Levantine Arabic grammar

Levantine Arabic grammar is the set of rules by which Levantine Arabic creates statements, questions and commands. In many respects, it is quite similar to that of the other vernacular Arabic varieties.

Word order

Both VSO and SVO word orders are possible in Levantine Arabic. The verb is before the object. However, Classical Arabic tends to prefer VSO, whereas in Levantine SVO is more common. Subject-initial order indicates topic-prominent sentences, while verb-initial order indicates subject-prominent sentences.
In interrogative sentences, the interrogative particle comes first.

Copula

There is no copula used in the present tense in Levantine. In other tenses, the verb kān is used. Its present tense form is used in the future tense.

Definiteness

There is no indefinite article in Levantine Arabic. Nouns are automatically indefinite by the absence of the definite article.
The Arabic definite article ال precedes the noun or adjective and has multiple pronunciations. Its vowel is dropped when the preceding word ends in a vowel. A helping vowel "e" is inserted if the following word begins with a consonant cluster.
It assimilates with "Sun letters" - any consonant pronounced with the tip of the tongue. Other letters are called "Moon letters". The letter Jeem is a special case. It is usually a Sun letter for speakers pronouncing it as but not for those pronouncing it as .

Moon letter	البيت
Sun letter	الشمس
Letter Jeem	الجمعة	/
Consonant cluster	الكتاب

Nouns

Case

There is no case marking in Levantine.

Gender

Nouns can be either masculine or feminine. In the singular, most feminine nouns end with Tāʼ marbūṭah. This is pronounced as –a or -e depending on the preceding consonant. Generally, -a after guttural and emphatic consonants, and -e after other consonants.

Number

Nouns in Levantine can be singular, dual or plural.
The dual is invariably formed with suffix -ēn. The dual is often used in a non-exact sense, especially in temporal and spatial nouns:

,, one week
,, a couple of weeks

For nouns referring to humans, the regular masculine plural is formed with the suffix -īn. The regular feminine plural is formed with -āt. The masculine plural is used to refer to a group with both gender. However, there are many broken plurals, in which the consonantal root of the singular is changed. These plural patterns are shared with other varieties of Arabic and may also be applied to foreign borrowings: such as faːtuːra, from the Italian fattura, invoice. The plural of loanwords may be sound or broken. Several patterns of broken plurals exist and it is not possible to exactly predict them.
Inanimate objects take feminine singular agreement in the plural, for verbs, attached pronouns, and adjectives.
Some foreign words that designate weights and measures such as,, and are invariable. The dual form is not used and numbers 3–10 don't lose their final vowel when followed by these nouns:

: 1 shekel
: 2 shekels
: 3 shekels
: 10 shekels

Pattern	Pattern	Example	English meaning
ـَ و ا ـِ ـ	CawāCeC		street streets
أَ ـْ ـ ا ـ	ʔaCCāC		person people
ـَ ـ ا ـِ ي ـ	CaCāCīC		convenience store convenience stores
ـُ ـُ و ـ	CuCūC		letter letters
ـُ ـَ ـ	CuCaC		story stories
ـِ ـَ ـ	CiCaC		team teams
ـُ ـَ ـ ا	CuCaCa		manager managers
ـُ ـّ ا ـ	CuC²C²āC		student students
أَ ـْ ـِ ـ ة	ʔaCCiCe		electrical device electrical devices
ـُ ـُ ـ	CuCoC		city cities
ـُ ـْ ـ ا ن	CuCCān		dress shirt dress shirts
أَ ـْ ـِ ـ ا ء	ʔaCCiCāʔ		friend friends

Nominal sentences

Phrasal word order is head-dependent:

Noun-Genitive
Noun-Adjective
Noun-Relative clause.

The genitive relationship is formed by putting the nouns next to each other, this construct is called Iḍāfah. The first noun is always indefinite. If an indefinite noun is added to a definite noun, it results in a new definite compound noun.
Besides possessiveness, the Iḍāfah construct can be used to specify or define the first term.
Possession can also be expressed with تبع,, especially for loanwords:

my dog: or,
the neighbors' house: or
your radio:.

