Arabic Adjectives

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Arabic Adjectives

Learning the Arabic Adjectives is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you master it the more you get closer to mastering the Arabic language. But first we need to know what the role of Adjectives is in the structure of the grammar in Arabic.

Arabic Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence.

In Arabic adjectives are of the form فعيل Fa3iil, like كبير kabiir big, صغير saghriir small. One rule is that if a noun is definite the adjective has to be definite. Like in البيت الكبير Al-bait Al-kabir The house the big (Al is the Arabic indefinite article).

The Arabic most common  adjectives اِسْمَُ صِفَةٍ are of the forms:

 

1. Faa3l(un)  فَاعِلٌ which actually is the active participle of Fa3aLa فَعَلَ.
2. Fa3iel(un) فَعِيلٌ   which I think is the most common
3. Fa3uul(un)  فَعُولٌ
4. Fa3Laan(u) فَعْلانُ

 

They are usually made from stative verbs, i.e. verbs denoting a status or condition rather then a action or change. Most of the stative verbs have an u or an i as second vowel. Stative verbs with an u usually denote a permanent condition, whereas those with an i as second vowel usually denote a temporary condition.

 

The active participle Faa3l(un)  فَاعِلٌ can also be used as an adjective, for example the first verse in the Quran is called SURat(un) FaaTiH(un) صُورَةٌ فَاتِحٌ, where FaaTiH(un)  فَاتِحٌ is the active participle of FaTaHa فَتَحَ, it means the opening verse.

 

Some adjectives use the form Fa3Laan(u) فَعْلانُ, for example Ar-radjulun Az-Za3aLaanu الرَّجُلُ الزَّعَلانُ, the angry man.

 

The form Fa3uuL(un) فَعُولٌ is an adjective denoting intensity. Ana KaSuuL(un)

for example means I am very lazy, from the stative verb KaSiLa كَسِلَ to be lazy.

 

To be big is a permanent condition and is translated as KaBuRa كَبُرَ (remember this actually means he was\ has been big!). From this stative verb we construct KaBieR(un) كَبِيرٌ, so a big man will be ar-radjul(un) kabier(un). (The superlative of Kabier is al-Akbar الاكْبَرُ, meaning the biggest, that is what you hear during Islammic prayer, Allah huwa al-Akbar Allah اللّه هُوَ الاكْبَرُ (God is the greatest!).

To be happy is also a stative verb, but as we al know happiness is often not a lasting condition, so this verb has an i as second vowel Sa3iDa سَعِدَ, so a sweet girl would be translated as fata(tun) Sa3ieDat(un) فَتَاةٌ سَعِيدَةٌ.

 

The plural masculine of this form Fa3iel(un) فَعِيلٌ is Fi3aaL(un) فِعَالٌ  for the masculine nouns and Fu3Laa’u فُعْلاءُ (diptote) for the feminine.

 

Adjectives of Ocupation

An other form of adjectives is Fa33aaL(un) فَعَّالٌ, they are mostly used to describe occupations like GuBBaaZ(un) خَبَّازٌ baker, GaYYaaTTTT(un) خَيّاطٌ taylor,( if a tram was  an Arabic word then its driver would be called TaRRaaM(un) تَرَّامٌ). Usually this form is not considered as an adjective but as a noun.

 

Colors and defects

Then there is a special adjective used for colors and defects, these have a masculine and feminine form aF3aL(u) افْعَلُ masculine and F3aLaa’u  فَعْلاءُ feminine. Note although both forms are indefinite they do not end on a n, these are so-called diptotes(i.e. they only have two cases in stead of three) The plural of both is of the form Fu3L(un) فُعْلٌ, this form does end on a n when indefinite and has all three cases (triptote).

 

Meaning	Masculinٌe	مُذَكَرٌ					Feminine	مُؤَنِثٌ
Black	‘aSWaDu	أَسْودُ		SaWDaa’u	سَوْداءُ		SuuDun	سُودٌ
White	‘aBYaDu	أبْيَدُ		BaYDaa’u	بَيْداءُ		BieDun	بِيدٌ
Red	‘aHMaRu	أحْمَرُ		HaMRaa’u	حَمْرَاءُ		HuMRun	حُمْرٌ
Blue	‘aZRaQu	أزْرَقُ		ZaRQaa’u	زَرْقَاءُ		ZuRQun	زُرْقٌ
Green	‘aGDDaRu	أخْضَرُ		GaDDRaa’u	خَضْراءُ		GuDDRun	خُضْرٌ
Yellow	‘aSSFaRu	أصْفَرُ		SSaFRaa’u	صَفْرَاءُ		SSuFRun	صُفْرٌ
Deaf1)	‘aTTRaSJu	أَطْرَشُ		TTaRSJaa’u	طَرْشَاءُ		TTuRSJun	طُرْشٌ
Dumb	‘aGRaSu	أخْرَسُ		GaRSaa’u	أ خَرْسَاءُ		GuRSun	خُرْسٌ
Blind	‘a3Maau	أَعْمَى		3aMYaa’u	أَ عَمْيَاءُ		3uMYun	عُمْيٌ
Lame	‘a3RaDJu	أَعْرَجُ		3aRDJaa’u	عَرْجَاءُ		3uRDJun	عُرجٌ
Humpbacked	‘aHDaBu	أَحْدَبُ		HaDBaa’u	حَدْبَءُ		HuDBun	حُدْبٌ

1)    The name of a famous Egyptian singer Faried al-‘AttraSJ

 

Relative adjective

Adjetives can also be made by adding iy(un) ـِيٌ (masculine) iyat(un) ـِيَةٌ after a noun. This is called the relative adjective ‘Ismu-a-nasbiyati اِسْمُ الْنِسْبَةِ.

