ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Seṭ and aniṭ roots

Okay, let's pretend you are a little kid and I'm going to explain to you about "seṭ and aniṭ roots."

So, imagine you want to grow a tomato plant. You need two things: a seed and soil. The seed is like a root word, and the soil is like the Arabic language.

In Arabic, there are two types of root words for verbs, called 'seṭ' and 'aniṭ'. The seṭ root word is strong and stable, like a big tree that has deep roots. The aniṭ root word is weak and fragile, like a little seed that needs lots of care to grow.

To use these root words, we add letters and accents to them, like adding water and fertilizer to soil, to create new words with different meanings. For example, the "seṭ" root word "ktb" means "to write" and we can make different words like "maktub" which means "written."

The "aniṭ" root word "kataba" also means "to write," but it is weaker than "ktb." We can make different words like "kutiba" which means "it was written."

So, basically, 'seṭ and aniṭ roots' are like the strong and weak roots of a plant, and we use them to make new words in the Arabic language.