Nominal sentence foundations practice

Nominal sentence practice with answers

You have read the lessons, so now test the rules on new sentences.

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These eight original questions cover identifying nominal sentences, subject and predicate meaning, agreement, and expansion. Try each one before you open the answer.

This set belongs to the SPM Arabic guide. It also pairs with the one-hour trial class (from RM50) if you want a teacher to review your work with you.

Questions

Question 1. Is this sentence nominal or verbal? المكتبةُ قريبةٌ من المدرسةِ. (The library is near the school.)

Answer

Nominal. The first word المكتبة is a noun. The predicate is قريبة من المدرسة.

Question 2. Is this sentence nominal or verbal? قرأَتْ سلمى القصةَ. (Salma read the story.)

Answer

Verbal. The first word قرأت is a verb, and the doer is سلمى.

Question 3. Name the subject and the predicate: أخي طبيبٌ. (My brother is a doctor.)

Answer

The subject is أخي and the predicate is طبيب. The predicate is a noun telling us who he is.

Question 4. Choose the predicate that fits the meaning: الحليبُ ___ (باردٌ / مفتوحٌ / غاضبٌ).

Answer

باردٌ (cold). Milk can be cold. مفتوح (open) suits a door or a book, and غاضب (angry) suits a person.

Question 5. Correct the agreement: الطالباتُ مجتهدٌ.

Answer

الطالباتُ مجتهداتٌ. The subject is a feminine plural of people, so the predicate takes the feminine plural ending ـات.

Question 6. Correct the agreement: السياراتُ جديدون.

Answer

السياراتُ جديدةٌ. Cars are things, so the plural takes a feminine singular predicate. The ending ـون is for plural people.

Question 7. Expand the subject of البيتُ كبيرٌ (the house is big) with an adjective meaning “new”, keeping the predicate.

Answer

البيتُ الجديدُ كبيرٌ (the new house is big). The adjective الجديد takes ال to match البيت. Writing البيتُ جديدٌ كبيرٌ would give two predicates instead.

Question 8. This sentence has two errors. Find and correct both: الأولادُ الصغيرُ نشيطةٌ.

Answer

الأولادُ الصغارُ نشيطون. The subject الأولاد is a plural of people, so the adjective must be plural (الصغار), and the predicate must be a human plural (نشيطون). The form الصغير is singular, and نشيطة is feminine singular.

If you got these wrong

If questions 1 to 3 caused trouble, review identifying a nominal sentence in context. For question 4, read connecting subject and predicate meaning.

For questions 5, 6 and 8, see checking gender and number agreement. For question 7, go to expanding a simple sentence.

A teacher can build a plan around whichever of these fails most. See online one-to-one Arabic tuition.

Common questions

Should I time myself on this practice set?

Try the first attempt without a timer and aim for accuracy. When you can do questions 1 to 6 without errors, time yourself at about two minutes per question. Note which question types slow you down.

What should I do after opening an answer?

Do not just read it. Cover the answer, redo the question in your own words, and record any mistake in a misconception log. Come back to the same question after a few days and try it again.

Do the questions need vowel marks?

Most questions carry vowel marks so you can focus on the structure. In real passages the marks are often missing, so practise once with the marks covered. If a rule still works without them, you understand it.

Keep going

If the same kind of question keeps going wrong, a one-to-one Arabic teacher can work through your attempts with you and find the pattern behind the errors.

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