QCAA Arabic (SEE) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

جملة اسمية

A nominal sentence beginning with a noun or pronoun. It has a subject (مبتدأ) and predicate (خبر) with no copula in the present, as in الجوُّ جميلٌ, meaning 'The weather is beautiful'.

جملة فعلية

A verbal sentence beginning with a verb. The verb precedes the subject and stays singular when the subject follows it, as in حضرَ الطلابُ إلى القاعةِ, meaning 'The students attended the hall'.

الإضافة

A possessive construction joining two nouns. The first noun takes no definite article or nunation and the second is genitive, as in بابُ البيتِ, meaning 'the door of the house'.

ال التعريف

The definite article. It is pronounced clearly before moon letters, as in القمر, but assimilates in pronunciation before sun letters, as in الشمس, which is read ash-shams.

همزة القطع

The glottal-stop hamza that is always written and pronounced, including at the start of speech and after a preceding word, as in أحمد and أخذ.

همزة الوصل

A connecting hamza written as ا without the sign ء. It is pronounced at the start of speech but dropped in connected speech, as in الطالبُ and استمعَ.

جمع التكسير

A broken plural formed by changing the internal vowel pattern of a singular noun rather than adding a suffix, for example كتاب to كتب and مدرسة to مدارس.

المضارع المنصوب

The present-tense verb made subjunctive after particles such as أن، لن، كي. It usually ends in fatha, as in لن نذهبَ, meaning 'We will not go'.

المضارع المجزوم

The present-tense verb made jussive after particles such as لم، لا الناهية، إن الشرطية. It loses its final vowel, as in لم يكتبْ, meaning 'He did not write'.

الضمائر المنفصلة

Detached subject pronouns: أنا، أنتَ، أنتِ، هو، هي، نحن، أنتم، هم. They can stand alone as the subject of a nominal sentence, as in هو طبيبٌ.

الضمائر المتصلة

Attached pronouns joined to verbs, nouns or prepositions to mark possession or object, as in كتابي (my book), كتبتُ (I wrote) and معه (with him).

اسم الإشارة

A demonstrative pronoun. Near: هذا، هذه، هؤلاء. Far: ذلك، تلك، أولئك. It agrees with the noun it points to in gender and number.

الصفة والموصوف

An adjective follows its noun, agrees with it in gender, number and case, and takes the definite article if the noun is definite, as in البيتُ الكبيرُ.

الممنوع من الصرف

A noun that takes fatha instead of kasra in the genitive and no nunation, typically because it is a proper name or follows the pattern of a verb form such as مساجد.

الأفعال الناسخة

Verbs such as كان، أصبح، ظل that enter a nominal sentence and make the predicate accusative, as in كان الجوُّ بارداً, meaning 'The weather was cold'.

الحروف الناسخة

Particles such as إنَّ، أنَّ that enter a nominal sentence and make the subject accusative while the predicate stays nominative, as in إنَّ العلمَ نورٌ.

الرسالة الشخصية

A personal letter or email to a friend or relative. It uses informal register, a greeting such as عزيزي, direct address and simple connectors, and ends with a closing formula.

الرسالة الرسمية

A formal letter to an institution or official. It uses MSA, an honorific opening such as حضرة السيد المحترم, a clear purpose statement and a formal closing such as وتفضلوا بقبول فائق الاحترام.

صيغة الأمر

The imperative verb form used to give instructions or commands, as in افتح، اكتب، لا تنسَ. Instructions and recipes typically use this form throughout.

النص الإقناعي

A persuasive text. It states a position, supports it with reasons and evidence, uses evaluative vocabulary and recommendation verbs such as يجب، ينبغي، أنصح, and restates the position in conclusion.

النص السردي

A narrative text. It sequences events in the past tense, uses time markers such as في البداية، ثم، بعد ذلك، وأخيراً, and develops characters, setting and complication.

التقرير الإخباري

A news report. It opens with the most important information, uses third-person past-tense reporting verbs such as أعلن، صرّح، أشار, attributes statements to sources and avoids first-person opinion.

أدوات الربط

Cohesive connectors such as لذلك، بالإضافة إلى ذلك، من ناحية أخرى، في حين أن، ونتيجةً لذلك. Their accurate and varied use is a criterion in writing assessment.

المبني للمجهول

The passive voice. In the past tense the internal vowels change, as in كَتَبَ to كُتِبَ; in the present, the prefix takes damma, as in يُكتَب. It suits formal reporting.

الاسم الموصول

A relative pronoun: الذي، التي، الذين، اللواتي. It agrees with its antecedent in gender and number, and the relative clause usually contains a pronoun referring back to it.

التمييز بين الجنسين

Gender agreement rule. Verbs, adjectives and pronouns agree with their noun in gender; feminine nouns often end in ة, and some feminine nouns are grammatically feminine without that ending, such as الشمس.

العدد والمعدود

Number-noun agreement. Numbers 3 to 10 take a plural genitive noun, as in ثلاثةُ كتبٍ; numbers 11 and above take a singular accusative noun, as in أحد عشر كتاباً.

المقارنة والتفضيل

Comparative and superlative forms on the pattern أفعل, as in أكبر (bigger/biggest). The comparative is followed by من, as in القاهرة أكبر من الإسكندرية.

الاستفهام

Question formation using particles such as هل، أ، ماذا، كيف، لماذا، متى، أين، كم. Yes/no questions begin with هل and need no inversion of word order.

النفي

Negation. Present: لا + present verb. Past: ما or لم + jussive verb. Future: لن + subjunctive verb. Nominal sentences use ليس or ما before the predicate.

الترقيم

Punctuation in Arabic writing. The comma ، and question mark ؟ differ from English forms; the full stop and colon match English. Correct punctuation is part of the writing criteria.

التلخيص

Summarising. It restates the main idea and key supporting points in fewer words, uses the writer's own wording rather than copied phrases, and keeps the original purpose and register.