Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

7. The Shadda

The Shadda is used when you have two identical consonants in a sequence, providing that the first has aSukuun (zero vowel).

دَرْرَسَ          is written as  دَرَّسَ

8. The Sun Letters.

Due to a Phonological rule, the /ل / sound of the definite article is assimilated by any of the following sun consonants. Therefore, you need to use Shadda to replace the assimilated /ل /. The Sun Letters are:

ت ث د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ن   الدَّرسُ

9. The Moon Letters

The Moon Letters have the definite article fully pronounced. They are:

ب ج ح خ ع غ ف ق ك ل م هـ      الکتابُ                

10. Arabic Syntax.

According to Siibawayh words are nounإسم , verbفِعل , or particleحَرف intended for items which are neither noun nor verb. The basic difference between the three parts is the declension, الأعراب .In principle, only nouns and their adjectives have case endings to indicate their syntactic function in a sentence. This classification remained intact throughout the history of the Arabic grammatical traditions. The noun category was defined either as a word with certain syntactic characteristics such as its combinability with the definite article or as a word denoting an essence. Unlike the definition of the noun in Western grammar, the Arabic noun category includes adjectives, pronouns and even a number of prepositions and adverbs. The category of the verb was defined as a word that denotes an action and could be combined with some particles. The particle category includes the remaining words, and their function is to assist other words in their semantic function in the sentence.

11. The Definite Article in Arabic.

A noun or adjective is made definite by prefixing (الـ ) to it.

  a.  an old house     بيتٌ قديمٌ

  b. the old house    البيتُ قديمٌ

12. The Arabic Morphology.

At a very early date, the Arab grammarians invented a notation for the morphological patterns التصريف , which represented the three root radicalsفعل For those grammarians, the task of morphology was the breakdown of words into radical and auxiliary consonantsالزوائد . The grammarians set up methods to identify the radicals, of which the most important wasالاشتقاق , the comparison of the form under scrutiny with morphologically-related words with the same semantic content. In line with the idea of the purity of the language, the semantic extension of an existing word was regarded as the most appropriate device for expansion of the lexicon. The model for this procedure was believed to have been given by the language of the Qur'an itself. Semantic extension became an accepted method of creating new terminology.

13. The Feminine Marker.

As in many other languages, any Arabic noun/adjective has to be either masculine or feminine. With few exceptions, the general rule is to suffix the Taa' MarbuTa (ـة/ة ) to the masculine noun/adjective forms to derive the feminine ones. Examples are:

    nouns استاذ/استاذة ، مراسل/مراسلة ، طالب/طالبة

adjectives قديم/قديمة، جميل/جميلة   ، جديد/جديدة

However, you need to remember that the Taa' Marbuta (ـة/ة ) is used in certain ancient Arabic male proper names such as:

طلحة ، معاوية ، حمزة

Also, it is used on some broken plural patterns such as:

 (giant ) عملاق/عمالقة ( professor/s) استاذ/استاذة

14. The Personal pronouns

The Personal pronouns are used to replace nouns. The following is a list of the singular (1-5) and plural forms (6-10):

 . نحن6     انا1    

.انتم7   انتَ2

8.انتنََّ    . انتِ3

. هُم 9     هو4

10. هُنَّ   هي5

15. All countries, towns, villages, etc.

All countries, towns, villages, etc. are treated as feminine. The exceptions to this rule are six Arab countries. These are:

الکويت , لُبنان , السودان , العراق , الأردُن , المغرب

16. Definiteness in Arabic.

As you might have noticed in the phrases in point #11 above, adjectives in Arabic usually follow nouns and agree with them in terms of number, gender, case, and definiteness/indefiniteness.

a. small book    کتابٌ صغيرٌ

 b. the small book  الکتابُ صغيرٌ

If an adjective completely agrees with its noun in every aspect, then you have a phrase, as in examples (a) and (b) below. However, if a noun (subject) is definite and its adjective (predicate) is indefinite you have a sentence, as in (c).

