5 types of Predicate (خَبَـرٌ) (Seq # 52)

Predicate (خَــبَــرٌ) in nominal sentence is of 5 types as below. This is very important to understand.

• One word
• Prepositional Phrase (a phrase that includes a preposition)
• Adverb from Adverbial Phrase (a phrase that includes an adverb)
• A complete nominal sentence
• A complete verbal sentence

We will discuss these predicates in the next topics.

One word predicate (Seq # 53)

Consider the following English question sentences and single word associated answers.

What is Mohammed ? Answer: Doctor

What is this ? Answer: House

What is that ? Answer: Wall

The answer or information or predicate in the above statements is just a single word. Thus a nominal sentence can have single word predicate. Single word predicate is always مَــرْفُــوْعٌ and should match the subject in gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/dual/plural).

Examples

I am a human being.

أَنَــا بَــشَــرٌ

Sentence Analysis أَنَــا = الْمُــبْــتَـــدَأُ بَــشَــرٌ = الْخَــبَــرُ

Other similar examples are below in the table. The underlined words are predicates.

He is Mohammed.	هُوَ مُحَمَّدٌ
This is a house.	هَذا بَيْتٌ
This is an eye. (Eye is feminine)	هَذهِ عَيْنٌ
I am sick.	أنا مَريضٌ
I am a doctor.	أنَا طَبِيْبٌ
This is a cave.	هـَـذَا كَــهْــفٌ
This is a wall.	هـَـذَا جِــدَارٌ
That is a cave.	ذَلِــكَ كَــهْــفٌ
That is a wall.	ذَلِــكَ جِــدَارٌ
That is a book.	ذَلِــكَ كِــتَــابٌ
Allah is great.	الــلَّــهُ أَكْــبَــرُ

Reader is strongly recommended to write simple nominal sentences with single word predicate for extra practice.

Exercises

• State TRUE or FALSE: The translation of the sentence “The wall is tall” is الجِدَارُ طَوِيْلٌ. The word طَوِيْلٌ (tall) is the one word predicate (خَبَــرٌ) in this sentence.
• State TRUE or FALSE: The translation of the sentence “The ship is small” is السَّفِيْنَةُ صَغِيْرَةٌ. The word صَغِيْرَةٌ (small) is the one word predicate (خَبَــرٌ) in this sentence.
• State TRUE or FALSE: The translation of the sentence “He is an oppressor” is هُوَ ظَالِمٌ. The word ظَالِمٌ (oppressor) is the one word predicate (خَبَــرٌ) in this sentence.
• State TRUE or FALSE: ذَلكَ كِتَابٌ (That is a book) does not have single word predicate.
• State TRUE or FALSE: هِىَ زَيْنَبُ (She is Zainab) does not have single word predicate.

مُضَاف مُضَاف إليهِ comes in the position of subject or predicate (Seq # 54)

When  مُضَاف مُضَاف إليهِ comes in the position of subject or predicate in the nominal sentence, then only مُضَاف will act as the subject or predicate. مُضَاف إليهِ  is just some additional information to the sentence. See the example below, the word book is subject and it is مُضَاف.

Example: كِتَابُ حَامِدٍ على الجِدَارِ  (Book of hamid is on the wall)

As an another example below, the word daughter is predicate and it is مُضَاف. Note that زَيْنَبَ is مَــجْــرُوْر here and is diptote.

Example: أنا بِنْتُ زَيْنَبَ (I am daughter of Zainab)

In the below example رَبُّ is predicate.

Example: الــلَّــهُ رَبّــُنـا (Allah is our lord)

In the below example رَبُّ is subject.

Example: رَبُّــنَا الــلَّــهُ (Our lord is Allah).

