Lesson 8- The verb "to be" and adjective agreement

There is no word for "is," "am," or "are" in Arabic.  (The words "was" and "were," however, do exist.)  "Equational" sentences in Arabic do not need the word "to be" in the present tense because it is implied automatically by context.

Adjectives have to agree with nouns in Arabic, just like in Spanish.  Masculine nouns take masculine adjectives, feminine nouns take feminine adjectives.


jamiil beautiful (masculine form)

The feminine form in Arabic works exactly like Spanish.  The letters -ah are added to the masculine form, but the h is not pronounced.  Since the h is never pronounced, it will be left out in many examples to help with pronunciation.

jamiil-ah  beautiful (feminine form)  

hiya jamiila.  She is beautiful.

As you can see, the word "is" is not used in Arabic.  "She beautiful" in English means "She is beautiful" in English.  This operates similarly to African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and to Russian.  However, unlike Russian, no "--" sign is needed in writing.


huwa jamiil.  He is beautiful.
hiya jamiila.   She is beautiful.


kabiir  big (m)  
kabiirah  big (f)

hiya kabiira.  She is big.
huwa kabiir.    He is big.


Saghiir  small (m)
Saghiirah  small (f)

hiya Saghiira.  She is small.
huwa Saghiir.    He is small.

Tawiil  long, tall


huwa Tawiil.  He is tall.
hiya Tawiila.  She is tall.


qaSiir  short

anta qaSiir.  You(m) are short.
anti qaSiira.  You(f) are short.

Notice that the masculine pronoun "anta" ends in -a but is masculine.  This is a source of confusion at first.