Arabic Grammar

Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Arabic grammar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arabic grammar (Arabic: naw arab or qawid al-luat al-arabiyyah) is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with the grammar of other Semitic languages. The article focuses both on the grammar of Literary Arabic (i.e. Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic, which have largely the same grammar) and of the colloquial spoken varieties of Arabic. The grammar of the two types is largely similar in its particulars. Generally, the grammar of Classical Arabic is described first, followed by the areas in which the colloquial variants tend to differ (note that not all colloquial variants have the same grammar). The largest differences between the two systems are the loss of grammatical case; the loss of the previous system of grammatical mood, along with the evolution of a new system; the loss of the inflected passive voice, except in a few relic varieties; and restriction in the use of the dual number.
Visualization of Arabic grammar from the Quranic Arabic Corpus
Contents
1 History 2 Division 3 Phonology 4 Noun and Adjective 4.1 Noun and Adjective Inflection (Classical Arabic) 4.1.1 Overview of inflection 4.1.2 Number 4.1.3 Gender 4.1.4 State 4.1.5 Article 4.1.6 Agreement 4.1.7 Case 4.1.7.1 Nominative case 4.1.7.2 Accusative case 4.1.7.3 Genitive case 4.1.8 Pronunciation 4.2 Noun and Adjective Inflection (Colloquial Arabic) 4.3 Noun and Adjective Derivation 4.3.1 Collective nouns 4.3.2 Nisba 4.3.3 Participles and verbal nouns
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4.3.4 Occupational nouns 4.3.5 Nouns of place 4.3.6 Tool nouns 4.3.7 Nouns of unity 4.3.8 Diminutives
4.4 Adverb 5 Pronoun 5.1 Personal pronouns 5.1.1 Enclitic pronouns 5.1.1.1 Variant forms 5.1.1.2 With prepositions 5.1.1.3 Less formal forms 5.2 Demonstratives 5.3 Relative pronoun 5.4 Colloquial varieties 6 Numerals 6.1 Cardinal numerals 6.2 Ordinal numerals 7 Verb (Classical Arabic) 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Inflectional categories 7.3 Derivational categories, conjugations 7.4 Conjugation, prefixes and suffixes 7.5 Tense 7.6 Mood 7.7 Voice 7.8 Weak roots 7.8.1 Doubled roots 7.8.2 Assimilated (first-weak) roots 7.8.3 Hollow (second-weak) roots 7.8.4 Defective (third-weak) roots 7.8.4.1 fa (yaf ) 7.8.4.2 fa (yaf ) 7.8.4.3 fa iya (yaf ) 7.9 Formation of derived stems ("forms") 7.9.1 Sound verbs 7.9.2 Form VIII assimilations 7.9.3 Defective (third-weak) verbs 7.9.4 Hollow (second-weak) verbs 7.9.5 Assimilated (first-weak) verbs 7.9.6 Doubled verbs 7.9.7 Hamzated verbs 7.9.8 Doubly-weak verbs 7.9.9 Summary of vowels 7.10 Participle 7.11 Verbal noun (ma dar) 8 Verb (Colloquial Arabic)
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9 Syntax
9.1 Genitive construction ( i fah) 9.2 Word order 9.3 inna 9.4 Other
10 See also 11 References 12 External links
History
The identity of the oldest Arabic grammarian is disputed with some sources saying Ibn Abi Ishaq and medieval sources saying Abu-Aswad al-Du'ali, the oldest known Arabic grammarian, established diacritical marks and vowels for Arabic in the mid-600s. The schools of Basra and Kufa further developed grammatical rules in the late 700s with the rapid rise of Islam.[1][2] The earliest grammarian who is known is Abd Allh ibn Ab Isq (died AD 735/6, AH 117).
Division
For classical Arabic grammarians, the grammatical sciences are divided into five branches: al-luah ( language/lexicon) concerned with collecting and explaining vocabulary at-tarf ( morphology) determining the form of the individual words an-naw ( syntax) primarily concerned with inflection (irb) which had already been lost in dialects. al-itiqq ( derivation) examining the origin of the words al-balah ( rhetoric) which elucidates construct quality The grammar or grammars of contemporary varieties of Arabic are a different question. Said M. Badawi, an expert on Arabic grammar, divided Arabic grammar into five different types based on the speaker's level of literacy and the degree to which the speaker deviated from Classical Arabic. Badawi's five types of grammar from the most colloquial to the most formal are Illiterate Spoken Arabic ( mmiyat al-ummiyyn), Semi-literate Spoken Arabic ( mmiyat almutanawwirn), Educated Spoken Arabic ( mmiyat al-muaqqafn), Modern Standard Arabic ( fu l-ar), and Classical Arabic ( fu t-tur).[3] This article is concerned with the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic exclusively.
Phonology
Main article: Arabic phonology Classical Arabic has 28 consonantal phonemes, including two semi-vowels, which constitute the Arabic alphabet. It also has six vowel phonemes (three short vowels and three long vowels). These appear as various allophones, depending on the preceding consonant. Short vowels are not usually represented in written language, although they may be indicated with diacritics.
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Hamzat ul-wal ( ,) elidable hamza, is a phonetic object prefixed to the beginning of a word for ease of pronunciation, since literary Arabic doesn't allow consonant clusters at the beginning of a word. Elidable hamza drops out as a vocal, if a word is preceding it. This word will then produce an ending vocal, "helping vocal" to facilitate pronunciation. This short vocal may be, depending on the preceding vowel, a fatah ( ) /a/ , a kasrah (/ ) i/ or a ammah ( ) /u/. If the preceding word ends in a sukn (( ) i.e. not followed by a short vowel), the Hamzat ul-wal assumes a kasrah /i/. Symbol addah ( ) indicates a gemination or consonant doubling. See more in Tashkl.
Noun and Adjective

