This document presents a comparison of English and Arabic sentence structures. It discusses the basic elements of sentences in both languages, including subjects, predicates, and objects. For English, it outlines five basic sentence structures: subject + verb; subject + verb + adverb; subject + verb + noun; subject + verb + adjective; and subject + verb + object. For Arabic, it describes two types of sentences: equational/verb-less sentences and verbal sentences. It details the elements of each Arabic sentence type, including possible word orders. The conclusion notes some differences between English and Arabic sentences that can cause problems in translation.

1. English and Arabic Basic
Sentence structure

2. Course :
Translation 3
Supervised by :
Dr. Aisha Maashi

3. Prepared by:
*Manal Aied Al-Nomasi
*Maali Salim Al-Atawi
*Hamda Mohammad Al-Inazi
*Basma Ali Al-Inazi
*Shareefa Aied Al-Nomasi
*Anoud Abdullah Al-Inazi
* Manal Owied Al-Blowi
*Hanan Mubarak Al-Inazi
*Samira Salim Al-Howaiti

4. The aim is to present the
English and Arabic basic
sentence structure

5. Sentence Elements
Sentence
PredicateSubject

6. Subject :
The something or someone that the sentence is about. It
determines the Number and the Person of the verb.
Subjects are always nouns or pronouns .
 John comes late.
 John and Sam come late
 He comes late.

7. Predicate:
Contains information about the someone or the something
that is the SUBJECT.
The predicate includes basically a verb . It could also be
a verb with direct object/indirect object/adjective /adverb
 Sara eats.
 Sara eats an apple.
 Sara gave me an apple.

8. English sentence basic five
structures
Subject + Verb
* The boy plays.
Subject + Verb +
Adverb
* The boy ran quickly.
Subject + Verb + Noun
* The boy is a student.
Subject + Verb +
Adjective
* The girl is pretty.
Subject + Verb +
Object
* John kicks the ball.

9. Arabic Sentence Structure

10. There are two types of sentences in Arabic:
Equational/copula , and Verbal sentence
 Equational sentence
‫اسمية‬ ‫(جملة‬Jumlaa
ismiyaa)
 Which doesn’t have any
verb /verb less.
 ‫زيد‬‫طالب‬
(Zaid-un Talib-un)
 Verbal sentence ‫جملة‬
‫فعلية‬
(Jumlaa fieleeyya)
 A sentence with a verb
 ‫أكل‬‫محمد‬
(Akala Muhammad)

11. Elements of the Equational
sentence
Also Verb less Sentence.
 First component/ Mubtada
It acts like the sentence
subject and technically
referred to as (the topic).
‫الجو‬‫جميل‬
* it is definite and could be
noun or pronoun phrase or
clause.
‫العلم‬‫نور‬.
‫هو‬‫مجتهد‬ ‫تلميذ‬
 Second component /Xabar
It acts like the sentence
predicate and technically
referred to as ( the
comment)
‫الولد‬‫طويل‬
* It is mostly indefinite and
could be noun ,adjective,
verb, pronoun phrase ,
clause or even a full
sentence.
‫امل‬‫طالبة‬ * (noun)
‫المؤمنون‬‫هللا‬ ‫يحبهم‬ * (full
sentence)
‫الجو‬‫جميل‬ * ( adjective )

12. ELEMENTS OF VERBAL
SENTENCE
( THE COMMONEST TYPE OF SENTENCES IN ARABIC)
The verbal sentence has
three elements :
1. The verb
2. The subject
3. The object
The Verb
*can be transitive(has object). ‫ركل‬‫احمد‬‫الكرة‬ or
intransitive ‫الرجل‬ ‫ذهب‬
The Subject
*can be explicit noun ‫عمر‬ ‫جاء‬ or implied
pronoun ‫وصل‬*‫متأخرا‬*(‫هو‬)
The Object
*can be a noun ‫أكل‬‫البرتقالة‬ or pronoun
‫أخذته‬*‫الملعب‬ ‫إلي‬ ‫الطفل‬*( .‫انا‬)

13. Possible word order of the verbal
sentence
Verb – Subject –
Object
V S O
• ‫شرب‬‫خالد‬‫الحليب‬
Subject – Verb –
Object
S V O
• ‫خالد‬‫شرب‬‫الحليب‬
Verb – Object –
Subject
V O S
• ‫شرب‬‫ه‬‫خالد‬

14. Conclusion
There are of course some difference between English and Arabic
Language sentence structure . In English a complete sentence must
have a verb while in Arabic a sentence can stand in its own with out
a verb like that of the Equational sentence which could cause some
problems in translation.
The sentence
‫طويل‬ ‫الولد‬ could be translated into The boy tall while the correct
translation is The boy is tall.
• different structures in Arabic can be used to express the same
sentence structure in English which can cause translation problems.
• ‫خالد‬ ‫شربه‬ ‫الحليب‬ ‫شرب‬ ‫خالد‬ ‫الحليب‬ ‫خالد‬ ‫شرب‬
Wrong Drank it Khalid Khalid drank the milk Drank Khalid the
milk
Correct Khalid drank it Khalid drank the milk Khalid drank the
milk

15. References
- Brinton, Laurel J.(2000). The Structure of Modern English :A Linguistic
Introduction
- Fabb, Nigel. (2005). Sentence Structure. Routledge
- Radford, Andrew .(2010). An Introduction to English Sentence
Structure
- Alhawary, Mohammad T. (2011). Modern Standard Arabic Grammar: A
Learner’s Guide. Willey- Blackwell
- Rydin, Karin.(2005). A Reference Grammar Modern Standard Arabic.
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