1.2.

19 FRAGMENTS - MOWSOOF SIFAH PART I -IV

Learning Objectives - To understand the concept, rules, and uses of Mowsoof Sifahs


Lesson Review


In Arabic, an ordinary and its descriptive word (an adjective) is called a

(Mowsoof Sifah). In order to properly understand what a

(Mowsoof Sifah) is, we
need to first understand how it works in English. In English, a
would be considered a
noun and its adjective. For example:
Annoying boys
o annoying is the adjective and boys is the noun being described
Annoying girl
o annoying is the adjective and girl is the noun being described

Notice that 1) the same adjective may be used for words that are plural, singular, feminine, or
masculine and 2) in English, the adjective always comes before the thing being described. In
other words, the adjective (or describing word) never changes. These two cases do not exist in
Arabic.

In Arabic, the thing being described is the and the descriptive word is the .


s and
Lets try a couple examples to practice recognizing s before moving forward:
1. Crooked chair
a. chair is the thing being described and thus is the
b. crooked is the descriptive word and is the

2. The funny teacher
a. the teacher is the thing/person being described; it is the
b. funny is the descriptive word and is the

3. Beautiful day
a. day is the thing being described and is the
b. beautiful is the descriptive word and is the

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Now we can finally look at Arabic. There are a few rules for

s:
1. The thing being described is the and the descriptive word is the .
2. The thing being described ( ) will always come first and the descriptive word ( )
comes second.
a. Thus, if we were to look at this rule in English, it would be boy smart instead of
smart boy.
b. In Arabic, wed say (
means house and means big). Note that the
word being described came before the descriptive word.
3. The and the must match in all four properties of
s: Status, Number,
Gender, and Type!
a. For example, does the fragment match in all four properties ( means
man and means noble)?
i. is , singular, masculine, and common
ii.
is also , singular, masculine, and common
iii. Therefore, these both make up a fragment.
4. It is possible to have space between the and the

Now that we have a general understanding of what s are, lets look at some
examples. For the following, decide if the fragment is a

. Provide the S/N/G/T (Status,
Number, Gender, and Type) for each. The first one is already completed:

1.



a. is the and is , singular, masculine, and common
b. is the and is , singular, masculine, and common

c. Therefore, it is a !

2.

3.
4.
5.

6.
7.
8.

9.

10.

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Answers:

1.
a. is the and is , singular, masculine, and common
b. is the and is , singular, masculine, and common

c. Therefore, it is a

2.
a. is the and is , singular, feminine, and common
b. is the and is , singular, feminine, and common

c. Therefore, it is a

3.
a. is the and is , dual, feminine, and proper
b. is the and is , dual, feminine, and proper

c. Therefore, it is a
4.
a. is the and is , singular, feminine, and common
i. Remember! means books, which is a non-human broken plural! Non-
human broken plurals are always treated as a she (feminine & singular).
Dont forget previous concepts weve learned thus far (refer to Unit
1.3.2)!

b. is the and is , singular, feminine, and common

c. Therefore, it is a
i. Note: is feminine because its a non-human broken plural, while
is feminine because of the ending
5.

a. This one looks tricky so make sure to look at it one word at a time.
i. is the and its four properties are , singular, feminine, and
proper; is also the
1. Note: is proper because its the of a proper :
ii. is the and its four properties are , plural, masculine or
feminine, and proper
iii. is the and its four properties are , singular, feminine, and

proper
1. It may seem confusing that this is considered a feminine word,
but recall that one of the types of fake feminine words are words
that end in , , or . The word actually ends in a , making
this feminine.

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b. Therefore, it is a ( is and is )as well as an

(

and is
is !)

c. Note: is how it is normally written, but when attached to a pronoun, the
takes the form of
6.
a. is the and is , singular, masculine, and common
b. is the and is , singular, masculine, and common

c. Therefore, it is a
7.
a. is a so it does not have a status, number, gender, or type

b. is (because of ) , plural, masculine, and proper
c. It is not a ! This is actually a and its !
8.
a. is the and is , plural, masculine, and proper (remember, this is an
)
b. is the and is , plural, masculine, and proper

c. Therefore, it is a

9.
a. is
b. is both and the ; its properties are , singular, feminine, and
common
c. is the and is , singular, feminine, and common

d. Therefore, it is a as well as !

10.
a. is , singular, masculine, and common
b. is , singular, feminine, and proper
c. Therefore, it is not a !

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