#+title: A Brisk Introduction to the Fundamentals of Arabic Grammar, نحو
#+author: Musa Al-hassy
#+email: alhassy@gmail.com
#+filetags: arabic
#+fileimage: arabic-irab.png 100% 100%
#+description: Discovering how to say “a/an/the” in Arabic leads onto a zany adventure into case markings, gender, annexation, non-verbal sentences, plurals, and concludes with whether “Muslims” is مسلمون or مسلمین ---it's both!
* Abstract :ignore:
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Abstract
:END:
In short: In English sometimes we mess-up between “I/me/my”, likewise in Arabic we might mess up with “ابو / ابا / ابي”:
These are just اب followed by one of ا/ي/و (which are the pronounced case endings!)
#+begin_center
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
#+end_center
How do Arabs say the English “a/an/the”, as in “an apple” or “the chair”? Easy! By default, all words are indefinite
(“a/an”); and made definite (“the”) by adding الـ to the front of the word.
But... there's some subtleties, which first require us to discuss vowel markings... which also change if the feminine
marker ة is used, so we also need to briefly discuss gender.
English relies on word order for meaning; for example, Jim hit Bob is a sentence where the person doing the action is
Jim and we know it has to be Jim, and not Bob, since Jim is the word before the action hit. However, in Arabic words can
be ordered in almost any way you like! Then how do we identifiy who does an action? We use green:case markings: We add small
symbols to the end of words to indiciate the role they play in a sentence.
With vowel markings, we can finally flesh-out the nature of
“a/an/the” in Arabic... but then something wild happens if we stick
an (in)definite followed by a definite! We get the concepts of ownership and complete sentences that don't need a verb!
Finally, we conclude with an explanation of why in the world English Qurans use the single word muslim where's Arabic
Qurans use both مسلمون and مسلمين.
* Remark on <details> :ignore:
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Remark-on-details
:END:
Some green:interesting concepts will also be mentioned, for those curious, but should be ignored on a first
reading. These will be hidden away in clickable/foldable regions.
These are notes of things that I'm learning; there's likely errors.
* Remark on what نحو means :ignore:
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Remark-on-what-نحو-means
:END:
نحو literally means direction; but when talking about Arabic grammar, it means syntax (how words are combined to form
phrases) and, in-particular, case endings / إعراب.
* Al-I'rab: Case Endings, الاعراب
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Al-I'rab-Case-Endings-الاعراب
:END:
** Introduction :ignore:
One day, my wife and I were looking at the word خبز, and we each read
it differently: I read it as خَبَزَ “he baked”, but she read it as خُبْزْ
“bread”. Without a context, we each guessed different short vowels!
#+begin_details "Tell me more about vowels!"
Arabs infer vowels from context, otherwise words alone such as حمل are ambigious: It could mean حَمَلَ “he carried” or حُمِلْ
“he was carried”.
As an example sentence with vowels written, Prophet Muhammad is known to have said:
| أنَا مَدِينَةُ الْعِلْمِ وَعَلَيٌ بَابُهَا |
| I am the city of knowledge and Ali is its gate |
Incidentally, Ali was the one who commissioned the system of vowels.
https://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/the-beginning-of-dotting-and-diacritics-in-arabic/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic has only three short vowels, or حركات (literally: “movements”), which are written as small symbols above/below
letters.
| Vowel name | Vowel sound | Arabic | English example |
| Fatha; فتحة | a | ـَ | mat |
| Dhamma; ظمّة | u | ـُ | sugar |
| Kasra; كسرة | i | ـِ | bit |
The “no vowel” marker is suukun/سكون: While هههه has its vowels guessed to be هَهَهَهَ “hahahah”, we obtain “hhhh” by using
sukkun, هْهْهْهْ. It is important for consonant-vowel-consonant syllables, such as بَابْ “bab” which means door.
Incidentally, when a sound needs to be repeated twice, it is usually written once with a Shadda ـّـ to indicate the
doubling. For example, فَهِمَ fahima “he understood” but فَهَّمَ fahhama “he explained”. Shadda is used with الـ + ‘sun
letters’. Unlike the other short vowels, the Shadda is usually written even in informal Arabic, to avoid ambiguity.
Arabic has 3 long vowels, which are formed using specific letters after the short vowels:
| Long vowel sound | Arabic | English example |
| aa | ـَا | far |
| ii | ـِي | meet |
| uu | ـُو | boot |
Since short vowels are normally not written, letters ا ي و play two roles: They behave as long vowels aa,ii,uu (when
preceded by short vowels) and also behave as consonant sounds a,y,w.
+ For example, as a consonant, ي makes an English “y” sound; but as a long vowel it makes an “ii” sound.
+ Occasionally, aa is written using ی (which is like ي but without the dots), or یٰ, rather than an
alif. This always happens at the end of a word and is called alif maqsuura
“broken alif”; for example علی “on” and موسیٰ “Musa”.
The following video reads all Arabic letters, where each letter is vowelised by one of the 3 short vowels. It's a really
nice video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/U1Cl6W8EEBQ?start=6.
#+end_details
Here's another one..
** One word, many readings
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: One-word-many-readings
:END:
What does حملت mean? Since ح−م−ل means “carrying”, and ـت is the past tense suffix, we have at least the following meanings:
| حَمَلْتُ | I carried |
| حَمَلْتَ | You (masculine) carried |
| حَمَلْتِ | You (feminine) carried |
| حَمَلَتْ | She carried |
| حُمِلتْ | She was carried |
Without the short symbols, the only way to distinguish the intended
meaning is for the word to be contextually located within a sentence
---and even then, this would require experience.
** The Verb System :ignore:
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: The-Verb-System
:END:
#+html: <br>
#+begin_details "Tell me more about how verbs change, conjugate!"
Arabic verbs are conjugated in the past tense by adding suffixes to the stem of the verb.
| | singular | plural |
| 1 | ـْتُ | ـْنا |
| 2m | ـْتَ | ـْتُمْ |
| 2f | ـْتِ | ـْتُنَّ |
| 3m | ـَـ | ـُوا |
| 3f | ـَتْ | ـْنَّ |
For example, “they (feminine) studied” is هُنَّ دَرَسْنَّ.
# *Exercises!*
+ Exercise: Conjugate to study دَرَسَ for each subject above.
( Answer )
+ Exercise: Conjugate to be generous كَرُمَ and to drink شَرِبَ.
+ Exercise: What does درست mean?
- Trick question! You need the context, sentence, to infer the required
conjugation.
# #+begin_details Solutions
# TODO
# #+end_details
#
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that the conjugation for the third-person masculine, هُمْ/they,
is not phonetic: The ending ـُوا has the long vowel ـُو pronounced, but the alif is silent. E.g., they studied is هُمْ دَرَسُوا
and is read “hum darasuu”.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The personal pronouns (I, you, they, etc) are not usually used, since the verb conjugation tells us who the
subject is. Sometimes they are used for emphasis.
E.g., they studied is دَرَسُوا
and is read “darasuu”.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic has no “to X” form, as in English to eat, to drink, etc. Instead, it uses the he form of a verb when referring
to a verb in-general. For example, he studied دَرَسَ is used to mean to study when we are taking about how the verb to
study changes depending on who is doing the studying. This form is chosen since it is the simplest form: It's the main 3
root consontants of the verb, followed by a fatHa.
#+end_details
** Word Order
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Word-Order
:END:
Likewise, what does نصرت فاطمة mean? Does it mean “Fatimah helped (someone)”? Or does it mean “Fatimah was helped (by
someone)”?
One English sentence can be written a number of ways in Arabic:
| <c> |
| Fatima helped Zaynab |
|----------------------|
| نصرت فاطمةُ زينبَ |
| نصرت زينبَ فاطمةُ |
| فاطمةُ نصرت زینبَ |
The way the listener knows what’s the subject and what’s the object is quite literally carried around with the nouns
themselves. The endings make all the difference.
#+begin_center
#+begin_green
This is اعراب, /I'rab/, which literally means “to Arabize” or
“to make elegant/clarify”.
#+end_green
#+end_center
The second instance above might seem weird at first, since the object comes before the subject, but it is more common
when the object is an attached pronoun:
| نصرتْها فطمةُ | Fatima helped her. |
This is a common example of the verb-object-subject word order!
Anyhow, in general, in Arabic the action word, the verb, can occur in the first
or second positions within a sentence whereas the subject (the person doing the
action) and the object (the thing/person being acted upon) can occur anywhere!
