- Forum >
- Topic: Arabic >
- "سامْية اَلْمُحامْية ذَكِيّة."
106 Comments
that is incorrect.
The correct options are:
سامية محامية ذكية. Samia is a smart lawyer.
سامية المحامية ذكية. Samia the lawyer is smart.
سامية المحامية الذكية. ...Samia the smart lawyer... (a phrase) OR nontraditional usage (a sentence): Samia is the smart lawyer (as in: 'she is that one smart lawyer out of the bunch')
سامية هي المحامية الذكية. (more common usage) Samia is the smart lawyer. (as in: 'she is that one smart lawyer of the bunch.')
618
سامية (هي) المحامية الذكية Hiya is optional, but it is not optional to include the definite article الـ in front of the adjective ذكية
The use of the word "hiya" هي will change the meaning of the phrase/sentence. The current phrase posted in Thom 112240's post above (without "hiya") is: سامية المحامية الذكية. This means "Samia the smart lawyer". This is not a complete sentence and to turn it into a complete sentence, we will need to add at least 1 indefinite noun or adjective. The reason it needs to be indefinite is so that there is separation between the noun "Samia" which is a name (and definite by default) from adjectives that agree with it. This is why, in the original post, "dhakiya" ذكية is indefinite. Since it is indefinite, it marks the spot where the present tense verb "to be" is located.
What if we wanted to say: "Samia is the smart lawyer"?? The normal way we would want to write it would not be helpful since it would then be: سامية المحامية الذكية which we just learned will not make the meaning we're now looking for. Adding "hiya" separates "Samia" from "al-muHamiya". This allows us to have "the" on "the smart lawyer" as the predicate of the sentence. Thus: سامية هي المحامية الذكية means "Samia is the smart lawyer." This literally means something along the lines of "Samia, she is the smart lawyer." In translation, the first one mentioned above is correct and hiya acts as what I call a separater between the noun "Samia" and the second word that could either take the role as adjective (without "hiya") or second noun in the predicate (with "hiya").
I hope that this helps explain how the use of "hiya" can help change the meaning of the phrase into a sentence if that is your goal.
NOTE: It is important to note that it the noun is masculine, then "huwa" هو would be used. Plurals will need their appropriate correct forms if you are referring to more than one or two people, places or things. Adjectives and predicates will also change to match.
262
A: "my client didn't catch the name, but just called to ask: 'Who is the smart lawyer?'"
B: سامية هي المحامية الذكية "Samia is the smart lawyer."
In boring languages like Swedish and English, the word order in a sentence is strict. Basically Subject (doer) Verb Object. Like "The monkey ate the banana". In Arabic the word order in a sentence is free.
All these sentences mean "the monkey ate the banana".
القِردُ أَكَلَ المَوزَةَ (al-qirdu 'akala al-mawzata)
أَكَلَ القِردُ المَوزَةَ ('akala al-qirdu al-mawzata)
أَكَلَ المَوزَةَ القِردُ ('akala al-mawzata al-qirdu)
القِردُ المَوزَةَ أَكَلَ (al-qirdu al-mawzata 'akala)
المَوزَةَ أَكَلَ القِردُ (al-mawzata 'akala al-qirdu)
المَوزَةَ القِردُ أَكَلَ (al-mawzata al-qirdu 'akala)
Thanks to the case endings, you know who is the subject (doer) and who is the object.
The subject (doer) has nominative case (u-case) (مرفوع). It means it generally ends in u (if it is definite) or un (if it is undefinite). The object always has accusative case (a-case) (منصوب). It means it generally ends in a (if it is definite) or an (if it is undefinite).
So for example in the sentence أَكَلَ القِردُ المَوزَةَ ('akala al-qirdu al-mawzata) we know that the monkey (al-qirdu) is the subject because it has u-case and the banana (al-mawzata) is the object because it has a-case. So we translate it to "the monkey ate the banana".
And in the sentence أَكَلَ القِردَ المَوزَةُ ('akala al-qirda al-mawzatu) we know that the monkey (al-qirda) is the object because it has a-case and the banana (al-mawzatu) is the subject because it has u-case. So we translate it to "the banana ate the monkey".
There are three cases in Arabic:
Nominative (u-case) is the default and is used when the word is the subject (the doer). Nominative is used in nominal sentences like "the doctor is tired", "Samia is smart". That is why I say that this sentence should be in nominiative.
