Map of the Language

‫لَ ْفظ‬
utterance
‫ُم ْه َمل‬ ‫ض ْوع‬
ُ ‫َم ْو‬
unpointed coined
‫َكالَم‬ ‫َكلِ َمة‬
 
group of words word

‫َغرْي ُم ِفْي َدة‬ ‫مُجْلَة‬

   
phrase sentence
 
Any sound released from the mouth of a human is termed by the Arabs as ‘utterance’ (‫)لفظ‬. Now

utterance may be sensible or it may not be. Sensible utterance is that which makes sense to the Arabs,
and it is termed ‘coined utterance’ (‫)موضوع‬. Non-sensible utterance is that which does not carry any

meaning for the Arabs. This includes things like foreign speech, awkward sounds, and so forth, and it is
termed ‘unpointed utterance’ (‫)مهمل‬.

 
Coined utterance is then either realized as single words ( ‫)كلمة‬, or as multiple words (‫)كالم‬. If these

multiple words have a copula (a link between the subject and predicate) then the speech is termed a
‘sentence’ (‫)مجلة‬. Otherwise, the speech is known as a phrase (‫)كالم غري مفيد‬. Examples of sentences are “he

is back” and “I ate the apple”, where “is” is the copula in the first sentence and the copula in the second
sentence is abstract. Examples of phrases include “the old woman across the street”. Within these
words there is no copula, hence the speech is a phrase.
Words
‫كلمة‬
word
‫َح ْرف‬ ‫فِ ْعل‬ ‫اِ ْسم‬
particles verbs nouns
 
Words are divided into three categories which are mutually exclusive and cover all words in the
language. The first category is called ‘noun’ (‫ )اسم‬and it includes what we know in English as nouns,
pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs. The second category is that of verbs (‫)فعل‬. And finally, the third
category is that of particles (‫ )حرف‬which include English prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and

particles. Note that particle is a catch-all term that includes things like interjections and other words that
are not well-categorized.
 
nouns
‫اسم‬ pronouns
adjectives
adverbs

‫فعل‬ verbs

prepositions
‫حرف‬ articles
conjunctions
particles (such as most interjections)
 
Practice: Under which of the three categories in Arabic would the following English words fits?
         boy
         cheap
         within
         an
         lifted
         brownies
         silently
         Oh no!
         our
Phrases
There are many types of phrases in the language. Most of them are introduced at calculated points in
time, but two are of very special interest due to their productiveness and pedagogical benefits. These
can be studied in the tutorial entitled Arabic Phrases.

Sentences
‫مجلة‬
sentence
‫فعليّة‬ ‫امسيّة‬
verbal nominal
 
There are two main types of sentences; nominal and verbal. The former is that sentence which
effectively begins with a noun, and the latter is that which effectively begins with a verb. There are
actually other ways in which we can categorize different types of sentences, but this method is by far
the most productive and by far the most relevant. Other methods of categorization will be introduced in
subsequent tutorials as needed.