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To start the discussion about the topic نَعْت سَبَبِيّ, I would like to analyze the following Arabic sentence: السّيارةُ الْجميلُ لونُها
If you check the endings of the words, do you spot any mistake? Short answer: 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 |
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
Let’s check the most important features of a نعت سببي:
- 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 take 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!
Interesting stuff:
- Unlocking Arabic #3: عَرُوسٌ – Does it mean ‘bride’ or ‘bride groom’ or both?
- Introducing Errabic: Let’s learn from real-world Arabic mistakes!
- The phrase الطرق السيارة – Is there a mistake?
- Unlocking Arabic #2: Distinguishing قادة and قيادات
- The Qur’an Revisited: The use of the passive voice
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