السلام عليكم و رحمة الله,

At this point we now know every single status indicator used in the Arabic language, along with when it’s used.  So far, we’ve been looking from the angle of the indicators themselves.

To make it all stick better, we’re going to review by seeing things from another angle: the kinds of words these indicators show up in.  To be brief:

المُعْرَباتُ قِسْمانِ: قِسْمٌ يُعْرَبُ بالْحَرَكاتِ وَقِسمٌ يُعْرَبُ بِالْحُرُوْفِ

The words that are given status are two types: one that is given status using harakat (vowels) and one that is given status using letters.

To break it down further, from what we’ve seen while going through the indicators is that they apply to 8 kinds of words, 4 that show status using vowels and 4 that show it using letters:

1. The singular noun (الاسْمُ المُفْرَدُ)
2. The broken plural (جَمْعُ التَكْسِيْرِ)
3. The sound feminine plural (جَمعُ المُؤَنَّثِ السالِمُ)
4. The present tense action with nothing attached at the end (الفِعلُ المُضارِعُ لَمْ يَتَّصِلْ بِآخِرِهِ شَيءٌ)
5. The dual (المُثَّنى)
6. The masculine plural (جَمعُ المُذَكَّرِ السالِمُ)
7. The five nouns (الأسْماءُ الخَمْسَةُ)
8. The five actions (الأفعالُ الخَمْسَةُ)

المُعْرَباتُ بِالحَرَكاتِ (Words given status using vowels)

فَالَّذِيْ يُعْرَبُ بِالْحَرَكاتِ أرْبَعَةُ أشْيَاء: الاسْمُ المُفْرَدُ وَجَمْعُ التَكْسِيْرِ وَجَمْعُ المُؤَنَّثِ السَّالِمُ وَالفِعْلُ الْمُضَارِعُ الَّذِيْ لَمْ يَتَّصِلْ بِآخِرِهِ شَيْءٌ

The (division) that is given status using vowels is four things: the singular noun, the broken plural, the feminine plural and the present tense action with nothing attached to its end.

There are three vowels: fathah, kasrah and dhammah (sukoon is grouped with them), and there are four kinds of words given status using these (i.e. the first four from the list above):

1. The singular noun (الاسْمُ المُفْرَدُ) – For example: ذاكَرَ مُحَمَّدٌ الدرسَ (“Muhammad memorized the lesson”)
   1. ذاكر is a past tense verb, (so no grammatical state applies here).  It’s fixed upon fathah
   2. ٌمُحَمَّد is the doer of an action, so it’s in raf’, showing it with a dhammah
   3. الدَرْسَ is the object of the verb, so it’s in nasb, showing it with a fathah
2. The broken plural (جَمْعُ التَكْسِيْرِ) – For example: حَفِظَ التلاميذُ الدُرُوسَ (“The students memorized the lessons“)
   1. حَفِظَ (“memorized”) is a past tense verb, with no grammatical state
   2. التَلامِيْذُ (the plural of تِلْمِيْذ – student) is the doer with a dhammah on it
   3. الدُرُوْسَ (the plural of دَرْس – lesson) is the object of the verb with a fathah on it
3. The sound feminine plural (جَمعُ المُؤَنَّثِ السالِمُ) – For example: خَشَعَ المُؤمِناتُ في الصَلواتِ (“The believing women were humble in the prayers“)
   1. خَشَعَ (“was humble”) is a past tense verb
   2. المُؤمِناتُ (the sound feminine plural of مُؤمِن – believer) is the doer with a dhammah on it
   3. The word في is one of the particles of jarr
   4. الصَلاواتِ (the sound feminine plural of صَلاة – prayer) is jarr-ized by the فِي before it, showing that using a kasrah
4. The present tense action with nothing attached at the end (الفِعلُ المُضارِعُ لَمْ يَتَّصِلْ بِآخِرِهِ شَيءٌ) – For example: يّذهَبُ مُحمدٌ (“Muhammad goes“)
   1. يَذْهَبُ (“goes”) is a present tense verb, in raf’ because there’s nothing that will put it into another state.  It has a dhammah on it
   2. مُحَمَّدٌ is the doer with a dhammah on it

The basic rule for words that take status using vowels, and its exceptions

So for these four kinds of words that change status using vowels, you’ve probably noticed a pattern by now, along with a few oddities. To summarize it:

[Read more…] about Words that take status using vowels

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله,

We’ve gotten through the indicators of raf’, nasb and jarr.  Now we can look at the indicators of the last remaining state: جَزْم (jazm).

In short,

ُوَلِلْجَزمِ عَلامَتانِ: السُكُوْنُ وَالحَذْف

Jazm has two signs: سُكُوْن (sukoon) and dropping.

