Sunday 9 November 2014

Arabic demonstrative pronouns

 بِسمِ اللهِ الرَّحمانِ الرَّحِيم

الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على نبينا محمد وآله وصحبه

الدرس الخامس

هَـٰذَا مِن فَضلِ رَبّي
You might have seen the above sentence in many houses or in someone’s cars or in front of gate of someone’s house. What it really means is that “This is from the grace of my Lord”.  Indeed, everything that is bestowed on us is the grace of our Lord.   Whatever i am writing now is (الحمدلله) from the grace of my Lord (رَبّي). And whatever you are reading now is from the grace of our Lord.  From previous chapter can you tell “Our Lord” in Arabic ?  If you can’t then please go back to previous chapter and read learn it again.

Can you tell the joined pronouns table for noun (رَبٌ).   Please refer previous chapter for this.

The main thing in that sentence (هَـٰذَا مِن فَضلِ رَبّي) is to teach the demonstrative pronouns.  

When a child first starts speaking he will be very inquisitive to find out about new things and he asks his father
يا أبي -  مَا هَـٰذَا؟
Oh my father -  What is this ?.

father politely answers
يا ابني - هَـٰذَا كِتابٌ
Oh my son - This is a book.

يا أبي   مَا ذَ‌ٰلِكَ؟
Oh my father -  What is that ?

ذَ‌ٰلِكَ جَمَلٌ
That is a camel

Now a days general trend in many families is that whenever a son asks his father about same thing repeatedly like ( dad , what is this ? again what is this ?) the father does not get tired of answering again and again.   But the same person when gets old and he asks his son about something even twice by mistake (like, son - what is this ? again what is this ?) the son will reply saying “dad, how many times i should explain you. Don’t you understand ?”

Back to the course, Notice that (هَـٰذَا) is pronounced as (hadha). And (ذَ‌ٰلِكَ) is pronounced has (Dhalika).  The vertical dash you see above the ha’ and dh’ is an alif. In a few arabic words, the alif is written above the letter rather than after it. This alif is pronounced as a long a’. Like the other vowel signs, it is normally included in in modern written arabic.

How would you say for : “this is a house” ?  . . . . . . . . . .
هَـٰذَا بَيت
There is no need for the verb ‘is’ in this kind of sentence and notice there is also no direct equivalent of the english ‘a’ as in ‘a house’.

Now can you guess arabic for “This is a city” ? . . . . . city in arabic is (مَدينَة)
I am sure you will get it wrong . . . .  its
هَـٰذِه مَدينَة
Its not hadha`  but its hadhihi’.   This is because the word (مَدينَة) is feminine.  So what will be for “this is a girl” ? obviously . . . .
هَـٰذِه بِنتٌ
In arabic there are two genders:
  • The masculine
  • The feminine

Feminine words fall into different categories
  1. Words that ends with (ة) -(atun)
    Ex: مَدِينَةٌ  (The city)
         زَوجَةٌ  (Wife)
  2. All alphabets: ا,ب,ت etc..
  3. All pairs of body parts
    عَينٌ(Eye), أُذُنٌ(Ear), يَدٌ(Hand), رِجلٌ(Leg)
  4. Names of towns, cities, countries and river
    هِندُ(India), بَغدادُ (Baghdad), بَاكِستانُ (Pakistan)

Referring (This) to Feminine
  • هَـٰذِه بِنتٌ
    This is a girl
  • تِلكَ دَجاجَةٌ
    That is a hen
 
So for “That” to feminine is not “dhalika”  its “Tilka”.

Too many arabic nouns right ?  Do worry. if possible remember them else not to worry much. But please don’t forget the concepts.

masculine : = هَـٰذَا , ذَ‌ٰلِكَ
feminine := هَـٰذِه , تِلكَ

Exercise - 1:
Read these words and decide if they are masculine or feminine. Also try to memorize them as they are basic words around our daily life.



كَلبٌ
Dog


فَرَسٌ
Horse
مَسجِدٌ
Masjid
بَابٌ
Door
نَهرٌ
River
قَلَمٌ
Pen
مَدِينَة
City
جَرِيدَة
Newspaper
مِبراةٌ
Sharpener

Exercise - 2:
And also Make a sentence for each words in previous section and write it down.
Example: هَـٰذَا حِمار
          This is a donkey
That is a donkey ?

Exercise - 3:
Remember the family tree we learned in chapter two ?
Ahmed’s Family
ألِ أَحمَد

Its action time now.    You can play a role of all members of Ahmed family and introduce your family to others. But this time using “This” and not using “he/she”. also you will mention your family members profession along with their name and relations learnt in chapter three.  I have written down the conversation you can try to translate it. Try it .. insha-allah you can make it, please don’t ignore the section

Ahmed :   I am Ahmed and this is Umar, He is my son. And he is a student
Fatima  :   I am fatima  and that is Ahmed, He is my husband and he is an engineer
Ahmed :   و هَـٰذِه زَوجَتِي فاطِمَة و هِيَ طَبِيبَة
Hajira   :  I am Hajira, and this is my brother Umar. (أخِي عُمَر) and he is a student.
Umar    :  I am Umar, and that is my mother fatima and she is a doctor.
Umar   :   و ذَ‌ٰلِكَ أَبِي أَحمَد
Umar   :  And this is  Hajira, and she is my sister and she is a teacher.
Fatima : And me ? i am ummu hajira and we all are muslims (alhamdulillah).

Insha-allah in the next chapter we shall try to delve into more of demonstrative pronouns like duals and plurals.

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