Damascus

دمشق

مدينة الياسمين

Read the following passage about Damascus and Listen to the audio provided. There is also a list of the key words in the passage. Structure analysis is also included. Do the quizzes below to evaluate your understanding of the passage.

Damascus the City of Jasmine

Key words:

capital [عاصمة], republic [الجمهورية ], part [جزء ], mountain [جبل ], bank [ضفة], river [نهر ], orchard [بستان], inhabited [مأهولة ], position, rank, place, value [مكانة], distinguished [مرموقة ], foreign [أجنبي ], state [دولة ], science [علم ], culture [ثقافة ], Arts [فنون ], Literature [أدب ], BC [قبل الميلاد ].

Structure

Nominal Sentences

This passage is aimed to show examples of nominal sentences. As you can see that there is only one verbal sentence which starts with the verb [كانت]. The rest of the passage is nominal sentences that start with nouns. Nominal sentences are very common in Arabic. They are equivalent to English sentences with the verb’ to be’ [is, am, are] as the main verb.

examples:

Damascus is the capital of the Syrian Arab Republic. [دمشق عاصمة الجمهورية العربية السورية]
The students are in the library. [الطلاب في المكتبة]
I am a teacher. [أنا مُعَلِّمٌ]

In the three examples, you can see that in Arabic the equivalent to the verb ‘to be’ [is, am, are] is not present neither in speech nor in writing; it is rather understood. This is the simple structure of a nominal sentence which starts with a noun and the rest of the sentence functions as predicate [خبر] to the noun.

Nisba

This passage includes also examples of [nisba] . Nisba is the formation of adjectives that relate something or somebody to their origin. We form nisba adjectives by simply adding a doubled [ّي] to the end of the noun of origin whether it is a science, branch of knowledge, material or country.

If there is [ا] or [ة], we delete them before we add the [ّي].

Country and Nationality :

I am from Syria [أنا من سوريّا] can be written [أنا سوريّ ]. Here the letter [ألف] in the end of the word [سوريا] is deleted and the [َّي] is added to the name of the country/origin to form the nisba adjective.

examples:

I am from Britain [أنا من بريطانيا], I am British [أنا بريطانيّ]
Hans is from Germany [هانز من ألمانيا]. Hans is German [ هانز ألمانيّ]
Rebecca is from Scotland [ربيكا من اسكوتلندا ]. Rebecca is Scottish [ ربيكا اسكوتلندية]. Here taa marbouta [ة ] was added because the head noun [Rebecca] is feminine.

Material :

This is wood [هذا خشب] . This is a wooden chair [ّهذا كرسي خشبي].

examples:

gold [ذهب], golden [ذهبيَ]
cotton [قطن]. made of cotton [ّقطني]
metal [معدن ]. made of metal [ معدني].

Science and branches of knowledge :

I study medicine [أنا أدرس الطّبّ]. These are my medical books [هذه كتبي الطبيَّة].

examples:

Politics [سياسة], political [سياسي]
Art [فن]. Artistic [ّفنيّ]
Economy [إقتصاد ]. Economic [ إقتصادي].
Philosophy [فلسفة ]. Philosophical [ فلسفي]

There are also many other nisba adjectives that can be formed by adding [ي]. For example:

international [دولي]
governmental [حكومي ]
foreign [أجنبي ]

Try to find in the passage the nisba adjectives of the following nouns:

Administration [إدارة]
Education [تعليم ]
Economics [إقتصاد]

Regular Feminine Plural

It is usually formed by deleting the [ة] in the end of the word and adding the suffix [ات]. To read more about sound plurals click here.

Try to find in the passage the plural forms of the following feminine words:

establishment [مؤسسة ]
ministry [وزارة ]
embassy [سفارة ]
organisation [منظمة ]

Prepositions with pronouns

In Arabic, the prepositions join with connective pronouns and are written and pronounced as one word. For example, in the passage there are three prepositions [من = from], [لــ= to, for] and [في= in] join with the feminine singular pronoun [ها] in one written form, respectively:

منها
لها
فيها

Quizzes

Try to do the four quizzes below to evaluate your comprehension.

Damascus Quiz 1

This quiz is about word groups. Read the word given and choose the right group the word belongs to. There are four groups of word to choose from:
Government [ حكومة]
Nature [طبيعة ]
Politics [سياسة]
City [مدينة]

Damascus Quiz 2

Look at the image and choose the right word.

Damascus Quiz 3

Read the statement and decide whether it is true or false!

Your answer should depend on what was mentioned in the passage about Damascus.

Damascus Quiz 4

Choose the right answer to complete the sentence.

Reading Comprehension Practice

In this section, you will find short passages in the form of text messages. Here is the first one.

In this message Kareem has texted Sara to tell her that the classes in the institute were cancelled due to an emergency case. Read the message and listen to it and then do the quiz below.

Listen to the message here.

Now you can do the quiz here.

Quiz

Read the message above and choose the correct answer from A, B and C.

