Ultimate Arabic

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

الحمد لله, after completing the 7 types of nouns in رفع, we’re in the final stretches of our discussions on Arabic grammar, based on the Ajurroomiyyah.  After a few more lessons about the nouns in نَصْب (nasb) and جَرّ (jarr), we’d have a pretty solid understanding of the entirety of Arabic grammar إن شاء الله

 

ِمَنْصُوْبات الأسْماء (The nouns in nasb)

المَنْصُوْباتُ خَمْسَةَ عَشَرَ، وَهِيَ: المَفْعُوْلُ بِهِ، وَالمَصْدَرُ، وَظَرْفُ الزَمانِ، وَظَرْفُ المَكانِ، وَالْحالُ، وَالتَّمْيِيْزُ، وَالمُسْتَثْنى، وَاسْمُ لا، وَالمُنادى، وَالمَفْعُوْلُ مِنْ أجْلِهِ، وَالمَفْعُوْلُ مَعَهُ، وَخَبَرُ كانَ وَأخَواتِها، وَاسْمُ إنَّ وَأخَواتِها وَالتَّابِعُ لِلْمَنْصُوْبِ، وَهُوَ أرْبَعَةُ أشْياء: النَّعْتُ، وَالْعَطْفُ، وَالتَّوْكِيْدُ، وَالْبَدَلُ

The nouns in nasb are fifteen , and they are: the مَفْعول بِهِ (direct object), the مَصْدَر (infinitive), the ظَرْف الزَّمان (frame of time), the ظَرْف المَكان (frame of place), the حال (state/condition), the تَمْييز (specification), the مُسْتَثْنى (exception), the noun negated by “لا”, the مُنادى (vocative/thing or person called), the مَفْعول مِن أجْلِه (object of reason), the مَفْعول مَعَه (object that the action is done along with), the khabar of “كان”َ and its sisters and the ism of “إنّ” and its sisters, and the تابِع (grammar follower) of something that is in nasb, and it is four things: the نَعْت, (adjective) the عَطْف (conjunction), the تَوْكيد (emphasis) and the بَدَل (substitute).

 

There are 15 reasons why a nouns will be in nasb.  Between raf’, nasb and jarr, nasb is the most exciting part.  Why? Because the default state of a noun is in raf’, and there are only three reasons why a noun will be in jarr (we’ll cover that in the lessons on when a noun will be in jarr إن شاء الله), so it’s relatively easy to get those right.  I think the area of nasb is the real proving ground for your knowledge of grammar, because it shows that you accurately know when and why things will deviate from the normal state of raf’.  If you learn these and apply them correctly, you’re on the path to greatness!

Below are the 15 situations when a noun will be in nasb.  Each will have its own discussion, but first a quick example for each (notice how the words in red all have fathah on them): [Read more…] about 15 types of nouns in نَصْب

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله

Today we’ll wrap up the last of the grammatical followers, the بَدَل (substitute).

الْبَدَلُ وَحُكْمُهُ (The substitute and its rule)

ِإذا أُبْدِلَ اسْمٌ مِنَ اسْمٍ أَوْ فِعْلٌ مِنْ فِعْلٍ تَبِعَهُ فِيْ جَمِيْعِ إِعْرَابِه

When a noun is a substituted for a noun, or a verb for a verb, then it follows it in all of its grammatical states.

The word بَدَل is used for when you exchange something for something else.  In Arabic grammar, it’s a follower of a word that is what you really intended to apply your meaning to.  The rule is that the substitute has the same status as the word it’s substituting for.

In the examples below, we use خَالكَ (“your maternal uncle”) as a substitute for مُحَمّد, and change its state  (the vowel on the ل) depending on the state of مُحَمَّد:

• حَضَرَ مُحَمَّدٌ خَالُكَ (“Muhammad, your uncle, was present”) – In the state of raf’
• قابَلْتُ مُحَمَّدًا خَالَكَ (“I met Muhammad, your uncle”) – In the state of nasb
• أَعْجَبَتْنِيْ أَخْلاقُ مُحَمَّدٍ خَالِكَ (“The manners of Muhammad, your uncle, amazed me” – In the state of jarr
• مَنْ يَشْكُرْ رَبَّهُ يَسْجُدْ لَهُ يَفُزْ (“Whoever thanks his Lord… prostrates to Him will win”).  يَسْجُدْ follows يَشْكُرْ in the state of jazm

 

أنْوَاع الْبَدَلِ (Kinds of substitution)

وَهُوَ عَلَى أرْبَعَةِ أقْسامٍ: بَدَلُ الشَّيْءِ مِنَ الشَّيْءِ، وَبَدَلُ الْبَعْضِ مِنَ الْكُلِّ، وَبَدَلُ الاشْتِمَالِ، وَبَدَلُ الْغَلَطِ، نَحْوُ قَوْلِكَ: “قَامَ زَيْدٌ أَخُوْكَ، وَأكَلْتُ الرَغِيْفَ ثُلُثَهُ، وَنَفَعَنِيْ زَيْدٌ عِلْمُهُ، وَرَأيْتُ زَيْدًا الفَرَسَ”، أَرَدْتَ أَنْ تَقُوْلَ: رَأَيْتُ الْفَرَسَ فَغَلِطْتَ فَأَبْدَلْتَ زَيْدًا مِنْهُ

