How to make an adjective in Arabic?
Now that we’ve gone through adjectives in Arabic, let’s see how they are actually formed.
They can be formed either through derivation from a lexical root, or by attaching the nisba suffix to another word, usually a noun.
Active and passive participles may function as adjectives or as nouns, and when they function as adjectives they agree with the noun they modify in case, gender, number, and definiteness.
Let’s go over some patterns and see some examples:
Notice that “effective” in Arabic follows the pattern فَعَّال this is the pattern itself.
Now let’s look at some examples with active participles that can be used as adjectives:
And now, let’s look at some examples with the passive participle:
What is Nisba in Arabic?
It’s basically the process of converting a noun, participle, or even another adjective into a relative adjective by adding the suffix ـيّ (-iyy) for masculine or ـيّة (-iyya) for feminine.
Let’s see how it goes:
If the noun ends in ة (ta marbuTa), it is dropped before adding the nisba suffix -i.
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Example: سياسي (siyasi – political) from the noun سياسة (siyasa – politics).
If the noun ends in ا or اء , a و (waaw) may be inserted as a buffer before adding -i.
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Example: صحراوي (Sahrawi – desert-like) from the noun صحراء (Sahra’ – desert).
If the hamza is part of the root (not just an ending), it remains when forming the nisba.
The most common use of the nisba, however, is for forming nationalities.