(a) a new house                 بيتٌ جديدٌ

(b) the new house          البيتُ الجديدُ

(c) The house is newالبيتُ جديدٌ       

17. The Nisba

The Nisba is an adjective that is created from a noun. The most common are those that refer to origin, nationality or country. The main device for making such adjectives from nouns is to suffix  (يٌّ ) for masculine and (يَّة ٌ ) for feminine to the noun. The noun must be first stripped off (a) the definite article,  (b) feminine suffix, or (c) final position long vowel.

a.عراقيَّة ،   عراقيٌّ ، ( العراق )

b.سعوديَّة ،   سعوديٌّ ، ( السعودية )

c.سوريَّة ،   سوريٌّ ، ( سوريا )

18. Long vowel to a Diphthong.

If any of the two long vowelو , ا   is proceeded by the short vowel–َ   , the long vowel changes its character to a diphthong:

uu --->  ou    دَور ، دور   

 ii   --->  ei   دَين     ، دين

19. The Possessive pronouns

The Possessive pronouns are suffixed to nouns to express possession and, consequently, make them definite.

my house, your (f) house, our house    ،  بَيتي ، بَيتُكِ      بَيتُنا

The following is a list of the personal pronouns (singular 1-5 and plural 6-10), and their corresponding possessive ones:

  6. نحن  ـنا            1. انا    ـي

2. انتَ  ـكَ          7. انتم   ـکم

3. انتِ  ـكِ          8. انتنَّ  ـکنَّ

4. هو    ـهُ          9. هم  ـهُم

5. هي   ـها         10. هنَّ   ـهنَّ

20. Sentences in Arabic.

The closest equivalent in Arabic grammar to the Western notion of a 'sentence' is جملة , a syntactically complete string of words that expresses a semantically complete message. In a sentence, there is always one head word that relays or determines the sentential functions resulting in markers in the form of case endings. According to the Western analysis of Arabic sentence structure , there are two

types of sentence: nominal and verbal. The Arab Grammarians differ and suggest three types.

(a)  الجملة الفعلية The verbal sentence is the basic sentence. Its order is(object)<--- subject <--- verb. In this type of sentence, a verb is marked by the gender of its subject.

(b)  الجملة الاسمية The Nominal Sentence is where the subject takes an initial position for emphatic purposes, followed by the verb, (object)<---  verb <--- subject . Consequently, the verb is marked by the number and gender of its subject.

(c)  جملة المبتدأ والخبر The Equational Sentence is made of a subject and a predicate without any expressed verb. The verb "to be" is understood, predicate<--- subject . Both the subject and the predicate have to be in the nominative case.

21. The Vocative Particle يا 

The Vocative Particle يا  is limited for use with people only. The noun it is used with becomes definite, and therefore would carry a short vowel, not Nunation.

 يا استاذ ُ!   O, professor!

22. Idaafa  الاضافة

The Idaafa structure is usually made of two or more nouns that are semantically related and in a sequence. Sometimes it sounds like a sort of "possessive" relationship, where English could use "of" or "'s" .The first term of the Idaafa might be in any case andshould not take Nunation or a definite article. The Second term of the Idaafa, on the other hand, is always in the genitive case and may take Nunation or a definite article.

the language professor:

استاذ ُ اللغةِ    ،    استاذ َ اللغةِ   ،   استاذِ اللغةِ

 a language professor:  

استاذ ُ لغةٍ      ،    استاذ َ لغةٍ     ،   استاذ ِ لغةٍ

If you encounter a cluster of nouns, then you should try to find out if it is an Idaafa structure.

23. The Simple Idaafa

The Simple Idaafa is made of two nouns. The Complex Idaafa is made of 3 or more. As expected, such sequences will create a Syntactical Environment where some nouns will play double grammatical functions.

 a. the university building            بناءُ الجامعةِ

  b. the door of the university building بابُ بناءِ الجامعةِ         

24. The Diptotes

The Diptotes is a category of proper names of individuals, countries, cities, and towns. These nouns share the following characteristics:

a. They do not take the definite article.

b. In spite of the absence of the definite article, they do not        take Nunation.

c. In the genitive case they take the accusative case marker          instead.

 a. Omer's hobbies               هواياتُ عمرَ

 b. from Baghdad              من بغدادَ    

25. Demonstrative Pronouns.

The use of "this/that & these/those" in Arabic is determined by the number and gender of the noun/adjective they introduce.

a. Singulars are      (f)   هذهِ ، (f) ، هذا  ،    تلك      ذلكَ

b. Plurals are          هؤلاءِ  ، أولئكَ          ( no gender distinction)

26. The Equational Sentences.

As indicated earlier, an equational sentence in Arabic is a sentence without a verb. It consists of two parts, a subject and a predicate. The subject could be (a) a demonstrative pronoun, (b) a personal pronoun, or (c) a noun, while the predicate may be either of these, as well as (c) an adjective, (d) an adverb, or (e) a prepositional phrase.