Exercises

• State TRUE or FALSE: بَابُ المَسْجِدِ كَبــِيْــرٌ (Door of the masjid is big) is a nominal sentence and بَابُ is the subject (المُبــْتَدَاء).
• State TRUE or FALSE: اِسْمُ الطّالِبِ حَامِدٌ (Name of the student is Hamid) is a nominal sentence and اِسْمُ  is the subject (المُبــْتَدَاء).
• State TRUE or FALSE: الْكَعْبَةُ بَيْتُ اللهِ (The kaabah is house of allah) is a nominal sentence and بَيْتُ is predicate (خَبـَـرٌ).

Prepositional phrase as a predicate (خَبــَرٌ) (second type) (Seq # 55)

Consider the following English question sentence and the associated answer.

Where is book of haamid ? Answer: on the wall

The answer or information or predicate in the above question is a prepositional phrase. Thus a nominal sentence can have prepositional phrase as predicate. Below is an example.

 كِتَابُ حَامِدٍ عَلَى الْـجِدَارِ  (Book of hamid is on the wall)

Sentence analysis with description in the Arabic language is as below.

كِتَابُ = المُبْتَدَأُ و هُوَ مُضَاف

حَامِدٍ = مُضَاف إلَيْهِ

على الجِدَارِ = جَار مَجْرُور شِبْهُ جُمْلَة خَبَرٌ

So, the whole prepositional phrase is the predicate in this case. This prepositional phrase is providing us the information or khabar about the book of Haamid. Another example is الْــحَــمْــدُ لِــلَّــهِ (The praise is for Allah) where the khabar is a prepositional phrase.

Exercises

• State TRUE or FALSE: In the sentence السَّفِيْنَةُ فِي الْبـَحْرِ (The ship is in the sea), فِي الْبـَحْرِis the prepositional phrase predicate (جَار مَجْرُور شِبْهُ جُمْلَة خَبَرٌ).
• State TRUE or FALSE: In the sentence مُحَمَّدٌ فِي الْكَهْفِ (Mohammed is in the cave), فِي الْكَهْفِ is the prepositional phrase predicate (جَار مَجْرُور شِبْهُ جُمْلَة خَبَرٌ).
• State TRUE or FALSE: In the sentence كِتَابِي على الجِدَارِ (My book is on the wall) has prepositional phrase predicate.

Adverbial phrase as a predicate (خَبــَرٌ) (third type) (Seq # 56)

The third type of predicate is adverbial phrase. Consider the below example.

بَيْتِي خَلْفَ الكَهْفِ (My house is behind the cave)

Sentence analysis with description in the Arabic language is as below.

بَيْتُ = المُبْتَدَأُ و هُوَ مُضَاف

ي= مُضَاف الَيْهِ

خَلْفَ = ظَرْف شِبْهُ جُمْلَة خَبَـرٌ

الكَهْفِ = مُضَاف الَيْهِ

Note that in the adverbial phrase we only consider the adverb as the predicate. The last word الكَهْفِ is considered as مُضَاف الَيْه, but not as the part of predicate. Two other examples are given below for more understanding.

الأذكارُ بَعْدَ الصَّلاةِ (The remembrance after the prayer)

الحَقِيْبَةُ تَحْتَ المَكْتَبِ (The purse is under the table)

Exercises

• State TRUE or FALSE: The translation of the sentence “The treasure is under the wall” is الكَنـْـزُ تَــحْتَ الْجِدَارِ. The word تَــحْتَ is a adverbial phrase predicate.
• State TRUE or FALSE: The translation of the sentence “The fish is under the ship” is الْحُـوْتُ تَــحْتَ السَّفِــيْنَـــةِ. The word تَــحْتَ is a adverbial phrase predicate.
• State TRUE or FALSE: The sentence “The king is in the ship” (الْمَلِكُ فِي السَّفِــيْنَـــةِ) has an adverbial phrase predicate.

Khabar can come before in nominal sentence (Seq # 57)

In a nominal sentence the predicate (الْخَبَرُ) can come in advance. See below

للهِ مُلْكُ السَّماواتِ وَ الأرْضِ

 للهِ= Jaar Majroor shibhu jumlah khabar muqaddim (predicate in advance)

مُلْكُ  = mubtada marfoun and it is muzaaf

السماوات = Muzaaf iliahi

و = حَرْفُ عَطْفٍ

الأرْضِ = Majroor  “is connected” to السماوات

Translation: For Allah, is the kingdom of heavens and earth.