Here's another example:
#+begin_box Verbal sentences can have 4 different word orders
Below are 4 ways to say Muhammad wrote the lesson in Arabic!
|-------------+-------------------------|
| Sentence | Order of words |
|-------------+-------------------------|
| كَتَبَ مُحَمَّدٌ الدَّرسَ | object ⇷ subject ⇷ verb |
| كَتَبَ الدَّرسَ مُحَمَّدٌ | subject ⇷ object ⇷ verb |
|-------------+-------------------------|
| مُحَمَّدٌ كَتَبَ الدَّرسَ | object ⇷ verb ⇷ subject |
| الدَّرسَ كَتَبَ مُحَمَّدٌ | subject ⇷ verb ⇷ object |
|-------------+-------------------------|
I personally have never encountered the fourth/last form above when actually
talking Arabic to other people.
#+end_box
#+begin_details "Um actually, it's more accurate to say: Verbs must be singular before subjects"
- Verbs can come before or after the subject, and the choice is largely a matter
of emphasis/level of formality.
- However, Arabic verbs change according to the subject, such as whether it's
one person or multiple people doing the action.
- If the subject is a group of people, the verb will be singular if it comes
before the subject. It will only change according to whether the subject is
masculine or feminine.
For example,
| <c> |
| . كَتَبَتْ البَنات خِطابات، ثُمَّ خَرَجْنَ |
| The girls wrote letters and then went out. |
Here كَتَبَتْ/wrote is a singular feminine form of the verb كَتَبَ/to-write since it
comes before the subject, which is البَنات/the-girls. Likewise, خَرَجْنَ/went-out
is a plural feminine, since it comes after the subject.
#+end_details
Finally, as we will encounter later in this article, Arabic also has sentences
without verbs! These are just the subject followed by the predicate, which is
what is happening to the subject. Since these non-verbal sentences are only two
pieces (possibly complicated pieces), there are two ways to order them and both
are valid!
#+begin_parallel 2
| The man died. |
| ≈ مَاتَ الرَّجلُ |
| ≈ الرَّجلُ مَاتَ |
| The tall man died. |
| ≈ مَاتَ الرَّجلُ الطَّویلُ |
| ≈ الرَّجلُ الطَّویلُ مَاتَ |
#+end_parallel
** Where is this case stuff in English!?
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Where-is-this-case-stuff-in-English
:END:
This words-changing-due-to-role behaviour also happens in English, but mostly with pronouns: For example, purple:He saw
orange:me ≈ orange:I was seen by purple:him.
In English, there are 3 ways to refer to oneself: green:I, red:me, blue:my.
For example,
| blue:My cat saw red:me, and green:I jumped! |
Here's the rules:
- (Nominative!) When I am doing something, I say: green: I did it.
- (Accusative!) When something is being done to me, I say: red: It was done to me.
- (Genitive!) When I have an item, I say: blue: My thing....
So the word used to refer to myself changes depending on what is happening green:by me, red:to me, or blue:of me / what I
own.
#+begin_details "Um, actually there's a 4th way: myself!"
Myself is the forth way to refer to oneself in English. Like red:me, it is used when something is being done to me such that
the person doing the action is also me ...err, myself.
Here are some examples,
| I care for myself, by running everyday. |
| I describe myself as happy. |
| I like myself. |
# Only use “myself” if you've used “I”.
#
As a rule of thumb, myself should only be used if I is used in the same sentence. Otherwise, just use me.
#+end_details
** So, what's the deal?
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: So-what's-the-deal
:END:
Just as people dress according to roles or occassions (such as a
suit at work and pajamas in bed), so too Arabic words have
different case endings, التشكيلُ, to show their roles within a
sentence.
#+begin_box "Roles are indicated by the vowel sign on the final letter of a word"
|----------------------------------+--------------+-------------------------|
| Role | Ending Vowel | Case (Grammatical Name) |
|----------------------------------+--------------+-------------------------|
| green:Subject; the one doing an action | ـُــ | مرفوع / green:Nominative |
| red:Object; the one being acted upon | ـَــ | منصوب / red:Accusative |
| blue:Owner of a thing | ـِــ | مجرور / blue:Genitive |
#+end_box
More accurately, blue:the genitive case is used when a word follows a preposition and
it is used for all words after the first word in a possessive phrase ---which is
known as doc:idafa in Arabic, covered below. [Idafa is Arabic's way of quickly
introducing possession without the preposition “of”: English has Jim's apple,
whereas Arabic would say (the) apple (of) Jim, تفاحة جیم .]
Nunation/تنوين/Tanween: When the word is indefinite, one “doubles” the symbols, which causes an extra -n sound to each
vowel: u ـُـ, a ـَـ, i ـِـ are replaced by un ـٌـ, an ـًـ, in ـٍـ. (If a word does not end in ة, the ـًـ ending is written اً.)
This is all covered below.
For example,
| green:Muhammad was present. | حَضَرَ مُحَمَّدٌ |
| I saw red:Muhammad. | رَأیْتُ مُحَمَّداً |
| I passed by blue:Muhmmad. | مَرَرْتُ بمُحَمَّدٍ |
#+begin_center
The accusative alif, اً, is our first example of Arabic case endings, اعراب, affecting the basic spelling and
pronunciation of words.
#+end_center
#+begin_details "When speaking, endings are ignored in natural pauses"
The case endings on the last word in a sentence are not pronounced. Nor are they pronounced before any natural
pause. For example,
| <c> |
| .هذا طالبُ جدیدٌ |
| hatha talib-un jadded |
The last word is read jadded and not jadded-un (with the case ending).
# + That is, the last letter you stop on is normally turned to sukuun.
Likewise, any ة is not voiced as ت in such natural pauses. More on ة below.
#+end_details
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyhow, with the little we now know about these case endings, let's do one more
puzzle!
#+begin_box "What does كتاب المدرس الجدید في المكتب mean?"
Hopefully by the end of this article, you'll be able to guess the missing
short vowels. However, the word الجديد could be correctly vowelised in 2 ways,
according to the 2 nouns we have (teacher and book) and it's not clear which one
is the correct one!
What do the following sentences mean?
#+begin_spoiler orange
| . كتابُ المُدرّسِ الجدیدُ في المكتبِ | (( A teacher's <b>new book</b> is in the office. )) |
| . كتابُ المُدرّسِ الجدیدِ في المكتبِ | (( A <b>new teacher</b>'s book is in the office. )) |
#+end_spoiler
#+html: <br>
#+begin_details "Explain these interpretations please!"
Here is a vague explanation, that can only make sense when the concepts
mentioned have already been understood ---and they are covered later on in this article.
1. In the first sentence we have a new book since the word new الجدیدُ has the same
case ending as كتابُ: This is called nominative or مرفو and denoted by ـُـ.
(Note: new starts with الـ since كتاب is definite, since it the start of an Idaafa.)
2. In the second sentence we have a new teacher since the word new الجدیدِ has the same case ending as المُدرّسِ: This is
called genitive or مجرور and denoted by ـِـ.
Without the case markings, you'll have to rely on context and common sense.
Otherwise, the number and plurality of the adjective (if any) would match
that of the word it is describing. For example, in مقالة المدرس الجدیدة we know to
read this as the teacher's new article since the words new and article both have the
same feminine gender.
#+end_details
#+end_box
** Formality: When do we see these markings?
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Formality-When-do-we-see-these-markings
:END:
Depending on the formality of some Arabic text, such as Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic, you might see and hear
additional grammatical endings.
In this article, we'll see that these endings ---even when not explicitly written as markings---
do alter the writing of words in certain situations. For example,
درست كتابا has its markings guessed to be
دَرَسْتُ كِتَاباً /“green:I studied red:a book”/ ---the extra alif is really the alif-tanween of the accusative case, اً.
** I can't live without vowels! Yes, you can! 💪
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: I-can't-live-without-vowels-Yes-you-can
:END:
What do you think the following English sentences say?
#+begin_spoiler orange
#+begin_quote
- Y cn prbbly rd ths sly dspt th lck f vwls!
((You can probably read this easily despite the lack of vowels!))
+ Ys, y cn lv wtht vwls! Y cn vn wrt nglsh wtht thm; t nly nds sm prctc nd th rslt s drstclly shrtr sntncs! f nd b, lk Arbc, s vwls nly whn thr s mbguty.
((Yes, you can live without vowels! You can even write English without them; it only needs some practice and the result is drastically shorter sentences! If need be, like Arabic, use vowels only when there is ambiguity.))
