Subject and Comment

Level 1

The المبتدأ والخبر (Subject and Comment) is the foundation of the Arabic nominal sentence. It allows you to say 'The house is big' or 'I am a student' without needing a verb for 'to be'.

How It Works

To build a basic sentence in Modern Standard Arabic, you follow these rules:

  • Definiteness: The Subject (Mubtada') is usually definite (e.g., starts with al-), while the Comment (Khabar) is usually indefinite. However, the Khabar can be definite to express identity; in this case, a separating pronoun is often used between them to clarify it is a sentence and not a phrase (e.g., زيد هو المعلم).
  • Case: Both words take the nominative ending. While the default for singular nouns is a dhammah (often appearing as tanwin if indefinite), dual nouns use the letter Alif and regular masculine plurals use the letter Waw.
  • Agreement: The Khabar matches the Mubtada' in gender and number, except when the Subject is a non-human plural, in which case the Khabar is feminine singular.
  • Types of Khabar: The comment can be a single word, a prepositional phrase, or even a full sentence.

While English requires the verb 'is' or 'are', Arabic implies this relationship through the transition from a definite noun to an indefinite one. For example, الولدُ طويلٌ means 'The boy [is] tall'.

Examples (4)

  1. الطعامُ لذيذٌ

    The food is delicious.

    Word by Word: The-food delicious.

    Here, 'al-ṭa‘āmu' is the definite Subject and 'laḏīḏun' is the indefinite Comment. Both end with a dhammah (nominative case).

  2. أنا طالبٌ

    I am a student.

    Word by Word: I student.

    Personal pronouns like 'anā' (I) always function as the definite Subject (Mubtada').

  3. البنتُ ذكيةٌ

    The girl is smart.

    Word by Word: The-girl smart.

    Notice the gender agreement: because 'al-bintu' is feminine, the Khabar 'ḏakiyyatun' must also take the feminine ending.

  4. البيوتُ كبيرةٌ

    The houses are big.

    Word by Word: The-houses big.

    This demonstrates the rule that non-human plurals take a feminine singular comment.

Common Mistakes

  • Adding 'al-' to the Khabar (Comment).

    Different Meaningالولدُ الطويلُ
    الولدُ طويلٌ

    If you add 'al-' to both words, it becomes a phrase ('The tall boy') rather than a sentence ('The boy is tall'). The Khabar must be indefinite to create the 'is' relationship.

  • Starting a sentence with an indefinite noun.

    رجلٌ في البيتِ
    في البيتِ رجلٌ

    In Arabic, the Subject (Mubtada') is generally definite. If you want to say 'A man is in the house', the usual way is fronting the comment and putting the prepositional phrase first.

How It Connects

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Subject and CommentLevel 1

Learn This First

To understand the Subject and Comment (Al-Mubtada wal-Khabar), a learner must first be able to identify nouns, understand the distinction between definite and indefinite states (using the definite article), and recognize the basic structure of a verbless nominal sentence.

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Patterns that build on this one.

And 4 more in the full list.