Learn Arabic › A1 › سَفِينَة
سَفِينَة
ship /saˈfiːna/
nounA1#548 most common
Also: vessel, ark, boat
Example sentences
السَّفِينَةُ كَبِيرَةٌ.
The ship is big.
رَكِبْنَا السَّفِينَةَ إِلَى الجَزِيرَةِ.
We boarded the ship to the island.
غَادَرَتِ السَّفِينَةُ المِينَاءَ فِي الصَّبَاحِ البَاكِرِ.
The ship left the port early in the morning.
اِصْطَدَمَتِ السَّفِينَةُ بِصَخْرَةٍ وَبَدَأَتْ تَغْرَقُ بِبُطْءٍ.
The ship hit a rock and slowly began to sink.
تُبْحِرُ السُّفُنُ التِّجَارِيَّةُ عَبْرَ قَنَاةِ السُّوَيْسِ حَامِلَةً آلَافَ الحَاوِيَاتِ.
Merchant ships sail through the Suez Canal carrying thousands of containers.
لَوْلَا مَهَارَةُ الرُّبَّانِ لَغَرِقَتِ السَّفِينَةُ بِمَنْ فِيهَا وَسْطَ العَاصِفَةِ الهَوْجَاءِ.
Were it not for the captain's skill, the ship and all aboard would have sunk amid the raging storm.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | سَفِينَةٌ | سُفُنٌ |
| Genitive | سَفِينَةٍ | سُفُنٍ |
| Accusative | سَفِينَةً | سُفُنًا |
| Vocative | يَا سَفِينَةُ | يَا سُفُنُ |
Word family
سُفُنships (plural)
سَفَائِنships, vessels (plural)
سَفَّانboatman; shipwright
سُفَيْنَةlittle boat (diminutive)
Etymology
سَفِينَة comes from the Semitic root س-ف-ن (s-f-n), tied to the sense of scraping or planing wood. Classical lexicographers linked the ship to this root through the idea of a hull that skims and scrapes the surface of the water. The word is old and shared across Semitic languages, and it appears in the Quran.
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