(a) a subject demonstrative pronoun            .هذهِ کليَّة ٌ

(b) a subject personal pronoun                    . أنا محمدٌ

(c) a subject noun                      الاستاذ ُ في الصفِّ.

(a) a predicate personal pronoun                الاستاذ ُ أنا .

(b) a predicate noun                           . الاستاذ ُ محمدّ ٌ

(c) a predicate indefinite adjective       الاستاذ ُ جديدٌ .

(d) a predicate adverb                         الاستاذ ُهناكَ .

 (e) a predicate prep. phrase          الاستاذ ُ فِي المکتبِ.

 A pronoun of separation could be added in example (b) above, where both the subject and the predicate are nouns.

الاستاذ ُ هو محمدّ ٌ.

27. Interrogative Particles.  أ / هل

Interrogative Particles.  أ / هل are interrogative particles which are used to introduce questions that may be answered with either Yes or No.

أ ؟هل هذا مکتبٌ؟   

               Is this an office?

There is some phonological restriction on the use of أ when the following word starts with a Hamza, such as:

أأنتَ جديدٌ هنا؟         

It is better, in fact easier phonetically, to use هل

هل أنتَ جديدٌ هنا؟        

28. Indefinite Noun Subject.

You cannot start a sentence in Arabic with an indefinite noun subject. Under such circumstances, the subject needs to be moved inside the sentence and, therefore, will take the predicate position, not its syntactical function.

في الصفِّ طالباتٌ مصرياتٌ.

There are Egyptian students (f) in the classroom.

29. Negating Equational Sentences.

This type of Arabic sentence is negated by using  ليسَ. Remember that the predicate noun or adjective has to be in the accuasative case.

The professor is not Egyptian.        ليسَ الاستاذ ُ مصريَّاً.

30. The Subject markers

The Subject markers for verbs in the past tense are suffixed to the verb stem in order to demonstrate subject/verb agreement.

They are:

هو (-َ) ، هي (ـَتْ) ، أنتَ  (ـْتَ)  ، أنتِ (ـْتِ) ، أنا (ـْتُ)

هُم  (ـوا) ، هنَّ (-ْنَ) ، أنتم (ـْتُم) ، أنتُنَّ (ـْـتُنَّ) ، نحنُ (ـْـنا)

31. The Different Forms of   ليسَ When subject pronouns are attached to ليسَ, it will take the following forms:

أنا    لستُ              نحنُ    لسنا

أنتَ  لستَ              أنتم     لستُم

أنتِ  لستِ              أنتُنَّ    لستُنَّ

هو   ليسَ               هم      ليسوا

هي  ليسَتْ              هُنَّ     لسنَ

32. Interrogative Particles أ / هل   (revisited).

The Arabic language does not tolerate the use of  هل  with any form of   ليسَ  in order to make a question. You have to stick with أ

أليسَ الطالبُ في المکتبةِ؟

Isn't the student (m) in the library?

33. The Idaafa (revisited).

Arabic grammar does not allow anything to be placed between the first and second term of Idaafa except for a demonstrative pronoun. Therefore,

(a) the student’s book               کتابُ الطالبةِ

is correct and

(b) this student’s book      کتابُ هذهِ الطالبةِ

is also correct.  But,

(c)کتابُها الطالبة ِ

is incorrect due to the fact that the possessive pronoun (ـها ) is inserted between the first and second terms of Idaafa.

34. Verb-Subject Agreement.

A verb that proceeds its subject is marked by gender only. If it follows its subject it should be marked by both number and gender.

The students (f) went to the dorm.  ذهبتِ الطالباتُ الی السکن ِ.   