Noun and Adjective Inflection (Classical Arabic)
Nouns ( ism) and adjectives in Classical Arabic are declined according to the following properties: Case ( lt) (nominative, genitive, and accusative) State (indefinite, definite or construct) Gender (masculine or feminine): an inherent characteristic of nouns, but part of the declension of adjectives Number (singular, dual or plural) Nouns are normally given in their pausal form. For example, malik "king" would be declined as malikun "king (nominative singular indefinite)", al-maliku "the king (nominative singular definite)", etc. A feminine noun like malikah "queen" would be declined as malikatun "queen (nominative singular indefinite)", al-malikatu "the queen (nominative singular definite)", etc. The citation form with final -ah reflects the formal pausal pronunciation of this word (i.e. as it would be pronounced at the end of an utterance) although in practice the h is not usually pronounced, and hence the word may be cited in some sources as malika. Overview of inflection The following table is an overview of noun and adjective inflection in Classical Arabic: Noun and Adjective Inflection (Classical Arabic)
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(1) Regular Triptote Declension Pausal pronun. (in singular) Informal pronun. (in singular) (1a) No suffix (usu. masc.)
(2) Triptote w/ (3) (1b) in -( at-) (1c) in -( t-) -at"Long Diptote (usu. feminine) (usu. feminine) Construct" -ah -h -t -, -, - -a -
Const. Indef.
(4) Defective in (usu. masc.)
Number State Indef. Def. Const. Indef. Def. Const. Indef. Def. Const. Case
Nominative
Indef.
-un -an -in -ni
-u -a -i -
-atun -atan -atin -at-ni
-at-u -at-a -at-i -at-
-tun -tan -tin -t-ni
-t-u -t-a -t-i -t-
- -
-u
-in iyan, -iya -in -iy-
Singular Accusative
Genitive
-a -
Nominative
Dual
Accusative, Genitive
same as (1a) regular triptote
-ayni
-ay
-at-ayni
-atay
-t-ayni
-tay
-iy-ayni (7) Sound Masculine -na
Declension
(7) Sound Masculine -na - -tun
(8) Sound Feminine -aytun, -awtun -aytin, -awtin -ay-tu, -aw-tu
Nominative
-tu
same as (1a) regular triptote
Plural
Accusative, Genitive
-na
-tin
-ti
-ay-ti, -aw-ti
-na
NOTE: The plural forms listed are actually separate declensions. Most singular adjectives of the indicated declensions, as well as some singular nouns, are declined in the plural according to the indicated plural declensions. However, most nouns have a plural from a different declension either a sound plural (declined according to one of the plural declensions, sometimes with a different stem as well) or a broken plural (invariably with a different stem, and declined according to one of the singular declensions). Some adjectives also have broken plurals (again, with different stems, and declined according to one of the singular declensions). See the discussion below on case for more details.
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The so-called "sound masculine" and "sound feminine" plural declensions refer to form, not gender grammatically masculine nouns often have sound feminine plurals, and occasionally vice-versa. (Note, however, that most nouns of this sort are inanimate objects, and as a result actually have feminine-singular agreement in the plural, regardless of their inherent gender or the form of their plural. See discussion below.) Diptotes are declined exactly like regular triptotes other than in the singular indefinite state. In the defective-in--in declension, accusative -iyan occurs in singular nouns, while -iya occurs in broken plurals (especially three-syllable broken plurals such as laylin "nights" or aydin "hands", whose stem is of a form that would be declined as a diptote if it were declined regularly). There are only limited classes of invariable nouns and adjectives and none have their own plural declension; instead, they decline like one of the other singular or plural declensions. Only a limited number of nouns in -an have a dual in -awni/-awayni; all of these are short nouns with a two-character stem, and are spelled in Arabic script with a "tall alif" ( )rather than alif maqrah ( .)Examples are aan "stick" (and possibly rian "approval"). The following table shows some examples of noun inflections. Examples of inflection in nouns
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Singular
Declension Meaning
Gender
Type,Notes Root
Plural aydin
Declension (4) broken plural defective in in (4) broken plural defective in in (1a) broken plural triptote (1a) broken plural triptote (8) sound feminine plural (4) broken plural defective in in (3) broken plural diptote (1a) broken plural triptote (1a) broken plural triptote (1a) broken plural triptote (1a) broken plural triptote (4) broken plural defective in in (7) sound masculine plural
yad
(1a) triptote hand
feminine
root noun
y-d aydin
ab yawm
(2) "long construct" triptote
father
masculine
root noun
-b
(1a) triptote day
masculine
root noun
y-wayym m laylt
laylah
(1b) triptote night in -ah
feminine
root noun
l-y-l laylin layil bir bur
bar
(1a) triptote sea
masculine
root noun
b- -r abr abur arin
ar
(1a) triptote land
feminine
root noun
-rarana
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ullb lib (1a) triptote student masculine Form I active -l-b participle alabah
(1a) broken plural triptote (1b) broken plural triptote in ah
muallim ayh ayawn qin qaiyyah
(1a) triptote teacher (1c) triptote life in -h (1a) triptote animal (4) defective in judge -in (1b) triptote lawsuit in -ah
masculine
Form II active participle
(7) sound -l-m muallimna masculine plural (8) sound feminine plural (7) sound feminine plural (1c) broken plural triptote in h (6) broken plural invariable -
feminine
Form I verbal -yayawt noun w derived noun -yin -n ayawnt w (intensive) Form I active q- quh participle y derived noun q- (verbal-noun qay y form, Form I)
masculine
masculine
feminine
(5) mustafan defective in hospital -an
Form X noun (7) sound of place masculine?? -f-y mustafayt feminine (passiveplural particle form) derived noun (verbal-noun form, Form I k-t-b kutub or possibly Form III) Form I noun of place k-t-b maktib maktabt feminine Form I noun of place k-t-b maktib d-n-y dunyayt (1a) broken plural triptote (3) broken plural diptote (8) sound feminine plural (3) broken plural diptote (8) sound feminine plural
kitb
(1a) triptote book
masculine
maktab
(1a) triptote
desk, office
masculine
(1b) triptote library maktabah in -ah
duny
(6) world (lit. invariable - "lowest feminine (place)")
nominalized feminine elative adjective
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ar
(3) diptote
desert (lit. "desertlike (place)" < feminine "desertsandcolored")
arin nominalized feminine color/defect adjective ar arwt
(4) broken plural defective in in (6) broken plural invariable - (8) sound feminine plural (1a) triptote, root noun, collective singular ("trees" in general) (8) sound feminine plural, plural of paucity ("trees" when counting 310) (1a) broken plural triptote, plural of variety ("different kinds of trees") (1a) broken plural triptote (1a) broken plural triptote (1a) broken plural triptote (1a) broken plural triptote
- -r
ajar
ajarah
(1b) triptote tree in -ah
feminine
noun of unity -j-r
ajart
ajr
abd slave, servant abd (1a) triptote masculine ubdn derived noun (verbal-noun form) -b-d ibdn ibd
servant (of God), human being
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tilivizyn film sigrah
(1a) triptote television
masculine
borrowed noun borrowed noun borrowed noun
tilivizynt
(8) sound feminine plural (1a) broken plural triptote (3) broken plural diptote
(1a) triptote film (1b) triptote cigarette in -ah
masculine
(or f- aflm l-m) (or s- sagir g-r)
feminine
The following table shows some examples of adjective inflections. Examples of inflection in adjectives
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Type,Notes Root Meaning
Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine Declension Declension Declension Singular Singular Plural kibr kubar (1a) broken plural triptote (3) broken plural diptote
fal
k-b-r big
kabr
(1a) triptote
kabrah
(1b) triptote in ah
kab
elative
bigger, k-b-r biggest
akbar
(3) diptote kubr
(6) invariable
(7) sound akbarna masculine plural akbir (3) broken plural diptote
kubray
fal, thirdweak
d-nnear, low daniyy w
(1a) triptote
(1b) daniyyah triptote in - adniy ah adnin
(3) broken plural daniyy diptote (4) broken plural defective dunan in -in dunyaw
nearer, d-n- nearest; elative, third-weak w lower, lowest
adn
(6) invariable - duny
(6) invariable
(7) sound masculine adnawna plural defective in -an (1a) broken plural triptote (1a) broken plural triptote (6) broken plural invariable
-mcolor/defect red r
amar
(3) diptote amr
(3) diptote umr
faln -- thirsty (intensive)
i an (3) diptote a (6) invariable
Number Arabic distinguishes between nouns based on number ( adad). All nouns are either singular ( mufrad) dual ( muann), or plural ( am). In Classical Arabic, the use of the dual is mandatory whenever exactly two objects are referred to, regardless of whether the "two-ness" of the objects is explicit or not. For example, in a sentence like "I picked up my children from school yesterday and then
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helped them with their homework", the words "children", "them" and "their" must be in the dual of exactly two children are referred to, regardless of whether the speaker wants to make this fact explicit or not. This implies that when the plural is used, it necessarily implies three or more. (Colloquial varieties of Arabic are very different in this regard, as the dual is normally used only for emphasis, i.e. in cases similar to when an English speaker would use the word "two".) Nouns take either a sound plural or broken plural. The sound plural is formed by adding endings, and can be considered part of the declension. The broken plural, however, is a different stem. It may belong to a different declension (see below), and is declined as a singular noun. For example, the plural of the masculine triptote noun kitb "book" is kutub, which is declined as a normal singular triptote noun: indefinite nominative kutubun; indefinite accusative kutuban; indefinite genitive kutubun; etc. On the other hand, the masculine triptote noun maktab "desk, office" has the plural maktib, which declines as a singular diptote noun: indefinite nominative maktibu; indefinite accusative/genitive maktiba; etc. Generally, the only nouns that have the "masculine" sound plural -n/n- are nouns referring to male human beings (e.g. muhandis "engineer"). On the other hand, the "feminine" sound plural -t- occurs not only on nouns referring to female human beings, but also on many nouns referring to objects, whether masculine or feminine (e.g. masculine imtihn "exam", feminine sayyrah "car"). Note that all inanimate objects take feminine singular agreement in the plural, regardless of their "inherent" gender and regardless of the form of the plural. Some nouns have two or more plural forms, usually to distinguish between different meanings. Gender Arabic has two genders ( ins), masculine ( muakkar) and feminine ( muanna). As mentioned above, verbs, adjectives and pronouns must agree in gender with the corresponding noun. Gender in Arabic is logically very similar to a language like Spanish: Animate nouns, such as those referring to people, usually have the grammatical gender corresponding to their natural gender, but for inanimate nouns the grammatical gender is largely arbitrary. Most feminine nouns end in - at-, but some do not (e.g. umm "mother", ar "earth"). Most words ending in are also feminine (and are indeclinable). The letter used for feminine nouns is a special form known as t marbah "tied T", which looks like the letter h "H" with the two dots that form part of the letter t "T" written above it. This form indicates that the feminine ending -at- is pronounced -ah- in pausa (at the end of an utterance). Note that in writing, the ending never takes the accusative indefinite alif marker used in nouns lacking this ending. (In the colloquial variants, and in all but the most formal pronunciations of spoken Modern Standard Arabic, the feminine ending -at appears only with nouns in the construct state, and the ending is pronounced simply -a in all other circumstances.) State The grammatical property of state is specific to Arabic and other Semitic languages. The basic division is between definite and indefinite, corresponding approximately to English nouns preceded, respectively, by the (the definite article) and a/an (the indefinite article). More correctly, a definite noun signals either a particular entity previously referenced or a generic concept, and corresponds to one of the following in
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English: English nouns preceded by the, this, that, or a possessive adjective (e.g. my, your); English nouns taken in a generic sense ("Milk is good", "Dogs are friendly"); or proper nouns (e.g. John or Muhammad). Indefinite nouns refer to entities not previously mentioned, and correspond to either English nouns preceded by a, an or some, or English mass nouns with no preceding determiner and not having a generic sense ("We need milk"). Definite nouns are usually marked by a definite article prefix al- (which is reduced to l- following vowels, and further assimilates to (a)t-, (a)s-, (a)r- etc. preceding certain consonants). Indefinite nouns are usually marked by nunation (a following -n). Adjectives modifying a noun agree with the noun in definiteness, and take the same markings: kalbun kabrun "a big dog (nom.)" raaytu kalban kabran "I saw a big dog (acc.)" maa kalbin kabrin "with a big dog (gen.)" al-kalbu l-kabru "the big dog (nom.)" kalbu-h l-kabru "her big dog (nom.)" (the definite article does not appear with a suffixed possessive, but the noun is still definite) ratan amlatan "I saw a nice picture (acc.)" Miru l-qadmatu "Ancient Egypt (nom.)" (proper nouns do not take the definite article, but are still definite) A third value for state is construct. Nouns assume the construct state (ifah) when they are definite and modified by another noun in a genitive construction. For example, in a construction like "the daughter of John", the Arabic word corresponding to "the daughter" is placed in the construct state and is marked neither with a definite article nor with nunation, even though it is semantically definite. Furthermore, no other word can intervene between a construct-state noun and a following genitive, other than in a few exceptional cases. A adjective modifying a construct-state noun is in the definite state and is placed after the modifying genitive. Examples: bintu l-malikati "the daughter (nom.) of the queen" bintu l-malikati l-qaratu "the short daughter (nom.) of the queen" bintu l-malikati l-qarati "the daughter (nom.) of the short queen" binti l-malikati l-qarati "the short daughter (gen.) of the queen" or "the daughter (gen.) of the short queen" Note that the adjective must follow the genitive regardless of which of the two nouns it modifies, and only the agreement characteristics (case, gender, etc.) indicate which noun is modified. The construct state is likewise used for nouns with an attached possessive suffix: bintu-h "her daughter (nom.)" binti-h "her daughter (gen.)" bintu-hu "his daughter (nom.)" binti-hi "his daughter (gen.)" bint- "my daughter (nom./acc./gen.)" malikati-h "his queen (gen.)" kalbu-h "her dog (nom.)"
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kalbu-h l-kabru "her big dog (nom.)"
Note that in writing, the special form t marbah indicating the feminine changes into a regular t before suffixes. This does not affect the formal pronunciation. When an indefinite noun is modified by another noun, the construct state is not used. Instead, a construction such as bintun li-l-malikati lit. "a daughter to the queen" is used. Note also the following appositional construction: al-baytu wsiu l-nawfii "the house with the wide windows" (lit. "the house wide of windows")
Article Main article: AlThe article ( adt ut-tarf) al- is indeclinable and expresses the definite state of a noun of any gender and number. As mentioned above, it is also prefixed to each of that noun's modifying adjectives. The initial vowel ( hamzat ul-wal), is volatile in the sense that it disappears in sandhi, the article becoming mere l- (although the alif is retained in orthography in any case as it is based on pausal pronunciation). Also, the l is assimilated to a number of consonants (dentals and sibilants), so that in these cases, the article in pronunciation is expressed only by geminating the initial consonant of the noun (while in orthography, the writing alif lm is retained, and the gemination may be expressed by putting addah on the following letter). The consonants causing assimilation (trivially including ( l)) are ( t), ( ), ( d), ( ), ( r), ( z), (s), ( ), ( ), ( ), ( ), ( ), ( l), ( n). These 14 letters are called 'solar letters' ( al-urf a-amsiyyah), while the remaining 14 are called 'lunar letters' or 'moon letters' ( al-urf al-qamariyyah). The solar letters all have in common that they are dental, alveolar, and postalveolar consonants (all coronals) in the classical language, and the lunar consonants are not. ( m is pronounced postalveolar in most varieties of Arabic today, but was actually a palatalized voiced velar plosive in the classical language, and is thus considered a lunar letter; nevertheless, in colloquial Arabic, the m is often spoken as if solar.) Agreement Adjectives generally agree with their corresponding nouns in gender, number, case and state. Pronouns and verbs likewise agree in person, gender and number. However, there is an important proviso: inanimate plural nouns take feminine-singular agreement. This so-called "deflected agreement" applies to all agreement contexts, whether of adjectives, verbs or pronouns, and applies regardless of both the inherent gender of the noun (as indicated by singular and dual agreement) and the form of the plural of the noun. Note that this does not apply to dual nouns, which always have "strict agreement".
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Case Main article: I rb There are six basic noun/adjective singular declensions: The normal triptote declension, which includes the majority of nouns and adjectives. The basic property is a three-way case marking distinction -u -a -i. An example is kitb "book", with indefinite declension kitbun, kitban, kitbin and definite declension al-kitbu, alkitba, al-kitbi. Most feminine nouns have an additional stem --( at-), and decline the same way. Some feminine nouns (and a few masculine nouns) have a variant stem --( t-), again with the same declensional endings. Note that there are some cases of nouns (and a few adjectives) whose gender does not match the stem form (in both directions). In addition, some masculine nouns (with and without - )have broken plurals in - ,and likewise some feminine nouns have broken plurals without - .This affects the form, but not the inherent gender (or agreement properties) of these nouns. The diptote declension. Diptotes have a different declension only in the singular indefinite state. These words are missing the nunation (final -n-) normally marking the indefinite, and have different case-marking endings. Everywhere but in the singular indefinite, they have endings identical to triptotes. The class of diptote nouns mostly includes certain names, and broken plurals of particular forms (especially those with four stem consonants and threesyllable stems, as in maktib "desks, offices". Certain adjectives are also diptotes, such as the form afal of masculine singular elative (i.e. comparative/superlative) and color/defect adjectives, as well as the forms fal (feminine singular color/defect adjectives) and faln (masculine singular "intensive" adjectives expressing emotional concepts such as "angry, thirsty"). The "long construct" declension. These are triptotes with long case endings - - - in the singular construct state, and normal triptote endings elsewhere. There are only five nouns in this declension, all very short (see below): ab "father" (e.g. ab asan "the father of Hasan"); ax "brother"; am "father-in-law"; fam "mouth" (which assumes an irregular stem f - in the construct state, e.g. f "the mouth of (nom.)"); and "the owner of" (which appears only in construct and has a seriously irregular declension; see under demonstrative pronouns). The -in declension (Arabic 'ism ul-manq). This is used primarily for nouns and adjectives whose final root consonant is -y or -w, and which would normally have an -i- before the last consonant (e.g. the active participles of third-weak verbs). Such words were once declined as normal triptotes, but sound change has caused the last stem syllable to collapse together with the ending, leading to an irregular declension. In adjectives, this irregularity occurs only in the masculine; such adjectives have a normal feminine with a stem ending in -iya-. The -an declension (Arabic 'ism ul-maqr). Like the -in declension, this is used primarily for nouns and adjectives whose final root consonant is -y or -w, but these are words that would normally have an -a- before the last consonant (e.g. the passive participles of thirdweak verbs). Again, sound change has caused the last stem syllable to collapse together with the ending, and again, in adjectives the irregularity occurs only in the masculine, with regularly-declined feminines having a stem ending in -h (singular/dual) or -ayt- (plural). The invariable - declension (written either with "tall" 'alif or 'alif maqra). These words have the same form in all cases, both indefinite and definite. When this declension occurs in adjectives, it generally occurs as either the masculine or feminine singular portion of a
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complex paradigm with a differently-stemmed diptote conjugation in the other gender. Examples are the feminine singular of elative (i.e. comparative/superlative) adjectives, such as kubr "bigger/biggest (fem.)", and of "intensive" adjectives in faln, e.g. a "thirsty (fem.)". Masculine singular elatives and color/defect adjectives from third-weak roots have this declension themselves, e.g. am "blind", adn "nearer, lower". Note that many (but not all) nouns in the -in, -an or - declensions originate as adjectives of some sort, or as verbal nouns of third-weak verbs. Examples: qin "judge" (a form-I active participle); mustafan "hospital" (a form-X passive participle in its alternative meaning as a "noun of place"); fus "formal Arabic" (originally a feminine elative, lit. "the most eloquent (language)"); duny "world" (also a feminine elative, lit. "the lowest (place)"). In addition, many broken plurals are conjugated according to one of these declensions. Note that all dual nouns and adjectives have the same endings -(ni)/-ay(ni), differing only in the form of the stem.
Nominative case
The nominative case (
al-marf ) is used for:
Subjects of a verbal sentence. Subjects and predicates of an equational (non-verbal) sentence, with some notable exceptions. Certain adverbs retain the nominative marker (although not necessarily representing the nominative case). The citation form of words is (if noted at all) in the nominative case. For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a ammah (-u) for the definite or ammah + nunation (-un) for the indefinite. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding -ni and na respectively (- and - in the construct state). The regular feminine plural is formed by adding -tu in the definite and -tun in the indefinite.
Accusative case
The accusative case (
al-manb) is used for:
Objects of a verbal sentence. The subject of an equational (non-verbal) sentence, if it is initiated with 'inna, or one of her sisters. The predicate of kna/yaknu "be" and its sisters. Hence, al-bintu amlatun "the girl is beautiful" but al-bintu knat amla(tan) "the girl was beautiful" (spelling is not affected here (letter )in the unvocalised Arabic). The ending in brackets may not be pronounced in pausa or in informal Arabic. Both the subject and the predicate of anna and its sisters in an equational clause. The object of a transitive verb. Most adverbs. Internal object/cognate accusative structure. The accusative of specification/purpose/circumstantial.
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For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a fatah (-a) for the definite or fatah + nunation (-an) for the indefinite. For the indefinite accusative, the fatah + nunation is added to an alif e.g. , which is added to the ending of all nouns (e.g. kna tabna(n) "he was tired") not ending with a alif followed by hamzah or a t marbah. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding -ayn(i) and -n(a) (both spelled in Arabic) respectively (-ay and - in the construct state, both spelled in Arabic). The regular feminine plural is formed by adding -t(i) in the definite and -t(in) in the indefinite, both spelled in Arabic.
Genitive case
The genitive case (
al-marr) is used for:
Objects of prepositions. All, but not necessarily the first member (the first nomen regens), of an ifah (genitive construction) . The object of a locative adverb. Semi-prepositions if preceded by another (true or semi) preposition Objects of ayy "any". Elative (comparative/superlative) adjectives behave similarly: " awalu waladin" "tallest boy('s)". For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a kasrah (-i) for the definite or kasrah + nunation (-in) for the indefinite. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding -ayn(i) and -n(a) respectively (both spelled in Arabic) (-ay and - in the construct state, both spelled in Arabic). The regular feminine plural is formed by adding -t(i) in the definite and -t(in) in the indefinite, both spelled in Arabic. Note: diptotic nouns receive a fatah (-a) in the genitive indefinite and are never nunated. Pronunciation When speaking or reading aloud, nouns at the end of an utterance are pronounced in a special pausal form ( al-waqf). Final short vowels, as well as short vowels followed by a nunation, are omitted; but accusative -an sounds as -. The -t- in the feminine ending -at- sounds as -h-. In writing, all words are written in their pausal form; special diacritics may be used to indicate the case endings and nunation, but are normally only found in books for students and children, in the Koran, and occasionally elsewhere to remove ambiguity. Feminine nouns are indicated using a t marbah (technically, the letter for -h- with the markings for -t- added). When speaking in less formal registers, words are essentially pronounced in their pausal form When speaking or reading aloud, the case endings are generally omitted in less formal registers.
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Noun and Adjective Inflection (Colloquial Arabic)

