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Subject: The person or thing that is performing the action of the verb.
Object: The person or thing that is receiving the action of the verb.
Verb: An action or a doing word (ie: sat, swim, run, read, write etc)
For example:
The boy read the book.
In Arabic, words take on different status: “cases” – what this means is that they will display
different vowels on their final letter depending on what “case” they are in.
Word case will be altered depending on its grammatical status in a sentence: for example, words
following a preposition will in general, display kessrah; words which are the subject, will in general
display dummah; words which are the object, will in general display a fatha.
(that which effects words to display different cases is explained in following lessons – lesson 3 is
primarily to show and explain the concept of case and what it does).
There are different factors which ultimately effect or determine which case a word will be and how
exactly its case is displayed -
While in general certain vowels are used to show case, sometimes it happens that a word cannot
display it as such and so will take on a different appearance….therefore you cannot rely on solely
looking at which final vowel a word takes to identify its case. Rather, look also to grammatical
status in the sentence. (this becomes clearer in following lessons).
Then from the structure of the sentence, we can see that it is the “man” who is the subject; the one
who performs the action of hitting. And the “wrongdoer” is the object; the one whom is receiving
the action – being hit.
Now, we understand that it is the wrong doer who is the subject: doing the action of hitting, and it
is the man who is the object: the one being hit.
Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 1
In English we have a clear word order- the position of words in a sentence, tell us its grammatical
status or meaning.
In Arabic however, this is not quite so. Grammatical status is not necessarily identified by a words
position in the sentence. Rather, it is the case which tells us this (identified by the the final vowel /
word ending).
Take a look at the final vowel for each word: It is this final vowel which tells us the grammatical
status of each word - which word is the subject or the object.
– The dummah on ُ الر ُج ُلtells us that this is the subject. The Fatha on الظَالِ َُمtells us that this is
the object.
Then all these sentences mean the same thing: The man hit the wrongdoer!
Look at the final vowel on each word to determine its grammatical status: In each sentence
ُ الر ُج ُلhas the dummah- therefore this dummah tells us this word is the subject. Like wise in each
sentence, م َُ ِ الظَالtakes fatha- therefore this fatha tells us this word is the object.
Remember:
The grammatical status of a word is not based on its position in a sentence, but
rather, how the end of the word looks.
The word “inflection” إعرابrefers to the ending of a word which represents its
case.
The man sat down. I saw the man. That is the man’s son
Notice the noun man: no matter how it occurs in the sentence its form does not change. In Arabic,
the word will change grammatically (and not structurally) when the above three sentences are
rendered in Arabic:
َُ ََجل
ُس الر ُج ُل ُالرج َُل
َ ْتُُ َرأَي ُُ ك
ُابن الرج ُِل َُ َِذل
It is clear to see, that a word shows its grammatical status by displaying different word endings.
So, it is understood that grammatical status is indicated by the way a word ends – this is the way
in which its final vowel is displayed, as shown above – however some words may express their
state in alternate ways:
For example:
Here we can see that in each of these sentences, the word highlighted is the subject. – Although
the grammatical position of each word is the same (in that they are all the subject), they are
different “word types” (explained further in lesson) and therefore have different word endings to
represent or display its status (case).
Each of the different states / cases have a name, and there are 4 in total.
1. Genitive َمجْ رُور
2. Nominative مرْ فُوعَ
3. Accusative م ْنصُوب َ
4. Jussive زومُ َْمج
Although there are 4 cases in total, nouns ُ اِسْمand verbs ُ فِعْلeach will apply only 3 of the cases
to their word types:
[Term 1 only deals with cases for nouns.]
Inflection إعراب
The word “inflection” إعرابrefers to the ending of a word to represent or display its case.
Word endings can be divided into 2 categories:
1. Fully inflected
2. Partially inflected
These are words in vocab list that end in These are words that cannot take tanween
tanween when indefinite when indefinite, showing instead just a single
َرسُول vowel.
Can display all three vowels on the end to Cannot always display all three vowels –
correspond to the different cases sometimes have to make substitutions
Word type
There are 5 “word types” – each of them having different ways to demonstrate their case.
Type 1 partially inflected words refer only to proper nouns. (a proper noun is the name of a specific
person (Maryam), place (Masjid al-Haram) or thing (Mercedes Benz).
Because a proper noun is the name of someone/thing specific, it is automatically definite in
meaning, therefore just as in English we would not say “the Maryam” or “Maryam”, there is no
need for الor tanween.
ُفاط َم ُة
ِ ِ قَلَ ُُم
َفاط َم ُة ُفاط َم ُةَ اللَ ِطيفَ ِة
ِ قَلَ ُُم
Fatima The pen of Fatima The pen of gentle Fatima
Nouns and adjectives that are not of any of the other types
مُسْ لِما
The ending never changes for case, but the word losesits tanween when definite
(which is normal!)
Definite indefinite
As this is a word quoted in isolation, it
will be in the default case – – مرفوعand
َُرجُل ُالر ُج ُل
مرفوع so
should carry a dammah
As this is a word that ends in ا, the
ُقُرى َ القُر
ُى ending will not change, the tanween is
simply removed in the definite
In this type of construction (which we
َُّ ِإ
ُن َرجُال َُّ ِإ
ُن الر ُج َل will learn later) the second noun should
be
منصوب منصوبtherefore carry a fathah
As this is a word that ends in ا, the
ُن قُرى
َُّ ِإ َ ن القُر
ُى َُّ ِإ ending will not change, the tanween is
simply removed in the definite
In this type of construction (which we
ُمع رجُل ُمع الرج ُِل will learn later) the second noun should
be
مجرور مجرورtherefore carry a kasrah
As this is a word that ends in ا, the
ُمع قُرى َ مع القُر
ُى ending will not change, the tanween is
simply removed in the definite
The ending never changes for case, other than adding الwhen definite
End ُون
َ End ُين
َ
To know whether a word is mansoob or majroor you must look
at the context to determine which of the two it is – as both
display the same
Pronouns are words which take the place of a noun, such as I, he, she, they etc.
Singular Plural
Ppl you
are 3rd person masculine
ُهُ َو ُهُ ْم They 3+
talking
about
/absent
3rd person feminine
ُِه َي ُهُ َّن They 3+
Ppl you
are
2nd person masculine
َ أَ ْن
ُت ُأَ ْنتُ ْم You 3+
talking
2nd person feminine
ِ أَ ْن ُأَ ْنتُ َّن
to
ُت You 3+
أَنا
self 1st person
ُنَحْ ُن I / we 2+
Fully inflected: end tanween when definite – can display all 3 vowels
Partially inflected: Cannot take tanween when indefinite (show just single vowel). Cannot display all 3
vowels representing each case
.
Type 3: words end kessrah-tansween when indef & marfu ie: واد
Type 4: words end or ًىً ا: ending never changes for case, other than losing tanween when definite