Sentences In Arabic NOMINAL AND VERBAL SENTENCES

Types of Sentences There are two types of sentences in Arabic: the nominal and the verbal. - The nominal sentence is verbless. - The verbal sentence consists of a verb as a main part. Both types of sentences may have other parts of speech such as prepositions, adjectives, or adverbs; but the main parts remain respectively the nouns for the former and the verbs for the latter. 2

Types of Sentences cont. Examples: 3 TypeExamples Nominal Sentence الـتّـفّـاحـة لـذيـذة The apple (is) delicious Verbal Sentence أكـل الـولـد تـفّـاحـة The boy ate (an) apple

Types of Sentences cont. Note: there are two different interpretations as to what a verbal sentence is. -A sentence is verbal only when it starts with a verb. -A sentence is verbal when it contains a verb regardless of where that verb is located in the sentence. Hence a nominal sentence can contain a verb if the latter doesn’t occur in the first position. 4

Types of Sentences cont. Accepting that a nominal sentence may contain a verb (which doesn’t occur in the first position) gives out the chart below detailing two categories: ◦A nominal sentence that is verbless and another containing a verb— not in the first in the sentence ◦A Verbal sentence that contains a verb necessarily in the first position in the sentence 5 TypeExamples Nominal Sentence الـتـفـاحـة لـذيـذة الـولـد أكـل تـفـاحـة Verbal Sentence أكـل الـولـد تـفـاحـة

Word Order Arabic sentence have a free word order for both the nominal and verbal sentences. ◦The regular order for the nominal sentence is Subject + Predicate ◦The regular order for the verbal sentence is Verb + Subject + Object N.B. -When words change positions in the sentence, the vowel mark up doesn't change as it is the marker of the function of the words in the sentence (e.g. subject vs. object) - The word order may change depending on what the writer wants to emphasize. 6

Word Order cont. Examples: All the following sentences make sense although the order of the words is not the same 7 TypeExamples Nominal Sentences الـتـفـاحـة لـذيـذة لـذيـذة الـتـفـاحـة Verbal Sentences أكـل الـولـد تـفـاحـة أكـل تـفـاحـة الـولـد الـولـد تـفـاحـة أكـل الـولـد أكـل تـفـاحـة تـفـاحـة أكـل الـولـد تـفـاحـة الـولـد أكـل