The students (f) went to the dorm.   الطالباتُ ذهبنَ الی السکن ِ.

35. A Transitive Verb

 (a) requires  an object; intransitive (b) does not.

a. I ate an apple.                                      أکلتُ تُفاحة ً.

b. I went to the university.        ذهبتُ إلی الجامعةِ.

36. Helping Vowels

Helping Vowels replace the Zero Vowel when the following word starts with Hamza. Therefore, an environment for using a helping vowel will be created every time one uses a definite article. The purpose of this Phonological Rule is to provide a smooth transition from one word to the next. Generally speaking, this transition is governed by the following rules.

    a. If the proceeding vowel is FatHa the helping vowel is Kasra.

Is the book new?    (هَلْ ) هَل ِ الکتابُ جديدٌ؟

b. If the proceeding vowel is Kasra, the helping vowel is FatHa.

This pencil is from the office.     مِنَ المکتَبِ.    هذا القلمُ (مِنْ)

c. If the proceeding vowel is Dhamma, the helping vowel is Dhamma.

لماذا (قابَلتـُمْ) قابَلتـُمُ المديرَةَ؟                                      

                     Why did you (m, pl) meet the director (f)?

37. Object Pronouns.

You remember what was mentioned earlier that possessive pronouns are suffixed to nouns. Now, I would like to remind you that object pronouns are suffixed to the verbs. Please, notice the difference of the pronouns in the following sentences:

a. (Possessive Pronoun)     کتابُها علی الطاولةِ.

b. (Object Pronoun)شاهدتُها في السوقِ.

38. The word ما

The word ما has different meanings, depending on the context. It could mean "what," and in this case you are expected to have a demonstarative pronoun or a definite noun following it.

What is this?          ما هذا؟

                   What is his job?                     ما عملـُهُ؟

When the question word  ما is followed by a verb in the past tense, it changes its own function to a negation particle.

I did not eat at this restaurant. ما أکلتُ في هذا المطعم.

39. The Cluster Buster.

Generally speaking, Arabic does not tolerate three or more consonant clusters. The common practice to deal with such a phonological environment is to insert a short or long vowel in between. We mentioned earlier the use of the short helping vowel. A good example for the use of a long vowel is when we have an attached object pronoun for transitive verbs which have أنتم   as a subject. Notice the use of the long vowel (و ) to break the cluster in the following sentences:

شاهدتـُموها في السوق ِ.

You (mp) saw her in the market.

قابلتـُمونا في المقهی.

You (mp) met us in the cafe.

علمتـُموهُ العربية َ.

You (mp) taught him Arabic.

40. Negation of Past Tense Verbs.

There are two methods to negate the verbs in past tense. The easy way is by usingما before the verb. The other is to use the negation particleلم ¸ followed by the jussive form of the verb.

We didn’t watch/see this movie.  ما شاهَدنا هذا الفلمَ.

لم نُشاهِدْ هذا الفلمَ.

41.  هُنا / هُناكَ

هُنا / هُناكَ are nouns that can also be used as adverbs.

(a) There is a student (f) in the classroom. هُناكَ طالبة ٌ في الصفِّ.

(b) The new book is here.   الکتابُ الجديدُ هُنا.    

42.  کُلُّ

کُلُّ  is a noun that will be a first term of Idaafa and could mean "every/each" if it is followed by a singular indefinite noun. If the singular noun is definite, کُلُّ  would mean "all/whole". If it is used after a noun, then it should carry its corresponding pronoun suffix and its function becomes emphatic.

a. I read every book!    قرأتُ کُلَّ کتابٍ.                      

b. I read the whole book.    قرأتُ کُلَّ الکتابِ.                    

 c. I read the book, all of it.          قرأتُ الکتابَ کـُلـَّهُ                   

However, if  کـُلُّ is followed by a plural noun, that noun should be definite and both create Idaafa. Check the following sentences:

حضرَ کلُّ الموظفينَ

All the employees (m) came.

حضرَ کلُّ موظفي المکتبِ.

All the office employees (m) came.

43. The conjunction (  و)

The conjunction (  و) changes to( أو ) when the sentence is negated.

I like coffee and tea.                      أحِبُّ القهوةَ والشايَ.

