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Relative Pronouns - الأسماء الموصولة

In order to fully understand what relative pronouns are, one needs to be informed about theموصوف- صفة phrase which in Arabic grammar is the noun-adjective phrase, an expression of usually twoأسماء in which the secondإسم describes the first.

e.g. رَجُلٌ كَرِيمٌ (a noble man), or

 الرَّجُلُ الكَرِيمُ (the noble man)

From the aspects in which theموصوف andصفة have to correspond, is beingمعرفه orنكره (definite or indefinite).  In most cases both words areأسماء and correspondence is fairly simple.  Adding ‘ال’ to both words will make it ‘the noble man’ whereas keeping both words empty will leave it ‘a noble man’.  However, occasionally the need arises to describe a noun using a whole sentence.  Take for instance the phrase ‘a man who I met yesterday’.  ‘I met yesterday’ is a full sentence.  It was used in the above example to describe the indefinite noun ‘a man’.

The scholars ofنحو have attached a value to the informative sentence (جملة خبرية ) and have told us it’s ‘نكره ’.  Therefore, if the above example were to be rendered into Arabic it would read as follows:رَجُلٌ لَقِيتُهُ أمسِ .  No extra word is needed between the noun being described i.e. theموصوفرَجُلٌ ’ and the sentenceلَقِيتُهُ أمسِ , for they are bothنكره and correspondence is complete.  On the other hand, were theموصوف to beمعرفه , we would have had a problem of matching the two.  To convey the meaning ‘the man who I met yesterday’, merely adding an ‘ال’ to theموصوف would not suffice.  We would be left with aمعرف موصوف (الرَّجُلُ ) and aنكره صفة (theجملة خبرية ).  The only way this meaning could be validly conveyed is if somehow that value attached to theجملة خبرية could be transformed into aمعرفه value.  This is where theمَوصول comes into play….

الأسماء الموصولة or Relative Pronouns are like which, what, that, or who in English, not the question which, what etc. but the pronouns ‘which’ come between nouns and the sentences ‘that’ describe them.  Read that again!  “pronouns ‘which’ come between nouns” and “the sentences ‘that’ describe them”.  In English these pronouns MUST be brought in every such structure.  In Arabic they are brought ONLY when theموصوف isمعرفه .  If it isنكره , there will be no need for aمَوصول , in which case the grammatical structure itself will join the sentence to the noun being described.

This is the primary purpose why we have these words in the language.  If the noun being described is of a very general meaning such as man, woman, thing etc, often the noun is not mentioned.  Theمَوصول itself will convey the entire meaning, such as in the following sentence:

جاء الّذي علَّمَكَ في المسجدِ (The person who taught you in the masjid came).

In this sentence theمَوصولالّذي ’ not only means ‘who’ but actually ‘the person who’.

The sentence which follows theمَوصول i.e. the describingجملة خبرية is calledصِله . Together with theمَوصول , both parts becomeصفة for the preceding noun, or if the noun is of a general nature and implicit as mentioned above, theمَوصول andصِله together will directly become part of the greater sentence.  Within theصِله there MUST be a third person pronoun referring back to theمَوصول .  This pronoun will always correspond to theمَوصول in gender and plurality.  In the above example the implicit pronounهو hidden in the verbعَلَّم َ is referring toالّذي theمَوصول .

Besidesالّذي and its dual, plural, and feminine variations, the following relative pronouns are in use:

مَنْ - the person who…

ما - the thing that….  Bothمَنْ andما have no duals our plurals.  The same word is essentially used for all gender and plurality.  ‘مَنْ ’ is for human beings while ‘ما ’ is for non-humans.

أيٌّ , أيَّةٌ -which….  Bothموصولان will always beمضاف to theأسماء after them.  The second word of the possessive phrase may be singular or plural e.g. أيُّ كِتابٍ (which book) and,    أيُّ الكُتُبِ (which of the books).  Both meanings are almost identical.  Just two ways of saying the same thing. أيٌّ andأيَّةٌ are bothمعرب and there grammatical state will be subject to the governing agent before them similar to normal إسمs.