In the colloquial spoken varieties of Arabic, much of the inflectional and derivational grammar of Classical Arabic nouns and adjectives is unchanged. The colloquial varieties have all been affected by a change that deleted most final short vowels (also final short vowels followed by a nunation suffix -n), and shortened final long vowels. Loss of case The largest change is the total lack of any grammatical case in the colloquial variants. When case endings were indicated by short vowels, these are simply deleted. Otherwise, the pausal form of the original oblique case has been usually generalized to all cases (however, in "long construct" nouns, it is nominative - that has been generalized). The original nunation ending indicating the indefinite state is also lost in most varieties, and where it persists it has different functions (e.g. in conjunction with a modifier such as an adjective or relative clause). The distinction between triptote and diptote has vanished, as has the distinction between defective -an and invariable -, which are both rendered by -a (shortened from -); similarly, defective -in nouns now have an ending -i, shortened from pausal/definite -. Even in Classical Arabic, grammatical case appears not to have been completely integrated into the grammar. The word order was largely fixed contrary to the usual freedom of word order in languages with case marking (e.g. Latin, Russian) and there are few cases in the Koran where omission of case endings would entail significant ambiguity of meaning. As a result, the loss of case entailed relatively little change in the grammar as a whole. In Modern Standard Arabic, case functions almost entirely as an afterthought: Most case endings are not pronounced at all, and even when the correct use of case endings is necessary (e.g. in formal, prepared speeches), the text is composed without consideration of case and later annotated with the correct endings. Despite the loss of case, the original indefinite accusative ending -an survives in its adverbial usage. Restriction of the dual number The dual number is lost except on nouns, and even then its use is no longer functionally obligatory (i.e. the plural may also be used when referring to two objects, if the "two-ness" of the objects is not being emphasized). In addition, many varieties have two morphologically separate endings inherited from the Classical dual, one used with dual semantics and the other used for certain objects that normally come in pairs (e.g. eyes, ears) but with plural semantics. (It is sometimes suggested that only the latter variety was actually directly inherited, whereas the former variety was a late borrowing from the Classical language.) In some varieties (e.g. Moroccan Arabic), the former, semantic dual has nearly disappeared, and is used only with a limited number of nouns, especially those referring to cardinal numbers and units of measurement. Changes to elative adjectives Elative adjectives (those adjectives having a comparative and superlative meaning) are no longer inflected; instead, the masculine singular serves for all genders and numbers. Note that the most common way of saying e.g. "the largest boy" is akbar walad, with the adjective in the construct state (rather than expected al-walad al-akbar, with the adjective in its normal position after the noun and agreeing with it in state). Preservation of remainder of system
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Other than the above changes, the system is largely stable. The same system of two genders, sound and broken plurals, and the use of multiple stems to complete the declension of some nouns and adjectives still exists, and is little changed in its particulars. The singular of feminine nouns is normally marked in -a. Former -in nouns are marked in -i, while former -an and - nouns are marked in -a, causing a formal merger in the singular with the feminine (but nouns that were masculine generally remain that way). The former "long feminine" marked with pausal h normally is marked with -t in all circumstances (even outside of the construct state). Sound masculine plurals are marked with -n, and sound feminine plurals with -t; duals often use -n (< -ayn, still preserved in the occasional variety that has not undergone the changes ay > , aw > ). The system of three states also still exists. With loss of final -n, the difference between definite and indefinite simply comes down to presence or absence of the article al-. The construct state is distinguished by lack of al-, and in feminines in -a by a separate ending -at (or -it). The "older dual" (used for the plural of certain body parts, e.g. eyes and ears), which is often -n (< -ayn), has a separate construct form - (which becomes -ayya in combination with clitic suffix -ya "my"). Other duals, as well as sound plurals, do not normally have a construct state, but instead use an analytical genitive construction, using a particle with a meaning of "of" but whose form differs greatly from variant to variant, and which is used in a grammatical construction that exactly parallels the analytical genitive in English constructions such as "the father of the teacher".
Noun and Adjective Derivation