#+end_quote
#+end_spoiler
It might seem weird, for an English speaker, for vowels to be left-out, but conversely an Arabic speaker might think it's
extra effort in English to write out every vowel. It's different cultures, and traditions.
Just as it's a bit funny to drop the vowels in English, we can drop the dots in Arabic and the result is still somewhat
readable! In-fact, old Arabic did not have dots written down!
#+html: <center> <img src="https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-f160b4120fb65f79b12bb123b2530e45-pjlq">
#+html: <br><small> Translation: <em> Do you know that you can read complete passage without points? Because you are able to understand words through the context of the sentences, and the proof is that you have just read this passage.</em> </small>
#+html: <center> <small> <a href="https://qr.ae/pvlDtg"> Source </a> </small> </center>
* ة ---Gender and “tied-up t/ت”
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: ة-Gender-and-tied-up-t-ت
:END:
Arabic nouns (words that name people, objects, or ideas) are classified as
masculine مُذَكَّر (“mudhakkar”) or feminine مُؤَنَّث (“mu'annath”).
This classification affects how other words in a sentence are written, such as action words or descriptive words.
#+begin_box "Arabic Gender Rule"
# There's a simple rule-set to determine the category of a word:
In general, if a word ends in ة or refers to a female _person_, then it is a feminine word; otherwise it is a masculine
word.
In more detail:
1. Words that end with the “feminine ending marker” ة are مُؤَنَّث.
- The ة is known as the Taa Marbuta (literally: “tied-up ت”) and it is pronounced as a short vowel a sound.
2. Words referring to female people but not ending in ة are مُؤَنَّث.
3. Most country names, natural features, and parts of the body that come in pairs are مُوَّنَّث.
4. Everything else is مُذَكَّر
#+end_box
card:Let's take a break Using the above rules, guess the genders of the following words. Hover/click on the
*orange:orange* box to show the answer.
#+begin_spoiler orange
| Word | Gender | Explanation |
|------------+------------+------------------------|
| سيّارة car | (( مُؤَنَّث )) | (( See Rule-1 above )) |
| حقيبة bag | (( مُؤَنَّث )) | (( See Rule-1 above )) |
| خالة aunt | (( مُؤَنَّث )) | (( See Rule-1 above )) |
| بنت girl | (( مُؤَنَّث )) | (( See Rule-2 above )) |
| اُّمّ mother | (( مُؤَنَّث )) | (( See Rule-2 above )) |
| رجل leg | (( مُؤَنَّث )) | (( See Rule-3 above )) |
| شمس sun | (( مُؤَنَّث )) | (( See Rule-3 above )) |
| صحراء desert | (( مُؤَنَّث )) | (( See Rule-3 above )) |
| مصر Egypt | (( مُؤَنَّث )) | (( See Rule-3 above )) |
| أب father | (( مُذَكَّر )) | (( See Rule-4 above )) |
| بيت house | (( مُذَكَّر )) | (( See Rule-4 above )) |
| كتاب book | (( مُذَكَّر )) | (( See Rule-4 above )) |
#+end_spoiler
#+begin_details "Quranic Quandary: خَلِیفَة"
There are a few masculine words with the ة ending, but the only common on is خَلِيفَة “khalifa”. In the Quran this word has
the strict seance of successor or viceroy. In later times, this was generalised to caliph.
#+end_details
** On the nature of tied-up-t
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: On-the-nature-of-tied-up-t
:END:
Taa Marbuta ة is a formed by taking the ends of ت and tying-them together to get ة.
(Note: ت is also known as “ta mabsuta”, which literally means the “happy t” since the letter ت looks like a smiling face “🙂”)
Examples:
| 0. | grandfather | جَدّ | “jadd” |
| 1. | grandmother | جَدَّة | “jadda” |
| 2. | a grandmother | جَدَّةً | “jaddatan” |
| 3. | my grandmother | جَدَّتي | “jaddaty” |
| 4. | grandmothers | جَدَّات | “jaddaat” |
| 5. | the boy's grandmother | جَدَّةُ الولد | “jaddatu al-walad” |
+ Example #1 ::
The Taa Marbuta is special in contrast to the other letters: It can only be written at the end of a word, either
unjoined as ة or joined as ـَـة:
- It is purely a grammatical letter, it has no sound!
+ It is the ending of most singluar feminine nouns/adjectives, or nouns referring to female people.
- It always follows a Fatha vowel, as in جدَة or غرفَة, and so people would say ة makes a short a sound ---but this is
really due to the vowel that always comes before ة!
+ Example #0 changes to #1 :: green:As a suffix, ـَـة / ة is used to make feminine adjectives or nouns from masculine ones.
+ Examples #2 and #3 :: It becomes “untied/opened ت” when suffixes/endings are added.
- The formal indefinite, Example #2, is discussed below.
+ Example #4 :: A feminine word, ending in ـَـة is made plural by extending the Fatha into a long vowel ـَـا and opening
the Taa Marbuta into ت.
+ Example #5 :: When it is followed by another word, the pronunciation of ة is t −-−though the spelling remains
unchanged. Putting two words beside each other is known as possession, addition, إظافة, and it's covered below.
#+begin_details "ة has a number of other interesting uses"
+ It forms singulatives from collectives ::
From a word that refers to a collection of things, we can refer to
one of those things by adding ة.
For example, we get cow بَقَرَة “baqara” from cows بَقَر “baqar”; and we get tree شَجَرَة “shajara” from trees شَجَر “shajar”.
It is used this way to indicate one of something. For example, from watermelon بطيخ and carrot جزر we obtain one
watermelon بطيخة and one carrot جزرة.
+ It forms instances from general verbal nouns ::
We can refer to a single instance of an action by adding ة.
For example, we get a smile اِبْتِسَامَة “ibtisama” from smiling اِبْتِسَام “ibtisam”;
and an uprising اِنْتِفَاضَة “intifatha” from rising up اِنْتِفَاض “intifith”.
+ It forms nouns referring to devices from occupational/characteristic nouns and adjectives ::
For example, tank دبابة “dabbaba” from crawler دباب “dabab”; and printer (device) طَابِعَة “tabi'a” from printer (person)
طَابِع “tabi'”.
#+end_details
** Grab a snack and watch these helpful videos, card:Yes!
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Grab-a-snack-and-watch-these-helpful-videos-card-Yes
:END:
#+begin_parallel 3
#+html: <center>What is ة<iframe width="70%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dymgNFPsm8Y" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>
#+html: <center>Everything about ة<iframe width="70%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nuX9tK6vV84" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>
#+html: <center>Body parts in Arabic, fun!<iframe width="70%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VBjlmwF99OI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>
#+end_parallel
* When do you really know a thing?
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: When-do-you-really-know-a-thing
:END:
You and your friends are talking, and someone says the word bag حقیبة.
Is it a random bag (nonspecific, general, “indefinite”, نَكِرَة), or is it one you know something about it (specific,
“definite”, مَعْرِفَة)?
| An item | | Do we know to whom it belongs? |
|-------------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------|
| a bag | حقیبة | 🤷 It's a random bag! |
| the bag | الحقیبة | 😎 It's the one we're already talking about! |
|-------------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------|
| her bag | حقیبتها | 😎 It belongs to someone we've mentioned already! |
|-------------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------|
| Zaynab's bag | حقيبة زینب | 😎 It belongs to Zaynab! |
| the teacher's bag | حقیبة المُدرّسة | 😎 It belongs to the teacher! |
| a teacher's bag | حقيبة مُدرّسة | 🤷 It's a bag that belongs to a random teacher! |
#+html: <br>
#+begin_box
So, it seems a word can have exactly one of “a/the/my”, that is, it can be
either indefinite with tanween, definite with al, or possessed (by a pronoun or an Idafa, covered below).
#+end_box
In the rest of this section, we will talk about the first pair of examples.
+ The last group will be covered later on in this article.
+ The middle group, حقیبتها, is just bag along with the pronoun her added to the end, and the ة opens-up into a ت as
discussed already. There's not much here, besides reviewing Arabic pronouns.
#+begin_details "Tell me more about pronouns!"
Personal pronouns are the equivalent of the English I, we, you she, he, ....
| | singular | plural |
| 1 | أنا I | نَحْن we |
| 2m | أَنْتَ you | أَنْتُم you |
| 2f | أَنْتِ you | أَنتُن you |
| 3m | هُوَ he/it | هُم they |
| 3f | هِيَ she/it | هُنَّ they |
When I am talking, the speaker is the “first person” (“1”);
when taking about you, then you are the “second person”
and may be masculine (“2m”) or feminine (“2f”), or a group of you (“plural”);
finally, when talking about someone who is not here in the conversation,
they are in the “third person” (“3m, 3f”).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Possessive pronouns are the equivalent of the English my, his, ours, ....