Accusative (a-case) is used when the word is the object (there are five types of objects in Arabic). It is also used for al-Haal (الحال) and tamyiiz (تمييز).
Genitive (i-case) is used after prepositions, and in idafa constructions.
Yes I am sure that the word order in a sentence is free in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Gramatically all of the sentences I wrote are correct, but of course practically some would seem more normal than others. In MSA Verb Subject Object is the standard word order, but Subject Verb Object is also common.
In MSA, case ending are not pronounced in the end of the saying. In daily speech (dialects) case endings are even less pronounced, as you write. But words still have case, so the case endings are still there grammatically even if they are not pronounced.
You are right about subjunctive (I have changed the term in my comment above).
Arabic nouns can have three different cases: Nominative (مرفوع), Accusative (منصوب), Genitive (مجرور).
Arabic verbs can have three different: Indicative (مفروع), Subjunctive (منصوب), Jussive (مجزوم).
In English, we talk about "case" for nouns and "mood" for verbs. But in Arabic, we talk about 2i3raab (إعراب) for both nouns and verbs. And in Arabic we say (منصوب) for the a-case, while in English the a-case is called accusative for nouns and subjunctive for verbs.
Using English grammatical terms for Arabic grammar is quite confusing.
Yes you are right. I have changed it now, thank you. In Swedish we call it "imperfekt indikativ". In Arabic we call nominative and indicative the same thing (مرفوع). I just prefer the Arabic way of thinking about grammar and the Arabic grammar terms, and I probably know them better, even though I am Swedish.
This is a good discussion on Arabic cases and moods.
I think that the common formation of Verb, Subject, Object and Subject, Verb, Object generally allow people to assume the case without it being necessary to pronounce the case markers. It's essentially a short-cut to speed up communication.
Thank you for your post. If you have a chance, I made a post recently (about 3 weeks ago). Let me know if you have any comments on it.
I think you mean declension.
Arabic nouns can be declined differently depending on gender (masculine or feminine), numerus (singular, dual or plural) and definiteness. So there are more than three declensions in Arabic.
Arabic nouns can also have one of three cases (nominative, accusative and genitive).
Arabic nouns can also be altered with suffixed pronouns.
In English and Swedish, we talk about direct object and indirect object. In Arabic, we talk about المفعولُ بِهِ الأوَّلُ (the first object) and المفعولُ بِهِ الثَانِي (the second object). A sentence can have at least three objects even though it is not so common. All of the objects in Arabic are in accusative (a-case).
For example: عَلَّمتُ القِردَ الرَقصَةَ
(3allamtu al-qirda ar-raqSata)
"I taught the monkey the dance."
al-qirda (the monkey) is the first object and ar-raqSata is the second object. Both of them are in accusative (a-case).
This website hates me!! I typed up a pretty good explanation and it made me "confirm my email" deleted the entire draft!! Try number 2:
The translation of this sentence is: "Samia the lawyer is smart."
This sentence is tricky because it is not something that we would normally say in this way in English (or even very often in Arabic). It is correct, just uncommon and feels a bit odd since we would normally say a sentence like "Samia is a smart lawyer" which gives us all the necessary information. For those who are asking about using commas, I recommend either: "Samia, the lawyer, is smart" or "Samia the lawyer is smart."
The key to understanding this sentence is in understanding how the definite article (ال meaning "the") is being used.
Samia is a name that describes a specific person. This name is definite by default and adjectives referring to this person will also be definite. For adjectives, this means we must add the Alif Laam (ال) to it.
This sentence is clarifying which Samia we mean if there are more than 1 Samia. Think of this:
Person 1: Samia is smart. Person 2: Which Samia?? Person 1: Samia the lawyer Person 2: Oh yes, indeed...
In this case, we are clarifying which Samia we mean.
Arabic names also use this format, especially names 100+ years ago. We use similar names in English in an informal basis. Big Jim or Fast Eddie are clarifying names. These names were in common usage before modern times codified how naming conventions work in different countries and cultures. Little John (from Robin Hood) probably had an order brother or friend in the village who was older and bigger through most of his life and "Little John" stuck. We might have a lawyer friend with the same name as other friends and we might refer to them as "Lawyer John" to clarify which John we're referring to. This is what is happening here. The word المحامية agrees with Samia in all the necessary ways needed for an adjective (gender, number, definiteness (names are definite), case (unmarked in this example as written). The word ذكية agrees in all ways EXCEPT definiteness. This ties the word to most of the sentence but this one difference (being indefinite) causes it to become the predicate of the sentence (the part the comes after our invisible verb "to be").