A number of derivational processes exist for forming new nouns and adjectives. Most of these processes are non-concatenative, i.e. they involve a specific transformation applied to a root or word of a specific form, and cannot be arbitrarily combined or repeated to form longer and longer words. The only real concatenative derivational process is the nisba adjective -iyy-, which can be added to any noun (or even other adjective) to form an adjective meaning "related to X", and nominalized with the meaning "person related to X" (the same ending occurs in Arabic nationality adjectives borrowed into English such as "Iraqi", "Kuwaiti"). A secondary concatenative suffix is the feminine -ah, which can be added onto most nouns to make a feminine equivalent. The actual semantics are not very well-defined, but when added onto a noun indicating a man of some sort, they typically either refer to the women or objects with the same characteristics. The feminine nisba adjective -iyyah is commonly used to refer to abstract nouns (e.g. itirkiyyah "socialism"), and is sometimes added directly onto foreign nouns (e.g. dimuqrtiyyah "democracy"). The most productive means of derivational morphology of nouns is actually through the existing system of the participles (active and passive) and verbal nouns that are associated with each verb. These words can be "lexicalized" (made into separate lexical entries, i.e. words with their own specific meanings) by giving them additional semantics, much as the original English gerund "meeting" and passive participle "loaded" have been lexicalized from their original meanings of "the act of meeting (something)", "being loaded into/onto someone/something", so that (e.g.) "meeting" can mean "a gathering of people to discuss an issue, often business-related" and "loaded" can mean "having lots of money (of a person)", "with a bullet in it (of a gun)", etc. The system of noun and adjective derivation described below is of Classical Arabic, but the system in the modern colloquial varieties is nearly unchanged. Changes occurring in particular formations are discussed below.
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Collective nouns Certain nouns in Arabic, especially those referring to plants, animals and other inanimate objects that often appear in groups,[4] have a special collective declension. For those nouns, the formally singular noun has plural semantics, or refers to the objects as an undistinguished mass. In these nouns, the singular is formed by adding the feminine suffix ,which forms the so-called singulative ( ismu l-wadah lit. "noun of unity"). These singulative nouns in turn can be pluralized, using either the broken plural or the sound feminine plural in -t; this "plural of paucity" is used especially when counting objects between 3 and 10, and sometimes also with the meaning of "different kinds of ...". (When more than 10 objects are counted, Arabic requires the noun to be in the singular.) Examples: ajar "rocks" or "rock" (the material in general); ajarah "a rock" ajar "trees"; ajarah "a tree"; ajr (3 to 10) "trees" qam "wheat", qam ah "a grain of wheat" baqar "cattle"; baqarah "a cow"
A similar singulative ending applies to human or other sentient beings: jund "army"; jund "a soldier" jinn "genies, jinns"; jinn "a genie" zinj "black people" (as a race); zinj "a black person" Nisba The Nisba ( an-nisbah) is a common suffix to form adjectives of relation or pertinence. The suffix is - iyy- for masculine and - iyya(t)- for feminine gender (in other words, it is -iyy- and is inserted before the gender marker). E. g. Lubnn(u) "Lebanon", lubnniyy "Lebanese (singular masculine)", lubnniyyah "Lebanese (singular feminine)", lubnniyyn "Lebanese (plural masculine)" lubnniyyt "Lebanese (plural feminine)". A construct noun and nisbah-adjective is often equivalent to nominal composition in English and other languages (solar cell is equivalent to sun cell). The feminine nisbah is often used in Arabic as a noun relating to concepts, most frequently corresponding to ones ending in -ism, with the masculine and feminine nisbah being used as adjectival forms of the concept-noun (e.g. -ist) depending on agreement. Thus the feminine nisbah of alitirk "partnership, cooperation, participation (definite)", al-itirkiyyah is the Arabic word for "socialism," and the word "socialist" (both as an adjective and as the term for one who believes in socialism) is itirkiyy in the masculine and itirkiyyah in the feminine. The Arabic nisbah has affected some English adjectives of Arabic or related origin: Iraqi, Kuwaiti, etc.
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Participles and verbal nouns madar, lit. Every verb has associated active and passive participles, as well as a verbal noun ( "source"). The form of these participles and verbal nouns is largely predictable. For Form I (the basic type of verb), however, numerous possible shapes exist for the verbal noun, and the form of the verbal noun for any given verb is unpredictable. In addition, some verbs have multiple verbal nouns, corresponding to different meanings of the verb. All of these forms are frequently lexicalized (i.e. they are given additional meanings and become the origin of many lexical items in the vocabulary). In fact, participles and verbal nouns are one of the most productive sources of new vocabulary. A number of Arabic borrowings in English are actually lexicalized verbal nouns, or closely related forms. Examples are jihd (from the Form III verb jhada "to strive"); intif a (lit. "uprising", the feminine of the verbal noun of the Form VIII verb intafa "to rise up"); Islm (lit. "submission", from a Form IV verb); istiqll (lit. "independence", from a Form X verb). Many participles are likewise lexicalized, e.g. muhandis "engineer" (the active participle of the Form I quadriliteral verb handasa "to engineer"). Occupational nouns Occupational nouns can be derived from many verb stems, generally using the form fal, e.g. kattb "scribe". Some of these nouns have the meaning of "person who habitually does X" rather than an occupation as such, e.g. kab "liar". The active participle can also be used to form occupational nouns, e.g. lib "student" (from alaba "to ask"). Sometimes the variant form fal is seen in place of the normal Form I active participle fil, e.g. wazr "minister", safr "ambassador", ahd "martyr" (cf. hid "witness"). Nouns of place A common type of derivational noun is the noun of place, with a form mafal or similar, e.g. maktab, maktaba "library" (from kataba "to write"); mabax "kitchen" (from abaxa "to cook"); masra "theater" (from saraa "to release"). Nouns of place formed from verbs other than Form I have the same form as the passive participle, e.g. mustafan "hospital" (from the Form X verb istaf "to cure"). Tool nouns Just as nouns of place are formed using a prefix ma-, tool nouns (also nouns of usage or nouns of instrument; Arabic ismu latin lit. "noun of tool") were traditionally formed using a prefix mi-. Examples are mift "key" (from fata "to open"); minhj "road" (from nahaja "to pursue"); miktal "large basket" (from katala "to gather"); miktal "large basket" (from katala "to gather"); mzn "balance (i.e. scales)" (from wazana "to weigh"); miksaa "broom" (from kasaa "to sweep").
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However, the current trend is to use a different form fala. This is in origin a feminine occupational noun (e.g. kattla "female scribe"). It has been repurposed in imitation of the English use of -er/or in similar nouns (refrigerator, freezer, record player, stapler, etc.) and following the general association in Arabic between the feminine gender and inanimate objects. The majority of modern inventions follow this form, e.g. na rah "telescope, eyeglasses" (na ara "to look"); alljah "refrigerator" (alaja "to freeze quickly" < alj "snow"); dabbsah "stapler"; dabbbah "tank" (dababa "to crawl"). Nouns of unity Diminutives Diminutives (al-ismu l-muaaru) usually follow a pattern fuayl or similar (fuaylil if there are four consonants). Examples are kulayb "little dog" (kalb "dog"); bunayy "little son" (ibn "son"); usayn "Hussein" (asan "good, handsome, beautiful"). Diminutives are relatively unproductive in Modern Standard Arabic, echoing the fact that they are rare in many modern varieties (e.g. Egyptian Arabic, where they are nearly nonexistent except for a handful of lexicalized adjectives like kuwayyis "good", uayyar "small" < Classical ar "small"). On the other hand, they were extremely productive in some of the spoken dialects in Koranic times, and Wright's Arabic grammar lists a large number of diminutives, including numerous exceptional forms. Furthermore, diminutives are enormously productive in some modern varieties, e.g. Moroccan Arabic. In Moroccan Arabic, nearly every noun has a corresponding diminutive, and they are used quite frequently in speech, typically with an affective value ("cute little X", etc.). The typical diminutive has the Moroccan form f ila, f iyyel, f ilel or similar always with two initial consonants and a following /i/, which is the regular outcome of Classical fuay-. (f ila < fuaylah; f iyyel < fuayyal; f ilel < fuaylil.)
Adverb
arf
Adverbials are expressed using adjectives in the indefinite accusative, often written with the ending (e.g. ayan "also") but pronounced "-an" even if it's not written (see accusative), e.g.: qaraa al-kitba qiratan baatan literally: "he read the book a slow reading"; i.e., "He read the an an, an book slowly". This type of construction is known as the "absolute accusative" (cf. absolute ablative in Latin grammar). Adverbs can be formed from adjectives, ordinal numerals: karan frequently, a lot, often, ndiran rarely, awwalan firstly or from nouns: datan usually, iddan very. The second method to form adverbs is to use a preposition and a noun, e. g. bi-, e.g. swift, "with speed", bi--ab(i) exactly bi-sura(ti)
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Pronoun
Personal pronouns
In Arabic, personal pronouns have 12 forms: In singular and plural, the 2nd and 3rd persons differentiate gender, while the 1st person does not. In the dual, there is no 1st person, and only a single form for each 2nd and 3rd person. Traditionally, the pronouns are listed in order 3rd, 2nd, 1st. Person 1st
masculine
Singular an ( ) anta ( ) anti ( ) hiya ( ) huwa ( )
Dual nanu ( antum ( hum ( ) )
Plural ) antum ( ) hum ( )
2nd
feminine masculine
antunna ( ) hunna ( )
3rd
feminine
Informal Arabic tends to avoid the dual forms antum and hum .The feminine plural forms antunna and hunna are likewise avoided, except by speakers of conservative colloquial varieties that still possess separate feminine plural pronouns. Enclitic pronouns Enclitic forms of personal pronouns ( parts of speech, with varying meanings: a-amir ul-muttaila(tu)) are affixed to various
To the construct state of nouns, where they have the meaning of possessive demonstratives, e.g. "my, your, his" To verbs, where they have the meaning of direct object pronouns, e.g. "me, you, him" To prepositions, where they have the meaning of objects of the prepositions, e.g. "to me, to you, to him" To conjunctions and particles like anna "that ...", lianna "because ...", (wa)lkinna "but ...", inna (topicalizing particle), where they have the meaning of subject pronouns, e.g. "because I ...", "because you ...", "because he ...". (These particles are known in Arabic as aawt inna ( lit. "sisters of inna".) Most of them are clearly related to the full personal pronouns. Person 1st
masculine
Singular -n/-/-ya -ka -ki
Dual -n -kum
Plural -kum -kunna
2nd
feminine masculine
3rd
feminine
-hu/-hi -h
-hum/-him
-hum/-him
-hunna/-hinna
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Variant forms
For all but the first person singular, the same forms are used regardless of the part of speech of the word attached to. In the third person masculine singular, -hu occurs after the vowels ending in u or a (-a, -, u, -, -aw), while -hi occurs after vowels ending in i (-i, -, -ay). The same alternation occurs in the third person dual and plural. In the first person singular, however, the situation is more complicated. Specifically, -n "me" is attached to verbs, but -/-ya "my" is attached to nouns. In the latter case, -ya is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a long vowel or diphthong (e.g. in the sound masculine plural and the dual), while - is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a short vowel, in which case that vowel is elided (e.g. in the sound feminine plural, as well as the singular and broken plural of most nouns). Furthermore, - of the masculine sound plural is assimilated to - before -ya (presumably, -aw of masculine defective -an plurals is similarly assimilated to -ay). Examples: From kitb "book", pl. kutub: kitb- "my book" (all cases), kutub- "my books" (all cases), kitb-ya "my two books (nom.)", kitbay-ya "my two books (acc./gen.)" From kalimah "word", pl. kalimt: kalimat- "my word" (all cases), kalimt- "my words" (all cases) From duny "world", pl. dunyayt: duny-ya "my world" (all cases), dunyayt- "my worlds" (all cases) From qin "judge", pl. quh: qiy-ya "my judge" (all cases), qut- "my judges" (all cases) From muallim "teacher", pl. muallimn: muallim- "my teacher" (all cases), muallimiy-ya "my teachers" (all cases, see above) From ab "father": ab-ya "my father (nom.)" (or is it assimilated?), ab-ya "my father (acc.)", abiy-ya "my father (gen.)" Prepositions use -/-ya, even though in this case it has the meaning of "me" (rather than "my"). The "sisters of inna" can use either form (e.g. inna-n or inn-), but the longer form (e.g. inna-n) is usually preferred. The second-person masculine plural past tense verb ending -tum changes to the variant form -tum before enclitic pronouns, e.g. katab-tum-hu "you (masc. pl.) wrote it (masc.)".
With prepositions
Some very common prepositions including the proclitic preposition li- "to" (also used for indirect objects) have irregular or unpredictable combining forms when the enclitic pronouns are added:
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Meaning
Independent form With "... me" With "... you" (masc. sg.) With "... him" bif il l b laka fka bika lahu bihi fhi
"to", indirect object li"in", "with", "by" "in" "to" "on" "with" "from" "on", "about"
al
ilayya
fiyya
ma min an
alayya minn
ilayka
maya
alayka minka
ilayhi
maka
alayhi minhu
mahu
ann
anka
anhu
In the above cases, when there are two combining forms, one is used with "... me" and the other with all other person/number/gender combinations. (More correctly, one occurs before vowel-initial pronouns and the other before consonant-initial pronouns, but in Classical Arabic, only - is vowel-initial. This becomes clearer in the spoken varieties, where various vowel-initial enclitic pronouns exist.) Note in particular: il "to" and al "on" have irregular combining forms ilay-, alay-; but other pronouns with the same base form are regular, e.g. ma "with". li- "to" has an irregular combining form la-, but bi- "in, with, by" is regular. min "from" and an double the final n before -. (This should be interpreted as having an irregular stem with doubled n, rather than unexpected use of -n. This is clear because in the modern spoken varieties, there are other enclitic pronouns beginning with a vowel, and the doubled-n forms occur with them as well, e.g. minnak "from you (masc. sg.)", minnik "from you (fem. sg.)".)
Less formal forms
In a less formal Arabic, as in many spoken dialects, the endings -ka -ki -hu are pronounced as -ak -ik uh, swallowing all short case endings. Short case endings are often dropped even before consonantinitial endings, e.g. kitb-ka "your book" (all cases), bayt-ka "your house" (all cases), kalb-ka "your dog" (all cases). When this produces a difficult cluster, either the second consonant is vocalized, to the extent possible (e.g. ism-ka "your name", with syllabic m similar to English "bottom"), or an epenthetic vowel is inserted (e.g. isim-ka or ism -ka, depending on the behavior of the speaker's native variety).
i
Demonstratives
There are two demonstratives ( ('that'): asm al-ira(ti)), near-deictic ('this') and far-deictic
"This, these"
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Gender
nominative
Singular h hih(i)
Dual hni htni htayni hayni
Plural
Masculine
accusative/genitive nominative
hul(i)
Feminine
accusative/genitive
Gender
nominative
"That, those" Singular lik(a) tilka
Dual htayni taynika htni
Plural
Masculine
Feminine
accusative/genitive
tnika
ulik(a)
The dual forms are only used in very formal Arabic. Some of the demonstratives (h, hihi, hni, hayni, htni, htayni, huli, lika, and ulika should be pronounced with a long "", although the unvocalised script doesn't contain an alif (.) They have letter " dagger alif" ( alif anariyyah), which doesn't exist on Arabic keyboards and is seldom written, even in the vocalised Arabic. Koranic Arabic has another demonstrative, normally followed by a noun in a genitive construct and meaning "owner of": "Owner of ..." Singular Dual aw
Gender
Plural aw, ul
nominative
Masculine accusative
genitive nominative
away aw, ul awt awtu, ultu awt awti, ulti
Feminine accusative ta
genitive
tu ti
This form is not used in Modern Standard Arabic. Note that the demonstrative and relative pronouns were originally built on this word. h, for example, was originally composed from the prefix h- "this" and the masculine accusative singular ; similarly, lika was composed from , an infixed syllable -li-, and the clitic suffix -ka "you". These combinations had not yet become completely fixed in Koranic Arabic and other combinations
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sometimes occurred, e.g. ka, likum. Similarly, the relative pronoun al-la was originally composed based on genitive singular , and the old Arab grammarians noted the existence of a separate nominative plural form al-lana in the speech of the Hu ayl tribe in Koranic times. This word also shows up in Hebrew, e.g. masculine zeh < , feminine masculine zot < t-, plural eleh < ul.
Relative pronoun
The relative pronoun is conjugated as follows: Relative pronoun ("who, that, which") Gender Singular Dual
nominative
Plural al-lan(a) al-lt
Masculine
al-la al-lat
al-laayni al-latayni
al-lani
Feminine
accusative/genitive
al-latni
Note that the relative pronoun agrees in gender, number and case with the noun it modifies as opposed to the normal situation in inflected languages such as Latin and German, where the gender and number agreement is with the modified noun, but the case marking follows the usage of the relative pronoun in the embedded clause (as in formal English "the man who saw me" vs. "the man whom I saw"). When the relative pronoun serves a function other than the subject of the embedded clause, a resumptive pronoun is required (e.g. ar-rajulu l-la tatakallamtu ma-hu, literally "the man who I spoke with him"). The relative pronoun is normally omitted entirely when an indefinite noun is modified by a relative clause.
Colloquial varieties
The above system is mostly unchanged in the colloquial varieties, other than the loss of the dual forms and (for most varieties) of the feminine plural. Some of the more notable changes: The third-person -hi, -him variants disappear. On the other hand, the first person -n/-/-ya variation is preserved exactly (including the different circumstances in which these variants are used), and new variants appear for many forms. For example, in Egyptian Arabic, the second person feminine singular appears either as -ik or -ki depending on various factors (e.g. the phonology of the preceding word); likewise, the third person masculine singular appears variously as -u, -hu, or - (no ending, but stress is moved onto the preceding vowel, which is lengthened). In many varieties, the indirect object forms, which appear in Classical Arabic as separate words (e.g. l "to me", lahu "to him"), become fused onto the verb, following a direct object. These same varieties generally develop a a circumfix /ma-...-(i)/ for negation (from Classical
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m ... ay "not ... a thing", composed of three separate words). This can lead to complicated agglutinative constructs, such as Egyptian Arabic /ma-katab-ha-li-/ "he didn't write it (fem.) to me". (Egyptian Arabic in particular has many variant pronominal affixes used in different circumstances, and very intricate morphophonemic rules leading to a large number of complex alternations, depending on the particular affixes involved, the way they are put together, and whether the preceding verb ends in a vowel, a single consonant, or two consonants.) Other varieties instead use a separate Classical pseudo-pronoun iyy- for indirect objects (but in Hijazi Arabic the resulting construct fuses with a preceding verb). Affixation of dual and sound plural nouns has largely vanished. Instead, all varieties possess a separate preposition with the meaning of "of", which replaces certain uses of the construct genitive (to varying degrees, depending on the particular variety). In Moroccan Arabic, the word is dyal (also d- before a noun), e.g. l-kitab dyal-i "my book", since the construct-state genitive is mostly unproductive. Egyptian Arabic has bit , which agrees in gender and number with the preceding noun (feminine bit it/bita t, plural bit ). In Egyptian Arabic, the construct-state genitive is still productive, hence either kitb-i or il-kitb bit -i can be used for "my book", but only il-mu allimn bit -i "my teachers". The declined relative pronoun has vanished. In its place is an indeclinable particle, usually illi or similar. Various forms of the demonstrative pronouns occur, usually shorter than the Classical forms. For example, Moroccan Arabic uses ha l- "this", dak l-/dik l-/duk l"that" (masculine/feminine/plural). Egyptian Arabic is unusual in that the demonstrative follows the noun, e.g. il-kitb da "this book", il-binti di "this girl". Some of the independent pronouns have slightly different forms compared with their Classical forms. For example, usually forms similar to inta, inti "you (masc./fem. sg.)" occur in place of anta, anti, and (n)i na "we" occurs in place of nanu.
Numerals
Cardinal numerals
Numbers behave in a quite complicated fashion. "wid-" "one" and "inn-" "two" are adjectives, following the noun and agreeing with it. "alat-" "three" through "aarat-" "ten" require a following noun in the genitive plural, but agree with the noun in gender, while taking the case required by the surrounding syntax. "aada aarah" "eleven" through "tisata aarah" "nineteen" require a following noun in the accusative singular, agree with the noun in gender, and are invariable for case, except for "in aarah/inay aara" "twelve". The formal system of cardinal numerals, as used in Classical Arabic, is extremely complex. The system of rules is presented below. In reality, however, this system is never used: Large numbers are always written as numerals rather than spelled out, and are pronounced using a simplified system, even in formal contexts. Example: Formal: alfni wa-tisu miatin wa-nat aratan sanatan "2,912 years" Formal: bada alfayni wa-tisi miatin wa-natay aratan sanatan "after 2,912 years" Spoken: (bada) alfayn wa-tis miyya wa-inaar sana(tan) "(after) 2,912 years"
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Cardinal numerals ( al-add al-aliyyah) from 0-10. Naught is ifr, from which the words "cipher" and "zero" are ultimately derived. 0 ifr ( ) 1 wid(un) ( ) 2 inn(i) ( ) 3 ala(tun) ( ) 4 arbaa(tun) ( ) 5 amsa(tun) ( ) 6 sitta(tun) ( ) 7 saba(tun) ( ) 8 amniya(tun) ( ) 9 tisa(tun) ( ) 10 aara(tun) ( )
The endings in brackets are dropped in less formal Arabic and in pausa. Note that ( t marbah) is pronounced as simple /a/ in this cases. There are cases when -t in must be pronounced but not the rest of the ending. ( inn(i)) is changed to ( inayn(i)) in oblique cases. This form is also commonly used in a less formal Arabic in the nominative case. The numerals 1 and 2 are adjectives. Thus they follow the noun and agree with gender. Numerals 310 have a peculiar rule of agreement known as polarity: A feminine referrer agrees with a numeral in masculine gender and vice versa, e.g. alu fataytin ( ' ) three girls'. The noun counted takes indefinite genitive plural (as the attribute in a genitive construct). Numerals 11 and 1319 are indeclinable for case, perpetually in the indefinite accusative. Numbers 11 and 12 show gender agreement in the ones, and 13-19 show polarity in the ones. Number 12 also shows case agreement, reminiscent of the dual. The gender of in numbers 11-19 agrees with the counted noun (unlike the standalone numeral 10 which shows polarity). The counted noun takes indefinite accusative singular. Number 11 12 13 Informal Masculine nominative Masculine oblique Feminine nominative id aratan inay aara inat aratan ala aratan inatay aratan Feminine oblique
aada aar ( aada aara ) in aar ( ) alata aar ( ) in aara alata aara
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Unitary numbers from 20 on (i.e. 20, 30, ... 90, 100, 1000, 1000000, etc.) behave entirely as nouns, showing case agreement as required by the surrounding syntax, no gender agreement, and a following noun in a fixed case. 20 through 90 require the accusative singular; 100 and up require the genitive singular. The unitary numbers themselves decline in various fashions: irna "20" through tisna "90" decline as masculine plural nouns miat- "100" ( , formerly ) declines as a feminine singular noun alf- "1000" ( )declines as a masculine singular noun The numbers 20-99 are expressed with the units preceding the tens. There is agreement in gender with the numerals 1 and 2, and polarity for numerals 39. The whole construct is followed by the accusative singular indefinite. 20 irn(a) ( ) (dual of 10) 21 widun wa-irn(a) ( ) 22 inni wa-irn(a) ( ) 23 alatu wa-irn(a) ( ) 30 aln(a) ( ) 40 arban(a) ()
miat- "100" and alf- "1000" can themselves be modified by numbers (to form numbers such as 200 or 5,000) and will be declined appropriately. For example, miatni "200" and alfni "2,000" with dual endings; alatu lfin "3,000" with alf in the plural genitive, but alu miatin "300" since miatappears to have no plural. In compound numbers, the last number dictates the declension of the associated noun. Large compound numbers can be extremely complicated, e.g.: alfun wa-tisu miatin wa-tisu sinn(a) "1,909 years" bada alfin wa-tisi miatin wa-tisi sinn(a) "after 1,909 years" arbaatun wa-tisna alfan wa-amn-miatin wa-alun wa-sittna sanat(an) "94,863 years" bada arbaatin wa-tisna alfan wa-amn-miatin wa-alin wa-sittna sanat(an) "after 94,863 years" in aara alfan wa-miatni wa-natni wa-irna sanat(an) "12,222 years" bada nay aara alfan wa-miatayni wa-natayni wa-irna sanat(an) "after 12,222 years" in aara alfan wa-miatni wa-sanatn(i) "12,202 years" bada nay aara alfan wa-miatayni wa-sanatayn(i) "after 12,202 years" Note also the special construction when the final number is 1: alfu laylatin wa-laylat(un) (1001 nights) ), pl. afl (.)
Fractions of a whole smaller than "half" are expressed by the structure sg. fil ( half nif(un)( )
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one-third ul(un)( ) two-thirds uln(i)() one-fourth rub(un)( ) three-fourths alaatu arb(in) ( etc.
Ordinal numerals
Ordinal numerals ( al-add at-tartiyabiyyah) higher than "second" are formed using the structure fil(un), fila(tun): etc. They are adjectives, hence, there is agreement in gender with the noun, not polarity as with the cardinal numbers. Note that "sixth" uses a different, older root than the number six. m. awwal(u), f. l "first" m. nin (definite form: a-niyy), f. niyya(tun) "second" m. li(un), f. lia(tun) "third" m. rbi(un), f. rbia(tun) "fourth" m. mis(un), f. misa(tun) "fifth" m. sdis(un), f. sdisa(tun) "sixth" m. sbi(un), f. sbia(tun) "seventh" m. min(un), f. mina(tun) "eighth" m. tsi(un), f. tsia(tun) "ninth" m. ir(un), f. ira(tun) "tenth"
Verb (Classical Arabic)

