Learn how the root system works in Arabic
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are Arabic roots? |
| Nora: And how are they used? |
| Michael: At ArabicPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: at school, Sara asks her teacher about the meaning of a word. She asks, |
| Nora: "What does "kātib" mean?" |
| ما معنى كلمة "كاتب"؟ (mā maʿnā kalimaẗi "kātib"?) |
| Dialogue |
| Sara El-Sinawy:ما معنى كلمة "كاتب"؟ (mā maʿnā kalimaẗi "kātib"?) |
| Nancy Namek:.تعني الشخص الذي يكتب (taʿnī al-šaḫṣ allaḏī yaktub.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sara El-Sinawy:ما معنى كلمة "كاتب"؟ (mā maʿnā kalimaẗi "kātib"?) |
| Nora: "What does "kātib" mean?" |
| Nancy Namek:تعني الشخص الذي يكتب. (taʿnī al-šaḫṣ allaḏī yaktub.) |
| Michael: "It means a person who writes." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, you'll learn about the Arabic root system. The large majority of Arabic words are built around three root letters. These root letters were used to look words up in the dictionary. Any word with an Arabic origin has three root letters, except for a rarely used small group of verbs that have a four-letter root, which we won’t be introducing in this lesson. To form different words out of the stem, you add vowels and consonants to the root letters. Let’s start by taking a closer look at the dialogue. Do you remember how Sara asks |
| Nora: "What does "kātib" mean?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nora as Sara El-Sinawy:ما معنى كلمة "كاتب"؟ (mā maʿnā kalimaẗi "kātib"?) |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. Do you remember how the teacher answers "It means a person who writes?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nora as Nancy Namek:تعني الشخص الذي يكتب. (taʿnī al-šaḫṣ allaḏī yaktub.) |
| Michael: Here, Sara is asking about a word related to the root |
| Nora: ka ta ba كَ تَ بَ |
| Michael: meaning "to write." One of the possible forms of this root is |
| Nora: كاتب (kātib) |
| Michael: which means "writer" or "a person who writes." Here, we added |
| Nora: ا (a) |
| Michael: after the first root letter, then |
| Nora: كَسرَة (kasrah) |
| Michael: which is a vowelling that sounds like a short "e" sound under the second root letter. This specific form, when applied to almost any root, creates agent nouns. Another example of this form would be: |
| Nora: لاعِب (lāʿib) |
| Michael: meaning "player," from the root: |
| Nora: لَعِبَ (laʿiba) |
| Michael: meaning "to play." As you can already tell, the changes happen within the body of the stem, not just as suffixes. |
| Michael: Let's go back to the root meaning "to write." What other variations are there? |
| Nora: The verb كَتَبَ (kataba) |
| Michael: "to write" |
| Nora: but also some nouns like مَكتَب (maktab) |
| Michael: "office," |
| Nora: or مَكتَبَة (maktabah) |
| Michael: "library," |
| Nora: كِتاب (kitāb) |
| Michael: "book." Let’s also give a sentence with these words |
| Nora: كَتَبَ الكاتِبُ هَذا الكِتاب. (kataba al-kātibu haḏā al-kitāb) |
| Michael: which means "The writer wrote this book." Not only do you create all Arabic derived nouns from this, but also adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. Let’s observe some of the possible patterns of the root |
| Nora: سَرِعَ (sariʿa) |
| Michael: Let’s see a few of the main words we can create using this root—first, the adjective |
| Nora: سَريع (sarīʿ) |
| Michael: meaning "fast," then, the adverb |
| Nora: مُسرِعاً (musriʿan) |
| Michael: meaning "quickly." Then, we have the verb |
| Nora: أَسرَعَ (ʾasraʿa) |
| Michael: meaning "he hurried." We can also create the noun |
| Nora: سُرعَة (surʿah) |
| Michael: meaning "speed." By observing all these words, it becomes clear that they are all connected to the same concept, the same root. In a way, it makes it easier to remember words as long as you remember the three letter root. The next thing that could come in handy is memorizing the common patterns—knowing where to add the extra letters to create the patterns you want to use. We can start right now by learning two of the most common verbs and adjective patterns. Observing three examples of each pattern could help make the pattern clear. |
| Nora: سَريع، بَطيء، قَصير (sarīʿ, baṭīʾ, qaṣīr) |
| Michael: These respectively mean "fast, slow, short." Listening closely to these three words shows a clear pattern. Adding a |
| Nora: َ (a) |
| Michael: vowelling sign on the first letter of the root, and an |
| Nora: ي (i) |
| Michael: after the second letter of the root creates the most basic adjective form in Arabic. Now, for the most common verb pattern: |
| Nora: سَرَّعَ، بَطَّأَ، قَصَّرَ (sarraʿa, baṭṭaʾa, qaṣṣara). |
| Michael: These respectively mean "he sped something up," "he slowed something down," and "he shortened something." Here we have the same roots but different words. In this verb form, we add an emphasis on the second letter of the root. So the combination of added letters and vowelling signs leads to a whole new set of words! Building up your word pattern repertoire will help you immensely to broaden your vocabulary. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that most Arabic words, whether they are nouns, adjectives, verbs, or adverbs, are built around three root letters. Identifying the root and becoming familiar with common structures makes learning new Arabic vocabulary smoother and easier because, although the forms are different, the system is the same. Grouping words with common roots together while studying is an amazing way to master new vocabulary. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Being able to express what you want to say in many different ways is one of the benefits of learning many different forms of roots. Don’t shy away from trying new forms while talking to Arabic speakers, they will point you towards which forms are more commonly used. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Nora: !سلام (Salam!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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