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Notes
- Adjectival sentence structure
- Exclamatory sentences
- Pronouns as subjects
- Nouns as subjects
- Additional modifications
Adjectival sentences are descriptive sentences where the subject (a noun or pronoun) is described by an adjective.
Adjectival sentence structure
The adjectival sentence structure is adjective-subject. Begin the sentence with the masculine singular form of the adjective (even if the subject is feminine and/or plural), and follow it with the subject:
๐ง๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐ญ๐ dลกr jrtj.f “His eyes are red.”
Note that the primary adjective ๐ nb “each, every, all” can only be used to modify a noun and cannot stand as a predicate itself. If you wanted to say something like “She is everything”, you would have to make a nominal sentence “She is all things”, with “things” as the predicate and “all” as its modifier.
Exclamatory sentences
If you use the masculine dual form of the adjective instead of the singular, the sentence becomes exclamatory; it changes in literal meaning from “X is Y” to “X is doubly Y!”
๐ง๐๐๐
๐ฒ๐ญ๐น๐๐ญ๐ dลกrwj jrtj.f “How red his eyes are!”, “His eyes are so red!”
(lit. “His eyes are doubly red.”)
Pronouns as subjects
If a sentence with an adjectival predicate is in first person, the sentence is not structured as an adjectival sentence at all; it is structured as an A-B nominal sentence instead, with the independent pronoun followed by the correctly declined adjective:
๐๐กโ๐๐โ๐๐โ๐๐ jnk jqr.t “I am excellent” (if speaker is feminine).
If the sentence is in second or third person, then it is structured as an adjectival sentence, but the pronoun must be the dependent pronoun.
๐ค๐๐๐๐ญ
nfr sj “She is beautiful”
๐ค๐๐๐ฒ๐ญ๐๐ญ nfrwj sj “How beautiful she is!”
Nouns as subjects
Anything that acts like a noun can be the subject of an adjectival sentence, including other adjectives functioning as nouns, or noun phrases, including where the noun is described by additional adjectives or pronouns.
๐๐โ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฒ๐๐ฅ๐
jqr dลกr.wt “the red ones are excellent”
๐ค๐๐๐ฒ๐ญ๐
ญ๐๐๐๐ป๐๐
nfrwj z๊ฃt.f snn.wt “his second daughter is so beautiful!”
When the subject is a noun, the sentence is often said with the appropriate personal pronoun as the subject instead, and then the noun in apposition to the pronoun:
๐ค๐๐๐๐ญ๐๐โ๐๐ nfr sj แธฅjmt.j “She is beautiful, my wife.”
Additional modifications
The word wrt “very” can go after the adjective, before the subject. This word has a feminine .t even though the adjectival predicate is always in masculine form.
๐ค๐๐๐ จ๐๐๐๐โ๐๐ nfr wrt แธฅjmt.j “My wife is very beautiful.”
A comparative phrase beginning with r, like when forming a comparative with a modifier adjective, can be used, but here it goes after the subject:
๐ค๐๐๐๐โ๐๐๐๐๐
ฑ๐๐๐ช๐๐ฅ nfr แธฅjmt.j r zwt nbt
“My wife is more beautiful than all (other) women.”
Summary: Pronominal subjects in adjectival1 sentences
Person | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
1st masc. | ๐๐กโ๐๐ค๐๐ jnk nfr “I am good (m-sg.)” | ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ค๐๐๐ช jnn nfr.w “We are good (m-pl.)” |
1st fem. | ๐๐กโ๐๐ค๐๐๐โ jnk nfr.t “I am good (f.)” | ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ค๐๐โ๐๐ฅ jnn nfr.t “We are good (f.)” |
2nd masc. | ๐ค๐๐โ๐๐ ฑ nfr แนฏw “you (m.) are good” | ๐ค๐๐๐๐๐ฅ nfr แนฏn “you (pl.) are good” |
2nd fem. | ๐ค๐๐โ๐๐ nfr แนฏn “you (f.) are good” | |
3rd masc. | ๐ค๐๐๐๐ ฑ nfr sw “he/it is good” | ๐ค๐๐๐ดโ๐๐ฅ nfr sn “they are good” |
3rd fem. | ๐ค๐๐๐๐ญ nfr sj “she/it is good” | |
3rd comm. | ๐ค๐๐๐๐ nfr st “it/they are good” |
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