Neither do I like coffee nor teaلا أحِبُّ القهوةَ أوالشايَ.      .

44. Definiteness in Arabic (Revisited)

You should know by

now that a noun or an adjective in Arabic is made definite by one of the following methods:

a. a definite article

b. following the vocative particle

c. a possessive pronoun

d. by relating it to a definite noun in Idaafa structure

45. Emphasis/Contrast

Since verb form indicates the person,

gender, and number of the subject any use of a subject pronoun is considered redundant. If, however, you want to emphasize or contrast two objects Arabic allows you to use the subject pronoun in such a linguistic environment.

أنا ذهبتُ إلی المکتبةِ وهُم ذهبوا إلی المطعم ِ.

I went to the library and they went to the restaurant.

46. The Defacto Case of the Noun and Adjective

The Defacto Case of the Noun and Adjective in Arabic isNominative. A noun case is changed toaccusative if it becomes an object of a verb (There are other cases where a noun should carry the accusative case marker. Check Kaana & Inna points). A noun is said to be in thegenitive case if it follows a preposition

or it is a second term of Idaafa. No matter what is the case of the noun, the adjective will follow, marked by the same case.

The Egyptian man is in his house.           الرجُلُ المِصريُّ في بَيِتِهِ.

I saw the Egyptian man.                         شاهدتُ الرجُلَ المصريَّ.

I said hello to the Egyptian man.  سلـَّمتُ علی الرجُل ِ المصريِّ.

47. لِماذا (why)

لِماذا (why) has to be followed by a verb because it asks about action/activity (verbs usually express those).

Why did you (m) go back to the room?   لِماذا رجعتُ إلی الغرفةِ؟

48. When it means “how many,” کَم  

When it means “how many,” کَم   has to be followed by an indefinite noun, in the accusative case. Unlike English, it has to be singular. Arab grammarians call it a particle of "The Accusative of Distinction," orتَمييز .

How many students are there in the class?    کم طالِباً في الصفِّ؟

49. Numbers

Numbers that proceed nouns should take the opposite gender

of those nouns. Furthermore, they should carry the marker that is determined by their grammatical function in the sentence. The noun itself has to be in the genitive case because this combination will create an Idaafa.

a. I met five students (f). قابلتُ خَمسَ طالباتٍ.  

b. Five students (m) came.خَمسَةُ طلابٍ.   حضَرَ

50. Plurals

There are three types of plural in Arabic:

a. The Masculine Sound plural is created by( ونَ ) suffixed to the noun in the nominative case, and (  ينَ ) in both genitive and accusative cases.

teachers (m)          مُدرِّسونَ  ، مُدرِّسينَ  ،  مُدرِّسينَ

b. The Feminine sound plural is created by dropping the Taa’ MarbuuTa and replacing it with(  اتٌ ) for the nominative case and( اتٍ ) for the accusative & genitive cases.

teachers                    مُدرِّساتٌ  ، مُدرِّساتٍ  ، مُدرِّساتٍ

c. The Broken plural is an irregular form. Even though several nouns may         exhibit the same "broken" pattern, one has to learn the words individually.

dog(s),  cat(s)        کلبٌ / کِلابٌ   ،  قِطـٌّ / قِططـٌّ

51. Numbers (Revisited)

It was mentioned earlier that numbers that proceed nouns should take the opposite gender of those nouns. An additional rule which you need to consider is that unlike English, the noun has to be in plural only between 3-10. After that the noun has to be singular in the accusative case. This is another example of     تمييز   "accusative of distinction."

إشتريتُ خمسة َ عَشرَ قلماً .

I bought fifteen pencils.

52.  أيَّـةُ / أيُّ

أيَّـةُ / أيُّ both mean “which” (as a question word). The first is used for masculine while the second is used for feminine. The noun which follows either one of them has to be in the genitive case. The implication is that the two nouns create Idaafa. Please notice thatأيَّـة ُ / أيُّ carry the vowel of the original case of the noun you ask about.

أيَّـة ُ مَجلـَّةٍ هذهِ؟

a. Which magazine(subject-nominative) is this?

أيَّ طالبٍ شاهدتِ؟

b. Which student (m)(object-accusative) did you (f) see?

