Lesson 78 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّامِنُ والسَّبْعونَ

The followers (1) The adjective - التَّــوَابِع(١) النَّعْتُ

The real adjective and the occasional adjective – النعت السَّببي والنَّعْت الحقيقي

• We are still in lesson seventy eight of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
• The Arabic adjective is divided, regarding its meaning, into two types; the real adjective and the occasional adjective.

-          The real adjective shows the qualities of the preceding described noun, and follows it by pronunciation and meaning. I.e. it follows the described noun in declension, definition, number and gender. Consider the following example (please read from right to left):

-          The occasional adjective shows the qualities of the following described noun, and the described noun is related to a preceding noun. The adjective in this case follows the preceding noun by the pronunciation, and follows the described noun by the meaning. I.e. it follows the preceding noun in declension and definition, while it follows the described noun in gender and number. Consider the following example (please read from right to left)

• You may notice in the above mentioned example that the adjective (الْمُجْتَهِدُ) does not describe the preceding noun (الطَّالِب), rather it describes the following noun (أخُوهُ) which is related to the preceding noun.
• The Arabic term (النعت السببي) means in the literal translation (the causal adjective), because the word (سَبب) means (cause or reason). This makes us understand that the preceding noun is mentioned because we want to mention the qualities of the other noun related to it.
• You may also notice that the adjective in the above mentioned example follows the preceding noun in the declension and in the definition, while it follows the described noun in the gender and number.
• More examples:

• From the above mentioned examples we notice the following:

1-    The adjective is not describing the preceding noun, rather it shows the qualities of the following noun (the described noun).

2-    The adjective follows the preceding noun in the declension case (nominative, genitive, or accusative), and in the definition (or non definition).

3-    The adjective follows the described noun in gender and number.

4-    The described noun contains an attached pronoun related to the preceding noun; (حَاكِمُهُ – قائدُهُ – أبوهُما – طَعَامُهُ - أَهْلُهُ). The attached pronoun has to match the preceding noun in gender and number.

5-    The described noun is always in the nominative case, because it is considered doer (agent) of the similar quality (i.e. the noun which is similar (in the function) to the verb, and can be followed by a doer). We will learn the similar quality in detail in lesson 100, In-Shaa’-Allaah (God willing).

Following are some examples that shows the declension analysis of the real adjective, and the occasional adjective.

• Example 1:

• Example 2:

• Example 3:

• Example 4:

• Example 5: