In Arabic, just like many languages, the Indefinite article does not exist.

 To indicate that the noun is indefinite you simply use it by itself.

Examples:

1) There is a restaurant nearby.

في مطعم قريب

2) A man opened the door for me.

زلمة فتح لي الباب

3) Do you like to eat an apple now?

بتحب توكل تفاحة هلا؟

 By definition, a definite noun is a noun that refers to a specific person, place, or thing.

In Arabic you can make a noun definite in 4 ways:

• Adding Al

Example:

1) The door is open.

الباب مفتوح

2) The car is green.

السيارة خضرا

3) The teacher gave us homework.

المعلم أعطانا واجب

• Adding it to a proper noun.

But first, what is a proper noun in Arabic:

There are nouns that by their nature are definite, Therefore, they don’t need the definite article “Al”. That includes but is not limited to:

Names of people

Names of places

Names of organizations

Days of the week

Months of the year

Examples:

1) Streets of New York City

شوارع مدينة نيو يورك

2) Monday’s outfit

لباس يوم الإثنين

In this case, you should not add ” Al ” to any noun in the sentence, it is by default definite.

• By adding it to another noun

In this case you will not be adding Al to the first noun since it is made known by including to the other noun.

Examples:

1) The teacher’s book.

كتاب المعلم

2) The neighbour’s car.

سيارة الجار

• By adding it to a possessive pronoun

To know more about Possessive pronouns and pronouns in general click here.

In this case you can’t add ” Al ” to the word because the thing that you are trying to define is already made known.

Example:

1) His horse

حصانها

2) My bag.

شنتتي

What is the difference between these sentences?

1. الحصان الجميل
2. الحصان جميل

The adjective has to match the noun it describes in all aspects (ie,. number, gender, and definite state,….)

If you do not match it, it will change the sentence’s meaning.

The first sentence says (The pretty horse).

The second one says (the horse is pretty).

Finally, if you want to know how to pronounce Al depending on the letter type (Shamsi or Qamari) click here.