إلی أيـَّةِ مدينةٍ سافرتَ؟

c. To which city(object of a prep.-genitive) did you travel?

53. Verb Object Pronouns

We mentioned earlier that object pronouns are suffixed to the transitive verbs.

شاهدَ ها في مَحطةِ القطاراتِ.

He sawher at the train station.

54. Object Pronouns of Prepositions

The object pronouns for transitive verbs are the same for the intransitive verbs which take prepositions. An exception to this is the object pronoun for the first person,   أنا , which becomes( ي ) for some prepositions.

ذهَبَتْ معي إلی السوق ِ.

She went with me to the market.

Please remember that the object pronouns in such linguistic environment are attached to prepositions,not the verbs .

The list of verb and preposition object pronouns suffixes includes the following:

  Object     Subject    Independent

1. أنا            ـتُ           ـني / (ي)   

 2. أنتَ          ـتَ          ـكَ

3. إنتِ          ـتِ          ـكِ

4. هو            -َ            ـهُ

5. هي           ـتْ          ـها

6. نحن          ـنا           ـنا

7. أنتم           ـتُم          ـکُم

8. أنتُنَّ          ـتُنَّ          ـکُنَّ

9. هُم           ـوا           ـهُم

10. هُنَّ        ـنَ            ـهُنَّ

55. Prepositions

Which end with Alif MaQsura,( ی ) will reclaim their original (ي ) form when any object pronoun is attached to them. Check the following example:

سَلـَّمَ عليها عندما شاهدَها في مَحطةِ القطاراتِ.

He greeted her when he saw her at the train station.

56. Feminine Sound Plurals

Feminine Sound Plurals take the genitive marker for the accusative case.

شاهدنا الطالباتِ في مَکتبِ البريدِ.

We saw the students (f) at the post office.

57. The Roots.

Most Arabic words can be attributed to some 3-letter root, where radicals are referred to by means of a prototypical root, فَعَلَ .ف stands for the first radical,ع for the second, andل for the third. This 3-letter root form is the entry you need to use when you want to check out any word in any Arabic dictionary. You should know by now how to dissect words in order to get to that root. Mainly, you need to drop off any gender and number markers of the noun/adjective. In case of the verbs, you need to drop off any subject, tense, and mood markers.

58. The Verb Form Numbers

The Verb Form Numbers system is quite old, going back to the earliest European Arabic grammars such as that of Guillaume Postal, Paris, ca. 1538 and Pedro de Alcala' ca. 1613. Their order of numbering is the same as that which we are familiar with today. Another grammar was published in Rome ca. 1622 which uses the numbering system but has forms II and IV switched. Erpenius' grammar was only superseded in 1810 by the grammar of De Sacy, who used the same system which has been in vogue ever since. Incidentally, the numbering system was also used in older grammars of Hebrew, but seems to have fallen out of usage.

The system, an extremely useful mnemonic device is not entirely unrelated to the traditional work ofصَرف , for it follows the order of المجرَّد andالمزيد   .The use of numbering, however, is the Latin, European innovation which might have been a claque on some aspect of the study of Latin grammar. At the very least, it is well known that Latin grammar traditionally numbers the different classes of conjugation. De Sacy is careful to make clear in his presentation the verb forms that they fall into groups of

 المزيد بحرف ، المزيد بحرفين، المزيد بثبلثةِ حُروف

Most verbs in Arabic can be classified into ten forms. These forms are:

1. فَعَلَ     دَرَسَ                     6. تَفاعَلَ      تَراسَلَ

2. فَعَّلَ    دَرَّسَ                      7. إنفَعَلَ       إنقَلـَبَ

3. فاعَلَ   شاهَدَ                      8. إفتَعَلَ       إرتَفَعَ

4. أفعَلَ    أقبَلَ                       9. إفعَلَّ        إحمَرَّ

5. تَفَعَّلَ    تَحَدَّثَ                    10. إستَفعَلَ  إستَخدَمَ

Furthermore, each transitive pattern has an automatic passive counterpart where the stem short vowel Ftha and Kasra are replaced by Dhamma and Kasra.

To learn more about these forms, please check the computer program ARAFORM. You will find it and other programs at the following website:

www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/mjiyad/