Better than: saying more, with min

Arabic compares two things with a word of comparison, then min from lesson 3. This lesson teaches that, and eight common nouns, two of which are themselves words of comparison.

The new words

Two of them, aḥad and faḍl, carry the religion in the Qur’ān's use of them: the course gives no meaning of its own for either, and you read them in the verses, with the edition's meaning beside them.

Better than

Khayr is "good" and, when it compares with min, "better".

Khayrun is the third word of this verse, and min is the fourth: khayrun min, "better than". The corpus marks khayr masculine singular and nominative, with tanwīn, and marks laylah, the noun it is said of, feminine: compared with min, it stays masculine singular.

This sentence was written for practice. Hādhā l-baytu khayrun min dhālika: "this house", then "better than", then "that one".

A pattern for more

The usual word of comparison is built on a pattern with a- in front of the root: a before the first letter, and a between the last two. From the root k-th-r, of kathīr in lesson 21, comes akthar: "more" and "most".

Aktharuhum is akthar and hum: "most of them". The corpus marks it masculine singular, nominative. Before min, akthar is "more"; with a pronoun joined to it, as here, it is "most", and no min follows.

A word read in the verses

Aḥadun: the corpus marks it indefinite, nominative. Lam, from lesson 4, is two words before it in the verse.

Like, as a noun

Lesson 10 taught ka-, "like", joined to the front of a word. Mithl says the same as a noun of its own, and joins what follows as an iḍāfah or takes a pronoun.

Mithluhā is mithlu and hā, "it" or "her". The corpus marks mithl masculine, nominative.

Mathal is another noun from the same root, m-th-l: "a likeness" or "an example".

Mathalu: the corpus marks it nominative. It has no tanwīn, because it is the first noun of an iḍāfah.

Three nouns

ʿAmal, "deed" or "work", is the noun of ʿamila from lesson 7.

Aʿmālahum is aʿmāla and hum: the corpus gives it the lemma ʿamal, and marks it masculine plural, accusative. It is a broken plural.

Ajrun, indefinite and nominative.

Faḍlu, nominative, with no tanwīn: it is the first noun of an iḍāfah.

Reading

واژه‌هایی که پس از این درس به‌طور کامل می‌شناسید نشانه‌گذاری شده‌اند.

Recall

• Which small word follows a word of comparison when it compares two things?
• What pattern does akthar have?
• What is mithl, beside ka-?

Answers: min; a- in front of the root, and a between its last two letters; a noun, where ka- is joined to the word after it.

Next

The last lesson of this stage teaches how a sentence with a verb is ordered, and eight more words read in the verses.