In Arabic, they are joined to the end of a word: For example,
house بیت becomes my house بیتِي.
Here are the attached possessive pronouns:
| | singular | plural |
| 1 | ـِي | ـنَا |
| 2m | ـكَ | ـكُمْ |
| 2f | ـكِ | ـكُنَّ |
| 3m | ـَهُ | ـهُمْ |
| 3f | ـَهَا | ـهُنَّ |
Exercise: Add these endings to the word house; for example, my house بیتِي.
:Broken_examples:
Warning! Shown is the nominative ending ـُـ, in 5 places above, but this can change to the genitive ending ـِـ or the
accusative ending ـَـ. This, of-course, changes pronunciation.
| I saw his house. | . رأیتُ بیته | ra'tu bayta-ha ?? |
| His house is large. | . بیتهُ كبیرُ | bayta-hu kabeeru |
| | | |
:End:
#+end_details
** Tanween, Formally Indefinite, نَكِرَة: “a/an” or “un” ـٌــ
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Tanween-Formally-Indefinite-نَكِرَة-a-an-or-un-ـٌــ
:END:
Technically, Arabic does not have an indefinite article like English's a/an. Instead, indefininte/nonspecific words
have doubled case markings: So instead of ـِـ ـُـ ـَـ we have ـٍـ ـٌـ ـًـ, where the second marking is pronounced as a ن/n
sound. This is known as تنوین/Tanween, or nunation, which means pronouncing the letter ن at the end of a word, or putting a nun/ن on.
(Often the double ـُـ is written as one ـُـ with a tail: ـٌـــ.)
| English | Arabic | Transliteration | Explanation |
|---------+--------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------|
| a boy | ولدٌ | walad-un | Nomative ـٌـ; a boy is doing something |
| a book | كتابٍ | kitaab-in | Genitive ـٍـ; a book is being owned |
| a car | سيّارةً | sayarat-an | Accusative ـًـ; something is happening to a car |
| a book | كتاباً | kitaab-an | Accusative ـاً; something is happening to a book |
+ Notice that if a noun ends in ة “tied-up t”, the t is actually pronounced before the Tanween.
+ Secondly, unless a word ends in ة or ی or ـاء, then double-fatha ـًـ has to be written on an alif as اً. This alif is a
spelling convention; it is not pronounced; unlike case markings, it is always written (e.g., كتابا possibly without
the ـًـ).
** Definite, مَعْرِفَة - “the” or “al” الـــ
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Definite-مَعْرِفَة-the-or-al-الـــ
:END:
There is no indefinite article equivalent to the English “a/an”. However, the large majority of nouns and adjectives
have tanween (the addition of the sound n) to the final vowel of a word) to indicate that the word is indefinite:
| a reward | أجْرٌ | ajurn |
| a sign/verse | آيْةٌ | ayatun |
| a recitation | قُرْآنٌ | qur'anun |
#+html: <br>
#+begin_details "What is آ ?"
It has become standard for a hamza followed by a long aa sound to be written as two alifs, over vertical and on
horizontal: آ. This is known as the alif madda.
This was already discussed in: http://alhassy.com/arabic-roots#Arabic-has-112-symbols-and-112-sounds
#+end_details
However, in everyday, non-vowelised, Arabic there is no separate word/marking for “a/an”, as in “a chair” or “an apple”.
- By default, words are indefinite: For example, مكتب means “an office”, even though there is no separate word for the
“an”.
- To make a noun definite we add الـ “al” joined to it, which means “the”.
For example:
| “the office” |
| ≈ “the” ⇸ “office” |
| ≈ ال ⇷ مكتب |
| ≈ المكتب |
#+begin_details "What are directed additions ⇸ and ⇷?"
I will use directed addition symbols ⇸ and ⇷ to mean the same
as “+” but also to indicate the direction one should read it.
For example, X + Y could mean X Y in English's left-to-right reading, but it could also mean Y X in Arabic's
right-to-left reading. Whereas X ⇷ Y can only mean X Y (read right-to-left).
#+end_details
Frequently, the sound of الـ al may have both the a sound, the l sound, or both sounds change!
The rules are pretty simple.
- These are changes in pronunciation only, the spelling of “al” الـ doesn't change.
#+begin_details "ٱلْـ / Elision: The “a” of “al” الـ is silent if the previous word ends in a vowel"
If الـ “al” comes directly after a vowel, the “a” of “al” الـ will drop out, or elide, leaving just the “l” sound. This
only affects pronunciation and not the spelling.
For example,
| the house | البيت | “al-bayt” |
| in the house | في البيت | “fi l-bayt” |
#+end_details
#+begin_details "Assimilation: The Sun Letters Assimilate the “l” of “al” الـ"
Nouns starting with certain letters of the Arabic alphabet cause the pronunciation of “al” الـ to change: The “l” sound
becomes the same as the first sound of the noun. This double-pronunciation of the first letter of the noun is indicated
with a Shadda ـّـ symbol, if vowel marks are written.
For example,
| a car | سيّارة | “sayyara” |
| the car | السّيّارة | “as-sayyara” |
Notice that السّيّارة is not read “al-sayyara”! The “l” sound changes to be the sound of the first letter of سيّارة, namely
“s”.
Likewise, a river is نهر whereas the river is النّهر “an-nahr”.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The letters which cause this pronunciation assimilation are called
sun letters, الحروف الشمسية “al-huruf ash-shamsiyya”, as ش/sh is itself an assimilating letter. Half of Arabic's 28 letters are Sun Letters.
The remaining half of the letters are called Moon Letters,
الحروف القمرية “al-huruf al-gamariyya”, as ق/G is not an assimilating letter.
+ ☀️ Sun Letters :: ت ث د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ل ن
+ 🌙 Moon Letters :: ا ب ج ح خ ع غ ف ق ك م ه و ي
Just as we use a shadda ـّـ on a sun letter, we place a sukoon ـْـ on the ل when it comes after moon letters: For example,
اَلْقمر “al-qamar” ---the sukoon gives us a slight pause after the “l” sound.
#+end_details
The above two rules are explained by the following theoretical justification.
#+begin_details "Um, actually the definite article is really just لْ" :title-color blue
In fact, the definite article is in essence simply a لْ, an “l” sound. But as Arabic phonetic theory holds that words
cannot begin with an unvowelled consonant, the vowel a (Fatha) is added to the لْ to give اَلْ, al. Theory holds that this
a vowel is not an integral part of the definite article and is required when no other vowel precedes the article
l. In effect this means that the added vowel is only at the beginning of a sentence. In other places, the vowel Fatha is
replaced by a “joining sign” (wasla) to obtain ٱلـ, which tells you to link the l of the definite article to the final
vowel of the preceding word.
In short, you will find اَلْـ at the beginning, and ٱلْـ elsewhere in the sentence. The use of the two can be seen as
follows:
| the clear book | اَلْكِتَابُ ٱلْمُبِينُ | al-kitab-u l-mubeen-u
Note: In front of Sun Letters, اَلـ is written with no sukkun on the ل, since there is no pause on the ل; in-fact the ل
is assimilated and makes a different sound altogether.
We will get to sentence formation, later below.
#+end_details
Exercise: From your knowledge of pronunciation of ة and the two special pronunciation rules of الـ, guess how the following
would be read.
#+begin_spoiler green
| السَّيَّارَةُ الجَدِيْدَة |
| (( as-sayyara-tu l-jadded-a )) |
#+end_spoiler
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Remember: Since tanween indicates indefiniteness, a definite word cannot have tanween!
| a boy | ولدٌ | “walad-un” |
| the boy | الولدُ | “al-walad-u” |
#+html: <br>
#+begin_details Quranic Quandary: اَل ⇷ ل = اَلّ
In the Quran, when the definite article is prefixed to a word
beginning with ل, only one ل is written. For example,
| the night | اَلَّیْلُ | al-laylu
This is not normally the case in modern Arabic.
#+end_details
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
😉 Arabic is so simple!
Unlike other languages, Arabic has الـ for the regardless of whether we're talking about
one person, or many! For example, in French, we have 3-ways to say the: le, la, les.
#+begin_details الـ is usually part of Arabic names!
For example, a person named John who happens to be a smith, a worker in metal, might be referred to as John the
smith. In English, this became John Smith, and in Arabic it becomes جون الحداد “john al-hadad” ---where حداد means
smith.