Introduction
The verb in Arabic ( fil), as in other Semitic languages, is extremely complicated. Verbs in Arabic are based on a root made up of three or four consonants (a so-called triliteral or quadriliteral root, respectively). The set of consonants communicates the basic meaning of a verb, e.g. k-t-b "write", q-r- "read", -k-l "eat". Changes to the vowels in between the consonants, along with prefixes and/or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as tense, person and number, in addition to changes in the meaning of the verb that embody grammatical concepts such as mood (e.g. indicative, subjunctive, imperative); voice (active or passive); causative; intensive; or reflexive. Example from the root k-t-b "write":
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Active Past kataba "he wrote" Present yaktubu "he writes" Imperative iktub "write! (sg.)" kattib "cause to write! (sg.)" taktab "correspond (with someone, mutually)! (sg.)" Past kutiba "it was written"
Passive Present yuktabu "it is written" yukattabu "he is made to write"
kattaba "he caused yukattibu "he to write" causes to write" taktaba "he corresponded (with someone, mutually)" yataktabu "he corresponds (with someone, mutually)"
kuttiba "he was made to write"
tuktiba "he was yutaktabu "he corresponded is corresponded (with)" (with)"
The various verbal categories marked on verbs are as follows: person (first, second, third) number (singular, dual, plural) gender (masculine, feminine) tense (non-past, past; future indicated by a prefix sa- or sawfa) voice (active, passive) mood, in the non-past only (indicative, subjunctive, jussive, imperative, shorter energetic, longer energetic) Form, a derivational system (triliteral Form I through XV, with XII-XV rare; quadriliteral Form I through IV, with III-IV rare), indicating derivative concepts such as intensive, causative, reflexive Weakness, an inherent property of a given verb determined by the particular consonants of the verb root (corresponding to a verb conjugation in Classical Latin and other European languages), with five main types of weakness and two or three subtypes of each type For each form, there is in addition an active participle (an adjective, declined through the full paradigm of gender/number/case/state); a passive participle (also an adjective, declined likewise); and a verbal noun (declined for case; also, when lexicalized, may be declined for number). Arabic grammarians typically use the root f--l to indicate the particular shape of any given element of a verbal paradigm. As an example, the form yutaktabu "he is corresponded (with)" would be listed generically as yutafalu, specifying the generic shape of a strong Form VI passive verb, third-person masculine singular present indicative. The maximum possible total number of verb forms derivable from a root not counting participles and verbal nouns is approximately 13 person/number/gender forms; times 7.385 tense/mood combinations, counting the sa- future (since the moods are active only in the present tense, and the imperative has only 5 of the 13 paradigmatic forms); times 17 form/voice combinations (since forms IX, XI-XV exist only for a small number of stative roots, and form VII cannot normally form a passive), for a total of 1,632. Each of these has its own stem form, and each of these stem forms itself comes in numerous varieties, according to the weakness (or lack thereof) of the underlying root.
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Inflectional categories
Each particular lexical verb is specified by four stems, two each for the active and passive voices. In a particular voice, one stem (the past stem) is used for the past tense, and the other (the non-past stem) is used for the present and future tenses, along with non-indicative moods, e.g. subjunctive and imperative. The past and non-past stems are sometimes also called the perfective stem and imperfective stem, respectively, imperfective stem, based on a traditional misinterpretation of Arabic stems as representing grammatical aspect rather than grammatical tense. (Although there is still some disagreement about the interpretation of the stems as tense or aspect, the dominant current view is that the stems simply represent tense, sometimes of a relative rather than absolute nature. There are some unusual usages of the stems in certain contexts that were once interpreted as indicating aspectual distinctions, but are now thought to simply be idiosyncratic constructions that do not neatly fit into any aspectual paradigm.) To the past stem, suffixes are added to mark the verb for person, number and gender, while to the nonpast stem, a combination of prefixes and suffixes are added. (Very approximately, the prefixes specify the person and the suffixes indicate number and gender.) A total of 13 forms exist for each of the two stems, specifying person (first, second or third); number (singular, dual or plural); and gender (masculine or feminine). There are five separate moods in the non-past: indicative, imperative, subjunctive, jussive and energetic. The energetic mood actually has two separate sets of forms, a longer and a shorter form, with equivalent meaning. The moods are generally marked by suffixes. When no number suffix is present, the endings are -u for indicative, -a for subjunctive, no ending for imperative and jussive, -an for shorter energetic, anna for longer energetic. When number suffixes are present, the moods are either distinguished by different forms of the suffixes (e.g. -na for masculine plural indicative vs. - for masculine plural subjunctive/imperative/jussive), or not distinguished at all. The imperative exists only in the second person and is distinguished from the jussive by the lack of the normal second-person prefix ta-/tu-. The third person masculine singular past tense form serves as the "dictionary form" used to identify a verb, similar to the infinitive in English. (Arabic has no infinitive.) For example, the verb meaning "write" is often specified as kataba, which actually means "he wrote". This indicates that the past-tense stem is katab-; the corresponding non-past stem is -ktub-, as in yaktubu "he writes".
Derivational categories, conjugations