What would happen is we removed the ال from المحامية to make the sentence become: سامية محامية ذكية??
This would chance the sentence immensely. Samia remains definite but محامية is no longer definite. This can no longer be an adjective describing Samia. It must be the predicate (second part after the invisible verb "to be"). This makes this part of the sentence become: "Samia is a lawyer". We still have the word ذكية. This word does not need to change at all and it becomes an adjective describing the word lawyer (محامية). This adjective agrees with the word محامية in all the necessary ways (gender, number, definiteness (both indefinite - no ال), case (unmarked in these words as written).
What would happen if all the words had the definite article (except, of course, for the name Samia)?? We would then get: "سامية المحامية الذكية". This would then mean: "Samia the smart lawyer..." or "Samia, the smart lawyer,..." or "the smart lawyer Samia...". It would be an incomplete sentence.
A couple of notes. All words in this sentence are in the Nominative Case since there are no written verbs to cause Accusative case (the invisible verb "to be" does not count) and "the" is neither a preposition or IDaafa (Noun-in-Construct) to cause Genitive Case.
Audio with an "i" at the end of any of these words is incorrect. It is very uncommon to add a case marker to a given name. I know the course does this a lot but I recommend you just pronounce names as they are without case endings. Grammatically, you can provide the case markers if you wish.
Pronouncing the "t" sound of a Taa-Marbutta should only really happen when there is an IDaafa (Noun-in-Construct), when a suffix (like a possessive suffix) is added to the word (the Taa-Marbutta then actually becomes a regular Taa), or you wish to pronounce the little case marker vowel. Pronouncing the case marker vowel is appropriate to: teach people Arabic, when reciting from Religious texts or when clarification is needed to understand the context and it is otherwise confusing. You otherwise don't need to do so. Even high level government summits don't do this (except when quoting religious texts, blessings, etc.).
Again, this text in this course is odd and I think it causes more confusion the way it is delivered. I understand the need to deliver the lesson, but this particular route is confusing and frustrating.
I hope that this post is helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know. I'll check this thread here and there for the next couple of weeks.
I do not work for Duolingo and am providing this information because I support people learning languages and wish you success in your language learning journey!!
I wonder if they'll make an Arabic Course that teaches how to use and conjugate Arabic verbs, verbal nouns, etc. (Hint, Hint!!).
I am glad that you found this helpful. I sometimes find that explaining the situation or reasons for something can help steer people into better understanding the language. I do this often with my Arabic students (those who have asked me to teach them), so they can learn to apply them confidently and not have to worry if their "guess" about what they think they understand is actually correct. I just hope that I don't overdo the explanations since they do result in fairly long posts.
I think that you can think of this also as whether you see المحامية as a "title" or as an "adjective". Either situation can work as FiX gives a good reason for why you may prefer one word order versus another.
If you're thinking of it more like a "title", then it should go before the name:
الدكتورة سامية - the] Doctor Samia]
سامية الدكتورة - Samia the doctor
Titles often come before a name and Arab culture will often use professional titles before someone's name that we do not usually use in English (such as Engineer - المهندس ) for people with technical or scientific Masters Degrees.
Hi, I made a post that explains this in some detail. You essentially pronounce the "t" when the word is part of a Noun-in-Construct, when clarifying something that isn't apparent or is confusing otherwise, you're reading/reciting from Religious text or you're teaching an Arabic lesson on case endings (or related topics).
I hope this helps.
سامية المحامية الذكية
"Samia is the smart lawyer" (or: "Samia the smart lawyer", but that's not a complete sentence).
literally" "Samia the lawyer the smart"
سامية هي اسامية المحامية ذكية.
"Samia the lawyer is smart."
literally: "Samia the lawyer smart"
and:
سامية محامية ذكية.
"Samia is a smart lawyer"
literally: "Samia lawyer smart"
369
I think the English sentence is quite weird. Does it mean "Samia, the lawyer, is smart." or "Samia, the lawyer is smart"? In the first example the lawyer is Samia (which I guess is the case here, since dhakia is feminine) and in the second example the lawyer is somebody else who Samia didn't know was a smart person.
431
Am I the only one bothered by the pronounciation of the ta marbuta of "samia" in the audio (as "samiati")?
I haven't got to this part of the course yet, but as far as I know from general knowledge, only in the genitive case you get that transition (or regression?) without changing the word itself. The "i" sound is also pointing at such case. Therefore, if I'm right, the audio actually says "The lawyer's samia is smart"...
