Ultimate Arabic

السلام عليكم and welcome back!  In Words that take status using vowels, we learned that that all the words that take status in the Arabic language are only eight kinds, four that do it using vowels and four that do it using letters.  We’ve looked at the first four and now we finish up by looking at the remaining four…

Words that that take status using letters

وّالَّذِيْ يُعْرَبُ بِالْحُرُوْفِ أرْبَعَةُ أنْواع: التَثْنِيَةُ وَجَمْعُ المُذَكَّرِ السالِمُ وَالْأسْماءُ الْخَمْسَةُ وَالأفْعالُ الخَمْسَةُ, وَهِيَ: يَفْعَلانِ وَتَفْعَلانِ وَيَفْعَلُوْنَ وَتَفْعَلُوْنَ وَتَفْعَلِيْنَ

The word that takes status using letters is one of four kinds: the dual, the sound masculine plural, the Five Nouns and the Five Verbs, which are يَفْعَلانِ – تَفْعَلانِ – يَفْعَلُوْنَ – تَفْعَلُوْنَ – تَفْعَلِيْنَ

There are only four letters that are used to give status: alif (ا), waw (و), yaa (ي) and nun (ن), and there are four things given status using these letters:

1. The dual (المُثَّنى) – For example, المِصرانِ (the two regions), المُحَمَّدانِ (the two Muhammads), البَكرانِ (the two Bakrs) and الرجلانِ (the two men)
2. The masculine plural (جَمعُ المُذَكَّرِ السالِمُ) – For example, َالمُسْلِمُوْن (the Muslims) and َالمُحَمَّدُوْن (the Muhammads)
3. The Five Nouns (الأسماءُ الخَمسَةُ) – They are أبُوكَ وَأخُوكَ وَحَمُوكَ وَفُوكَ وَذُو مالٍ.  If you want to review them, we first mentioned them in Going high with رفع, Part 2: و
4. The Five Verbs (الأفعالُ الخَمسَةُ) – For example, يَضرِبانِ (they both strike), تَكتُبانِ (you both write), يَفْهَمُونَ (they all write), تَحْفَظُوْنَ (you all memorize) and َتَسْهَرِيْن (you [f.] stay up at night)

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

The concept of إضافة (Idhafah) – the “possessive phrase”

Let’s talk about something called idhafah, which means to “add something to something else”.  One of the unique features of Arabic grammar is that you can make a possessive relationship between two nouns simply by adding them together.

For example, the phrase كتابُ زَيدٍ means “the book of Zayd”.  All we had to do was take the word for “book” (كتاب) and add it to “Zayd” (زَيد), and just like that we have “the book of Zayd”.

Idhafah is often translated as a “possessive phrase”, which is okay for now.  Just be aware that an Idhaafah can represent possession and more, which we will find out as we progress in our studies إن شاء الله.

The first word of the fragment is called the مُضاف (Mudhaaf – “the word that was added”).  The second word is called the ِمُضاف إلَيْه (Mudhaaf ilayh – “What was added to”).  We can call them M and MI, for short.

Two key rules for possessive phrases:

1. If the M has a tanwin (or a ن that substitutes for it), that tanwin or ن will drop off
2. The MI will be in the state of jarr, meaning that it will have kasrah or one of its substitutes at the ending.
3. It’s not a hard requirement, but the overwhelming majority of the time the mudhaaf won’t have ال at the beginning.

The meaning would be “the [M] of [MI]”, or “[MI]’s [M]” .  In the example كِتابُ زَيْدٍ, the word زَيد is the MI and has كسرة on it.  The word كِتاب is the M, and has lost its tanwin.  The words together mean “Zayd’s book”.  So at the end you just have a simple formula:

M + MI = “MI’s M”

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