In Al-lughra(tu) Al-3arabiya(tu) الْلُغَةُ الْعَرَبِيَةُ 3arabiya(tun) عَرَبِيَةٌ is such a relative adjective.

 

Plural nouns as feminine singular.

Adjectives should correspond the noun in gender and number, as you can see the plural of the adjectives is quite complicated, fortunately there is an other grammatical rule which says that the plural of nouns not refering to human beings can be considered as feminine and can be followed bij an adjective in its singular feminine (i.e. with its femmenine ending attached to it.) An example:

The big men and big women buy many books, here we have to use all the forms of the adjective, the masculine plural (the men), the feminine plural (the women) and the feminine singular (books).

Ar-ridjaal-u-lkibaaru wa-n-nisaa’u-l-kubraa’u yastasjruu kutubun kathiratuna(tun)

الرِّجَالُ الْكِبَارُ وَالنِّسَاءُ الْكُبْرَءُ يَسْتَشْرُوا كُتُبٌ كَثِيرَةٌ

 

Note: when a consonant is to be written twice without a vowel in between, then it is written once and a tasjdied تَشْديدٌ is written on top of the letter to be doubled.

Here are some more examples:

English Adjectives	Arabic Adjectives
adjectives	صِفَات - sefaat
a green tree	شَجَرَة خَضْرَاء - shajarah khathraa'
a tall building	مَبْنِى طَوِيْل الْقَامَة - mabnea taweeel alqaamah
a very old man	رَجُل كَبِيْر جِدا - rajol kabeeer jeda
the old red house	الْبَيْت الْقَدِيْم أَحْمَر - albaeet alqadeeem aahmar
a very nice friend	صَدِيْق لَطِيْف جِدّا - sadeeeq lateeef jeda

As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Adjectives in Arabic has a logical pattern. Locate the Adjectives above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Arabic.

List of Adjectives in Arabic

Below is a list of the Adjectives, Colors, Shapes, Sizes in Arabic placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Arabic vocabulary.

English Adjectives	Arabic Adjectives
colors	الَوُان - alawoan
black	أَسْوَد - aaswad
blue	أَزْرَق - aazraq
brown	بَنِي - baneee
gray	رَمَادِي - ramaadeee
green	أَخْضَر - aakhthar
orange	بُرْتُقَالِي - bortoqaaleee
purple	بَنَفْسَجِي - banafsajeee
red	أَحْمَر - aahmar
white	أَبْيَض - aabeeath
yellow	أَصْفَر - aasfar
sizes	أَحْجَام - aahjaam
big	كَبِيْر - kabeeer
deep	عَمِيْق - 'ameeeq
long	طَوِيْل - taweeel
narrow	ضَيْق - thaeeq
short	قَصِيْر - qaseeer
small	صَغِيْر - sagheeer
tall	طَوِيْل - taweeel
thick	سَمِيُّك - sameeeok
thin	رَقِيْق - raqeeeq
wide	وَاسِع - waase'
shapes	أَشْكَال - aashkaal
circular	دَائِرِي - daa'ereee
straight	مُّسْتَقِيْم - mostaqeeem
square	مُرَبَّع - moraba'
triangular	ثُلَاثِي - tholaatheee
tastes	أَذْوَاق - aathwaaq
bitter	مَرِيْر- مُر - mareeer- mor
fresh	طَازَج - taazaj
salty	مَالِح - maaleh
sour	حَامِض - haameth
spicy	حَار - haar
sweet	حُلْو - holw
qualities	صِفَات - sefaat
bad	سَيِّئ - saeee'
clean	نَظِيْف - natheeef
dark	ظَلَام - thalaam
difficult	صَعْب - sa'b
dirty	قَذِر - qather
dry	جَاف - jaaf
easy	سَهْل - sahl
empty	فَارِغ - faaregh
expensive	غَالِي - ghaaleee
fast	سَرِيْع - sareee'
foreign	أَجْنَبِي - aajnabeee
full	كَامِل - kaamel
good	جَيِّد - jaeeed
hard	صَعْب - sa'b
heavy	ثَقِيْل - thaqeeel
inexpensive	غَيْر مُكَلَّف - ghaeer mokalaf
light	ضَوْء - thaw'
local	مَحَلِّي - mahaleee
new	جَدِيْد - jadeeed
noisy	صَاخِبَة - saakhebah
old	قَدِيْم - qadeeem
powerful	قَوِي - qaweee
quiet	هَادِئ - haade'
correct	صَحِيْح - saheeeh
slow	بَطِيْء - bateee'
soft	نَاعِم - naa'em
very	جَدَّا - jadaa
weak	ضَعِيْف - tha'eeef
wet	رَطْب - ratb
wrong	خَاطِئ - khaate'
young	شَاب - shaab
quantities	كَمِّيَّات - kameeeaat
few	قَلِيْل - qaleeel
little	الْقَلِيْل - alqaleeel
many	كَثِيْر - katheeer
much	كَثِيْرا - katheeera
part	جُزْء - joz'
some	بَعْض - ba'th
a few	بَضْعَة - bath'ah
whole	كَامِل - kaamel

Adjectives, Colors, Shapes, Sizes have a very important role in Arabic, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with Arabic Adjectives, you might want to check the rest of our Arabic lessons here: Learn Arabic. Don't forget to bookmark this page.