"رَجُل أَمْريكِيّ عَرَبِيّ"
Translation:an Arab American man
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I read somewhere else in these forums that it is done to express the fact that there is no "the" in front of "man" but "a". So if it's "a man", then the 'un' sound is appended when pronouncing 'رَجُل'. However, if it's "the man", there is no 'un' sound at the end.
To be honest, it confuses the hell out of me too. It's very distracting.
1391
The "-un" is also used to show that the noun and adjective(s) are in the nominative/subjective case, showing the subject of the sentence. When you want to say "the" instead of "a" or "an", the word "al/ال " is used.
MikitaD, Sven91126:
Mostly the "-u" and "-un" ending sounds (in a word) are used when the word is in the nominative case -- like benton.1 has said.
Just for the simplification. The difference between the -u and -un is that, the first is applied for the definitive noun (ال) while the later is for the indefinitive noun (without ال).
For example:
الرجلُ : ar-rajulu
رجلٌ : rajulun
For the speaking concern, the -u and -un are pronounced in the Formal way (or Standard) while in Dialect and informal way, both -u and -un are not spelled.
Nb: if we are confused by this matter, it is normal. Oftentimes, many Arabs themselves make mistakes in Arabic Grammar :))
I'm trying to remember it by thinking of adjectives as being visually in "English order" (left to right), even though the sentence would be written right to left. If that makes sense?
I think the word closest to the noun is the "more important one." So "an Arab American man" is like "Arab (American man)" vs. "American (Arab man)".
- 1391
In English, adjectives come before the nouns they modify. In Arabic, adjectives come after the nouns they modify. In this sentence, "Arab" is used as an adjective describing what kind of American (also an adjective in this sentence) the man (a noun) is. So, in English it is "An (arab) AMERICAN man, while in Arabic it is "(a) Man AMERICAN (arab)".
According to grammatical rules, adjectives do not modify other adjectives. However, the way we speak of nationalities these days, they seem to. I like to look at "Arab" in this sentence, both in Arabic and English, as an adjective describing/modifing the adjective "American".
I hope I've been able to help a bit.
Why don't I receive any introductory words in the earlier lessons but get the test to fill the blank suddenly( which I have to guess the answer because there was no earlier introduction to the partivular word or phrase that just suddenly popped up)?