Sound Plurals

Plural in Arabic refers to more than two people, two animals or two things.	الـجـمع هو ما دل على أكـثـر من شـخـصيـن أو حيوانيـن أو شيئيـن.
– The girls work with the children.	تعمل الفتيات مع الأولاد.
– The farmers work in the fields.	يعمل المزارعون في الحقول.

The regular masculine plural	جمع الـمـذكر السالـم
This type of plural is made by adding (و and ن ) or ( يand ن) to a masculine singular noun.	جمع الـمذكر السالم جمع يصاغ من الـمفرد بزيادة (واو ونون) أو (ياء ونون
peasant, peasants	فلاح ، فلاحون، فلاحين
We add (و and ن ), if the singular masculine noun ends with (*Dhammah* ُ ).	[ ُ ] يزاد (واو ونون) إذا كان في آخر الاسم الـمفرد ضَـمـة
The teacher is standing near the door. The teachers are standing near the door.	الـمُعلمُ يقف قرب الباب المعلمون يقفون قرب الباب

We add (و and ن ), if the singular masculine noun ends with (*fatha* or *Kasra*).	ِ[ ] يزاد (ياء ونون) إذا كان في آخر الاسم الـمفرد فتحة [ َ] أو كسرة
I saw the teacher. I saw the teachers	رأيتُ الـمعلمَ رأيتُ الــمعلمــيـن

The regular feminine plural	جمع المؤنث السالـم
This type of plural is made by adding (ا and ت) to a feminine singular noun after deleting the (taa marbouTah ة).	جمع الـمذكر السالم جمع يصاغ من الـمفرد بزيادة (ألف وتاء) بعد حذف التاء المربوطة ة
teacher (f. s.) = teachers (f. p.)	معلمة – معلمات
plane(f. s.) = planes(f. p.)	طائرة – طائرات

Masculine regular plural in idafa (relation) and pronoun suffix

Idafa is the case when two nouns are linked in a relation like possession in English expressed by:

Ahmad’s book كتاب أحمد

The door of the house. باب البيت

When a masculine regular plural noun occurs as the first part of an idafa structure, or when it has an attached pronoun suffix, the final ( ـن ) of the plural ending is dropped

Case one: the second part of idafa is a noun.

Case two: the second part of idafa is a pronoun.

Colours

Remember

Names of colours in Arabic function both as nouns and adjectives. Therefore, when colours function as modifiers to a noun they follow the noun, unlike the English adjectives or pre-modifiers which occur before nouns.

More examples:

أريد الكتاب الأزرق

I want the blue book.

أريدُ القُبَّعةَ البُنّيّة

I want the brown hat.

أريدُ العَلَمَ الرماديّ

I want the grey flag.

أريدُ السَّيَّارةَ الحَمراء

I want the red car.

أريدُ الزَّهرة البيضاء

I want the white flower

Test yourself

Colours

Reading [simple]

Read the notes about the three people Amal [أمل], Muhammad [محمد] and Omar [عمر] and do the quiz below.

Quiz

Read the notes about the three people and choose the correct answer.

Reading [simple]

Read the notes about the three people Khalid [خالد], jamal [جمال] and Rania [رانية] and do the quiz below. You can also listen to the audio before you do the quiz to improve your reading and listening.

Quiz

Read the notes above and choose the correct answer.

Prepositions in short dialogues

Quiz1

Read the short dialogues and choose the correct answer to fill in the gap. These questions are short dialogues from daily life. Each question is accompanied by a translation into English. The translation is not meant to help you find the answer but it is meant to help you learn the functions of the language.

Prepositions

حروف الجر Prepositions

Prepositions in Arabic are the particles that join with nouns and pronouns to form phrases. Prepositions MUST be followed by a noun or a pronoun. They do not connect to verbs. They have meanings of their own and have an effect on nouns and pronouns. They will change the vowel of the last letter of the noun from Dhammah [ ُ ] or fatHa [بَ] to kasra [ِ ] . The noun after these prepositions is in the genitive case and is called (majroor). After you have studied the examples of the prepositions, you will find a quiz in the end of the page. You can do this quiz to evaluate your comprehension. The quiz is a good practice not only to see how prepositions are used within a context but also to learn some communicative functions.

These prepositions are:

After you have studied the above examples try to do this quiz.

quiz [prepositions]

Complete the sentences with the right prepositions

Here is another quiz:

Quiz1

Prepositions of Place

Learn and practice prepositions of place:

in [في]

on[على]

next to [بجانب]

between, among [بين]

over, above [فوق]

under [تحت]

behind [خلف]

in front of [أمام]

This quiz can be used as a reading exercise of simple sentences. It can also be used to introduce and test colour words. The teacher/ parent can assess the progress of the learner using this quiz.

This quiz is for beginners. It depends on the illustration with each question. In addition to the prepositions of place, this quiz includes colour words, too.

Prepositions of Place

Look at the image and complete the sentence with the correct preposition.