. ١٧) على بساطك الجميل هذا. ١٨) رأيت بقرتها الحسنة. ١٩) بيوتهم الخشبية. ٢٠) رفيقى القديم. ٢١) ديكك السمين. ٢٢) من طلابهن المجتهدين. ٢٣) حكومتنا الروسية. ٢٤) على خزانتهن هذه. ٢٥) طالبها ذلك. ٢٦) في حقلهم الكبير. ٢٧) على خريطتك الجغرافية. ٢٨) طريقه الضيق. ٢٩) مقالاتك الجديدة. ٣٠) أكلنا خضرواتهن اللذيذة.

Exercise 7. Translate from English into Arabic.

1) That new apartment of theirs (m). 2) Her beautiful dress. 3) Our new house. 4) Your (m, sing) old comrade. 5) My Arabic magazines. 6) Their (f) big garden. 7) This long table of his. 8) Your (f, pl) diligent pupil (f). 9) These rare books of yours (f, sing). 10) That easy lesson of yours (m, pl).

Nouns in regular masculine plural in idafa

Nouns in the regular masculine plural, finding themselves in the role of the first member of idafa, lose the final nūn with its vowel, e.g.:

The final long /ū/ and /ī/ remaining after the nūn is dropped are stable and do not obey the law of length contraction in the closed syllable. Therefore, they are retained even if the following word has the article, as in examples 4, 5, 6.

When joining fused pronouns to nouns in the regular masculine plural, nūn also drops out, e.g.:

With the fused 1^st person singular pronoun ـِ ـي such nouns in all cases have the same ending ـِ ـيَّ, for example:

Exercise 8. Translate from English into Arabic.

1) Have you (m) seen your teachers? No, we have not seen our teachers. We saw their (f) teachers. 2) Where are the sportsmen (m) of the Institute of Teachers? They went to the sportsmen (m) of the Institute of Foreign Languages. 3) This year we heard the lectures of the engineers of that factory. 4) The pupils of this city have a new school.

Preposition بِـ

The preposition بِـ /bi-/ is written together with the following word; it means ‘by/with’ and is used to express the instrument of an action, such as ‘I wrote with a pen’, e.g.:

Some nouns with the preposition بِـ are used as adverbial modifiers of manner, e.g.:

The words for the text of lesson 19

Notes

1. The verb رَكِبَ — to get on/in, take, board, ride, climb — requires a direct object, e.g.: ركبتُ سيارةً — I got in a car.
2. The verb لَعِبَ — to play — is used with the preposition بِـ in the meaning — to play something, e.g.: لعبَ بالشطرنجِ — he played chess.

Exercise 9. Make at least 10 sentences using the words for the text of lesson 19.

Text of Lesson 19

يوم الراحة

انا طالب في معهد اللغات الاجنبية الجديد.
في يوم الراحة خرجت من غرفة النوم وذهبت قبل الفطور الى الحمام. بعد ذلك لبست بدلتي الجديدة ودخلت غرفة الأكل وجلست الى المائدة وأكلت بيضة دجاجة مع الخبز والزبدة وشربت فنجان قهوة كبير مع السكر. بعد فطوري قرأت جريدة وسمعت الاخبار بالراديو. ثم ذهبت الى رفيقي. لرفيقي بيت في قرية قرب مدينتنا.
خرجت من باب شقتي ونزلت الى الشارع وركبت الترام وذهبت بالترام الى محطة القطار. هناك ركبت قطارا وذهبت به الى القرية. نزلت من القطار في محطة هذه القرية. بيت رفيقي قرب المحطة. بيته جميل وقربه حديقة كبيرة. فيها كثير من الاشجار.
ضربت على باب بيته وفتح الرفيق باب البيت ودخلت غرفته الكبيرة. جلسنا انا ورفيقي الى طاولته ولعبنا بالشطرنج ثم كتبنا رسالة الى معلمنا القديم. كتبنا رسالتنا بالقلم.
بعد الغداء ذهبنا الى ملعب القرية الجديد ورأينا هناك مباريات كرة القدم بين عمّال القرية ومعلمي مدرسة القرية. لعب عمال القرية بنجاح كبير، وخسر معلمو المدرسة هذه المباريات ورجعوا الى بيوتهم بحزن.
رجعت الى بيتي في المساء.

Proverb

من أكل بيضة أكل دجاجة.

Exercise 10. Write down the text with vowel marks. Make notes of all the word combinations with idafa. Read the text correctly. Translate the text.

Exercise 11. Make questions for each sentence of the text.

Exercise 12. Retell the text.

Exercise 13. Write an essay on ‘A day off.’