You can decide that a word is in jazm if you find one of two things in it:

1. Sukoon – it’s the primary indicator of jazm
2. حذف (omission of something), and it is the secondary indicator

Each of these indicators has situations as follows.

When sukun is the indicator of Jazm

فَأمّا السُكُونُ فَيََكُونُ عَلامَةً لِلجَزْمِ فِي الفِعْلِ المُضارِعِ الصَحِيحِ الآخر

As for sukun, it is an indicator of jazm in the present tense verb (فعل مضارع) that has a sound (صَحِيح) ending.

The sukoon has only one situation in which it shows that a word is in jazm, and that is in the فعل مضارع (present tense action) with a صَحِيح (sound) ending.  What that means is that the ending is not one of the three “defective” letters, which are ا, و and ي.

Some quick examples:

• لَم يَلعَبْ عَلِيٌّ (“Ali has not played”)
• لَم يَنجحْ بَلِيدٌ (“Never has a stupid person succeeded”)
• لَمْ يُسافرْ أخُوكَ (“Your brother hasn’t traveled”)
• لم يَعِدْ إبراهِيمُ خالِداً بِشَيءٍ (“Ibrahim hasn’t promised Khalid anything”)
• لَم يَسألْ بَكرٌ الأُستاذَ (“Bakr hasn’t asked the teacher”)

Each of these actions is in jazm because لمَْ (which is a particle of jazm) comes before it.  Because they are present tense actions with sound endings, we use sukoon at the end to show that they are in the state of jazm.  Before they changed from the state of raf’ to jazm, they all had a dhammah at the end.

[Read more…] about The signs of جزم

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله

We’re down to the third and last indicator of جَرّ (jarr), which is فتحة (fathah).  Now, before we go further, I want you to be familiar with something called “partial flexibility“.  It’s a longer read, so if you’re short on time skim through it for now, and go back to it later to make solid.  This segment won’t make much sense until you review that concept, so please take a look.

When fathah will substitute for kasrah as the sign of خفض

First the rule:

وَأَما الفَتْحَةُ فَتَكُوْنُ عَلامَةً لِلْخَفْضِ فِي الاسْمِ الذِيْ لا يَنْصَرِفُ

As for fathah, it is a sign of khafdh in the اسم that is not fully flexible.

There is only one situation where fathah will be used to show that a word is in the state of jarr, and that’s when we’re dealing with partly flexible nouns (nouns that don’t take tanwin).

Some examples:

• صَلّى اللهُ عَلى إبْراهِيْمَ خَلِيْلِهِ (“May God bless Ibrahim, His friend”)
• رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْ عُمَرَ أمِيْرِ المُؤمِنِيْنَ (“May God be pleased with Umar, the leader of the believers”)

The words إبراهِيْمَ and عَُمَرَ are both in jarr because each of them has one of the particles of jarr before it (عَلى and عَنْ, respectively), but they have a fathah at the end instead of a kasrah because they are partly flexible.  They are partly flexible because إبراهيم is a non-Arab name and عُمَر is a proper name that has been adjusted from its original form.

Now (about to drop a tiny little exception, but bear with me please!), if the word has ال (“the”) added to the beginning or is mudhaaf (the first word in an idhafah), then it will take a kasrah in the state of jarr.

1. وأنتُمْ عاكِفُونَ في المَساجِدِ (“while you are staying in the mosques“) – The word مساجِد is partly flexible because it is an “utmost plural”.  It is in the state of jarr because of the particle فِيْ before it.  It shouldn’t be taking a kasrah, but because it has ال added to it, it breaks the rule
2. مَرَرْتُ بِحَسْناءِ قُرَيْشٍ (“I passed by the beauty of Quraysh”) – The word حَسْناء is partly flexible because has been feminized using an alif.  It is in jarr because of the particle بِ before it.  It also shouldn’t be taking kasrah but because it is mudhaaf, it does.

[Read more…] about Getting down with خفض, Part 3: فتحة

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله

So, you’ve finally started understanding how nouns usually show their status:

1. In the state of raf’, you see a dhammah at the end (مُسْلِمٌ)
2. In nasb you see a fathah at the end (مُسْلِمًا)
3. In jarr you see a kasrah at the end (مُسْلِمٍ)

Then you encounter something that just doesn’t compute.  A word that you know for sure is in jarr, and looks like it should have a kasrah at the end, but somehow you see a fathah at the end!

For example, you might read, سافَرْتُ مِنْ مَكَّةَ إلى المَدِيْنَةِ (“I traveled from Makkah to Madinah”).  You see a kasrah at the end of المدينةِ, and that makes sense to you because the إلى before it is one of the particles of jarr.