There is no limit to the number of nouns that can be strung together in an Iḍāfah. However, it is rare to have three or more words, except with very common or monosyllabic nouns.
The Iḍāfah construct is different from the noun-adjective structure. In an Iḍāfah construct, the two nouns might be different in terms of their definiteness: the first is indefinite, the second is usually definite. Whereas adjectives always agree with nouns in definiteness.
The first term must be in the construct state: if it ends in the feminine marker, it changes to in pronunciation. Whereas in a noun-adjective string, the pronunciation would remain.

Levantine	Levantine	English	Note
كتاب إستاذ		a book of a/the teacher	Iḍāfah of two indefinite nouns
كتاب الإستاذ		the book of the teacher	Iḍāfah of indefinite + definite noun
كتاب الإستاذ الجديد		the new book of the teacher OR the book of the new teacher	The adjective is definite, because the Iḍāfah is definite. Both meanings are possible, to avoid confusion the preposition can be used to split the Iḍāfah.
الكتاب الجديد للإستاذ		the new book of the teacher	Split Iḍāfah
الكتاب للإستاذ الجديد		the book of the new teacher	Split Iḍāfah
الكتاب الجديد تبع الإستاذ		the teacher's new book	Use of تبع, to avoid confusion.
كتاب إستاذ العربي		the book of the teacher of Arabic	Chained Iḍāfah, only the last noun takes the definite article
مجلة جديدة		a new magazine	Noun-adjective: ة pronounced as "ih"
مجلة الإستاذ		the magazine of the teacher	ة pronounced as "t" in construct state
بيت خالد		Khalid's house	With a proper noun: possessiveness
مدينة نيويورك		New York City	First noun ends with ah, second is a proper noun
مدينة زغيرة		a small town/city	Noun-adjective, ة pronounced as "ah"
صحن حمص		hummus dish

Verbal nouns

Verbal nouns play an important role in Levantine. Derived from a verb root, they can be used as a noun or as a gerund. Verbal nouns do not exist as infinitives, they are not part of the verbal system but of the lexicon.

Numerals

Cardinal numbers

Number one and two have a masculine and feminine form. When used with a noun, they rather follow it like an adjective than precede it for emphasis. An exception are uncountable nouns. When the number 2 is accompanied by a noun, the dual form is usually used:, 2 boys.
Numbers larger than 3 do not have gender but may have two forms, one used before nouns and one used independently. In particular, numbers between 3 and 10 lose their final vowel before a noun.
Numbers from 3 to 10 are followed by plural nouns. Numbers from 11 to 99 are followed by a singular.
Numbers 100 and onwards follow the same rule as numbers 0–99 based on their last two digits. 100 and 101 are followed by a singular, 102 is followed by a dual, 103–110 by a plural, and 111–199 is like 11–99, followed by a singular.
Before a small set of nouns the independent form is used in construct state. مية is always in construct state before nouns.

Ordinal numbers and fractions

Ordinal numbers can either precede or follow the noun. If they precede the noun the masculine form is used and the definite article is dropped.
Ordinal numbers above 10 do not exist, instead the cardinal numbers are used following the noun.

Adjectives

Form

Many adjectives have the pattern فعيل but other patterns are also possible.
Adjectives derived from nouns by the suffix ـي are called Nisba adjectives. Their feminine form ends in ـية and the plural in ـيين.

Gender

Adjectives typically have three form: a masculine singular, a feminine singular, and a plural which does not distinguish gender. In most adjectives the feminine is formed through addition of -a/e, sometimes dropping an unstressed short vowel.

Number

Nouns in dual have adjectives in plural.
The plural of adjectives is either regular ending in ـين or is an irregular "broken" plural. It is used with nouns referring to people. For non-human / inanimate / abstract nouns, adjectives can use either the plural or the singular feminine form regardless of the noun's gender.

Word order

Adjectives follow the noun they modify and agree with it in definiteness. Adjectives without an article after a definite noun express a clause with the invisible copula "to be".

بيت كبير	a big house
البيت الكبير	the big house
البيت كبير	the house is big

There is no dominant order for degree words and adjectives: Adverbs of degree like and can either precede or follow the adjective.

