Arabic and English Sentence Patterns: A Comparative Guide

56 | P a g e is often referred to as equational (see examples below). It has no linking verb because Arabic does not generally use its “ be ” verb ﻛﺎنَ in positive, present- tense, equational sentences. When referring to past or future time, a form of ﻛﺎنَ is used, and the sentence type depends on the position of the verb, before the subject (verbal) or after the subject (nominal). Some texts, however, designate as verbal all sentences that include a linking verb such as ﻛﺎنَ or ﺲَ ﯿْ ﻟَ as primary (non-auxiliary). The Arabic verb has this mobility because the language (in its fully vowelled form, at least) is not primarily syntactic, as is English. In English, word order it highly important, and words are only slightly inflected (given affixes such as the – ed and – s suffixes). In Arabic, words are inflected much more consistently and thoroughly, allowing identification of their function with less dependency on their arrangement within the sentence. 97 In addition to inflectional affixes indicating such grammatical relationships as person, number, gender, and mood, Arabic verbs also have derived forms, which have a wide range of semantic functions. They indicate that a verb in context is transitive or intransitive, active or passive, reciprocal, reflexive, and so forth. Thus, these grammatical relationships are expressed in Arabic primarily by form and meaning, in English primarily by syntax and meaning. The following examples illustrate some of these relationships. I. TRANSITIVE A. Active 1. A student read a book. ﻗَﺮَأَ طﺎﻟِ ﺐٌ )ﻣﺎ( ﻛِ ﺘﺎﺑًﺎ )ﻣﺎ(. 98 The student has a book. ﻟِ ﻠﻄّ ﺎﻟِ ﺐِ ﻛِ ﺘﺎبٌ .