Language/Gulf-arabic/Grammar/Adjectives

Gulf Arabic Lesson - Grammar - Adjectives

Hi Gulf Arabic Learners! 😃

In today's lesson we will learn how to use the ADJECTIVES in Gulf Arabic.

Happy learning!

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Adjectives are words describing nouns (things or people):

• The car is fast
• The city is small.

➡ In Arabic, there are 2 genders: masculine & feminine.

➡ In Gulf Arabic, the noun and the adjective must agree in gender and number. If you mean "the-town the-small, المدينة الصغيرة il-madiinat is-saghiira"

➡ Nouns, most of the time, precede adjectives.

Finish this lesson and explore these related pages: How to Use "Have", Negation & Conditional Mood.

Examples

حجرة

Hijra (pl. حجر Hujar)  - room

الحجرة الكبيرة

il-Hijra il-kebiira  – the big/large room

الحجرة الصغيرة

il-Hijra iS-Saghiira  – the small room

But, if you only say الحجرة صغيرة il-Hijra Saghiira , that would mean "The room is small" (a short descriptive sentence).

Many adjectives become feminine when we add ة –a at the end of the masculine form, e.g.:

الولد الطويل

il-walad iT-Taweel  – the tall boy (Taweel also means ‘long’.)

البنت الطويلة

il-bint iT-Taweela  – the tall girl

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In Gulf Arabic, duals (see section G.3.2) and plurals of nouns representing inanimate objects are considered grammatically plural or feminine singular, thereby attracting either plural adjectives or feminine singular adjectives. The best way to learn is by example:

شركات كبيرة

sharikaat kebiira  – big companies

حجر صغيرة

Hujar saghiira  – small rooms

But you say

الرياييل الزينين

ir-rayyaayiil iz-zayiniin  (the good men), not ir-rayyaayiil iz-zayna because rayyayiil is not an inanimate object.

Nisba. There are adjectives and nouns, called nisbas, easily derived from nouns by appending ي -i or –iiy (masc.) and ية -iyya (fem.) at the end of the noun. You have already encountered some:

بحريني

baHrayni  – Bahraini (something or someone from Bahrain)

كويتي

kweiti  – Kuwaiti (something or someone from Kuwait)

Other examples follow. From:

خارج

xaarij  – outside

داخل

daaxil  - inside

we get:

خارجي

xaariji  – exterior, of the outside

داخلي

daaxili  – interior, of the inside

وزارة الخارجية

wizaara il-xaarijiyya  – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (lit. Ministry the-Exterior; it's an iDaafa where the word الشؤون ish-shu'uun meaning 'affairs' is omitted between wizaara and il-xaarijiyya)

ملابس داخلية

malaabis daaxiliyya  – underwear (lit. clothes interior)

As the above examples show, the feminine of nisbas is formed by simply adding ة –a to the masculine form. The masculine plural is formed by adding ين –yiin, and the feminine plural, of course, by adding يات -iyyaat for example:

ولد

walad (pl. أولاد awlaad)  – boy

الأولاد الاماراتيين il-awlaad il-imaaraatiyiin  – the Emirati boys

بنت

bint (pl. بنات banaat) - girl

البنات الاماراتيات il-banaat il-imaaraatiyaat  - the Emirati girls

Other Lessons

• Personal Pronouns
• Questions
• Conditional Mood
• Plurals
• Gender
• Pronouns
• Negation