Indefinite Nouns
No 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:
| English | Arabic |
|---|---|
| a teacher | مُعَلـِّمٌ |
| a student | طَالِبٌ |
| a pupil | تِلْمِيْذٌ |
| a boy | وَلـَدٌ |
| a man | رَجُلٌ |
| a doctor (medical) | طَبـِيْبٌ |
| an engineer | مُهَنْدِسٌ |
| a translator | مُتَرْجـِمٌ |
| a professor | أُسْتـَاذٌ |
| a president | رَئِيْسٌ |
Each of the above nouns ends with double vowels (called tanween).
NOTE
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.
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 |