Building sentences: jumla ismiyya
Arabic · Key Stage 3 · The School
Sentences without "is"
Arabic does not need the word "is". البَيْتُ كَبِيرٌ — literally "the-house big" — means "The house is big." The sentence has two parts: mubtadaʾ (the subject you start with, definite, ending -u) and khabar (the news about it, usually indefinite, ending -un). Two nouns side by side, and the "is" happens by itself.
Attached pronouns
Instead of separate words for "my" or "his", Arabic clips a pronoun to the end of the noun: كِتابِي (kitābī, my book), كِتابُكَ (kitābuka, your book), كِتابُهُ (kitābuhu, his book), كِتابُها (kitābuhā, her book). Learn the clip-ons once and they work on every noun in the language — and you will recognise them constantly in the Quran (رَبِّي، رَبُّنا…).
Translate both ways
Practice is two-directional. Arabic → English: المَسْجِدُ قَرِيبٌ = "The mosque is near." English → Arabic: "The book is new" = الكِتابُ جَدِيدٌ. Check three things each time: is the subject definite with ال? does the khabar carry -un? is the adjective after the noun it describes? Those three checks catch nearly every beginner mistake.
MUBTADAʾ (the starting noun): must be definite, and takes a ḍamma — الطالِبُ. KHABAR (what is said about it): indefinite, also a ḍamma — مُجْتَهِدٌ. Together: الطالِبُ مُجْتَهِدٌ — the student is hardworking. Now attach a pronoun: كِتابُهُ جَديدٌ — his book is new, where كِتابُهُ is definite BECAUSE of the attached pronoun, so it can be a mubtadaʾ.