Last updated: 1 year ago
السّيارةُ الْجميلُ لونُها – Is there a mistake?
The causative description (na’at sababy نعت سببي) in Arabic is pretty tricky and often misunderstood. Let’s see why.
First of all, to answer our question: No, there isn’t a mistake! If you thought that the word الْجَمِيل should be written with a ة, you might have misunderstood the meaning of the sentence.
The second part of the sentence is a so-called causative description (نَعْت سَبَبِيّ). The sentence …السيارةُ الجميلُ لونُها means: The car whose color is beautiful. Or: The car with the beautiful color.
Watch out! The sentence doesn’t mean: The color of the nice car…
Let us make the difference clear:
| نَعْت حَقِيقِيّ | The successful student. | الطَّالِبُ النَّاجِحُ |
| نَعْت سَبَبِيّ | The student whose sister is successful. | الطَّالِبُ النَّاجِحةُ أُخْتُهُ |
Let us check the different parts of the النَّعْت السَّبَبِيّ.
| نَعْت مُؤَنَّث | Although it is a نَعْت, it doesn’t describe what precedes, but what comes after it. The word sister (أُخْت) is the thing being described (مَوْصُوف) because it is not the (male) student, who is successful. | النَّاجِحةُ |
| فاعِل | Subject; the thing which is being described. | أُخْتُهُ |
| In order to understand the exact meaning of the نَعْت سَّبَبِيّ you could rewrite the sentence with a relative clause اِسمْ إشارة –> | الطَّالِبُ الذي نَجَحَتْ أُخْتُهُ |
The rules for the النَّعْت السَّبَبِيّ
- The النَّعْت السَّبَبِيّ is always singular and comes before the subject of the sentence (فاعِل) which is a اِسْم مَرْفُوع
- It agrees with the preceding اِسْم in: * definite/indefinite form (تَعْريف/تَنْكِير) AND * إِعْراب
- It agrees with the following اِسْم – which is the فاعِل – in: * gender (masculine/feminine) (تَنْكِير/ تَأْنِيث)
- The noun after it (فاعِل) takes the pronoun which refers to the first subject in the sentence! Notice: the فاعِل is always مَرْفُوع
Let us have a look at some examples to understand the rules:
| The man whose brother is honorable came. | جاءَ الرَّجُلُ الْفاضِلُ أَخُوهُ |
| The man whose two brothers are honorable came. | جاءَ الرَّجُلُ الْفاضِلُ أَخَواهُ |
| Two men whose two brothers are honorable came. | جاءَ رَجُلانِ فاضِلٌ أَخَواهُما |
| The two men whose sisters are honorable came. | جاءَ الرَّجُلانِ الْفاضِلةُ أَخَواتُهُما |
| Ladies whose sisters are honorable came. | جاءَتْ سَيِّداتٌ فاضِلةٌ أَخَواتُهُنَّ |
A summary:
- The النَّعْت الْحَقِيقِيّ always comes after the noun which it describes. It follows the noun in gender, negated/not negated, case and singular/dual/plural.
- The النَّعْت السَّبَبِيّ always comes before the thing which it describes. It is always singular!
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Interesting stuff:
- What are the best dictionaries for Arabic dialects?
- Do you understand Egyptian TikTok?
- Watch Arabic Videos and Vlogs with Subtitles on YouTube
- next week – How do you say it in Egyptian Arabic?
- How do you build the plural of adjectives in Egyptian Arabic?
picture credit: pixabay (Toby Parsons)
Subscribe
Login
0 Comments
