Language/Tunisian-arabic/Grammar/Adjective-Formation
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As a Tunisian Arabic teacher, I have been teaching Tunisian Arabic for 20 years now. In this lesson, I will teach you how to form adjectives in Tunisian Arabic and their usage.
After mastering this lesson, these related pages might interest you: How to Use Have & Past Tense.
Basic Principles
An adjective in Tunisian Arabic must agree with the noun it modifies in terms of gender and number. An adjective also comes after the noun in Tunisian Arabic. For example:
Tunisian Arabic | Pronunciation | English |
---|---|---|
كتاب حلو | ketāb helou | The book is beautiful |
In the above example, "حلو" (helou) agrees in gender and number with "كتاب" (ketāb). Another important thing to note is that the adjective comes after the noun in Tunisian Arabic.
Forming Adjectives
In Tunisian Arabic, adjectives can be formed from nouns, verbs, and other adjectives by adding certain suffixes. Here are some examples:
Adjectives from Nouns
To form an adjective from a noun, we add the suffix "-ين" (-een) for masculine and "-ينة" (-eenaa) for feminine. Here are some examples:
Tunisian Arabic | Pronunciation | English |
---|---|---|
بيت كبير | beit kbir | A big house |
بيت كبيرين | beit kbireen | Two big houses (masculine) |
بيت كبيرينة | beit kbireenaa | Two big houses (feminine) |
In the above example, we added the suffix "-ين" (-een) for "كبير" (kbir) to make it agree with "بيت" (beit) in number and gender.
Adjectives from Verbs
To form an adjective from a verb, we add the prefix "م-" (ma-) for masculine and "ما-" (maa-) for feminine, and the suffix "-ي" (-i) for both masculine and feminine. Here are some examples:
Tunisian Arabic | Pronunciation | English |
---|---|---|
الفيلم مجنون | el film mejnoun | The movie is crazy |
الممثلة مجنونة | el momtala mejnouna | The actress is crazy (feminine) |
المخرج مجاني | el mo9riji majani | The director is crazy (masculine) |
In the above example, we added the prefix "م-" (ma-) to "جنون" (jnoun) to form "مجنون" (mejnoun). We also added the suffix "-ي" (-i) to "مجنون" (mejnoun) to agree with the noun in gender.
Adjectives from Other Adjectives
To form an adjective from another adjective, we add the prefix "أكثر" (akthar) for the comparative form and "أكبر" (akbar) for the superlative form, followed by the adjective. Here are some examples:
Tunisian Arabic | Pronunciation | English |
---|---|---|
هادي أحسن من هاكي | hādi ahsen men haki | This one is better than that one |
hadhoki ma yemkunesh | Those ones are not possible | |
ثقيل أكثر من العادي | thqeel aktar men l3adi | Heavy more than normal (comparative form) |
صغير أكبر من الجروح | sgheer akbar men ljruh | Smaller than wounds (superlative form) |
In the above example, we used the prefix "أكثر" (akthar) to form the comparative form of "ثقيل" (thqeel) and the prefix "أكبر" (akbar) to form the superlative form of "صغير" (sgheer).
Conclusion
In this lesson, we learned how to form adjectives in Tunisian Arabic and their usage. Remember that an adjective in Tunisian Arabic must agree with the noun it modifies in terms of gender and number and comes after the noun. We also learned how to form adjectives from nouns, verbs, and other adjectives. Keep practicing and you'll soon become a pro!
Finished this lesson? Check out these related lessons: Conditional Tense & Present Tense.
Other Lessons
- Definite Article in Tunisian Arabic
- Interrogation and Question Indicators
- Adverbs in Tunisian Arabic
- Question Formation
- Imperative Mood
- Adverb Usage
- Negation Usage in Tunisian Arabic
- Nouns
- Questions
- Plurals
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