A more important figure would be حسن العسكري: A person named حسن/Hassan who lived in a town of soldiers/عسكر. He is a
great grandson of Prophet Muhammad.
This name-followed-by-profession/town construction is known as Idafa/إظافة and it is discussed later in this article.
#+end_details
* Idafa: (In)definite followed by definite
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Idafa-In-definite-followed-by-definite
:END:
#+begin_center
What happens when you stick two nouns together? What about definiteness?
#+end_center
** Possession: Addition إظـافـة “idafa”
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Possession-Addition-إظـافـة-idafa
:END:
Arabic expresses possession by placing two nouns next to each other: red:possessor ⇷ green:possessed (read right-to-left).
This is إظـافـة, which literally means addition.
#+begin_parallel 3
| 1. red:Anwar's green:book |
| ≈ green:كتاب red:أنور |
# Force a column break
#+html: <hr style="border:none; height:40px">
| 2. green:the manager of red:the department |
| ≈ red:the department's green:manager |
| ≈ green:مدير red:القسم |
| 3. green:the manager of red:<em>a</em> department |
| ≈ red:<em>a</em> department's green:manager |
| ≈ green:مدير red:قسم |
#+end_parallel
Since the green:possessed item is known to belong to the red:possessor, the English translations all use “the” before
the green:possessed item: The green:X of red:Y. That is, just as in English red:Y's green:X means X is known to
definitely belong to Y, Arabic treats the green:possessed word in an إظافة as “definite in meaning” (even though it is
not “definite in form; has no الـ”); see example #3 above. We can summarise this
observation as follows.
#+begin_box "Case endings for Idaafa: Only one of “a/the/my”!"
# /The first term in an Idafa can be in any case, depending on its use in a sentence, but it never has nunation./
The first term of an Idafa will be in any case the sentence requires; and only the last term in an Idafa (however
complex) can have the definite article or nunation or an attached possessive doc:arabic-pronoun ---this is like
English, “a X's Y” or “the X's Y” or “my X's Y”--- and this choice determines the definiteness of the Idafa. Also, all terms of
an Idafa, other than the first term, must be in the genitive case.
| a nurse's book | كتابُ مُمرّضةٍ |
| the nurse's book | كتابُ ٱلْمُمرظةِ |
| my nurse's book | كتابُ مُمرّضتي |
Note that nunnation is indefinite, whereas الـ and possessive-pronouns are definite.
#+end_box
#+begin_details "What's the deal with pronoun suffixes?"
| her book | كتابها |
Technically, we can treat “her book” as an Idaafa construction, with the pronoun
“her”, written in Arabic as an attached ending ـها, being the second term in the
Idafa. Since pronouns are technically
definite, they will always end an Idafa whenever they are used.
Here's another example,
| my brother's book | كتاب اخي |
#+end_details
The result of an addition, إظافة, is noun phrase which itself can be the red:possessor of something else. Whether this
result is definite or not is determined by whether the final noun in the إظافة is definite or not; see example #2 above.
The result of an addition, إظافة, is noun phrase which itself can be the red:possessor of something else. As such, we
can repeat the إظافة construction onto itself a number of times:
| the son of the manager of the sales department |
| ≈ green:the son of red:(the manager of (the department of sales)) |
| ≈ green:ابن red:مدير قسم المبيعات
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#+begin_details "Idiomatic uses of Idafa"
1. The use of 2 nouns in an idafa to represent an idea that has to be translated as a noun and a qualifying
adjective. Duh, that's the whole point of idafa with adjectives, to created qualified nouns!
| قَوْمُ سَوْءٍ |
| ≈ people of evil |
| ≈ an evil people |
2. The use of certain words, such as umm, ab, ibn, ahl, saahib, dhu
(accusative dhaa, genitive dhii found only with a following genitive) to represent a single idea. lol see #1 above.
#+begin_parallel 3
| اِبْنُ ٱلسّبِیلِ |
| ≈ son of the road |
| ≈ traveller |
| أَهْلُ بَیْتٍ |
| ≈ family of a house |
| ≈ a household |
| ذُو ٱلْفَضْلِ |
| ≈ possessed of bounty |
| ≈ bountiful |
#+end_parallel
#+end_details
:useless_actually_maybe_useful:
Since there are two nouns, and each noun can have an الـ or not,
there seem to be a total of 4 different subcategories:
| green:سيارة red:ولد | the car of a boy |
| green:سيارة red:الولد | the car of the boy |
| green:السيارة red:ولد | Nonsense! |
| green:السيارة red:الولد | Nonsense! |
An Idafa “Y ⇷ X” can mean “the X of the Y” or “a X of a/the Y”.
:end:
#+begin_details "Exercise: Form the Idafa with the correct case endings!"
Write the Arabic Idafa for each English phrase and, for simplicity, place the first term of the Idafa in the nominative case.
#+begin_spoiler orange
| Colloquial phrase | Unfolding into using “of” | Arabic |
|---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------|
| A university professor | ≈ a professor (of) a university | ≈ استاذُ جامعةٍ |
| The office director | ≈ the director (of) the office | ≈ (( مُدیرُ المكتبِ )) |
| the house yard | ≈ the yard (of) the house | ≈ (( سَاحَةُ البَيْتِ )) |
| the bedroom | ≈ the room (of) sleeping | ≈ (( غُرْفَةُ النَّوْمِ )) |
|---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------|
| A teacher's house | ≈ a house (of) a teacher | ≈ (( بیتُ مُدرّسٍ )) |
| The teacher's house | ≈ the house (of) the teacher | ≈ (( بیتُ المُدرّسِ )) |
|---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------|
| An office director's car | ≈ a car (of) a director (of) an office | ≈ (( سیّارةُ مُدیرِ مكتبٍ )) |
| The office director's car | ≈ the car (of) the director (of) the office | ≈ (( سیّارةُ مُدیرِ المكتبِ )) |
|---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------|
| Allah's mercy | ≈ the mercy (of) Allah | ≈ (( رَحْمَةُ ٱللَّهِ )) |
| the people of the book | ⟦Quranic reference to people who obtained revelation⟧ | ≈ (( اَّهْلُ ٱلْكِتَابِ )) |
|---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------|
| my brother's watch | ≈ the watch (of) my brother | ≈ (( سَاعَةُ أخِي )) |
| my mum's aunt | ≈ the aunt (of) my mother | ≈ (( خَالَةُ أُمِّي )) |
#+end_spoiler
🤷 Personally I'm not sure when proper names should have the case markings. So any
guidance regarding the following examples would be welcomed! Inshallah I will
keep learning and eventually figure this out. 🤷
| Mohammed's car | | ≈ سَيَّارَةُ مُحَمَّد |
| Ali's table | | ≈ طَاوِلَةُ عَلِي |
| Sarah's job | | ≈ وَظِيْفَةُ سَارَة |
| Yemen's map | | ≈ خَرِيْطَةُ اليَمَن |
#+end_details
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#+begin_details "“This book!” Demonstratives make definites!"
| | “this/these” | “that/those” |
| masculine singular | هٰذا (haathaa) | ذٰلِكَ (thaalika) |
| feminine singular | هٰذِهِ (haathihi) | تِلْكَ (tilka) |
| plural | هؤَلاءِ (haa'ulaa'i) | أُولئكَ ('ulaa'ika) |
Often non-verbal sentences are formed using demonstratives:
| This is a book. | .هذا كتاب |
| This is my sister. | .هذهِ أُخْتي |
| That is my mother. | .تِلْكَ أُمّي |
As always, definitness in an Idafa distinguishes between a complete sentence and an adjectival phrase:
| This is a book. | .هذا كتاب |
| This book … | … هذا الكتاب |
| (This book is heavy. | .هذا الكتاب ثقیل ) |
| This is _the_ book. | .هذا هو الكتاب |
The first is a sentence, the second is not. Finally, notice that you need to add the appropriate noun, in this case هو,
if you want to say the sentence This is _the_ book.
(This is the Pronoun of Separation, discussed below.)
#+end_details
#+begin_details "The Pronoun of Separation"
Above we declared
#+begin_center
Non-verbal Sentences ≈ red:indefinite description ⇷ green:defininite noun
#+end_center
However, we can have definite predicates in a sentence such as God is the truth. To separate a definite predicate from a definite subject, a third person pronoun (known as thamir al-fasl, the
pronoun of separation) is inserted between subject and predicate.