The system of verb conjugations in Arabic is quite complicated, and is formed along two axes. One axis, known as the form (described as "Form I", "Form II", etc.) is used to specify grammatical concepts such as causative, intensive, passive or reflexive, and involves varying the stem form. The other axis, known as the weakness, is determined by the particular consonants making up the root. For example, defective (or third-weak) verbs have a w or y as the last root consonant (e.g. r-m-y "throw", d--w "call"), and doubled verbs have the second and third consonants the same (e.g. m-d-d "extend"). These "weaknesses" have the effect of inducing various irregularities in the stems and endings of the associated verbs. Examples of the different forms of a sound verb (i.e. with no root weaknesses), from the root k-t-b "write" (using -m-r "red" for Form IX, which is limited to colors and physical defects):
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Form I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X
Past kataba t b ktaba t b akt ba ktab kt "he wrote" ttab katt ba tt
Meaning
Non-past yakt bu ktub kt "he writes" yukatt bu k tt ttib yuktibu k tb yukt bu ktib kt
Meaning
"he made (someone) write" "he corresponded with, wrote to (someone)" "he dictated"
"he makes (someone) write" "he corresponds with, writes to (someone)" "he dictates"
takatt ba nonexistent k tt ttab
yatakatt bu nonexistent k tt ttab
"he corresponded (with someone, "he corresponds (with someone, taktaba esp. mutually)" k t b yataktabu esp. mutually)" k t b inkataba "he subscribed" k t b iktataba k t b imarr rr rra "he copied" "he turned red" yankatibu k tb yaktatibu k tb yamarr rr rru "he subscribes" "he copies" "he turns red" "he asks (someone) to write"
istakt ba "he asked (someone) to write" ktab kt
yastakt bu ktib kt
The main types of weakness are as follows: Main weakness varieties for Form I, with verbs in the active indicative Past, 3Sg Present, 3Sg Present, 3Pl Weakness Root Past, 1Sg Masc Masc Fem Sound (Non-Weak) Assimilated (FirstWeak), W Assimilated (FirstWeak), Y Hollow (SecondWeak), W Hollow (SecondWeak), Y Defective (ThirdWeak), W Defective (ThirdWeak), Y Doubled k-t-b "to write" kataba w-j-d "to find" wajada y-b-s "to dry" q-w-l "to say" yabisa qla katabtu yaktubu yaktubna yajidna yaybasna yaqulna yasirna yadna yarmna yamdudna wajadtu yajidu yabistu qultu sirtu yaybasu yaqlu yasru
s-y-r "to travel, sra go" d--w "to call" r-m-y "to throw" m-d-d "to extend" da ram madda
daawtu yad ramaytu yarm madadtu yamuddu
Conjugation, prefixes and suffixes

In Arabic the grammatical person and number as well as the mood is designated by a variety of prefixes and suffixes. The following table shows the paradigm of a regular sound Form I verb, kataba ( " )to write". Final short vowels that are part of the formal paradigm but often omitted in speech are given in
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parentheses. This includes most final short vowels; but not in feminine plural -na, and not normally in past tense second person feminine singular -ti. (The energetic mood is a purely Koranic form and not normally used at all in speech.) Paradigm of a regular Arabic verb, kataba (yaktubu) "to write"
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Past
Present Indicative
Future Indicative
Subjunctive Jussive Singular
Long Short Energetic Energetic
1st
katab-t a-ktub- sa-a- saktub-(u) (u) (u)
a-ktub(a)
a-ktub
a-ktub- a-ktub anna -an

masculine

anna tata-ktub- ta- ta-an
katab-t ta-ktub- sa-tata- sa-taktub-(u) (a) (u)
tata-ktub- ta- taktub (a)

2nd
feminine

inna tata-ktub- ta- ta-in
katabta-ktub- sa-tatata- sa-tatatata-ktub- ktub-n(a) ktub- ti n(a)
Active

katab- ya-ktub sa-ya- yasa-yaktub-(u) (a) -(u)

yaya-ktub -anna an yayaktub
masculine
yaya-ktub- ya- yaktub (a)
3rd

feminine

anna tata-ktub- ta- ta-an
katabta-ktub- sa-tata- sa-taktub-(u) at (u)
tata-ktub- ta- taktub (a)

2nd
masculine & feminine

Dual
katabta-ktub- sa-tatatata- sa-tatata-ktubtata-ktub- ktub-n(i) ktub- nni tum tum n(i)
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masculine
katab- ya-ktub sa-ya- yasa-yayayaya-ktub- ya- yaya-ktub ktub-n(i) ktub- -nni -n(i)

3rd
feminine
katabta-ktub- sa-ta- tatatatata-ktub- sa-tatata-ktub- ktub-n(i) ktub- nni at at n(i)

katab- na-ktub sa-na- nasa-naktub-(u) n -(u)

Plural

nana-ktub nanaktub
1st
nana-ktub- na- naktub (a)
-anna
an

katabta-ktub- tamasculine

tata-ktub- -

tatatata-ktub- ta- taktub- unna -un
tum
n(a)
sa-tasa-taktub-n (a)

2nd

tataktubna nnni tata-ktub-
feminine
katabta-ktub- sa-tata- sa-taktub-na tunna na
na
tata-ktub-
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katab- ya-ktub - yamasculine
-n(a)
sa-yasa-yaktub-n (a)
yayayayaya-ktub- ya- yaya-ktub ktub ktub- -unna un

3rd

yayaktubna yaya-ktub -nnni
feminine
katab- ya-ktub sa-ya- yasa-yaktub-na na -na
na
yaya-ktub-

(u) (u) -(u)

Singular

u-ktab u-ktab- u-ktab anna -an
kutib-t u-ktab- sa-u-ktab u-ktab- sa(a)
1st

Passive
masculine

tutu-ktab(a)

tutu-ktab tutu-ktab- tu- tuanna -an
kutib-t tu-ktab- sa-tutu- sa-tuktab-(u) (a) (u)

2nd
kutib-ti feminine
tutututu-ktab- sa-tu- sa-tutu-ktab tu-ktab- tu- tututu-ktab- ktab-n(a) inna n(a) - -in

etc.
Note that the initial vowel in the imperative (which is elidable) varies from verb to verb, as follows: The initial vowel is u if the stem begins with two consonants and the next vowel is u or . The initial vowel is i if the stem begins with two consonants and the next vowel is anything else. There is no initial vowel if the stem begins with one consonant.
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In unvocalised Arabic, katabtu, katabta, katabti and katabat are all written the same: .Forms katabtu and katabta (and sometimes even katabti) can be abbreviated to katabt in spoken Arabic and in pausa, making them also sound the same. ( alif) in final -( ) is silent.
Tense
The main tenses in Arabic are the past tense ( al-m) and the present tense ( al-muri). The future tense in Classical Arabic is formed by adding either the prefix sa- or the separate word sawfa onto the beginning of the present tense verb, e.g. sa-yaktubu or sawfa yaktubu "he will write". In some contexts, the tenses represent aspectual distinctions rather than tense distinctions. The usage of Arabic tenses is as follows: The past tense often (but not always) specifically has the meaning of a past perfective, i.e. it expresses the concept of "he did" as opposed to "he was doing". The latter can be expressed using the combination of the past tense of the verb kna "to be" with the present tense or active participle, e.g. kna yaktubu or kna ktibun "he was writing". The two tenses can be used to express relative tense (or in an alternative view, grammatical aspect) when following other verbs in a serial verb construction. In such a construction, the present tense indicates time simultaneous with the main verb, while the past tense indicates time prior to the main verb. (Or alternatively, the present tense indicates the imperfective aspect while the past tense indicates the perfective aspect.) In all but Form I, there is only one possible shape for each of the past and non-past stems for a given root. In Form I, however, different verbs have different shapes. Examples: kataba yaktubu "write" kasaba yaksibu "earn" qaraa yaqrau "read" qadima yaqdamu "turn" kabura yakburu "become big, grow up"
Notice that the second vowel can be any of a i u in both past and non-past stems. The vowel a occurs in most past stems, while i occurs in some (especially intransitive) and u occurs only in a few stative verbs (i.e. whose meaning is "be X" or "become X" where X is an adjective). The most common patterns are: past: a; non-past: u or i past: a, non-past: a (when the second or third root consonant is a "guttural", i.e. one of h past: i; non-past: a past: u; non-past: u
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Mood
lah Modal forms can be derived from the imperfective stem: the subjunctive ( manb) by (roughly speaking) replacing the final vowel by a, the jussive ( mazm) by dropping this a of the marf ) subjunctive. In a less formal Arabic and in spoken dialects, verbs in the indicative mood ( have shortened endings, identical to subjunctive and jussive. The imperative ( at ul-amr(i)) (positive, only 2nd person) is formed by dropping the verbal prefix from the imperfective jussive stem, e.g. qaddim "present!". If the result starts with two consonants followed by a vowel ("a" or "i"), an elidible alif is added to the beginning of the word, isil "wash!" or ifal "do!" if the present form vowel is "u", then usually pronounced as "i", e.g. the alif is also pronounced as "u", e.g. uktub "write!". Negative imperatives are formed from jussive. Note: the exception to the above rule is the form (or stem) IV verbs. In these verbs a non-elidible alif pronounced as "a" is always prefixed to the imperfect jussive form, e.g. arsil "send!", 5] ]aif "add!". The subjunctive is used in subordinate clauses after certain conjunctions. The jussive is used in negation, in negative imperatives, and in the hortative li+jussive. For example: 2. sg. m.: imperfect indicative tafalu 'you are doing' subjunctive an tafala 'that you do' jussive l tafal 'do not!' energic tafalanna imperative ifal 'do!'.
Voice
ah Arabic has two verbal voices, active ( at ul-malm), and passive ( mahl). The passive voice is expressed by a change in vocalization. For example: active passive faala 'he did', yafalu 'he is doing' fuila 'it was done', yufalu 'it is being done' at ul-
Notice that active and passive forms are spelled identically in Arabic.
Weak roots
Roots containing one or two of the radicals w (ww), y (y ) or (hamzah) often lead to verbs with special phonological rules because these radicals can be influenced by their surroundings. Such verbs are called 'weak' (verba infirma, 'weak verbs') and their paradigms must be given special attention. In the
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case of hamzah, these peculiarities are mainly orthographical, since hamzah is not subject to elision (the orthography of hamzah and alif is unsystematic due to confusion in early Islamic times). According to the position of the weak radical in the root, the root can be classified into four classes: first weak, second weak, third weak and doubled, where both the second and third radicals are identical. Some roots fall into more than one category at once. Doubled roots The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I doubled verb madda (yamuddu) "to extend", parallel to verbs of the faala (yafulu) type. See notes following the table for explanation. Paradigm of a form I doubled Arabic verb, madda (yamuddu) "to extend"
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Past
Present Subjunctive Indicative
Jussive Singular
Long Short Energetic Energetic
1st
aa-mudd- a-mudd-a, aa-muddmadad- amuddmudd-i, a-mdud anna tu mudd-u a an
, ,
masculine
tamadad- tata-muddta-mudd-a, tata-muddmudd mudd-i, u ta mudd-u a mudd-i, ta-mdud anna an