So, is it an error in the audio, or am I comletely wrong about the rules of ta marbuta, and it's pronounced "t" in every conjugation (including family name?)?
(And, also, it's a name! how can it be changed? but that is for later...)
431
Thanks! Also, a very helpful comment, with and without connection to my question. I hope a lot of people will take the time to read it.
Here is a break down of all of the voweling i3rab that should apply to this sentence. The sentence in this discussion is:
سامية المحامية ذكية
Here is how the vowels should appear:
سَامِيَةُ While I marked the above word with a final "Damma" (above the Taa-Marbutta) to mark it as Nominative Case, you should not pronounce the Damma or the "t" sound that would normally be pronounced because "Samia" is a given name. Therefore, this should be pronounced: saa-mi-ya.
الْمُحَامِيَةُ This word, "the lawyer", is not someone's name, and we may pronounce all of the vowels, to include the final Damma (marking it as Nominative Case) and the "t" sound required when pronouncing sounds that come in the word after a Taa-Marbutta. Therefore this can be pronounced: al-mu-Haa-mi-ya-tu.
ذَكِيَةٌ This word, "smart", is not someone's name and we may pronounce all of the vowels, to include the final Damma-Nunation (marking the word as an indefinite word in Nominative Case). Nunation is applied to indefinite words (no "the" or possessive words like "my", "your", etc) and create a final "n" sound at the end of the word. The letter Nuun ن is not written but the sound is present. The "t" sound required when pronouncing sounds in the word that come after a Taa-Marbutta is required to pronounce the final Nunation. Therefore, this can be pronounced: dha-ki-ya-tun
Altogether, this sentence would be:
سَامِيَة الْمُحَامِيَةُ ذَكِيَةٌ Samia al-muHaamiyatu dhakiyatun
أهلاً وسهلاً,
أولاً, أريد أن أوضح أنني غير عربي أصلياً ولذلك, من الإحتمال أن هذا الجواب لن يوضح الموضوع إلى مستوى مناسب لتوضيح قواعد اللغة الإنجليزية لك. أنا غير مثالي في اللغة العربية وأنا آسف لكل الأخطاء في هذه الجمل والكلام. أيضاً, أريد أن أوضح أنني غير موضف شركة دوولينجو. أنا شخصاً ألذي يحب أن يتعلم لغات مثل موظم مشاركين هذا الموقع.
سأحاول أن أوضح لك الإختلاف بين هذين المعنين:
The lawyer is smart: المحامية ذكية
في هذه الجملة, على الكلمة <<المحامية> عندنا <<ال> وكلن على الكلمة <<ذكية> ليس عندنا <<ال>. بسبب ذلك, من الضرور معنى هذه الجملة: <>. في اللغة الإنجليزية, حضور الفعل <<يكون - "to be" - في المضارع> لازم وغياب هذا الفعل لازم في اللغة العربية وفي كلي اللغتين عندنا نفس المعنى.
The smart lawyer: المحامية الذكية
في هذه الجملة (جزء من جملة), على الكلمتين <<المحامية> و<<الذكية>, عندنا <<ال>. لأن عندنا <<ال> على كلي الكلمتين, نعرف أن الكلمة <<الذكية> صفة الكلمة <<المحامية> ونعرف أن الجملة غير كاملة غير مثل الجملة الأولى. لذلك, من الضرور أننا نفهم أن لا يوجد معنى فعل <<يكون - to be - في المضارع> في هذه الجملة. ولذلك, لا نستطيع أن نضع هذا الفعل في ترجم الجملة في اللغة الإنجليزية. هذه الجملة هي: The smart lawyer في اللغة الإجليزية.
أتمئن أن هذا الجواب مفهوم وأنه وضح هذا الموضوع إلى مستوى مناسب لك وأن هذا الموضوع الآن واضح.
شكراً جزيلاً لهذه الفرصة لأمارس اللغة العربية.
Hi, in my post, I explained what the audio is doing by pronouncing the "t" sound. The program thinks that this is a Noun-in-Construct or a possessive relationship between the words (which would be the case grammatically if Samia was a regular word and not someone's name - see example below). In those situations, there would be a "t" sound. Because Samia is a name, the "t" should not be pronounced. The name should end with the "a" sound.
