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Difference or Disorder?

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE: MORPHOSYNTAX

Note: Sentences marked with an asterisk (*) are not grammatical.

Feature Arabic English Examples of Errors
Word order Subject‐Verb‐Object Strict Subject‐Verb‐ He went Brian to the
(MSA & many Object order school.* /Brian went to
colloquial Arabic school.
dialects)
Possessives Possessor follows ____’s (singular This is the book the
object. noun) teacher. * /This is the
____s’ (plural noun) teacher’s book.
Adjectives Adjective follows Adjective precedes The ball big. */ The big
noun noun ball.
Verb 10 verbal forms: 2 present tense A variety of verb errors,
inflection Each set has its own forms: including unmarked third
set of active and I eat person present:
passive participles You eat
He eats He walk to the store. * /He
Imperfect and We eat walks to the store.
perfect aspect forms You all eat
of each verb also They eat
exist.
Past tense uses the
same form for each
person.
Modal verbs Do not exist Do exist From the possible that I
am late. * /I may be late.
Definite The definite article Definite articles are Alcoffee is ready.*/The
articles “al” is a prefix words that precede coffee is ready.
attached to a noun the noun
Indefinite Do not exist Do exist I gave him sheet of paper.
articles * /I gave him a sheet of
paper.
Question Questions are Word order When I can call you? *
formation marked by a inversion or addition /When can I call you?
question word; no of “do”
change in word
order
Nominal One of the most Less common; I boy.*/I am a boy.
sentence common sentence typically used in
structures rhetoric or casual
speech

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