2nd
, ,
feminine
tamadadmuddti na
ta-muddta-mudd-
tata-muddmuddmudd inna in
masculine
ya-mudd-a, yayaya-mudd madd-a mudd-i, yamudd-u -a mdud
yaya-mudd mudd-anna an

3rd
, ,
feminine
maddat
tatata-muddta-mudd-a, tata-muddmuddmudd-u a mudd-i, ta-mdud anna an
, ,
Dual
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2nd
tamadadmuddtum ni
ta-muddta-mudd-
ta-muddnni
mudd

yamadd- muddni

ya-mudd -nni
masculine
ya-mudd ya-mudd- -

3rd

tamuddni

ta-muddnni
feminine
maddat
ta-muddta-mudd-

Plural
1st
na-mudd-a, namadad- nana-mudd mudd-i, nan mudd-u -a mdud
nana-mudd mudd-anna an
, ,
2nd masculine
tamadadmuddtum na
ta-muddta-mudd-
tata-muddmuddmudd unna un
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feminine
tamadadmdudtunna na
ta-mdudta-mdud-na na
ta-mdudnnni
umdud

yamadd- muddna ya-mudd ya-mudd- -

yaya-mudd mudd-unna un
masculine

3rd

ya-mdud -nnni
feminine
yamadadmdudna na
ya-mdud ya-mdud-na -na
All doubled verbs are conjugated in a parallel fashion. The endings are for the most part identical to strong verbs, but there are two stems (a regular and a modified) in each of the past and non-past. The regular stems are identical to the stem forms of sound verbs, while the modified stems have the two identical consonants pulled together into a geminate consonant and the vowel between moved before the geminate. In the above verb madda (yamuddu) "to extend (s.th.)", the past stems are madad(regular), madd- (modified), and the non-past stems are mdud- (regular), mudd- (modified). In the table, places where the regular past stem occurs are in silver, and places where the regular non-past stem occurs are in gold; everywhere else, the modified stem occurs. Note also that no initial vowel is needed in (most of) the imperative forms because the modified nonpast stem does not begin with two consonants. The concept of having two stems for each tense, one for endings beginning with vowels and one for other endings, occurs throughout the different kinds of weaknesses. Following the above rules, endingless jussives would have a form like tamdud, while the corresponding indicates and subjunctives would have forms like tamuddu, tamudda. As a result, for the doubled verbs in particular, there is a tendency to harmonize these forms by adding a vowel to the jussives, usually a, sometimes i. These are the only irregular endings in these paradigms, and have been indicated in boldface. The masculine singular imperative likewise has multiple forms, based on the multiple forms of the jussive.
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The are various types of doubled Form I verbs: Modified past stem (3rd sing. masc.) madd-a tamm-a all-a Regular past Regular past Modified non-past stem stem stem (3rd plur. (3rd plur. (3rd sing. masc.) fem.) fem.) madad-na tamam-na alil-na ya-mudd-u ya-timm-u ya-all-u ya-mdud-na ya-tmim-na ya-lal-na
Meaning "to extend" "to remain"
Sound verb parallel faala (yafulu)
"to finish" faala (yafilu) faila (yafalu)
Assimilated (first-weak) roots Most first-weak verbs have a w as their first root. These verbs are entirely regular in the past tense. In the non-past, the w drops out, leading to a shorter stem (e.g. wajada (yajidu) "to find"), where the stem is -jid- in place of a longer stem like -jlid- from the verb jalada (yajlidu) "to whip, flog". This same stem is used throughout, and there are no other irregularities except for the imperative, which has no initial vowel, consistent with the fact that the stem for the imperative begins with only one consonant. The are various types of assimilated (first-weak) Form I verbs:
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Past stem (3rd sing. masc.) wajad-a wari-a waa-a wajil-a yasar-a yabis-a
Non-past stem (3rd sing. masc.) yajid-u yari-u yaa-u yawjal-u yaysir-u yaybas-u
Imperative (masc. sing.) jid ri a jal sir bas dad li
Meaning "to find"
Sound verb parallel faala (yafilu)
faila (yafilu) (rare normally, but in assimilated verbs, rather more common than faila (yafalu)) faila (yafalu) (rare case where w is preserved in non-past) faala (yafilu) (y is normally preserved in non-past) faila (yafalu) (y is normally preserved in non-past) faila (yafalu) (also a doubled verb) faila (yafilu) (also a defective verb) faala (yafalu)
"to put" ?
"to be/become dry" ? "to protect"
wadd-a (wadid yadd-u -tu) waliy-a yal
Hollow (second-weak) roots The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I hollow (second-weak) verb qla (qultu, yaqlu) "to say", parallel to verbs of the faala (yafulu) type. See notes following the table for explanation. yaq Paradigm of a hollow (second-weak) Arabic verb, qla (qultu, yaqlu) "to say"
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Past
Present Subjunctive Jussive Indicative Singular
Long Short Imperative Energetic Energetic
qul-tu
1st
a-ql-u
a-ql-a
a-qul
a-qlanna
a-qlan

qul-ta
masculine

ta-qul

ta-qlanna

ta-qlqul an
ta-ql-u ta-ql-a

2nd

ta-qlna

ta-ql-

ta-ql-

ta-qlinna

ta-qlql- in
qul-ti
feminine

ql-a
masculine

ya-qlanna

ya-qlan
ya-ql-u ya-ql-a ya-qul

3rd

ta-qul

ta-qlanna

ta-qlan
ql-at
feminine
ta-ql-u ta-ql-a

qultum ta-qlni

Dual

ql-
ta-ql-
2nd
ta-ql- ta-ql nni
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ql-
masculine
ya-qlni
ya-ql-
ya-ql- ya-ql nni
3rd

ta-qlni ta-ql-

ta-ql- ta-ql nni
ql-at
feminine

Plural

na-qlanna na-qlan
qul-n na-ql-u na-ql-a na-qul

1st
masculine

ta-qlna

ta-ql-

ta-qlql- un
qultum
ta-ql- ta-ql unna

2nd
feminine

ta-qulna ta-qul-na

ta-qul- ta-qulna nnni

ya-qlun qul-na
qultunna

ql-
masculine

ya-qlna

ya-ql-
ya-ql- ya-ql unna
3rd

feminine

ya-qul- ya-qulna nnni
qul-na
ya-qulna
ya-qul-na
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All hollow (second-weak) verbs are conjugated in a parallel fashion. The endings are identical to strong verbs, but there are two stems (a longer and a shorter) in each of the past and non-past. The longer stem is consistently used whenever the ending begins with a vowel, and the shorter stem is used in all other circumstances. The longer stems end in a long vowel plus consonant, while the shorter stems end in a short vowel plus consonant. The shorter stem is formed simply by shortening the vowel of the long stem in all paradigms other than the active past of Form I verbs. In the active past paradigms of Form I, however, the longer stem always has an vowel, while the shorter stem has a vowel u or i corresponding to the actual second root consonant of the verb. Note also that no initial vowel is needed in the imperative forms because the non-past stem does not begin with two consonants. There are various types of Form I hollow verbs: qla qulna (yaqlu yaqulna) "to say", formed from verbs with w as their second root consonant and parallel to verbs of the faala (yafulu) type sra sirna (yasru yasirna) "to say", formed from verbs with y as their second root consonant and parallel to verbs of the faala (yafilu) type xfa xufna (yaxfu yaxafna) "to fear", formed from verbs with w as their second root consonant and parallel to verbs of the faila (yafalu) type nma nimna (yanmu yanamna) "to sleep", formed from verbs with y as their second root consonant and parallel to verbs of the faila (yafalu) type The passive paradigm of all Form I hollow verbs is as follows: qla qilna (yuqlu yuqalna) "to be said" Defective (third-weak) roots
)fay( af )fay( af )fay( af )fay( af
The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I defective (third-weak) verb ram (yarm) "to throw", parallel to verbs of the faala (yafilu) type. See notes following the table for explanation. Paradigm of a defective (third-weak) y Arabic verb, ram (yarm) "to throw" ram yarm
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Past
Jussive
Long Energetic
Short Imperative Energetic
Singular
1st
ramaytu
a-rm
a-rmiy-a a-rmi
a-rmiy- a-rmiy anna -an

masculine

ta-rmiyanna ta-rmiy i-rmi -an
ramayta-rm ta
ta-rmiy-a ta-rmi

2nd
feminine

ta-rm-

ta-rm-

ta-rminna ta-rmin i-rm-
ramayta-rmti na

ram-
masculine
ya-rm
yaya-rmiyya-rmiyya-rmi rmiya anna an
3rd

ram-at
feminine

ta-rm

ta-rmiyanna ta-rmiy -an
ta-rmiy-a ta-rmi

2nd

Dual

i-rmiy-
ramayta-rmiyta-rmiy ta-rmiyta-rmiy- tum ni - nni
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ramay-
masculine
ya-rmiy ya-rmiy- yaya-rmiy-ni rmiy- nni

3rd
ram-at
feminine
ta-rmiyta-rmiy ta-rmiyta-rmiy- ni - nni

Plural
1st
ramayna-rm n
nana-rmiyna-rmiyna-rmi rmiya anna an

masculine

ta-rm-

ta-rm-

ta-rmunna ta-rmun i-rm-
ramayta-rmtum na

2nd
feminine

ta-rm- ta-rmna nnni

i-rm-na
ramayta-rmtunna na
ta-rm-na

3rd masculine
ram-aw
ya-rmna
ya-rm-
ya-rm- ya-rm unna
ya-rmun
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feminine

ya-rm- ya-rmna nnni
ramay- ya-rm- ya-rmna na na

Two stems each
Each of the two main stems (past and non-past) comes in two variants, a full and a shortened. For the past stem, the full is ramay-, shortened to ram- in much of the third person (i.e. before vowels, in most cases). For the non-past stem, the full is rmiy-, shortened to rm- before - -. The full non-past stem rmiy - appears as rm- when not before a vowel; this is an automatic alternation in Classical Arabic. The places where the shortened stems occur are indicated by silver (past), gold (non-past). Irregular endings The endings are actually mostly regular. But some endings are irregular, in boldface: Some of the third-person past endings are irregular, in particular those in ram- "he threw", ram-aw "they (masc.) threw". These simply have to be memorized. Two kinds of non-past endings are irregular, both in the "suffixless" parts of the paradigm (largely referring to singular masculine or singular combined-gender). In the indicative, the full stem -rm actually appears normally; what is irregular is the lack of the -u normally marking the indicative. In the jussive, on the other hand, the stem actually assumes a unique shortened form -rmi, with a short vowel (note also the lack of corresponding letter in the Arab).
)fay( af
The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I defective (third-weak) verb da (yad) "to call", parallel to verbs of the faala (yafulu) type. Verbs of this sort are entirely parallel to verbs of the fa (yaf) type, although the exact forms can still be tricky. See notes following the table for explanation. Paradigm of a defective (third-weak) w Arabic verb, da (yad) "to call" da yad
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Past
Jussive
Long Energetic
Short Imperative Energetic
Singular
da aw-tu a-d
1st
a-d uwa
a-d u
a-d uwanna
a-d uw -an

masculine

ta-d uwanna ta-d uw u-d u -an
da aw-ta ta-d
ta-d uwta-d u a
2nd

feminine

ta-d -

ta-d -inna ta-d -in u-d -
da aw-ti ta-d -na ta-d -

da - ya-d
masculine
ya-d uwya-d u a
ya-d uwya-d uw anna -an

3rd

ta-d

ta-d uwanna ta-d uw -an
da -at
feminine
ta-d uwta-d u a

da awtum

Dual

u-d uw
2nd
ta-d uwta-d uwta-d uw ta-d uwni - nni
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da aw-
masculine
ya-d uwya-d uwya-d uw ya-d uwni - nni

