Arabic vocabulary
How to say “to be” in Arabic, with pronunciation and real example sentences from OpenArabic texts.
وَكُونُوا عِبَادَ اللَّهِ إخْوَانًا،
and be, O servants of Allah, brothers.
وَكُونُوا — and be. A plural command from the verb 'to be', 'be [all of you]', the plural 'you' carried in the '-u' ending. Like its singular, it throws the following description into the accusative.
From: Brotherhood in Islam →كأنها رضيت بهم ورضوا بها وهذا أبلغ من مجرد كونها مرضية فقط
As if it pleased them and they were pleased with it, and this is more expressive than merely being satisfactory.
كَوْنِهَا — being. A verbal noun 'being' with -ha (its) attached, the owned noun of 'the mere being of it', in the genitive. The attached -ha refers to the life; the phrase names the bare fact of its being so-and-so.
From: Creating Life from Nothing →ونبه سبحانه بكونه دافقًا على أنه ضعيف غير متماسك
And He, glorified is He, indicated by its being gushing that it is weak and not solid.
بِكَوْنِهِ — by its being. A preposition bi- fused onto a verbal noun carrying -hi (its), 'by its being'. The bi- marks the means of the hinting and forces the genitive; the attached -hi refers to the fluid, and the verbal noun names its state.
From: Creating Life from Nothing →إذا علم العبد أن كل ما يجري في الكون بقضاء الله وقدره،
When a servant knows that everything that occurs in the universe is by the decree of God and His destiny,
الكَوْنِ — the universe. The place named after 'in', 'the universe', carrying the genitive ending the preposition requires. Its 'the' makes it the one definite cosmos.
From: Trusting God's Decree →OpenArabic teaches words like كون through real bilingual reading with native audio and spaced-repetition practice.
Get the app