Another example

لَهُمْ أَجْــرٌ حَــسَــنٌ

Translation: For them there is good reward.

One important note is that, Prepositional Phrase or adverbial phrase cannot be Mubtada in the nominal sentence.

Nominal sentence as Predicate (fourth type) (Seq # 58)

In a nominal sentence, a complete another nominal sentence can come as predicate. To identify this predicate we have to observe the whole sentence. Let us take a simple example first then try to convert it such that another nominal sentence will come as predicate.

Bilal’s son is a student. Its translation is وَلَــدُ بِــلالٍ طَــالِــبٌ. Now let us rephrase this English statement as “Bilal, his son is a student”. This statement can be written as below with grammatic analysis.

بِلالٌ وَلَدُهُ طَالِبٌ

 The above sentence starts with a noun, hence it is a nominal sentence.

بِلالٌ = mubtada marfoun for top level nominal sentence

وَلَدُهُ طَالِبٌ = low level nominal sentence coming as Khabar for top level nominal sentence بِلالٌ

وَلَــدُ = Mubtada for low level nominal sentence and it is Muzaaf

هُ = It is Muzaaf ilaihi

طَالِبٌ = Single word Khabar for low level nominal sentence

So the whole underlined sentence became a predicate for top level mubtada Bilal.

Another example is given below.

 فاطِمَةُ لها طِفْلٌ صَغِيْرٌ

 فَاطِمَةُ = Mubtada marfoun for top level nominal sentence

لها طِفْلٌ صَغِيْرٌ = low level nominal sentence coming as Khabar for top level nominal sentence Fatima

لها  =  Jaar majroor Shibhu jumlah khabar Muqaddim

طِفْلٌ  = Mubtada marfoun for low level nominal sentence

صَغِيْرٌ  = Adjective for طَفْلٌ

Translation is “Fatimah, she has a small child” or simply “Fatimah has a small child”. This knowledge will get firm as time passes and it is not a worrying issue.

Exercises

• State TRUE or FALSE: The sentence مَلِكٌ وَلــَدُهُ فِي السَّفِـيْنَةِ (King’s son is in the ship) has a nominal sentence as a predicate for مَلِكٌ as the top level subject.
• State TRUE or FALSE: The sentence وَلَــدُ الْمَلِك فِي السَّفِـيْنَةِ (Son of the king is in the ship) does not have any another nominal sentence as predicate. But its predicate is a prepositional phrase predicate (فِي السَّفِـيْنَةِ).
• State TRUE or FALSE: The sentence بِنْتُ فَاطِمَــةَ طَوِيْلــَةٌ (Daughter of Fatimah is tall) has another nominal sentence as predicate.

Verbal sentence as Predicate (fifth type) (Seq # 59)

In a nominal sentence, a complete verbal sentence can come as predicate. We did not learn about verbs yet, so we will go into details in upcoming topics in future. This topic has been included here for the purpose of completing the types of predicate. A simple example of this case is as below to understand the sentence structure.

Example: Mohammed did. (مُحَمَّدٌ فَعَلَ). Here Mohammed is subject (المُبْتَدَأُ). فَعَلَ is a complete verbal sentence coming as a predicate.

Answers to Exercises

One word predicate (Seq # 53)	T, T, T, F, F
مُضَاف مُضَاف إليهِ comes in the position of subject or predicate (Seq # 54)	T, T, T
Prepositional phrase as a predicate (خَبــَرٌ) (second type) (Seq # 55)	T, T, T
Adverbial phrase as a predicate (خَبــَرٌ) (third type) (Seq # 56)	T, T, F
Nominal sentence as Predicate (fourth type) (Seq # 58)	T, T, F