#+begin_center
Non-verbal Sentences ≈ red:definite description ⇷ blue:pronoun ⇷ green:defininite noun
#+end_center
| The unbelievers are wrongdoers. | .اَلْكٰفِرُون ظٰلِمُون |
| The wrongdoing unbelievers … | … اَلْكٰفِرُون ٱلظّٰلِمُن |
| The unbelievers are the wrongdoers. | .اَلْكٰفِرُون هُمُ ٱلظّٰلِمُونَ |
Here is another sentence:
| <c> |
| .اَللّٰهُ هُوَ ٱلتَّوَّابُ |
| ≈ (Allah) (He) (the relenting). |
| ≈ Allah is the Relenting one. |
#+end_details
** Sentences without verbs: Replacing a noun with an adjective
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Sentences-without-verbs-Replacing-a-noun-with-an-adjective
:END:
The Idafa construction is about two nouns next to each other; however Arabic has only 3 kinds of words ---in contrast to
English's 8.
| Kind | Description |
|------+------------------------------------------|
| اسم | Nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc |
| فعل | Verbs: action words |
| حرف | Particles, such as prepositions في and علی |
#+html: <br>
#+begin_details "What's an Adjective? Some common adjectives"
Descriptive words such as “beautiful, new, heavy” are known
as adjectives in English.
| | | |
|-------------+-------+------------|
| beautiful | جميل | jamiil |
| ugly | قبيح | GabeH |
|-------------+-------+------------|
| new | جديد | jaded |
| old | قديم | Gadeem |
|-------------+-------+------------|
| heavy | ثغيل | thaGeel |
| light | خفيف | khafeef |
|-------------+-------+------------|
| big / large | كبير | kabeer |
| small | صغير | sagheer |
|-------------+-------+------------|
| tall / long | طويل | Taweel |
| short | قصير | Gaseer |
|-------------+-------+------------|
| broken | مكسور | maksuur |
| happy | مسرور | masruur |
| famous | مشهور | mashHur |
| married | متزوج | mitazawwij |
| suitable | موناسب | munasib |
#+end_details
So, what kind of meaning do we get if we replace one of the nouns
in an Idafa construction with an adjective, a descriptive word?
We get sentences!
#+begin_center
Descriptive Phrases ≈ red:description ⇷ green:noun
#+end_center
| 1. | (a) beautiful girl | بنت جميلة |
| 2. | (a) beautiful river | نهر جميل |
| 3. | a beautiful river | نهرٌ جميلٌ |
| 4. | the beautiful river | النهر الجميل |
| 5. | the beautiful river | النهرُ الجميلُ |
| 6. | their beautiful river | نهرهم الجميل |
Notice that the description جميل changes according to what is being described: The first has an extra ة since it's
describing a female, the third (and fifth) has markings that match the markings of what's being described, the fourth (and sixth!)
is definite since it's describing something definite.
#+begin_box Adjective Agreement
Adjectives are placed after the noun they describe, and agree with
the noun in gender, definiteness, number, and case endings.
(Number, or plurality, is the last thing covered in this article.)
#+end_box
#+html: <br>
#+begin_details "What if I have multiple adjectives?"
Just place them after the noun, as usual, and seperate them with and وَ “wa”. Here's two examples, one definite and the
other indefinite.
| a large new school | مدرسة كبيرة وَجديدة |
| the beautiful old chair | الكرسي الجميل وَالقديم
In the English sentence /Allah is powerful and mighty./, it is necessary to link the adjectives by using and. This is
not necessary in Arabic ---even though وَ could be used---, especially when tanween is fully pronounced. For example:
| .اَللّٰهُ قَوِيٌّ عَزِیزٌ |
| Allah is powerful and mighty. |
#+end_details
#+html: <br>
#+begin_details "An Exception: Colours as adjectives"
The (masculine) colours are as follows:
| red | أحمَر | ahmar |
| blue | أزرَق | azraG |
| green | أخضَر | akhthar |
| yellow | أصفَر | asfar |
| black | أسوَد | aswad |
| white | أبيَض | abyath |
1. Notice that all colours start with أ and have a Fatha ـَـ on the next-to-last letter.
2. The feminine versions of colours are formed by pushing the أ to the end، dropping the ء to the floor, and bringing the
Fatha to the first letter.
+ For example, masculine أحمَر has corresponding feminine
حَمراء.
Likewise, we have زَرقاء ، خَضراء ، صَفراء ، سَوداء ، بَيضاء .
3. Even though adjectives must agree with their nouns in case endings, colours are an exception: They always have the ـُـ
ending, (for both definite and indefinite).
| a beautiful pen | قلمٌ جميلٌ | Galam-un jameel-un |
| a red pen | قلمٌ أحمرُ | Galam-un ahmar-u |
| the red pen | القلمُ الأحمرُ | al-Galam-u al-ahmar-u |
#+end_details
The rule about agreement in definiteness is crucial, because a definite noun followed by an indefinite adjective is a
complete sentence, not requiring a verb. That is, mixing definiteness results in sentences, complete thoughts.
#+begin_center
Non-verbal Sentences ≈ red:indefinite description ⇷ green:defininite noun
#+end_center
For example,
| The river is beautiful. | ≈ | .النهر جميل |
| The river is beautiful. | ≈ | .النهرُ جميلٌ |
| Allah is might. | ≈ | .اَللّٰهُ عَزِیزٌ |
Again, since Arabic's word classes put adjectives and nouns in the same group, اسم, we can replace the adjective with a
noun. For example,
| Yusuf is beautiful. | ≈ | .يوسف جميل |
| Yusuf is a teacher. | ≈ | .يوسفُ مُدَرّسٌ |
#+begin_details "Equational Sentences: Do It Yourself Examples!"
These kind of no-verb sentences are also known as equational sentences: For example, You are Muhammad is written أنتَ
مهمد and “could be thought of as” you = Muhammad ---an equation! Likewise, Muhammad = student is another equation,
which is written مهمد طالب.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exercise 1: (1) pick any doc:arabic-pronoun you like, (2) any name you like, then (3) stick them beside each other
to make more example sentences!
Here are a few to get you started!
- هم مُدرّسون --- They are teachers.
- انا سمير --- I am Samer.
- انا سميرة --- I am Samera.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exercise 2:
(1) Pick any name you like, (2) pick any job/adjective you like, then (3)
stick them beside each other to make more example sentences!
Here are a few to get you started!
- زينب كاتبة --- Zaynab is a writer.
- سارة طويلة --- Sarah is tall.
- بنيامين مسرور --- Benjamin is happy.
# TODO: Maybe merge this Exercise2 with the exercise on exploring adjectives?
# Then make a similar one on professions a la Exercise1.
#+end_details
Notice how cool that is! Arabic let's us create sentences without an equivalent for am, is, are ---the subject is just
followed by the rest of the sentence. Moreover, notice that since subjects must have the nominative ending ـُـ/ـٌـ, the
rest of the sentence matches in case ---this is the same rule of matching for adjectives! (For this reason, non-verbal
sentences are also called nominal sentences.)
Here are some more examples:
| I am busy today. | .انا مَشْغولٌ الیوم |
| The window is broken. | .الشُّباكُ مَكْسورٌ |
Notice that pronouns, such as انا, do not get case markings.
And we use the indefinite ـٌـ marking for adjectives.
Exercise: Write the correct case markings!
#+begin_spoiler orange
| Sentence | | Translation | Correct Case Markings |
|----------+---+-------------------------------+----------------------------|
| الطالب جديد | | The student is new. | الطالبُ جديدٌ |
| الكتاب جديد | | ((The book is new. )) | (( الكتابُ جديدٌ )) |
| الطالب جميل | | ((The student is beautiful.)) | (( الطالبُ جميلٌ )) |
| المدير طالب | | ((The manager is a student.)) | (( المُديرُ طالبٌ )) |
| انتَ مُدير | | ((You are a manager. )) | (( انتَ مُديرٌ )) |
| انا المُدرس | | ((I am the teacher. )) | (( انا المُدرسُ )) |
#+end_spoiler
#+html: <br>
#+begin_details "Questions: Stick a “question marker” in front of a sentence! Also اعرب affecting writing!"
English makes sentences into question by moving words around:
The sentence You are a student. becomes the question
Are you a student?
