Indefinite Nouns — The "Indefinite Article"
The Arabic "Indefinite article"
In Arabic a noun is indefinite by the mere absence of the definite article; there is no indefinite article in Arabic as in English. So, there is no equivalent for "a". To translate "a boy" for example, we would use only the Arabic equivalent of "boy", leaving out the "a", for which there is no equivalent actually.
The following are examples of indefinite nouns:
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Each of the above nouns ends with double vowels (called tanween).
The double vowel can be considered as the "indefinite article" of the Arabic language; similarly to the English "a" it is a vowel, but on the contrary, it comes at the end of a word.
Summary
- There is no indefinite article in Arabic.
- Indefiniteness of a noun is usually indicated by double vowels above/below the last letter.
Vocabulary
| English | Arabic |
|---|---|
| house | بَيْتٌ |
| pen | قَلـَمٌ |
| book | كِتَابٌ |
| copybook | دَفـْتَرٌ |
| desk | مَكْتَبٌ |
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Related pages
Other topics availabe on this site:
Arabic alphabet
— Indefinite nouns
— Definite nouns
— Nominal sentences
Adjectives
— Feminine
— Singular pronouns
— Dual nouns
— Dual pronouns
Basic declension of nouns
— Demonstrative: This
— Demonstrative: That
Plural
— Plural pronouns
— Preposition
— There is/are
— To have
Possessive case
— Broken Plural
— Possessive Adjectives