Learn why "to be" is not in Arabic
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Intro |
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| Hi everybody! Nora here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Arabic questions. |
| The Question |
| The question for this lesson is: How come Arabic doesn’t use verb "to be?" |
| Explanation |
| If I were to introduce myself in Arabic, I would say |
| Ismi Nora |
| اسمي نورا |
| If we translate this literally, it’d be something like "Name-my Nora." Have you noticed that the verb “to be” isn’t in this sentence? |
| In this lesson, we’ll see how the Arabic sentence structure allows sentences to form without needing the verb “to be.” We’ll see what a noun-plus-adjective sentence looks like in Arabic. |
| Let's see how to say your nationality in Arabic. |
| “I am American” |
| أَنا أمريكي |
| ʾanā ʾamrīkī |
| “I am French” |
| أَنا فرنسي |
| ʾanā ferensī |
| “I am Mexican “ |
| أَنا مِكسيكي |
| ʾanā miksīkī |
| “I am Turkish” |
| أنَا تُركي |
| ʾnaā turkī |
| “I am Spanish” |
| أنا أسباني |
| ʾnā ʾsbānī |
| “I am Canadian” |
| أَنا كَنَدي |
| ʾanā kanadī |
| For a female, you would add an -iyyah sound to the end of the nationality, soأمريكي (ʾamrīkī) would become أمريكية (ʾamrīkīyyah), and so on. |
| Now let's see some other commonly used sentences that contain the verb “to be” in English, but not in Arabic. |
| “The sky is clear” |
| السَماءُ صافِيَة |
| al-samāʾu ṣāfiyah |
| “The weather is cold” |
| الجَوُّ بارِد |
| al-ǧawwu bārid |
| “The house is big” |
| البَيْتُ كَبير |
| al-baytu kabīr |
| “I am hungry” |
| أَنا جائِع |
| ʾanā ǧāʾiʿ |
| “The road is long” |
| الطَريقُ طَوْيل |
| al-ṭarīqu ṭawīl |
| “The food is delicious” |
| الأَكلُ لَذيذ |
| al-ʾaklu laḏīḏ |
| You must be wondering, what about the past tense? The auxiliary verb كان (kana) and its variations are the closest thing to the past tense verb “to be.” For example: |
| كانَ الأكلُ لذيذاً. |
| Kāna al-ʾaklu laḏīḏan |
| “The food was good.” |
| Note how the past tense verb to be “kana” in Arabic comes in the beginning of the sentence, unlike English. |
Outro |
| You can learn more about this subject by checking out lesson 8 of our Intermediate series on Arabicpod101.com, |
| If you have any more questions, please leave a comment below! |
| Bye! إلى اللقاء (ʾilā al-liqaāʾ) |
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