Ultimate Arabic

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله,

Continuing from Shaykh Al-Uthaymeen’s rahimahullah قواعد في الإلمى (Rules for Writing), we learn how to write تاء التأنيث (the ت used for the feminine tense).

1. It is written in its مَربُوطة (rounded) form (ة) in:
   • Broken plurals (e.g. قُضاة [“the judges”]
   • Singular feminine nouns (e.g. شَجَرة), except for بِنت (“daughter”) and أُخت (“sister”)
2. It is written in its مَفتُوحة (open) form (ت) in:
   • The فِعل (action), such as قامَتْ (“she stood”)
   • The جَمع المُؤنّثِ السالِم (sound feminine plural), such as مُسلِمات (“Muslim women”)
   • حُرُوف (particles), such as ثُمَّتْ رُبَّتْ لَعَلَّتْ لاتَ

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله,

One of the biggest points of confusion is when to write the letter alif in the form of ا and when to write it as ى. From Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen’s قواعد في الإملاء (Rules for Writing), we will learn when it’s ا and when it’s ى.

The alif having no vowel on it and preceded by a fathah can fall:

1. In the middle of the word (in this case it’s always written as ا)
2. At the end of the word (here it can be written as ا or ى)

When alif is written as ا

There are five situations when it is written as ا at the end:

1. The word is a harf, such as كَلّا and لَوْلا. Exceptions to this are بَلى – إلى – عَلى – حَتّى, as long as they don’t have the م used for questioning attached to them. Then you would write them as إلامَ – عَلامَ – حَتّامَ
2. The word is mabni, such as the pronoun نا in قُمْنا (“we stood”) and the pointing pronoun ذا (“this”). Excluded from this are:
   • أنَّى
   • مَتَى
   • the pointing pronoun أولى (which also comes as أولاء)
   • the relative pronoun الأُلى (like الَّذِيْنَ, a plural form of الَّذِي)
   • لَدَى
3. The word is a non-Arab word (e.g. أمْرِيْكا), with exceptions ending with ى:
   • مُوْسى
   • عِيْسى
   • كِسْرى
   • بُخارَى
   • مَتَّى
4. The word is ثُلاثِيّ (has a tri-literal root) and the alif was originally a و, as in دَعا (“he called”) and العَصا (“the stick”). Both of these have و as their third root letter
5. The alif has a ي before it, as in دُنْيا and سَجايا. Excluded from this are proper names, so يَحْيَى is written with the ى

When alif is written as ى

There are three situations when it is written as ى at the end: