friendly advice.

Friday 28/01/2022

100 Days of Productivity: day 22

Met up with @acquaclara for a study sesh at a cafe, and then went home and did some chores. The weather these days is making me so so happy (that’s a morning moon).

كشتة

Requested by @tealingual

Afternoon |alʿaṣr|العَصْرُ

Always | dāʾiman | دائِمًا

And hour and a half | sāʿa wa niṣf | ساعَة وَنِصْف

Century | qarn | قَرْنٌ

Day | yawm| يَومٌ

Decade | ʿaqd | عَقْدٌ

Difficult times | awqāt ṣaʿba | أًوْقاتٌ صَعبَةٌ

Early | bāker - mubakker | مُبَكِّرٌ- باكِر

Eternity | alʾabad |الأبَد

Evening | almasāʾ | المَساء

Every once in a while | baynal ḥīni wal āẖar |بَيْنَ الحينِ والآخَرِ

First time | almarratuḷ ʾūla | المَرَّةٌ الأُولى

Forever | alʾabad| للأَبَدِ

Golden age | alʿaṣruḏḏahabeyy | العَصْرُ الذَّهبِيُّ

Half an hour | niṣfu sāʿa | نِصْفُ ساعَة

Hour | sāʿa | ساعَة

How many times ...? |kam marra |كَمْ مَرَّةً...؟

Jetlag | talakkuʾunnaffāṯa (aliḍṭirābul muṣāḥibu lissafar) |تَلَكَّؤ النًّفاثَةِ (الاضْطِرابُ المُصاحِبُ للسَفَر)

Last time | āẖiru marra |آخِرُ مَرَّةِ

Late | mutaʾaẖẖir|مُتأخِّر

Late at night | fī waqtin mutaʾaẖẖirin min allayl | في وقتٍ مُتَأخِّرٍ مِنَ اللَّيْلِ

Leap year | sana kabīsa |سَنَةٌ كَبيسَةُ

Midday | muntaṣafu-nnahār |مُنْتَصَفُ النًّهار

Middle ages | Alʿuṣurul wusṭā | العُصورُ الوُسطى

Midnight| Muntaṣafullayl | مُنْتَصَفُ الليلِ

Minute | daqīqa|دَقيقةٌ

Moment |laḥẓa |لَحْظَةٌ

Morning | ṣabāḥ | صَباحٌ

Morning person | šaẖṣ ṣabāḥiy |شَخْصٌ صَباحِيٌّ

Never | abadan |أبَدًأ

Night | allayl |الليلُ

Noon | aẓẓuhr|الظٌّهر

Occasionally | bayn alḥīni wal āẖar – min waqtin li āẖar | بَيْنَ الحين و الآخر – من وَقْتِ لآخر

Once in a lifetime| marra fil ʿumr | مَرةٌ في العُمْرِ

Over and over | mirāran wa takrāran |مِرارًا وَتكْرارًا

Punctual | daqīq(a) |دَقيقٌـ (ـة)

Rarely | nādiran |نادِرًا

Since| munḏu |مُنْذُ

Since when? | munḏu matā | مُنْذٌ مّتى؟

Sometimes| ʾaḥyānan | أحيانًا

Spending time with someone | imḍāʾul waqti maʿ šaẖṣin mā |إمْضاءُ الوَقْتِ مع شَخْصٍ ما

Staying up late | assaharu li waqtin mutaʾaẖẖir|السَّهَرُ لِوَقت متأخر

Time | waqt - zaman | وقْتٌ – زَمَنٌ

Time after time | marra baʿda marra | مَرَّةَ بَعْدَ مَرَّة

Time is gold | alwaqtu min ḏahab |الوَقْتُ مِنْ ذًهّبٍ

Time management | tanẓīmul waqt | تَنْظيمُ الوَقْتِ

Time zone | manṭiqa zamaniyya | مَنْطِقَةٌ زَمَنِيًّةُ

Usually | ʿādatan |عادَةً

Waking up early | alistīqāẓu mubakkiran |الاسْتيقاظُ مُبَكِّرًا

Waste of time | maḍyaʿatun lilwaqt |مَضْيَعَةُ للوَقْتِ

What time is it? | kam assāʿa | كَم السَّاعة؟

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Hello again! Sorry it’s been 2 weeks but I am *almost* done with my summer school woo!

ANYWAYS today’s topic was requested by somebody, but I can’t find who, so if you’re reading this, this is for YOU. 

Today we are looking at - 

Inna (إن) and Kaana (كان) and their sisters!