If I wanted to say: "the professor's table", we would find the following situation: "Table" is "Taawila" (طاولة) and "professor" is Ustaadh (أستاذ)
We would get: طاولة الأستاذ. "Taawilatu-ul-Ustaadh" This means "Table [of] the professor". The word "of" is understood grammatically. In this example, because the word "table" is in a Noun-in-Construct or possessive relationship, we would province the "t" sound. The two words will generally be pronounced together as one word.
Another example is the word "Ayatollah". From Aya[t] + Allah ("Sign of God"). This is a high-level Shiite religious leader. See how these two words are pronounced together (even in English). The name "'Abdallah" is similar but does not have Taa-Marbuta (ة) at the end, so no "-at" sound.
I hope this helps.
The ة letter is called "Taa-Marbutta" and is what I call a combination letter. This letter is a combination of the letter Haa (the one that sounds closer to English - this Haa: ه ; not the emphatic or breathy Haa: ح . You can see that Haa and Taa-Marbutta look alike: ة (Taa-Marbutta); ه (Haa). The only difference is that the Taa-Marbutta has the 2 dots above it.
This brings us to the other letter that it resembles, which is the "Taa" ت . The Taa-Marbutta takes the 2 dots from the Taa. The rules for this letter are as follows:
-
The Taa-Marbutta almost always marks a feminine word. There are a few exceptions and not all feminine words have Taa-Marbutta.
-
Taa-Marbutta only comes at the end of a word - ever!! If any situation occurs where the Taa-Marbutta is no longer the final letter in a word, it will transform into a regular "Taa" ت . This happens when we add a possessive suffix at the end of an Arabic word that ends in Taa-Marbutta. An example: السيارة "The car"; سيارتك "Your car".
-
Pronunciation: The Taa-Marbutta is usually pronounced as "a" with an almost silent "h" at the end. This makes most words with Taa-Marbutta sound like they end with an "a" sound. Essentially, the "t" sound of the letter is left off. There are a couple of situations where the "t" sound will always be pronounced in MSA:
A. Pronounce the "t" sound when we must pronounce the case marker at the end of the word. Case markers are almost always skipped over. When reading/reciting religious text (especially in Islam), every sound is pronounced. Case markers are short vowels or Nunation.
B. A word that ends in Taa-Marbutta in any part of a "Noun-in-Contruct" (in Arabic - iDaafa) except if it is in the last word of the Noun-in-Construct. The final word of a Noun-in-Construct (iDaafa) does not usually have the "t" pronounced unless we're looking at situation "A" above. A Noun-in-Construct is used to express a possessive relationship between 2 or more nouns. An example would be: The Car of the Professor / Professor's Car -> سيارة الأستاذ -> si-yaa-rat ul-oos-tadh. The "t" at the end of the word "si-yaa-rat" is there because this word is not the final word of an iDaafa (it is the first word). Normally (or if it was the final word), we would have "si-yaa-rah". The final "h" here is very light. Word order in creating Nouns-in-Construct (iDaafas) in Arabic follow the word order of: Item1 of the Item2 of the.... The "of" in this situation is understood grammatically and there is no "of" word written in Arabic. The "the" versus "a" depends upon the final word. iDaafas are complex and should be studied carefully. I cannot teach an entire lesson about it in a single post.
C. We are teaching Arabic and want to highlight the "t" sound in the Taa-Marbutta for educational reasons.
-
Pronouncing the "t" or not pronouncing it does not alter the spelling of the word in any way. Only if a suffix is added does the letter change (see "2" above).
-
There are a small number of Adverbs and indefinite nouns that may require pronunciation of the "t" in the Taa-Marbutta due to the need to pronounce Nunation at the end of the word. This should be learned when learning the word itself.
FYI - Case markers are short vowels that mark the role that a noun plays in a sentence (Nominative = Subject; Accusative = Direct Object; Genitive = Indirect Object - Indirect Objects are a part of a "Noun-in-Construct" or any noun coming after a preposition).
Remember that in most situations: the "t" will only be pronounced when reciting a religious text (especially an Islamic one) aloud, when teaching or learning about it (such as through Duolingo) or when there is a "Noun-in-Construct" (known in Arabic as: "iDaafa").
Fun fact: "Taa-Marbutta" literally means "Tied T". Imagine the letter Taa ت tied up by the ends. This letter is not technically counted in the formal "28" letters of Arabic. There are some other similar "additional" letters such as "Alif-Maqsura" which means "broken Alif". These 2 examples are taught in Duolingo.
There is a lot of information here. I hope it helps.