Superlative and comparative

There are no separate comparative and superlative forms but the elative is used in both cases.
The elative is formed by adding a hamza at the beginning of the adjective and replace the vowels by "a". Adjective endings in and are changed into . If the second and third consonant in the root are the same, they are geminated.
Speakers who pronounce as hamza might pronounced the elative prefix as "h" in order to avoid two consecutive hamzas.

	Adjective	Elative
Regular
Regular
Regular
Gemination
Gemination
Final i/u
Final i/u
Irregular	/

When an elative modifies a noun, it precedes the noun an no definite article is used.
In order to compare two things, the word is used in the sense of "than" in English.

Levantine	Levantine	English
أحسن إشي		the best thing
هالإشي أحسن		this thing is better / the best
هالإشي أحسن من إشي تاني		this thing is better than something else

Not all adjectives can form an elative, especially those that are participles or derived from nouns. In this case, is used.

Levantine	Levantine	English
		crazy
مجنون أكتر		crazier / craziest
هو مجنون أكتر منك		he is crazier than you
أكتر واحد مجنون		the craziest one

Prepositions

Prepositions must precede nominals in Levantine.

Levantine	English
	with; in, at
	in, at
	with, along with
	from; than
	to; for
/	on, upon; to; about
	before
	after
	in front of
	behind
	above, over
	below, under
	between

Pronouns

Feminine plural forms modifying human females are found mostly in rural and Bedouin areas. They are not mentioned below.

Personal pronouns

Levantine has eight persons, and therefore eight pronouns. Dual forms that exist in Modern Standard Arabic do not exist in Levantine, the plural is used instead. Because conjugated verbs indicate the subject with a prefix and/or a suffix, independent subject pronouns are usually not necessary and are mainly used for emphasis.

Direct object and possessive pronouns

Direct object pronouns are indicated by suffixes attached to the conjugated verb. Their form depends whether the verb ends with a consonant or a vowel. Suffixed to nouns, these pronouns express possessive.
If a pronoun is already attached on the end of a word, the second pronoun is attached to يا /, for instance: بدي ياك .

Indirect object pronouns

Indirect object pronouns are suffixed to the conjugated verb. They are form by adding an ل and then the possessive suffix to the verb. They precede object pronouns if present:

: he brought the newspaper to my father,
: he brought it to my father,
: he brought him the newspaper,
: he brought him it.

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns have three referential types: immediate, proximal, and distal. The distinction between proximal and distal demonstratives is of physical, temporal, or metaphorical distance. The genderless and numberless immediate demonstrative article is translated by "this/the", to designate something immediately visible or accessible.

Relative pronouns

The relative pronoun, invariable for number and gender, is .

Verbs

Root

Like Arabic verbs, most Levantine verbs are based on a triliteral root made of three consonants. The set of consonants communicates the basic meaning of a verb, e.g. k-t-b 'write', q-r-’ 'read', ’-k-l 'eat'. Changes to the vowels in between the consonants, along with prefixes or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as tense, person and number, in addition to changes in the meaning of the verb that embody grammatical concepts such as mood, voice, and functions such as causative, intensive, or reflexive.
Quadriliteral roots are less common, but often used to coin new vocabulary or to Arabicize foreign words.
The base form is the third-person masculine singular of the perfect tense.

Verb forms

Almost all Levantine verbs can be categorized in one of ten verb forms. Form I, the most common one, serves as a base for the other nine forms. Each form carries a different verbal idea, relative to the meaning of its root. Technically, 10 verbs can be constructed from any given triconsonantal root. However, all of those ten forms may not be used in practice by speakers. After Form I, Forms II, V, VII, and X are the most common ones.

