ADJECTIVE AND ADJECTIVAL NOUNS IN ARABIC LANGUAGE (النعت والمنعوت من الأسماء)

 ADJECTIVE AND ADJECTIVAL NOUNS IN ARABIC LANGUAGE (النعت والمنعوت من الأسماء)

By: Yusuf Basirat Bolanle

Today, Insha Allah we are going to discuss adjective and adjectival nouns in Arabic language. We are going to talk about its meaning and give examples in sentences.

 

Discussion

In Arabic language, an adjective is known as (النعت), An Adjective emphasizes on the description of a noun that comes before it, and the noun that is being described is referred to as (اْلمَنْعُوتُ), adjectival noun. 

In English language, the adjective comes before the noun it is describing. However, adjective in Arabic language always follows or comes after the noun.

For instance, if a noun takes any of the parsing marks like al-fatha, alkasrah and ad-dammah, the adjective that is describing such a noun takes the same parsing mark as the noun. Also, the adjective follows the noun it is describing in singularity, duality and plurality. 

An adjective should agree with the nouns in the following instances:

- In Numbers (Singularity, Duality and Plurality) (الاتفاق العَدَدِىُّ)

- In definite and indefinite (الاتفاق فى النَّكْرَةِ والمعرفة)

- In genders (Masculinity and Femininity) (الاتفاق الْجِنْسىُّ)

- In Parsing marks (الاتفاق فى الحركة)

Now, let us look into the forms of adjective and how they can agreed with the nouns, with examples in sentences.

1.        Numbers Agreement (الاتفاق العددى) 

The adjective should agree with the noun it is describing in numbers, either it is in a singular, dual or in plural form.

Examples

الولد الصَّغير
The small boy

البنت الصَّغيرة
The small girl

الولدان الصَّغيران
The two small boys

البنتان الصَّغيرتان
The two small girls

الأولاد الصِّغَارُ
The small boys

البنات الصُّغْرَى
The small girls

In the above examples, it is clear that the adjectives follow the nouns in numbers. when the noun is singular like (الولد), the adjective is also singular like (الصغير). when the noun is dual like (الولدان), the adjective is also dual just like (الصغيران) and finally when the noun is plural as it is in (الأولاد), the adjective is also plural (الصِّغار)and the list goes on.

2.        Definite and indefinite agreement (الاتفاق فى النَّكْرَةِ والمعرفة) 

This indicates that the Adjective and the noun it is describing should both agree on their Definite and indefinite status. This means, if the noun is definite, the adjective also should be definite, and if the noun is indefinite, then the adjective should be indefinite as well.

Examples

رأيت ولدا صغيرا
I saw a small boy

اشتريت كتابا مفيدا
I bought a beneficial book

رأيت الولد الصغير
I saw the small boy

اشتريت الكتاب المفيد
I bought the beneficial book

The above sentences show that the adjectives follow the nouns in their definite and indefinite positions. the like of (صغيرا) follows the noun (ولدا), hence they both take tanween because they are indefinite. whereas, the adjective (الصغير) takes alif and lam, meaning it is definite, follows the noun (الولد) in the same structure.

3.        Gender Agreement (الاتفاق الْجِنْسىُّ) 

This means both the noun and the adjective it describes should be of the same gender. That is, if the noun is masculine, the adjective should be masculine, and if the noun is feminine, then the adjective also should be feminine.

Examples

سلَّمت على البنت الصغيرة
I greeted the small girl

ضربت ولدا صغيرا
I beat a small boy

أعطيتك وردة جميلة
I gave you a beautiful flower

جلست على الكرسي الكبير
I sat on the big chair

In the above examples, the adjectives agreed with the nouns. when the noun is masculine like (ولدا), then the adjective is also masculine (صغيرا). when the noun is feminine, then the adjective is also feminine.  

4.        Parsing Mark or Case Agreement (الاتفاق فى الحركة) 

In this regard, the noun and the adjective should take the same parsing mark. This means that the noun and the adjective are both in the same case and hence, should be given the same mark at the end. If the noun is in subjective case with ar-rafu sign taking ad-dammah parsing mark, then the same should be given to the adjective. However, if the noun is in the objective case, with an-nazb sign taking al-fatha parsing mark, then, same should be applied to the adjective. Likewise, the prepositional case with al-jarru, taking al-kasrah parsing mark and so on.

Examples

جلس الرجل الغنيُّ فى المسجد
The rich man sat in the mosque

رأيت الرجل الغنيَّ فى المسجد
I saw the rich man in the mosque

سلمت على الرجل الغنيِّ فى المسجد
I greeted the rich man in the mosque

The above examples show that the adjectives in the sentences go with the nouns in their positions in the sentence. they also share the same parsing marks based in this positions. The nouns in the three sentences above are in the position of subject, object and preposition, so as their adjectives. 

 The End