And it [substitution] is four types, substituting one thing for another thing, substituting a part for the whole, the substitute of the content and the substitute of the mistake. It is like your saying: قَامَ زَيْدٌ أخُوْكَ (“Zayd, your brother, stood”), أكَلْتُ الرَغِيْفَ ثُلُثَهُ (“I ate the loaf, a third of it”), نَفَعَنِيْ زَيْدٌ عِلْمُهُ (“Zaid, his knowledge benefited me”), and رَأيْتُ زَيْدًا الفَرَسَ (“I saw Zayd, the horse”). You originally wanted to say الفَرَسَ (“the horse”) but made a mistake and substituted زَيْدٌ instead.

There are four kinds of بَدَل (substitution): [Read more…] about الْبَدَل (The substitute)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

We’re continuing our study of grammatical followers, and today we’re looking at التَّوْكِيْد (the emphasis).

التَّوْكِيْد (Emphasis)

التَّوْكِيْدُ: تابِعٌ لِلْمُؤَكَّدِ فِيْ رَفْعِهِ وَنَصْبِهِ وَخَفْضِهِ وَتَعْرِيْفِهِ …

The emphasis is a word that follows the emphasized word in its raf’, nasb, khafdh (jarr) and its definiteness…

تَوْكِيْد (also pronounced تَأْكِيْد with a أ instead of و) means to strengthen something and in grammar there are two kinds of emphasis: [Read more…] about التَّوْكِيْد (The emphasis)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

One of a the reasons why a noun can be in a state is that it is a تَابِع (grammatical follower of another word).

There are four kinds of grammatical followers (i.e. they come after a word and follow it in status):

1. 1. النَّعْت (The adjective)
   2. العَطْف (The conjunction)
   3. التَوْكِيْد (The emphasis)
   4. الْبَدَل (The substitute)

 

Until next time, السلام عليكم

– Mustafa

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السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

We’re still talking about grammatical followers of a word that come after it and follow it in status.  We’ve done النَّعْت (The adjective).  Now we’re going to look at the عَطْف (conjunction), starting with some particles that are used to join between words in a sentence:

ِحُرُوْف العَطْف (The particles of conjunction)

ِوَحُرُوْفُ العَطْفِ عَشْرَةٌ، وَهِيَ: الْوَاوُ، وَالْفاءُ، وَثُمَّ، وَأَوْ، وَأَمْ، وَإمّا، وَبَلْ، وَلا، وَلَكِنْ، وَحَتَّى فِيْ بَعْضِ المَواضِعِ

And the particles of conjunctions are 10.  They are the letters و (waw) and ف (fa), ثُمَّ (thumma), أَوْ (aw), أَمْ (am), إمّا  (immaa), بَلْ (bal), لا (laa), لَكِنْ (laakin), and حَتّى (hattaa) – in some situations

The word عَطْف (‘atf ) in the normal sense means “to incline to something”.  If you say عَطَفَ فُلانٌ عَلى فُلانٍ (“Somebody had ‘atf for somebody”), it means that he inclined toward him and had affection for him.

In grammar, they’re two kinds of ‘atf : [Read more…] about العَطْف (Conjunctions)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

When we talked about نَعْت (description) in النَّعْت (The adjective), we mentioned definite and indefinite nouns a lot because we were trying to show how the نَعْت (description) and the مَنْعُوْت (what you are describing) have to match in being definite or indefinite.

To keep it straight, all nouns are either definite or indefinite.  First the definite nouns:

The kinds of definite nouns

وَالْمَعْرِفَةُ خَمْسَةُ أشْياء: الِاسْمُ المُضْمَرُ نَحْوُ أَنَا وَأَنْتَ وَالاِسْمُ العَلَمُ نَحْوُ زَيْدٌ وَمَكَّةُ, وَالاسْمُ المُبْهَمُ نَحْوُ هّذا وَهَذِهِ وَهَؤُلاءِ وَالاِسْمُ الَّذِيْ فِيْهِ الأَلِفُ وَاللامُ نَحْوُ: الرَّجُلُ وَالْغُلامُ, وَما أُضِيْفَ إلى وَاحِدٍ مِنْ هَذِهِ الأرْبَعَةِ

… and the definite noun is [one of] five things: The pronoun, like أنا (“I”) and أنْتَ (“you”), the proper noun, like زَيْدٌ (Zayd) and مَكَّةُ (Makkah), the vague pronoun, like هَذا (“this”), هَذِهِ (“this [f.]”) and هَؤُلاءِ (“these”), the noun that has ال in it, like الرَجُلُ (“the man”) and الْغُلامُ (“the boy”), and whatever is mudhaaf to one of these four.

The definite noun is a word that is used for a specific entity or entities, and there are five kinds of definite nouns (with the explanation to follow):

1. The pronoun
2. The proper name
3. The demonstrative pronoun
4. A noun that has ال added to the beginning of it
5. Whatever has been added to one of these to make an Idhafah (the possessive phrase)

[Read more…] about Definite and Indefinite Nouns