Then you see the word مِنْ before مَكَّة, and you know مِنْ is another one of these special particles, so مكة should obviously have a kasrah at the end.  But it has a fathah on it.  It must be a misprint, right?

WRONG

You can tell I liked doing that, but forgive me because I can’t do that often :).  What happened here is that you’re looking at a word that is “partly flexible”.  That means that its ending can change somewhat (like from a dhammah to fathah), but it’s not flexible enough to go all the way down to a kasrah.  Just like how some people are not as good at limbo as others:

Why is that?

[Read more…] about Partly flexible nouns

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله,

We’ve covered كَسرَة (kasrah), which is the main indicator of خفض (khafdh), also known as جَرّ (jarr).  Today, we’re going on to the second sign of jarr, the letter ي.

No, not “yeah”! I said the letter ي!

Substitution of ي for كسرة

وَ أمّا اليَاءُ فَتَكُوْنُ علَامَةً لِلْخَفْضِ فِي ثَلاثَةِ مَواضِعَ: فِي الأسْماءِ الخَمْسَةِ, وَفِي التَثْنِيَةِ, وَالجَمْعِ

As for the ي, it is a sign of khafdh in three situations: the “five nouns”, the dual and the plural.

ي has three situations in which it is an indicator that a word is in jarr:

1. The “five nouns”
2. Dual nouns
3. Plural nouns

The “five nouns”

You know them and the conditions for giving them their endings from before.

For example:

• سَلِّمْ عَلى أبِيكَ صَباحَ كُلِّ يَومٍ (“Salute your father in the morning every day”)
• لا تَرْفَعْ صَوْتَكَ عَلى صَوْتِ أخِيْكَ الأكْبَرِ (“Don’t raise your voice over the voice of your elder brother”)
• لا تَكُنْ مُحِبّاً لِذي المالِ إلا أنْ يَكُوْنَ مُؤَدَّباً (“Don’t be a lover of one who has wealth except if he is refined”).

The word أخِيْك,is in jarr because it is mudhaaf ilayh, and أبِيْكَ and ذِي المالِ are in jarr because of a particle of jarr before them.  The sign of  jarr for all three is the ي.

Looking at the َك in the first two examples:

• it’s the pronoun of the 2nd person (“you”)
• it is مُضاف إلَيه (mudhaaf ilayh).  The mudhaaf here is أبِيْ or أخِيْ
• It is fixed upon فتحة (fathah) – pronouns are fixed, meaning the ending sound doesn’t change when their status does.
• It’s in the state of jarr (because it’s mudhaaf ilayh).

In the third example, المالِ is also mudhaaf ilayh and it is in jarr using the kasrah.

The dual

For example:

• انظُرْ إلى الْجُنْدِيَّيْنِ (“Look at the two soldiers”)
• سَلِّمْ عَلى الْصَدِيقَيْنِ (“Salute the two friends”).

الجُنْدِيَّيْنِ and الصَدِيْقَيْنِ are in jarr because of a particle of jarr before them, and the sign of jarr is the ي with a fathah before it and a kasrah after (which will give you the “ayni” sound). Each of them is dual because it indicates the meaning of two.  In the status of رفع (raf’), they were الجُنْدِيّانِ and الصَدِيْقانِ (with an “aani”) sound.

The sound masculine plural

For example:

• رَضِيتُ عَنِ الْبَكْرِيْنَ (“I was pleased with the Bakr’s”)
• نَظَرْتُ إلى المُسْلِمِينَ الْخاشَعِيْنَ (“I looked at the humble Muslims”).

البَكْرِِيْنَ and المُسْلِمِيْنَ are in jarr because of  a particle of jarr before them, and the sign of jarr is the ي with a kasrah before it and a fathah after (which gives an “eena” sound). Each of them is a sound masculine plural.

If you’ve been paying attention, you might have noticed that dual nouns and sound masculine plurals look exactly the same in نصب (nasb) and jarr!!!  How do you tell the difference? What works for me is that I know that there are only three ways a word can be in the state of jarr in the Arabic language:

1. It has one of the particles of خفض before it
2. It is mudhaaf ilayh (the second word in a “possessive phrase”)
3. It is a grammatical follower of another word that is in jarr (e.g. it’s coming as a description for that word or joined by  “and” or “or” to it).  There’s more on these grammatical followers in a later section, but these are the most common ones.

If I don’t see one of these three, then I know the word is not in jarr and I mark it up as nasb.

[Read more…] about Getting down with خفض, Part 2: ي