Arabic just adds هَلْ or اَ to a non-verbal sentence to turn it into a question:
For example, You are a student is انتَ طالب, and we turn it into a question as follows.
| | <c> |
| | Are you a student? |
| ≈ | هَلْ انتَ طالب؟ |
| ≈ | اانتَ طالب؟ |
Here are more question words:
| where | أینَ | ayna |
| who | مَنْ | men (like gentlemen) |
| what + noun | ما | ma |
| what + verb | ماذا | matha |
| why | لِماذا | limatha |
| when | مَتی | mataa |
| which | أيّ | ayy |
| how | كَیفَ | kayfa |
| how many | كَم | kam |
| how much (price!) | بِكم | bikam |
There are three important things to note here:
+ ما/ماذا ::
There are 2 words for what, one is used for a following noun and the other for a
following verb.
| What's your address? | ما عنوانك؟ |
| What are you doing? | ماذا تفعل؟ |
Also,
| What's this? | ما هٰذا؟ |
# Moreover, ما is not used to refer to people.
# I don't have a good example lying about.
+ كم ::
كم is followed by an indefinite singular noun that must be in the accusative case; i.e., it ends with ـًـ if the word
ends with ة/ی/اء and otherwise ends with اً.
This is another example of Arabic case endings, اعراب, affecting the basic spelling
and pronunciation.
For example, كم ولداَ؟ How many boys?
+ من :: The question word who مَنْ “men” (as in “gentlemen”) can be easily confused
with the preposition from مِنْ. “min” (as in “minimum”). Unless the vowels are written, it's the context that
distinguishes them apart.
For example,
| | <c> |
| | Where are you from? |
| ≈ | From where are you? |
| ≈ | مِنْ أَیْنَ انتَ؟ |
Likewise, من انت؟ only means Who are you? (“men anta”),
since the phrase From you? would be written with
an attached doc:arabic-pronoun as مِنْك؟ “min-ak”.
#+end_details
** TODO COMMENT Nominal Sententences and word order
Recall at the start of this article we discussed how اعراب let us change the
order of words in sentences. Well, the simplest kind of sentences are those
without verbs!
Finally, as we will encounter later in this article, Arabic also has sentences
without verbs! These are just the subject followed by the predicate, which is
what is happening to the subject. Since these non-verbal sentences are only two
pieces (possibly complicated pieces), there are two ways to order them and both
are valid!
#+begin_parallel 2
| The man died. |
| ≈ مَاتَ الرَّجلُ |
| ≈ الرَّجلُ مَاتَ |
| The tall man died. |
| ≈ مَاتَ الرَّجلُ الطَّویلُ |
| ≈ الرَّجلُ الطَّویلُ مَاتَ |
#+end_parallel
** TODO COMMENT How to spot an Idaafa? vs an adjective-phrase, vs a non-verbal sentence?
Whenever you see a bunch of nouns in a row (possibly with a demonstrative in between)
and the first does not have the definite article (or a pronoun suffix), then you have
an Idaafa. Conversely, if you have a bunch of words in a row but there is something
between them (that is not a demonstrative) such as a preposition or a verb, then
you do not have an Idaafa. Finally, the end of an Idaafa can be found as the word
that ends with the definite article, or tanween, or a pronoun suffix.
- Remember that demonstratives, like هذا, do not interfere with an Idaafa construction
since demonstratives form one unit with the noun that follows it.
What's the deal with pronoun suffixes?
| her book | كتابها |
Technically, we can treat “her book” as an Idaafa construction, with the pronoun
“her”, written in Arabic as an attached ending ـها, being the second term in the
Idaafa. Since pronouns are technically
definite, they will always end an Idaafa whenever they are used.
Here's another example,
| my brother's book | كتاب اخي |
** TODO COMMENT preopositions
??? Maybe relocate this to be after Idaafa, since prepositions kinda generalise the idea of using the posessive
preposition "of". :wink: Yeah! !!!
Idaafa, إظافة, is Arabic's way of quickly introducing the English preposition “of”:
English has Jim's apple, whereas Arabic would say the apple (of) Jim.
Since the genitive, مجرور, is used for words after prepositions, it is the case
used for all words after the first word in an Idaafa.
Anyhow, let's generalise to prepositions!
Note: The genitive case is used when a word follows a preposition or
it is used for all words after the first word in an Idaafa
(إظافة), covered below.
Prepositions are words like
عن ، الی ، لِ ، بِ ، في ، علی ، مِن ، قبل ، بعد ، أثناء.
Any word following a preposition should be in the genitive case.
#+begin_spoiler
| English | Sentence | Sentence with cases |
|--------------------------------------+------------------+------------------------|
| 1. The student is in the house. | الطالب في البيت | (( الطالبُ في البيتِ )) |
| 2. You are the director in this office. | انتَ المُدير في هذا المكتب | (( انتَ المُديرُ في هذا المكتبِ )) |
| 3. The university is near the library. | الجامعة قریبة من المكتبة | (( الجامعةُ قریبةٌ مِن المكتبةِ )) |
#+end_spoiler
Explanations:
1. Subjects are in nominative; words after prepositions are in genitive. Nothing unexpected here.
2. The subject is a pronoun, you/انتَ, and pronouns do not take cases.
Since المدیر is the predicate of the sentence (i.e., a description of the subject),
it must take the nominative case. More on this when we get to Idaafa / Equational Sentences.
A demonstrative, such as this/هذا, followed by a word are treated grammatically as a single indivisible unit, and so
the case endings go after the word following the demonstrative.
- Demonstratives are discussed below when we get to Idaafa.
3. This is similar to #2: We have an equational sentence and so need ـُـ and ـٌـ, then
it's followed by a definite prepositional phrase and so we need ـِـ.
** TODO كان “I was X” and لِْسَ “I was not X” :ignore:low_priority:
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: كان-I-was-X-and-لِْسَ-I-was-not-X
:END:
#+html: <hr>
#+begin_details "Laysa: Not-to-be"
If you want to make a nominal sentence negative, you need to use the special verb Laysa.
While Arabic doesn't use a verb “to be” (is/am/are) in simple non-verbal sentences,
it does have a verb “to not be”!
We make a sentence, such as Haani is a doctor هاني طبیب, negative by adding
لَیْسَ (and concluding the sentence in the accusative case)
or by adding لِیْسَ…بِـ (and concluding in the genitive case).
| Haani isn't a doctor. |
|. لِیْسَ هاني طبيباً |
|. لِيْسَ هاني بِطبيب |
لِيْسَ is unusual because it looks like a past verb, but always has a present meaning:
Haani _wasn't_ a doctor would be لم یكن هاني طبیباً.
However, لِیْسَ does change according to the subject:
| | singular | plural |
| 1 | لَسْتُ I'm not | لَسْنا we're not |
| 2m | لَسْتَ you're not | لَسْتُمْ you're not |
| 2f | لَسْتِ you're not | لَسْتُمْ you're not |
| 3m | لَیْسَ he's not | لَیْسوا they're not |
| 3f | لَیْسَتْ she's not | لَسْنَ they're not |
Just as in elementary school, we memorised multiplication times in math class;
when learning a new language there are various conjugation tables that must simply
be memorised.
Here's a final example,
| . لَستُ بِمُدرّس |
| . لَستُ مُدرساً |
| I'm not a teacher. |
#+end_details
** Describing Possession
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Describing-Possession
:END:
Adjectives, descriptive words, come at the end of an Idafa ---even if they describe the first word in an Idafa.
The adjective will match the gender of the noun it is describing,
and will have الـ if the noun is definite. For example, the presence of ة below is what decides which noun of the
Idafa is being described.
| the town's beautiful river | نهر المدينة الجميل |
| the beautiful town's river | نهر المدينة الجميلة |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a puzzler for you! What does the following sentence mean?
| شباك البيت السغير |
| ≈? the window of the small house |
| ≈? the small window of the house |
Answer...
#+begin_spoiler orange
((It's not clear! Such ambiguities also exist in English! For example, “the boy touched the girl with the flower”: Does this mean the boy used a flower to touch the girl, or does it mean the boy touched the specific girl who had a flower with her.))
#+end_spoiler
However... Arabic has markings, or اعراب which literally means
“to make clear, eloquent”. As such, if we use markings, we can remove the ambiguity.
#+begin_box Adjective Agreement
Adjectives are placed after the noun they describe, and agree with
the noun in gender, definiteness, and case endings.
#+end_box
The second noun in an Idafa (and any subsequent nouns) will have
the genetive case ending: Either ـِـ if definite, or ـٍـ if indefinite.
(The case of the first noun will vary depending on the role it plays within the sentence.)
As such, we have:
#+begin_parallel
| شباك البيتِ السغيرِ |
|----------------------------------|
| ≈ the window of the small house |
| شباكُ البيتِ السغيرُ |
|----------------------------------|
| ≈ the small window of the house |
#+end_parallel
** TODO COMMENT Idafa -The crucial points to remember :low_priority:
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: COMMENT-Idafa-The-crucial-points-to-remember
:END:
Idafa is used to represent the association of one noun with another,
and is thus described as the genitive of possession. (The `genitive' may be a noun or a clause.)
