This presentation introduces the nominal and the verbal sentences and explains the differences and the word ordering options.

1. Nominal and Verbal Sentences

2.  There are two types of sentences in Arabic:
the nominal and the verbal.
- The nominal sentence is verbless.
- The verbal sentence consists of a verb as a main part.
 Both types of sentences may have other parts of speech
such as prepositions, adjectives, or adverbs; but the
main parts remain respectively the nouns for the former
and the verbs for the latter.
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3.  Examples:
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Type Examples
Nominal Sentence ‫ـاحـة‬ّ‫ف‬‫ـ‬ّ‫ت‬‫الـ‬‫لـذيـذة‬
The apple (is) delicious
Verbal Sentence ‫أكـل‬‫الـولـد‬‫ـاحـة‬ّ‫ف‬‫تـ‬
The boy ate (an) apple

4.  Note: there are two different interpretations as
to what a verbal sentence is.
-A sentence is verbal only when it starts with a
verb.
-A sentence is verbal when it contains a verb
regardless of where that verb is located in the
sentence. Hence a nominal sentence can
contain a verb if the latter doesn’t occur in the
first position.
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5.  Accepting that a nominal sentence may contain a verb
(which doesn’t occur in the first position) gives out the
chart below detailing two categories:
 A nominal sentence that is verbless and another
containing a verb—not in the first in the sentence
 A Verbal sentence that contains a verb necessarily in the
first position in the sentence
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Type Examples
Nominal Sentence ‫لـذيـذة‬ ‫الـتـفـاحـة‬
‫تـفـاحـة‬ ‫أكـل‬ ‫الـولـد‬
Verbal Sentence ‫تـفـاحـة‬ ‫الـولـد‬ ‫أكـل‬

6.  Arabic sentences have a free word order for both the
nominal and verbal sentences.
 The regular order for the nominal sentence is Subject +
Predicate
 The regular order for the verbal sentence is
Verb + Subject + Object
N.B.
-When words change positions in the sentence, the
vowel mark up doesn't change as it is the marker of
the function of the words in the sentence (e.g.
subject vs. object)
- The word order may change depending on what the
writer wants to emphasize.
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7.  Examples:
All the following sentences make sense although
the order of the words is not the same
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Type Examples
Nominal Sentences ‫الـتـفـاحـة‬‫لـذيـذة‬
‫الـتـفـاحـة‬ ‫لـذيـذة‬
Verbal Sentences ‫أكـل‬‫تـفـاحـة‬ ‫الـولـد‬
‫الـولـد‬ ‫تـفـاحـة‬ ‫أكـل‬
‫أكـل‬ ‫تـفـاحـة‬ ‫الـولـد‬
‫تـفـاحـة‬ ‫أكـل‬ ‫الـولـد‬
‫الـولـد‬ ‫أكـل‬ ‫تـفـاحـة‬
‫أكـل‬ ‫الـولـد‬ ‫تـفـاحـة‬