The grammatical information about elements of text in your native language will help you when you start translating the Arabic text of Qur'aan. In Arabic, a true adjective is a subordinate word indicating a meaning in its principle. The important points to memorize:
(a) In Arabic, the noun comes first. The one being described must come first; it is called الْمُوصُوفُ and also الْمَنْعُوتُ-the one who is described-portrayed. In the above Adjectival Phrase
is the مُوْصُوف-the one who is described-portrayed adjectively.
(b) The adjective follows the Noun. The description must come second; it is called الصِّفَةُ/adjective. It indicates a meaning in its principle without exception meaning without restrictions, like that of time or other restrictions. It functions as qualitative portrayal of the mentioned noun. Adjective's meaning is not for itself, rather its meaning is found in the noun which it modifies. Most often it is a derivative.
: the appositive subordinate; الصِّفَةُ/adjective in Adjectival Phrase.
(c) We observed that the ending of both the Noun-مُوْصُوف and the Adjective-صِفَةٌ are in genitive case [ـِ]. It is thus obvious that the grammatical case of the Noun is determined by external factors and the case of Adjective will always match it. This is important visible sign to visually recognize Adjectival Phrase. We see another Phrase with same words but different case ending:
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. The adjective has matching nominative [ُ ] case ending with its Noun.
(d) Unlike Possessive Phrase, both the Nouns are visibly definite. The Noun and Adjective must correspond in definiteness. Both should either be definite or indefinite.
I place before you in isolation two words and request you to tell as to what they are without consulting a dictionary:
If you effortlessly tell me that both
words are nouns and they constitute an
Adjectival Phrase it will indicate that you have
completely grasped and attained the skill to
visually recognize words and the Adjectival
Phrase. We have effortlessly recognized both
words as definite nouns by finding that both
have prefixed
.
Our brain effortlessly ruled out
that they are a Possessive Phrase because in
Possessive Phrase neither the first Noun carries
nor the second noun has any other state-ending
except genitive
[ـِ].
On finding both matching in case ending and
definiteness, we adjudged the pair as Adjectival
Phrase.
Encouraged by the interest and wisdom of you the reader, we see another pair of words in isolation:
Wonderful, you are absolutely right; both are
nouns and constitute an Adjectival Phrase. We
instantly recognized them as nouns because of
nominative ـُـُ,
tanwīn
at their end which is unique determiner of the
noun. Barring Proper Nouns-names of persons,
this is the default case of the Nouns and
indicator of their indefiniteness. We instantly
recognized that they are not constituents of a
Possessive Phrase because its first noun never
has tanwīn and its second noun never has
state other than genitive
[ـِ].
We adjudged it as Adjectival Phrase because both
match in indefiniteness and case ending.
We read in English grammar that an adjective also functions to specify a noun. When both the nouns in Adjectival Phrase are indefinite, the benefit of adjective is specification of the modified noun-الْمُوصُوفُ.
We have not as yet learnt to recognize another two aspects of a Noun which are otherwise well known to us; that a noun has gender and plurality. In Arabic, a noun is either masculine or feminine. Similarly a noun is either singular, dual or plural. In the Possessive Phrase the first and the second noun worry about their own gender and plurality. But in an Adjectival Phrase the adjective/الصِّفَةُ will be masculine if the Noun-الْمُوصُوفُ is masculine. And if the Noun is feminine the Adjective will also be feminine. Similarly if the Noun is singular, the adjective will also be singular and it will respectively be dual or plural if the noun is dual or plural. Let us see two examples:
Adjectival Phrase; singular, masculine genitive noun and corresponding adjective singular masculine.
Adjectival Phrase; plural, feminine noun and corresponding adjective plural feminine.
Yes, you are right in telling me that the adjective in English remains the same while the noun it describes can be of any gender, plurality, or definiteness. In Arabic, both parts of the Adjectival Phrase match in gender, plurality, definiteness and inflection-case ending. This aspect facilitates the effortless visual perception of the Adjectival Phrase in the Qur'aan that enhances the comprehension; level of understanding of text.
Recap
(a) In Arabic, the noun comes first. The one being described must come first; it is called الْمُوصُوفُ and also الْمَنْعُوتُ-the one who is described-portrayed.
(b) The adjective follows the Noun. The description must come second; it is called الصِّفَةُ/adjective. It indicates a meaning in its principle without exception meaning without restrictions, like that of time or other restrictions. It functions as qualitative portrayal of the mentioned noun. Adjective's meaning is not for itself, rather its meaning is found in the noun which it modifies. Most often it is a derivative. However, when both the nouns in Adjectival Phrase are indefinite the benefit of adjective is specification of the noun.
(c) The grammatical case of the Noun is determined by external factors and the case of Adjective will always match it.
(d) The Noun and Adjective must correspond in definiteness. Both should either be definite or indefinite.
(e) The Noun and Adjective must correspond in gender. Both should either be masculine or feminine.
(f) The Noun and Adjective must correspond in plurality. Both should either be singular, dual or plural.