Here are some examples to show how the Idafa works:
| the people of the book | اَّهْلُ ٱلْكِتَابِ |
| Allah's mercy | رَحْمَةُ ٱللَّهِ |
The crucial points to remember are:
1. The noun that is followed by this genitive cannot take either the definite article or Tanween. As such, a noun cam
either take Tanween or have the defininte article or
have a following genitive, but only one of these three.
2. The following genitive may be definite or indefinite in meaning.
3. In normal circumstances, green: a noun followed by a genitive is definite in meaning..
If an indefinite meaning is required another construction must be used. [The pronoun of separation?]
To express possession of a noun with an indefinite meaning,
prepositional constructions with min and li- are used:
| a group of the faithful | طَائفَةٌ مِنَ ٱلْمُؤمِنِینَ |
** COMMENT Yakuun in nominal sentences :low_priority:relocate_to_drafs:
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: COMMENT-Yakuun-in-nominal-sentences
:END:
You should include the appropriate form of the verb يكون if a sentence requires yuou to use the subjunctive, jussive, or imperative.
* Plurals: Seeing إعراب in the main script!
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Plurals-Seeing-إعراب-in-the-main-script
:END:
In English to talk about many instance of a “house” or a “mouse” we use the words “houses” and “mice”. In Arabic, one
has to generally learn the plural when learning a word. However, there are two kinds of words that we just add an ending
to form the plural.
** Sound Feminine Plurals
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Sound-Feminine-Plurals
:END:
For groups of females, or (female or male) non-human nouns, we form the plural by adding ـَـات at the end of a word ---which is essentially just expanding any existing ـَـة.
| (female) | teacher | مُدرّسة | mudarrisa |
| (female) | teachers | مُدرّسَات | mudarrisaat |
| (male) | animal | حيوان | Haywaan |
| | animals | حيوانَات | Haywaanaat |
Notice that the Arabic word for animals is grammatically feminine.
In-general, the plurals of all non-humans are treated grammatically as feminine singular 🤯 As such, for example,
descriptive words are singular for animals, but plural for teachers.
#+begin_parallel
| The (female) teachers are beautiful. |
| ≈ المُدرّسَات جميلَات |
| The animals are beautiful. |
| ≈ الحيوانَات جميلة |
#+end_parallel
** Sound Masculine Plural (SMP)
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Sound-Masculine-Plural-SMP
:END:
For groups of males, or groups of mixed males & females, we form the plural by adding ـُـونَ at the end of a word when the
word is doing the action (i.e., it's in the nomiative case) and otherwise we add ـِـينَ.
| teacher | مُدرّس | mudarris |
|------------------------+-----------+-------------------------|
| The teacher is here. | المُدرّسُ هُنا | al-mudarris-u huna |
| The teachers are here. | المُدرّسُونَ هُنا | al-mudarris-uuna huna |
|------------------------+-----------+-------------------------|
| I saw the teacher. | رأیتُ ٱلمُدرّسِ | r'aytu al-mudrarris-i |
| I saw the teachers. | رأيتُ المُدرّسِينَ | r'aytu al-mudarris-iina |
Notice that the Irab in the singular are stretched out in the plural! Super cool stuff!
+ We see this often in the Quran, where God talks about
مسلمون (Muslims doing something) and
مسلمين (Muslims having something done to them, or owning something).
The sound masculine plural is one of the few instances of the
case ending being written as part of the main script and universally pronounced.
#+begin_details "Here's another somewhat common one!"
A few nouns have long final vowels when they are the first element in an Idafa.
| | nomative | accusative | genitive |
|------------+----------+------------+----------|
| father اب | أَبُو | أَبَا | أَبِي |
| brother اخ | أَخُو | أَخَا | أَخِي |
#+end_details
Since this plural explicitly indicates a case, either nomative
with ـُـونَ and otherwise with ـِـينَ;
but the second noun (and any subsequent nouns) in an Idafa
must be in the genetive case. As such, in an Idafa whose final word is a
sound masculine plural, the ـِـينَ ending is always used.
Moreover, when this plural is the first word in an Idafa,
it loses the shared ending ـنَ.
For example,
| The boy's teachers are here. | مُدرّسو الولدِ هُنا |
| I saw the boy's teachers. | رأيتُ مُدرّسي الولدِ |
#+html: <br>
#+begin_details "Tell me more about why we lose ـنَ at the start of an Idafa"
In an Idafa, the first noun is definite (even when it does not start with الـ): In X's Y, we know that Y belongs to X,
and so it's not some arbitrary unknown Y. As such, the first noun in an Idafa can only have the defininte case endings ـَ
ـِ ـُ and not the indefinite ones ـَ ـٍ ـٌ . It is for this reason that the final ـنَ ending of the SMP must be dropped when a
SMP is the first noun in an Idafa.
# Sound masculine plurals with a following genitive lose the final nun+fatha. This is best shown with the word ulu, which
# is the plural equivalent of dhu and is found only with a following genitive:
Here's some more examples:
#+begin_parallel
| أُولُو ٱلْأَلبَابِ |
| ≈ (literally!) possessors of hearts |
| ≈ men of understanding |
| أُولِي ٱلْأَبْصَارِ |
| ≈ (literally!) possessors of sight |
| ≈ men of insight |
#+end_parallel
Another example is Children of Israel placed in an Idafa to get
banu israil in the nomiative, and banii israil in the genitive.
# #
# Exercise:
# #+begin_spoiler orange
# | child | ((?)) . TODO |
# | Israel | ((?)). TODO. |
# | | |
# | I saw the Children of Israel. | ((?)). TODO. |
# | The Children of Israel saw me. | ((?)). TODO. |
# #+end_spoiler
#
#+end_details
So, the way sound masculine plurals are written is due to the إعراب rules. We started with I'rab and ended with it;
we've come full circle 😊
** "The Dual Also Shows-off إعراب in the main script!" :ignore:
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: The-Dual-Also-Shows-off-إعراب-in-the-main-script
:END:
#+html: <hr>
#+begin_details "Bonus: The Dual Also Shows-off إعراب in the main script!"
Arabic has three notions of number:
| Singular | When talking about one thing, |
| Dual | When talking about two things, |
| Plural | When talking about three or more things. |
The dual is used for both masculine and feminine,
| you (two) | أَنْتُما |
| they (two) | هُما |
green:If you want to refer to two people or things (/nouns/), you add the dual ending
ـانِ (“aani”) in the normative case and ـَینِ (“ayni”) in the accusative & genitive cases.
| book كتاب | | two books | كتابانِ |
| city مدینة | | two cities | مدينتانِ |
The dual ending is also added to adjectives:
| هُناكَ مُمَرّضَتانِ جدیدتانِ في المُسْتشْفَی |
| There are two new nurses in the hospital. |
#+end_details
* TODO COMMENT Summary & Resources
** TODO Summary
TODO. Make single-item compact, terse, summaries of each section or
important grammatical point ---along with a link back to the relevant section, for review.
+ §#ة-Gender-and-tied-up-t-ت In doubt, words are masculine unless there is a reason for them to be feminine, such as
them ending in ة or them referring to a female.
+ § ?
+ § ?
+ § ?
+ The first term in an Idaafa
can be in any case, depending on its use in a sentence, but it never has nunation. Again: The first term of an Idaafa
will be in any case the sentence requires. In fact, only the last term in an Idaafa (however complex) can have the
definite article /or/ nunnation (This is like English, /a X's Y/ or /the X's Y/ or /my X's Y/); and this determines the definitness of the
Idaafa. Also, all terms of an Idaafa, other than the first term, MUST be in the genitive case.
#+begin_center
لا فتی الا علي
#+end_center
** Resources
+ Remember Arabic | learning grammar through stories
This website consists of fun engaging “stories” towards learning grammatical concepts. Usually with funny little
drawings. Highly recommend it!
+ Arabic Almanac
This is an online, interactive, dictionary tool: Enter a root, either in Arabic, or using English letters to sound it
out, and it will look it up for you in multiple dictionaries!
+ Arabic Through the Qur'an by Alan Jones
This is a formidable book. I feel that it's targeted towards professional linguists, rather than people who are
learning by themselves. I would not recommend this book to anyone I know. A few passages from it have been inserted
into this article, within the folded regions labelled green:Quranic Quandry.