Form/Measure/Stem	Tendency of meaning	Perfect pattern	Imperfect pattern	Example	Root of the example	Note
Form I	Active or stative verb	C¹vC²vC³	-C¹vC²vC³
Form II	Causes action, shows intensity, or may indicates continuing action	C¹aC²C²aC³	-C¹aC²C²eC³			Most productive form
Form III	Active in meaning or shows attempt; focus is on one-sided action	C¹v̄C²aC³	-C¹v̄C²eC³
Form IV	Causes action, similar to Form II	ʔaC¹C²aC³	-C¹C²eC³			Rare, limited to borrowings from MSA
Form V	Reflexive/passive/mediopassive meaning for transitive Form II verbs	tC¹aC²C²aC³	-tC¹aC²C²aC³			Usually intransitive
Form VI	Reflexive/passive meaning for Form III or active in meaning	tC¹v̄C²aC³	-tC¹v̄C²eC³			Usually intransitive
Form VII	Reflexive/passive meaning for Form I or no particular tendency of meaning	nC¹aC²aC³ inC¹aC²aC³	-nC¹ǝC²eC³ -nC¹aːC² in medial glide roots
Form VIII	Active, reflexive, or passive in meaning	C¹tvC²vC³ iC¹tvC²vC³	-C¹tvC²vC³			Not productive
Form IX	Inchoative verbs from adjectives: Changing of color or physical handicap	C¹C²aC³C³ iC¹C²aC³C³	-C¹C²aC³C³			Very rare, replaced by ṣār "to become" + adjective
Form X	Sought to do something or believe something to be big, close, etc.	staC¹C²aC³ istaC¹C²aC³	-staC¹C²eC³			Often transitive verbs

Aldrich also defines verb forms XI and XII.
In addition to its form, each verb has a "quality":

Sound : 3 distinct radicals, neither the second nor the third is w or y,
Verbs containing the radicals w or y are called weak. They can be either:
* Hollow: verbs with w or y as the second radical, which can become a long a in some forms, or
* Defective: verbs with w or y as the third radical, treated as a vowel,
Geminate : the second and third radicals are identical, remaining together as a double consonant.

Some irregular verbs do not fit into any of the verb forms.
The initial i in verb forms VII, VIII, IX, X drops when the preceding word ends in a vowel or at the beginning of a sentence.

Regular verb conjugation

The Levantine verb has only two tenses: past and present. The future tense is an extension of the present tense. The negative imperative is the same as the negative present with helping verb. The grammatical person and number as well as the mood are designated by a variety of prefixes and suffixes. The following table shows the paradigm of a sound Form I verb, 'to write'.
The b-imperfect is usually used for the indicative mood. The prefix b- is deleted in the subjunctive mood, usually after various modal verbs, auxiliary verbs, pseudo-verbs, prepositions, and particles.
In the following table, the accented vowel is in bold.
In the perfect tense, the first person singular and second person masculine singular are identical. For regular verbs, the third-person feminine singular is written identically but stressed differently.
Depending on regions and accents, the -u can be pronounced -o and the -i can be pronounced -é.
In Southern Levantine dialects, the vowel of the suffix in past tense 3rd person feminine as well as the prefix in the present tense 1st person singular is "a" instead of "i". It might be "u" in other persons of the present tense due to vowel harmony.

Active participle

The active participle, also called present participle, is grammatically an adjective derived from a verb. Depending on the context, it can express the present or present continuous, the near future, or the present perfect. It can also serve as a noun or an adjective.
The active participle can be inflected from the verb based on its verb form.

Passive participle

The passive participle, also called past participle, has a similar meaning as in English. It is mostly used as an adjective but it can sometimes be used as a noun. It is inflected from the verb based on its verb form. However, in practice, passive participles are largely limited to verb forms I and II, becoming maCCūC for the former and mCaCCaC for the latter.

Future

There are various ways to express the future. One is by using the present tense on its own. Another one is by using .
The future tense is formed with the imperfect preceded by the particle or by the prefixed particle .

Way	Levantine	Levantine	English
Present tense	بروح معك.		I'll go with you.
bidd-	بدي أمرق لعنده بكرة.		I'm going to go to his house tomorrow.
Future tense	رح شوفك بكرة.		I'll see you tomorrow.
Future tense	حشوفك بكرة.		I'll see you tomorrow.

Present continuous

The present continuous is formed with the progressive particle followed by the imperfect, with or without the initial b/m depending on the speaker.
It is also common to use the b- prefix only in those forms starting with a vowel.

