Arabic Adjectives: 10 Words to Describe Everyday Things

01Start with big and small

These are masculine singular forms. كِتَاب kitab, book, is masculine. Put the description after it:

English places big before book; Arabic reverses that order in this phrase. Swap kabir for saghir to describe a small book. The object stays the same while its description changes.

02Describe age and length

• Use jadid and qadim for a new or old object.
• Use tawil and qasir when you mean length.
• Big and long are different descriptions: a small notebook can still have a long title.

Keep one English meaning beside each card. Qadim here describes the age of a thing; do not assume every adjective has exactly the same uses as its English translation.

03Describe its condition

بَاب bab, door, is masculine. بَاب مَفْتُوح bab maftuh is an open door; بَاب مُغْلَق bab mughlaq is a closed door.

Open and clean describe different features. A door can be open and dirty at the same time. Choose the adjective that answers the detail you actually want to give.

04Match a feminine noun

حَقِيبَة haqiba, bag, is feminine. For the ten adjectives in this lesson, add ة to make the feminine singular form. Compare:

• Kitab takes jadid.
• Haqiba takes jadida.
• The noun’s grammatical gender decides the adjective form, regardless of who owns or describes the object.

This lesson uses singular nouns. Plural agreement and adjectives with other feminine patterns need separate practice.

05A phrase or a statement?

In the descriptive phrase, al appears on both the noun and its adjective. In the second example, the adjective supplies new information about the book. It has no al, and English adds is.

• A new book: kitab jadid.
• The new book: alkitab aljadid.
• The book is new: alkitab jadid.

Say what you mean first, then choose the pattern. Final case endings are not displayed in these short examples; they depend on a word’s grammatical role in a longer sentence.