Adjectives in English and Arabic
The adjective modifies the noun in both languages. The adjective may precede the noun or follow it depending on the syntactic rules of the language. The adjective itself may be a word, phrase, or clause; a fact applicable to both languages.
Adjectival position: the adjective depends on its type:
1- Adj. word: if the adjective is a single word, it usually comes before the noun in English and after the noun in Arabic, e.g., a good book, كتاب جيد.
2- Adj. phrase: if the adjective is a phrase, it comes after the noun in both languages, e.g., The book on the table is mineالكتاب على الطاولة كتابي
3- Adj. clause: if the adjective is a clause, it comes after the noun in both languages, e.g., The book which I read is yours انظر الى عصفور يطير
Adjective features:
The adjective in English is very different from the adjective in Arabic.
1- The English adjective does not take an article, e.g. the new book, where the modifies the Noun, not the adjective. The adjective in Arabic may take ال, e.g. الكتاب الجديد.
2- The adjective in English has no number at all. The adjective in Arabic has three numbers: singular, dual, and plural, e.g.:
الولد المجتهد، الولدان المجتهدان، الأولاد المجتهدون.
3- The adjective in English has no gender. In Arabic, it can be masculine, feminine, or common, e.g.:
ولد مجتهد، بنت مجتهدة، رجل صبور وامرأة صبور..
4- The adjective in English has no case marker(nominative, accusative, genitive)(حالات الرفع، النصب، والجر). In Arabic, it has case markers as a Noun does, e.g. ولدٌ مجتهدٌ.
5- The adjective in English is a separate part of speech, quite distinct from the Noun because each behaves distinctively. In Arabic, the adjective comes under the blanket of the Noun: both behave identically.
6- The adjective in English does not agree with the Noun in gender, e.g. good boy, good girl. They do not agree in number either, e.g. good boy, good boys. They do not agree in cases too. In Arabic, the Noun and the adjective agree in all; gender, e.g. ولد مهذب بنت مهذبة ; number, e.g. كتابان جديدان; and case, e.g. ولدًا مؤدبًا ولدٌ مؤدبٌ.
Gradable adjectives:
If an adjective takes such adverbs of degree like very, fairly, rather, somehow, somewhat, so, before it in English and after it in Arabic, it is a gradable adjective. For example, very hot, حار جدا .
Another gradable test is the suffix –er or more test, e.g. hotter, more wonderful. In Arabic, the same test, i.e. the comparative test holds true (the adjective takes a comparative morpheme)e.g. أجمل،ألطف،أبرد / أكثر سخاء. Both languages have gradable adjectives under an identical test of gradability.
Comparative adjectives:
English forms its comparative adjectives from gradable adjectives in different ways.Ungradable adjectives have no comparative forms; a fact true for both languages.
1- Special form; e.g. better, worse, less. Some adjectives do not accept –er or more; they require a special form. They are called irregular comparatives.
2- Suffix –er. Monosyllabic adjectives and most bisyllabic ones take the suffix-er, e.g. larger, prettier.
3- More / less. Some bisyllabic adjectives and all multisyllabic ones take more or less, e.g. more understanding, less audible.
In contrast, Arabic does not have irregular comparatives. It has two forms:
1- Afaal pattern أفعل for adjectives derived from tri-consonantal verbs, e.g. أغنى،أرحب،أنفع،أكبر.
2- Afaalأفعل+ noun for all adjectives, e.g. أعلى قدرةً، أكثر شجاعةً، أقل ذكاءًا.
Superlative adjectives:
English has these forms of the superlative:
1- The irregular form. It is used with some adjectives, e.g. best, worst, least.
2- The –est form. It is used with most monosyllabic and bisyllabic adjectives, e.g. largest, smallest, prettiest.
3- The most form. It is used with multisyllabic adjectives, e.g. most wonderful, most sophisticated.
Arabic does not have a special super form. It simply adds al to the comparative, e.g. الأكبر،الأفضل،الأبعد،الأكثر كرما، الأقل علما. .
Cardinal adjectives:
1- In English, the cardinal comes before the Noun as in
He bought seven books. In Arabic, it may come before or after the Noun as in اشترى سبعة كتب أو اشترى كتبا سبعا او سبعة.
2- In English, the cardinal is not sensitive to the gender of the counted Noun, e.g. seven men, seven women. In Arabic, it is, e.g. سبع نساء، سبعة رجال.
3- In English, the Noun after the cardinal is always plural if the cardinal is two or more, e.g. three books. In Arabic, this Noun may be singular or plural depending on the cardinal, e.g. سبعة كتب، أحد عشر كتابا.
4- If the cardinal and the ordinal precede a Noun, the ordinal comes before the cardinal in English, but after it in Arabic, e.g.
The first three books
الكتب الثلاث الأولى
5- In both languages, the cardinal can be used without a following Noun if the Noun is understood, e.g. these four are enough هذه الأربعة كافية.
6- English and Arabic differ with regard to special cardinals within the NP, e.g. three million books, ثلاثة ملايين كتاب. Here, million is singular, but ملايينis plural; books is plural, but كتاب is singular.
7- In English, if no Noun immediately comes after some cardinal like hundreds, thousands, and million, the cardinal is pluralized, e.g.
Hundreds of booksمئات الكتب. The same applies to Arabic.
8- In both languages, a preposition, e.g. of and /min/, may come between the cardinal and the counted Noun, e.g. five of them خمسة منهم.
Adjective as Noun:
In English, the adj may be optionally used nominally, as a subject, without the modified noun,e.g.
1- The poor need more help.
2- The sick need more attention.
3- the impossible is sometimes possible.
If the omitted Noun is human, the+adj refers to a general plural (the poor means the poor people in general). However, if the omitted Noun is non-human, the+adj refers to a general singular abstract.
In Arabic, the Noun whether human or not, singular or not, may be omitted leaving the adj to function nominally instead of the omitted noun, e.g.
1- (الرجل)المريض يحتاج رعاية
2-(الرجال)المرضى يحتاجون رعاية
3-(الأمر)المستحيل قد يصبح ممكنا
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