The ‘ال ’ which is attached to the active and passive participles (إسم فاعل andإسم مفعول ) is also considered to beمَوصول and in the meaning ofالّذي .  Hence,الضارِبُ would meanالّذي ضَرَبَ (one who hits).  Likewise,المَضروبُ is akin toالّذي ضُرِبَ (one who is hit).  In other words the ‘ال ’ at the beginning of both literally means ‘one who’.

ذُو in the dialect of the clan ofبَن طَي - also in the meaning ofالّذي according to this particular tribe of Arabs e.g.جاﺋﲎ ذُو ضَرَبَكَ (the man who hit you came to me).

Except forأيٌّ ,أيَّةٌ , and the duals ofالّذي andالّتي , allمَوصول areمبني due to there dependency upon theصله .  You will never encounter aمَوصول except with itsصله .  As mentioned repeatedly, dependency is a characteristic ofحرف : one from theمبني الأصل .

Demonstrative Pronouns -   الأسماء الإشارة

Descriptive Pronouns (this/that) are devices used to refer or point towards nouns.  While the pronoun in Arabic is calledإسم إشاره , the noun is known asمُشارٌ إليه .  In the phraseذٰلِكَ الكِتابُ (that book),ذٰلِكَ is theإسم إشاره andالكِتابُ is theمُشارٌ إليه .  The pronoun coupled with the noun will always be a phrase.  However, there are instances when the noun being referred to is of a very general nature such as thing, man, or woman, in which case the pronoun itself will convey both meanings i.e.هٰذا can mean ‘this thing’ or ‘this person’ as apposed to just ‘this’.  When this happens the following word will be the remaining part of the sentence (the predicate).  In order to determine whether the following word is connected toهٰذا and forming the second part of the descriptive phrase or whetherهٰذا is independent of a separate ‘مُشارٌ إليه and conveying the entire meaning itself as mentioned above, one will need to look at the next word.  If it begins with an ‘ال ’, the two words will become a descriptive phrase (this book), otherwise a full sentence.  When theمُشارٌ إليه can not take ‘ال ’ do to beingمضاف and a descriptive phrase is intended, such as ‘this book of his’, in order to avoid confusion with theإسميّه sentence, theإسم إشاره will be brought after the possessive phrase.  Consider the following three ways of using this device:

1.هٰذا الكِتابُ : this book

2. هٰذا كِتابٌ : This is a book.

3.كِتابُهُ هٰذا : this book of his 

Verbal Nouns - أسماء الأفعال

These are a group of words in the language which are very few in number.  They have the meanings of verbs, meaning that their meanings are linked to time.  They have tenses.  However, besides the tense, they have no other characteristic of verbs such as conjugation tables and suffixes.  They do not fall under any recognized pattern of verb.  They come in two types; a group that has a past tense meaning e.g.هَيهاتَ (became distant), and a group consisting of words that have command-verb meanings e.g.رُوَيدَ (give respite), the first being identical toبَعُدَ (a past-tense verb), and the second to ‘أمهِل ’ (a second person active command verb). 

Although these words do have the meanings ofأفعال due to the absence of all other characteristics of recognized verbs, they were not categorized as such.  The other two parts of speech also do not apply, but because there number is so less in the Arabic language, the scholars of grammar did not see it appropriate to give them a separate category and call them the fourth part of speech.  Instead they said these areمبني أسماء which contain the meaning of verbs, treating this tense as a ‘resemblance’ to verb, hence theirمبني nature.  Recall both ماضي andأمر حاضر areمبني الأصل

Adverbs of Time or Place - أسماء الضروف

Words Denoting Sounds or Noises - أسماء الأصوات

These are essentially sounds rendered into words e.g.أُح أُح , a coughing sound.  They are allمبني due to sounds not having true grammatical positioning, in terms of being subject, object etc.

Numbers 11-19 - مركّب بناء

Words denoting vagueness - كنايات