Valentine's Day

Love starts with H

Before we talk about love in Arabic, we need to learn the Arabic letter H.

There are two Arabic letters for h. A normal h that sounds like an English h. And this emphatic H that is pronounced more forcefully.

In addition to our forceful H, we need to learn the letter b in Arabic, that sounds just like an English b.

Love

If we combine H and b, we can write Hubb, that means love in Arabic. Remember that Arabic is written from right to left.

The loop shape above the letter H is the Arabic vowel u. The wave shape above the letter b is the sign shadda, that means that the letter is doubled.

Darling

Using our letters H and b, we can also write Habiib, that means darling in Arabic.

The line above the letter H is the vowel a. Between the two b, there is the long vowel ii.

Since the word Habiib (darling) describes a person, it exists in both masculine and feminine. We use Habiib when we talk about a man and Habiiba when we talk about a woman.

To love

Now we will use our letters H and b to form a verb. The Arabic verb 'aHabba means he loved.

The present tense of the verb is yuHibbu that means he loves.

The conjugation form that is interesting to us today is 'uHibbu that means I love.

The root of love

Now we have learned theree romantic Arabic words: Hubb (love), Habiib (darling) and 'uHibbu (I love). All three words are related since they share the same root letters. On this website, you can see more words with the root H b b.

Now we will use the words we have learned and create romantic sentences and expressions.

Phrases with love

We start by building three phrases from the word Hubb that means love.

The day of love

The Arabic word 3iid means holiday. I have devoted an entire blog post to word 3iid.

By combining 3iid (holiday) and Hubb (love), we get 3iidu l-Hubb that literally means holiday of the love. That is the Arabic expression for Valentine's Day.

Love letter

The Arabic word risaala means letter.

By combining risaala (letter) and Hubb (love), we get risaalatu Hubbin that literally means letter of love, in other words love letter.

In the love letter, we can write for example "you are my life" or "you are my heart". But we will get to those phrases later.

Love poem

The Arabic word qaSiida means poem.

By combining qaSiida (poem) and Hubb (love), we get qaSiidatu Hubbin that literally means poem of love, in other words love poem.

The Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani was famous for his love poems. On this website, you find many of his poems that you can use to learn Arabic, for example the romantic poem Orchard.

Now we have learned three new Arabic phrases: Valentine's Day, love letter and love poem. All these phrases are examples of idafa that are Arabic word combinations used to express ownership.

You are my darling

Now we will build a sentence of the word Habiib that means darling.

If you have read the blog post about Drake's song in Arabic, you know that Habiibii och Habiibatii means my darling. You use the version Habiibii when your darling is a man, and the version Habiibatii when your darling is a woman.

The Arabic pronoun 'anta means you. It is used when talking to a man.

By combining 'anta (you) and Habiibii (my darling), we get the sentence 'anta Habiibii that means you are my darling. You use this sentence if your darling is a man.

The Arabic pronoun 'anti means you. It is used when talking to a woman.

By combining 'anti (you) and Habiibatii (my darling), we get the sentence 'anti Habiibatii that means you are my darling. You use this sentence if your darling is a woman.

Now we have learned that you are my darling in Arabic is 'anta Habiibii for a man and 'anti Habiibatii for a woman. Note that there is no verb in the Arabic sentences. The verb "is" is implied in this type of sentence, that is called nominal sentence where the predicate is a single word.

I love you

Let's return to the verb 'uHibbu that means I love.

This verb requires a subject, ie we need to specify who or what we love. Since Valentine's Day is coming up, it is a good idea to create the sentence I love you.

The sentence 'uHibbuka that means I love you is a combination of the verb 'uHibbu that means I love and ka that means you. You use this sentence when speaking to a man. If you speak to a woman, you only need to change the last vowel.

The sentence 'uHibbuki that means I love you is a combination of the verb 'uHibbu that means I love and ki that means you.

Note that ka (you, masculine) and ki (you, feminine ) are suffigated pronouns which means they are attached to the verb.

The pronouns 'anta (you, subject form) and ka (you, object form) are used when speaking to a man. When speaking to a woman, you use 'anti (you, subject form) and ki (you, object form). The vowel a denotes masculine while the vowel i denotes feminine in the context of pronouns. In Arabic dialect, the final vowels are not pronounced, so we simply say 'uHibbuk regardless of the gender of the person we love.

I love you a lot

The Arabic word jiddan means very.

By combining our sentence 'uHibbuki (I love you) with the word jiddan (very), we get the new sentence 'uHibbuki jiddan that means I love you a lot.

You use the version 'uHibbuki jiddan when you speak to a woman. When you speak to a man, you say 'uHibbuka jiddan instead.

Intense love

Here is a sentence that is interesting to us that loves Arabic grammar.

The sentence can be translated to I love you intensely. However, it literally means I love you (with) an intense love.

The sentence starts with the verb 'uHibbuki that we are familiar with, we know that it means I love you. After that comes the Arabic word for love that we also know well: Hubb. Note that it does not say Hubb but Hubban, since the word functions as a cognate object. The sentence is ended with the word shadiidan that means intense or strong.

Note that the sentence is used when speaking to a woman. If you want to speak to a man, you say 'uHibbuka Hubban shadiidan instead.

You are my...

We finish this blog post with some suggestions of sentences that you can say to the person you love on Valentine's Day, or that you can write in a love letter.

All sentences follow the same structure. They start with the pronoun 'anta that means I.

If you speak to a woman, you just change 'anta to 'anti.

After that, you add a noun that expresses something nice. In our examples, we have qalb that means heart, ruuH that means soul, qadar that means destiny, Hayaa that means life and 3uyuun that means eyes.

In the end of the noun, you add the long vowel ii. In this case, ii fuctions as a suffigated pronoun that means my.

After the words Hayaa that means life, you should add tii instead of ii. This is because the word ends in ta marbuta, that is a letter that normally denotes feminine. The word Habiiba (darling, feminine) also ends in ta marbuta, that is why Habiibatti (my darling, feminine) ends in tii.

Now we are ready to look at the sentences. They are in the carousel below. Feel free to scroll and be inspired!

A lot about love

Below is a summary of the words and phrases about love that we have learned. You can also find them on this website, in category love, along with even more words and phrases related to love.