Practical Exercises with Demonstratives

Read the bilingual lesson for Practical Exercises with Demonstratives and test your understanding with a focused quiz.

Lesson

1. Translation Practice with Demonstratives

● In this section, we will practise making sentences with demonstratives as the subject.
● We will compare spelling and gender agreement with an indefinite predicate.
● We will learn the special and important Arabic rule for non-rational plurals.

2. Practical Sentence-Building Practice

● Study the Arabic translations of the following sentences carefully:
○ This is a student. -> هٰذَا طَالِبٌ
○ That is a female student. -> تِلْكَ طَالِبَةٌ
○ These are two books. -> هٰذَانِ كِتَابَانِ
○ Those are two birds. -> ذَانِكَ طَائِرَانِ
○ Those are teachers. -> أُولٰئِكَ مُعَلِّمُونَ
○ These are two chairs. -> هٰذَانِ كُرْسِيَّانِ
○ Those are two tables. -> تَانِكَ طَاوِلَتَانِ
○ This is a mosque. -> هٰذَا مَسْجِدٌ
○ That is a school. -> تِلْكَ مَدْرَسَةٌ
○ These are doctors. -> هٰؤُلَاءِ أَطِبَّاءُ
○ Those are female doctors. -> أُولٰئِكَ طَبِيبَاتٌ

3. The Special Rule for Demonstratives with Non-Rational Plurals

● Arabic has a special rule for plurals of non-living things and animals, which are called non-rational:
○ When the subject is a non-rational plural, its demonstrative is always feminine singular.
● For example:
○ Book (singular): هٰذَا كِتَابٌ -> Books (plural): هٰذِهِ كُتُبٌ
○ Door (singular): ذٰلِكَ بَابٌ -> Doors (plural): تِلْكَ أَبْوَابٌ
● We will apply this rule in detail in the next comparative exercise.

4. Comparative Practice: Singular, Dual, and Plural (Part One)

● Let us carefully compare rational and non-rational nouns as we change singular nouns into dual and plural forms:

Singular sentenceDual sentencePlural sentence (with rational/non-rational rule)
هٰذَا مُسْلِمٌهٰذَانِ مُسْلِمَانِهٰؤُلَاءِ مُسْلِمُونَ (rational masculine plural)
هٰذِهِ مُسْلِمَةٌهَاتَانِ مُسْلِمَتَانِهٰؤُلَاءِ مُسْلِمَاتٌ (rational feminine plural)
ذٰلِكَ مُهَنْدِسٌذَانِكَ مُهَنْدِسَانِأُولٰئِكَ مُهَنْدِسُونَ (rational masculine plural)
تِلْكَ مُهَنْدِسَةٌتَانِكَ مُهَنْدِسَتَانِأُولٰئِكَ مُهَنْدِسَاتٌ (rational feminine plural)
هٰذَا كِتَابٌهٰذَانِ كِتَابَانِهٰذِهِ كُتُبٌ (non-rational plural: feminine singular demonstrative)
هٰذَا قَلَمٌهٰذَانِ قَلَمَانِهٰذِهِ أَقْلَامٌ (non-rational plural: feminine singular demonstrative)
هٰذِهِ كُرَّاسَةٌهَاتَانِ كُرَّاسَتَانِهٰذِهِ كُرَّاسَاتٌ (non-rational plural: feminine singular demonstrative)

5. Comparative Practice: Singular, Dual, and Plural (Part Two)

● Let us study the rest of the exercise, using broken plurals and the feminine rule for non-rational nouns:

Singular sentenceDual sentencePlural sentence (with feminine singular demonstrative)
ذٰلِكَ بَابٌذَانِكَ بَابَانِتِلْكَ أَبْوَابٌ
تِلْكَ سَاعَةٌتَانِكَ سَاعَتَانِتِلْكَ سَاعَاتٌ
هٰذَا حِمَارٌهٰذَانِ حِمَارَانِهٰذِهِ حُمُرٌ
هٰذِهِ نَاقَةٌهَاتَانِ نَاقَتَانِهٰذِهِ نُوْقٌ
ذٰلِكَ جَبَلٌذَانِكَ جَبَلَانِتِلْكَ جِبَالٌ
تِلْكَ سَيَّارَةٌتَانِكَ سَيَّارَتَانِتِلْكَ سَيَّارَاتٌ
هٰذَا سَرِيرٌهٰذَانِ سَرِيرَانِهٰذِهِ سُرُرٌ
هٰذِهِ دَرَّاجَةٌهَاتَانِ دَرَّاجَتَانِهٰذِهِ دَرَّاجَاتٌ

Practice questions

Question 1

What is the correct Arabic translation of "Those are two tables."?

تَانِكَ طَاوِلَتَانِ
ذَانِكَ طَاوِلَتَانِ
تِلْكَ طَاوِلَتَانِ

Question 2

In the Arabic sentence هٰذِهِ كُتُبٌ, a feminine singular demonstrative is used because كُتُبٌ, 'books,' is a non-rational plural.

True
False

Question 3

Select the suitable words to make the correct Arabic translation of "Those are two birds."

ذَانِكَ طَائِرَانِ
هٰذَانِ طَائِرَانِ
تَانِكَ طَائِرَانِ

Question 4

Match the following singular sentences with their correct dual equivalents:

Question 5

Sort the following sentences with plural demonstratives into the correct rational and non-rational groups:

Question 6

Select the words in the correct order to make the Arabic translation of "Those are teachers."

أُولٰئِكَ مُعَلِّمُونَ
هٰؤُلَاءِ مُعَلِّمُونَ
تِلْكَ مُعَلِّمُونَ

Question 7

Sort the words into their correct grammatical-role groups to make the sentence "These are doctors."

Question 8

Combine the given words in the correct grammatical order to make the sentence "These are two books."

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