Arabic and English Sentence Patterns: A Comparative Guide

67 | P a g e 96 Other sentence types include conditional and topic-comment. 97 In English, the sentence “That man ate some chicken” varies dramatically in meaning from the same words arranged differently, “Some chicken ate that man.” In formal MSA, however, inflection can override syntactic norms so that "أﻛﻞ ذﻟﻚ اﻟﺮﺟﻞُ ﺑﻌﺾَ اﻟﺪﺟﺎجِ" and "أﻛﻞ ﺑﻌﺾَ اﻟﺪﺟﺎجِ ذﻟﻚ اﻟﺮﺟﻞُ" have the same meaning, “That man ate some chicken.” 98 Since Arabic sentences rarely begin with indefinite subjects, verbal precedence is required here. The ﻣﺎ of “obscurity,” ﻣﺎ اﻹﺑْﮭﺎﻣِﯿﱠﺔ , can be used with either or both nouns to indicate lack of specificity.