Karnataka II PUC Arabic (KSEAB) cheat sheet

Nasr means prose; the prose questions test the prescribed lessons through author and title, theme or moral, and the meaning of underlined words or phrases.

Four prose genres occur in the reader: qissa (story), maqala (article), risala (letter) and sira (biography). Identify the genre first because it decides what kind of question is asked.

Saj' is rhymed prose without metre; the ends of successive clauses share the same final letter. It signals an old sermon, a maqama or an ornate letter.

Al-Hamadhani created the maqama; al-Hariri fixed its form in the Maqamat, with the narrator Isa ibn Hisham and the trickster hero Abu Zayd al-Saruji.

Ibn al-Muqaffa' translated Kalila wa Dimna from Pahlavi Persian into Arabic; it is a mirror-for-princes that teaches political wisdom through talking animals.

Al-Jahiz wrote al-Bukhala and Kitab al-Hayawan; his prose is known for digression, irony and long lexical lists rather than a tight plot.

A prose answer earns full marks by naming the lesson, quoting one supporting detail from the text and stating the moral in a single sentence.

In sira passages, names, dates and chains of transmission carry more weight than literary style, so note them before summarising the narrative.

Shi'r means poetry, shair is a poet, diwan is a poet's collected poems, and qasida is a single monorhymed ode.

A classical qasida has three conventional movements: nasib (opening lament at an abandoned campsite), rahil (the journey, often on a camel), then the main theme, usually madih.

Qafiya is the rhyme, rawi is the rhyming consonant, matla' is the opening line in which both hemistichs rhyme, and maqta' is the closing line.

Each line (bayt) divides into two hemistichs, sadr and ajuz, which share the metre; in the matla' they also share the rhyme.

Tashbih (simile) has four elements: mushabbah, mushabbah bihi, adat al-tashbih (ka, mithl, ka'anna) and wajh al-shabah, the point of resemblance.

Isti'ara is a metaphor formed by deleting part of a simile; tasrihiyya names the borrowed image openly, makniyya conceals it, as in 'the lion advanced' for a brave man.

Classical prosody recognises sixteen metres (buhur), codified by al-Khalil ibn Ahmad; each metre is a repeated pattern of sabab and watad feet.

Main themes are madih (praise), ritha' (elegy), hija' (satire), fakhr (boast), ghazal (love), wasf (description) and hikma (wisdom); name the theme before interpreting a verse.

Explain a prescribed verse in three steps: literal paraphrase, identification of the rhetorical figure, then its link to the poem's central theme.

Three cases and their markers: raf' = damma, nasb = fatha, jarr = kasra; jazm applies only to the mudari' and is marked by sukun.

Jumla ismiyya: mubtada' + khabar, both marfu'; the khabar agrees with the mubtada' in gender and number.

Jumla fi'liyya: fi'l + fa'il (marfu') + maf'ul bihi (mansub); the fa'il is concealed inside first- and second-person verb forms.

Inna, anna, ka'anna, la'alla and layta take an ism mansub and a khabar marfu'; kana, amsa, asbaha, zalla and laysa take an ism marfu' and a khabar mansub.

Idafa: the mudaf loses tanwin and al-, the mudaf ilayh is always majrur, and the mudaf takes whatever case its own role in the sentence requires.

The mudari' is marfu' by default, mansub after an, lan, kay, li, hatta and aw, and majzum after lam, la, in, man, ma, ayna, mata and hal.

Sound plurals: jam' mudhakkar salim takes -un in raf' and -in in nasb and jarr; jam' mu'annath salim takes -at, whose alif drops before idafa.

Sarf patterns: past fa'ala, fa'ala, fa'ila, fa'ula; ism fa'il fa'il or muf'il; ism maf'ul maf'ul or muf'al; the masdar pattern varies with the Form I vowel type.

Numbers 3 to 10 take the opposite gender to the counted noun, 1 and 2 follow the noun's gender, and 11 to 99 count the unit with the noun and the ten with the unit.

Reorder verb-initial Arabic into subject-first English: kataba al-talibu al-darsa becomes 'The student wrote the lesson'.

Reverse the idafa: kitab al-talib = 'the student's book'; bab al-madrasa = 'the school door'; the possessor comes first in English.

Supply the missing copula in nominal sentences: al-ilm nurun = 'Knowledge is light', because Arabic has no present-tense 'is'.

Al- is 'the' with a specific noun but is left untranslated with generic abstract nouns: al-sabr = 'patience', al-hurriyya = 'freedom'.

Tense map: madi = past; mudari' = present or future; sa- or sawfa plus mudari' = future; qad with the madi = past perfect or emphatic past.

Prepositions: bi = with/by, li = for/to, fi = in, min = from, ila = to, ala = on, an = about/from, ka = like, hatta = until.

Passive voice: kutiba = 'was written', yuktabu = 'is written'; the agent is dropped and the object of the active becomes the subject.

Adjectives follow the noun and agree in gender, number, case and definiteness: al-bayt al-kabir = 'the big house'.

Render idioms and religious formulae by meaning, not word for word, and keep proper nouns in standard transliteration.

Essay skeleton: a one-sentence introduction, two or three body points each with an example or reason, and a conclusion restating the main idea.

Arabic connectives for essays: awwalan, thumma, ba'da dhalika, wa min jihatin ukhra, li-dhalika, fi al-khatimah.

Formal letter layout: place and date, ila plus the addressee's title, al-mawdu' (subject line), salutation, body, closing wa al-salam, signature.

Application format: state the post or request in the first sentence (arju an...), list qualifications in the body, close with tafaddalu bi-qabul al-amr.

Question words dictate the answer type: man = person, ma = thing, ayna = place, mata = time, kayfa = manner, limadha = reason (li-anna), kam = number.

Comprehension answers must be complete sentences in the same tense and person as the question, quoting the passage's own key words.

Formal register uses hadrat or sa'ada with titles, avoids colloquial vocabulary, and is judged on correct case endings (i'rab).

Typical lengths: essay 100 to 150 words, letter 80 to 120 words; a three-line plan before writing prevents mid-essay drift.