Levantine	Levantine	English
عم بعمل		I'm doing
عم تعمل		you're doing / she's doing
عم بعمل / عم يعمل	/	he's doing

Helping verbs

After helping verbs the imperfect form is used, that is, the form without the initial b/m.

Levantine	English
/	to want
,	can
/ /	to be able to
	must, it is necessary to
	to like
/	may
	it's forbidden to
/	should
	to start to, to got used to doing
	to begin to
/	to end up
/	to keep doing
	to start doing again
	used to doing

Compound tenses

The verb can be followed by another verb, forming compound tenses. Both verbs are conjugated with their subject.

Passive voice

Form I verbs often correspond to an equivalent passive form VII verb, with the prefix n-. Form II and form III verbs usually correspond to an equivalent passive on forms V and VI, respectively, with the prefix t-.
While the verb forms V, VI and VII are common in the simple past and compound tenses, the passive participle is preferred in the present tense.

Levantine	Levantine	English	Verb form	Tense
الكتاب مكتوب.		The book is written.	I	passive participle
الكتاب عم بنكتب.		The book is being written.	VII	progressive
الكتاب انكتب.		The book has been written. / The book was written.	VII	past tense
الكتاب كان مكتوب.		The book was written.	I	kān + passive participle
الكتاب رح ينكتب.		The book will be written.	VII	future

To have

Levantine does not have a verb "to have". Instead, possession is expressed using the prepositions عند and مع, followed by personal pronoun suffixes. The past indicator ken and the future indicator raH are used to express possession in the past or the future, respectively.

To want

Enclitic personal pronouns are suffixed directly to the pseudo-verb بدّ to express "to want".

Levantine	Levantine	English
بدها تشرب قهوة.		She wants to drink coffee.
ما بدي ياه.		I don't want it.

Adverbs

Levant does not distinguish between adverbs and adjectives in adverbial function. Almost any adjective can be used as an adverb: vs. نمتي منيح؟ Adverbs from MSA, showing the suffix -an, are often used, e.g. . Adverbs often appear after the verb or the adjective. can be positioned after or before the adjective.
Adverbs of manner can usually be formed using bi- followed by the nominal form: .

Levantine	English
	when
	today
	tomorrow
	the day after tomorrow
	yesterday
/	the day before yesterday
/ /	now
	early
	afterwards
	early in the morning
	at that time
	in the morning or this morning
/	always
/	still / not yet
	here
/ /	there
	like this
/ /	slowly
	very
	totally
	quickly
	enough!
	only
	also
	straight on
	, used as an intensifier

	therefore
	it is so
	assuredly
/	maybe

Negation

and mean “no.”
Verbs and prepositional phrases can be negated by the particle either on its own or, in South Levantine, together with the suffix at the end of the verb or prepositional phrase. In Palestinian, it is also common to negate verbs by the suffix only.
or in Syrian Arabic negates adjectives, demonstratives, and nominal phrases.

Levantine	Levantine	English
أنا مش فلسطيني.		I'm not Palestinian.
مش عارفة.		I don't know.
هادا مش منيح.		That's not good.

The particles and can be negated with either or .

Levantine	Levantine	English
ما رح أروح.		I won't go.
مش رح أروح.		I won't go.

Negative copula

North Levantine has a negative copula formed by and a suffixed pronoun.

Subordination

Relative clauses are formed with the particle yalli/illi/halli when definite things are being described. It can be used either for people or objects.
If the noun to which the relative pronoun refers is indefinite and non specific, the relative clause is linked without any coordinating conjunction and is indistinguishable from an independent sentence.

English	Levantine	Levantine	Note
I saw the boy who was playing football.	شفت الولد اللي كان يلعب فطبول		Definite subject: use of illi
I saw a girl playing football.	شفت بنت كانت تلعب فطبول		Indefinite subject: sentences connected without a pronoun

In formal speech, sentence complements can be introduced with the particle ʔǝnn, to which some speakers attach a personal pronoun.
For circumstantial clauses, the conjunction w- introduces subordinate clauses with the sense "while, when, with".
Temporal adverbs such as may be used with the "ma" to form a subordinate clause: .