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Arabic sentence structure for beginners
Nominal and verbal sentences, word order, adjectives and 'is' in Arabic, explained simply with MSA and Darija examples.
Short answer
Arabic has two basic sentence types. A nominal sentence starts with a noun and needs no word for 'is' in the present: al-bayt kabir (the house is big). A verbal sentence starts with a verb: kataba al-walad (the boy wrote). Adjectives come after the noun and agree with it.
No 'is' in the present
Ana talib — I am a student. Darija works the same way: ana tilmid / ana talib.
Word order
In formal MSA, verb-subject-object order is common. In everyday MSA speech and in Darija, subject-verb-object is very common: Ahmed kla l-khobz (Ahmed ate the bread).
Adjectives and agreement
Adjectives follow the noun and agree in gender and definiteness: bayt kabir (a big house), al-bayt al-kabir (the big house), madrasa kabira (a big school).
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