Sisters? in Grammar? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??

Don’t worry! I will do my best to explain. To understand this, you’ll need to know how cases work in Arabic, so go check out my post on this to get a basic understanding on the function of each case  and how it is represented. 

Okay, so what are Inna (إن) and Kaana (كان)?

They represent categories of words which affect the case of what follows them.  Yes, these are their “sisters”. So Inna and her sisters all follow one rule, and Kaana and her sisters follow another. Think of it as two different households, each having their own way of life  and their schedule. 

In grammatical terms, this “way of life” and “daily schedule” refers to the word order and the case of the different components of the sentence they’re in. 

These two households are important, since the words that fall into the categories are very common and necessary to have a nice written command of Arabic. 

Now before we get into the nitty gritty, make sure you have a good idea of what the subject ( المبتدا) and the predicate (الخبر) is in an Arabic nominal sentence. ( my post here introduces the concept quite succinctly!) . These are the two components whose cases are affected by Inna and Kaana!

Okay let’s go!

إن و أخواتها  - Inna and her sisters

Here are Inna and her sisters + their meanings - (note the shadda ّ  for some of them) 

 - إنّ - indeed ( inna)

- أنّ - that ( e.g. I heard that) (anna)

- كأنّ - as if, (ka’anna) 

- لكنّ - but (lakinna)

- ليت - i wish (layt)

- ّلعل - perhaps / i hope (la3alla) ( in comparison to “layt” which is wishful, “la3alla” implies something is more likely to occur)

- لأنّ - because (li’anna) 

now these are all used at the beginning of a sentence to have the desired meaning. However these have a catch  - whenever you use these, the subject of the sentence becomes mansuub (accusative) and the predicate becomes marfu’3 ( nominative). 

example sentence :المطرُ غزيرٌ - the rain is heavy - (al maṭaru ġazīrun) - both are in the nominative. 

- with Inna and akhwaatu-ha, this changes to - 

ليت المطرَ غزيرٌ - (layt al maṭara ġazīrun) I wish the rain was heavy - Here , the subject ( al maṭara)  is in the accusative as opposed to the nominative and the predicate remains in the nominative. 

This is the case, regardless if you wanted to say “ indeed the rain is heavy” or “as if the rain was heavy” or “ I heard that it was going to rain”. 

Why not give those sentences a try!! 

Okay now

كان و أخواتها - Kaana and her sisters

Kaana has a much bigger household lol - i have only included the most commonly used of her siblings. 

- كان - (past tense indicatior e.g. عندي = “i have” but كان عندي = “i had” ) (kaana)

- أصبح = to become (asbaḥa) 

- ظلّ - to stay, to remain (ẓalla)

- ليس - (negation indicator  - ليس عندي = “i don’t have”) (laysa)

- ما برح - ( indication of continuity) (maa bariḥa)

- مازال - to stay, remain ( sth that is continous to the present e.g. “has remained”) ( maa zaala) 

note - kaana and her sisters CONJUGATE to match their subject e.g. if you use ليس in the past tense first person singular, it will become لستُ ( i’m thinking of covering past tense conjugations next week! it’s a big one!) 

The catch when using these is the opposite to inna wa akhwaatu-ha - the subject of the sentence becomes marfu’3 ( nominative)  and the predicate becomes mansuub (accusative).

 so using the same example sentence , let’s use kaana wa akhwaatu-ha!

كان المطرُ غزيرً - (kaana maṭaru ġazīran) - the rain was heavy. 

Again, the same goes for everything else in kaana’s family. 

the end?? 

Okay, that about explains inna and kaana! It’s easier once you get your head around it. no I don’t know why it exists either. 

I know that some bits I have left quite vague ( like what the heck is an indication of continuity and how does negation work) but I’ve done that on purpose, because honestly those all belong their own posts and I want to focus on one topic at a time, to avoid getting you ( and myself!) all muddled~ 

Of course, you can explore any of the topics you want online - don’t feel like you have to wait for me! 

For books, I recommend the Routledge Arabic Grammar and the Modern Literary Arabic  by David Cowan ( old but gold!) - please try to buy them secondhand from somewhere other than amazon! let’s not support terrible working conditions! Even better - buy it local - support a charity! or your local bookshop, they definitely need it right now! 

also recommend Arabic.desert-sky.com for fantastic blog posts that are much more to the point than mine!

Thank you for reading! Please let me know of any glaring mistakes , suggestions and requests! I will do them allllll