3rd
da -at
feminine
ta-d uwta-d uwta-d uw ta-d uwni - nni

da awn

na-d

na-d uwna-d uw anna -an
Plural
1st
na-d uwna-d u a

masculine

ta-d -

ta-d unna ta-d -un u-d -
da awtum
ta-d -na ta-d -

2nd
feminine

ta-d na ta-d nnni

u-d -na
da awtunna
ta-d -na ta-d -na

da -aw
masculine
ya-d na
ya-d -
ya-d -
ya-d unna
ya-d un
3rd

feminine

ya-d na ya-d na

ya-d - ya-d na nnni
da awna
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Verbs of this sort are work nearly identically to verbs of the fa (yaf) type. There are the same irregular endings in the same places, and again two stems in each of the past and non-past tenses, with the same stems used in the same places: In the past, the full stem is daaw-, shortened to da-. In the non-past, the full stem is duw-, rendered as d- when not before a vowel and shortened to d- before - -. In the Arabic script, the most important things to note are: In the third person masculine singular past, regular alif appears instead of alif maqrah: hence not * . The otiose final alif appears only after the final ww of the plural, not elsewhere: hence "you (masc. sg.) call (indic.)" but " you (masc. pl.) call (subj.)", even though they are both pronounced tad.
)fay( ayiaf
The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I defective (third-weak) verb nasiya (yans) "to call", parallel to verbs of the faila (yafalu) type. These verbs differ in a number of significant respects from either of the above types. Paradigm of a defective (third-weak) a Arabic verb, nasiya (yans) "to forget" (yans
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Past
Present Subjunctive Jussive Indicative Singular
Long Short Imperative Energetic Energetic
nas-tu
1st
a-ns
a-ns
a-nsa
a-nsay- a-nsayanna an

masculine

ta-ns

ta-nsa ta-nsayta-nsayi-nsa anna an
nas-ta ta-ns

2nd

ta-nsayna

ta-nsa-y

ta-nsa- ta-nsay yinna ta-nsai-nsa-y yin
nas-ti
feminine

nasiy-a ya-ns
masculine

ya-nsa ya-nsay- ya-nsay anna -an
ya-ns
3rd
feminine

ta-ns

ta-ns

ta-nsa ta-nsayta-nsayanna an
nasiyat

nastum

Dual

i-nsay-
2nd
ta-nsayta-nsay ta-nsayta-nsay- ni - nni
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nasiy-
masculine
ya-nsay ya-nsay- yaya-nsay-ni nsay- nni

3rd
feminine
nasiyat
ta-nsayta-nsay ta-nsayta-nsay- ni - nni

Plural

na-nsa na-nsayna-nsay anna -an
nas-n na-ns
1st
na-ns
masculine

ta-nsawna

ta-nsa-w

ta-nsa- ta-nsaw wunna ta-nsai-nsa-w wun
nastum

2nd
feminine

ta-nsay ta-nsay-na nnni
nastunna
ta-nsayta-nsayna na
i-nsayna

nas-
3rd masculine

ya-nsawun
ya-nsaya-nsaya-nsaya-nsa-w wna w wunna
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feminine
yaya-nsay ya-nsaynas-na nsay-na na na
ya-nsaynnni

Multiple stems
This variant is somewhat different from the variants with - or - in the non-past. As with other thirdweak verbs, there are multiple stems in each of the past and non-past, a full stem composed following the normal rules and one or more shortened stems. In this case, only one form in the past uses a shortened stem: nas- "they (masc.) forgot". All other forms are constructed regularly, using the full stem nasiy- or its automatic preconsonant variant nas-. In the non-past, however, there are at least three different stems: 1. The full stem -nsay- occurs before -a/- or -n-, that is before dual endings, feminine plural endings and energetic endings corresponding to forms that are endingless in the jussive. 2. The modified stem -ns occurs in "endingless" forms (i.e. masculine or common-gender singular, plus 1st plural). As usual with third-weak verbs, it is shortened to -nsa in the jussive. These forms are marked with red. 3. Before endings normally beginning with -i/- or -u/-, the stem and endings combine together into a shortened form: e.g. expected *ta-nsay-na "you (fem. sg.) forget", *ta-nsay-na "you (masc. pl.) forget" instead become ta-nsayna, ta-nsawna respectively. The table above chooses to segment them as ta-nsa-yna, ta-nsa-wna, suggesting that a shortened stem -nsa- combines with irregular (compressed) endings -yna < *-na, -wna < *-na. Similarly subjunctive/jussive tansaw < *ta-nsay-; but note energetic ta-nsawunna < *ta-nsay-unna, where the original *-yuhas assimilated to -wu-. Consistent with the above analysis, we analyze this form as ta-nsawunna, with an irregular energetic ending -wunna where a glide consonant has developed after the previous vowel. However, since all moods in this case have a form containing -nsaw-, an alternative analysis would consider -nsaw and -nsay as stems. These forms are marked with gold. Irregular endings The endings are actually mostly regular. But some endings are irregular in the non-past, in boldface: The non-past endings in the "suffixless" parts of the paradigm (largely referring to singular masculine or singular combined-gender). In the indicative and subjunctive, the modified stem -ns appears, and is shortened to -nsa in the jussive. In the forms actually appears normally; what is irregular is the lack of the -u normally marking the indicative. In the jussive, on the other hand, the stem actually assumes a unique shortened form -nsa, with a short vowel (note also the lack of corresponding letter in the Arabic script).
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In the forms that would normally have suffixes -i/- or -u/-, the stem and suffix combine to produce -nsay-, -nsaw-. These are analyzed here as consisting of a shortened stem form -nsa - plus irregular (shortened or assimilated) endings.
Formation of derived stems ("forms")

Arabic verb morphology includes augmentations of the root, also known as forms. For a typical verb based on a triliteral root (i.e. a root formed using three root consonants), the basic form is termed Form I, while the augmented forms are known as Form II, Form III, etc. The forms in normal use are Form I through Form X; Forms XI through XV exist but are rare and obsolescent. Forms IX and XI are used only with adjectival roots referring to colors and physical defects (e.g. "red", "blue", "blind", "deaf", etc.), and are stative verbs having the meaning of "be X" or "become X" (e.g. Form IX imarra "be red, become red, blush", Form XI imrra with the same meaning). Although the structure that a given root assumes in a particular augmentation is predictable, its meaning is not (although many augmentations have one or more "usual" or prototypical meanings associated with them), and not all augmentations exist for any given root. As a result, these augmentations are part of the system of derivational morphology, not part of the inflectional system. The construction of a given augmentation is normally indicated using the dummy root fl (,) based on the verb faala "to do". Note that, because Arabic has no direct equivalent to the infinitive form of Western languages, the third-person masculine singular past tense is normally used as the dictionary form of a given verb, i.e. the form by which a verb is identified in a dictionary or grammatical discussion. Hence, the word faala above actually has the meaning of "he did", but is translated as "to do" when used as a dictionary form. Verbs based on quadriliteral roots (roots with four consonants) also exist. There are four augmentations for such verbs, known as Forms Iq, IIq, IIIq and IVq. These have forms similar to Forms II, V, VII and IX respectively of triliteral verbs. Forms IIIq and IVq are fairly rare. The construction of such verbs is typically given using the dummy verb falala. However, the choice of this particular verb is somewhat non-ideal in that the third and fourth consonants of an actual verb are typically not the same, despite the same consonant used for both; this is a particular problem e.g. for Form IVq. As a result, the verb tables below use the dummy verb falaqa. Some grammars, especially of colloquial spoken varieties rather than of Classical Arabic, use other dummy roots. For example, A Short Reference Grammar of Iraqi Arabic (Wallace M. Erwin) uses FaMaLa and FaSTaLa for three and four-character roots, respectively (standing for "First Middle Last" and "First Second Third Last"). Commonly the dummy consonants are given in capital letters. Note also that the system of identifying verb augmentations by Roman numerals is an invention by Western scholars. Traditionally, Arabic grammarians did not number the augmentations at all, instead identifying them by the corresponding dictionary form. For example, Form V would be called "the tafaala form".
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Verbs Active voice Past (3rd sg. masc.) Present (3rd sg. masc.) Passive voice
Derived nouns Active Passive participle participle Sg. masc. nom. Verbal noun
Imperative Past (3rd Present (3rd (2nd sg. sg. sg. masc.) masc.) masc.)
faala
yafulu
uful
faala
yafilu
ifil
faala I
yafalu
ifal
fuila
yufalu
fil
mafl
fal, ful, fil, ful (ah), fal (ah), fil (ah), etc.
faila
yafalu
ifal
faila
yafilu
ifil
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faula
yafulu
uful
II
faala
yufailu
fail
fuila
yufaalu
mufail
mufaal
tafl
III fala
yufilu
fil
fila
yufalu
mufil
mufal
mufalah, fil
IV afala
yufilu
afil
ufila
yufalu
mufil
mufal
ifl
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tafaala
yatafaalu tafaal
tufuila
yutafaalu
mutafail mutafaal tafaul
VI tafala
yatafalu
tafal
tufila
yutafalu
mutafil
mutafal
taful
VII infaala
yanfailu
infail
(unfuila) (yunfaalu)
munfail
munfaal
infil
VIII iftaala
yaftailu
iftail
uftuila
yuftaalu
muftail
muftaal
iftil
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IX ifalla
yafallu
ifalil
(ufulla)
(yufallu)
mufall
n/a
ifill
istafala
yastafilu
istafil
ustufila
yustafalu
mustafil
mustafal
istifl
XI iflla
yafllu
iflil
n/a
mufll
n/a
ifll
XII ifawala yafawilu
ifawil
??ufulila yufawalu
mufawil mufawal ifl
XIII ifawwala yafawwilu ifawwil
ufuwwila yufawwalu mufawwil mufawwal ifiwwl
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XIV ifanlala
yafanlilu
ifanlil
ufunlila
yufanlalu
mufanlil
mufanlal
ifinll
XV ifanl
yafanl
ifanla
ufunliya yufanl
mufanlin mufanlan ifinl
Iq falaqa
yufaliqu
faliq
fuliqa
yufalaqu
mufaliq
mufalaq
falaqat, occ. falq filq
IIq tafalaqa yatafalaqu tafalaq
tufuliqa
yutafalaqu
mutafaliq mutafalaq tafaluq
IIIq ifanlaqa yafanliqu
ifanliq
tufunliqa yutafanlaqu mufanliq mufanlaq ifinlq
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IVq ifalaqqa yafaliqqu
ifalqiq
tufuliqqa yutafalaqqu mufaliqq mufalaqq ifilqq
Sound verbs Sound verbs are those verbs with no associated irregularities in their constructions. Verbs with irregularities are known as weak verbs; generally, this occurs either with (1) verbs based on roots where one or more of the consonants (or radicals) is w ( ,)y ( )or the glottal stop ( ) (also known by the Arabic names of the corresponding letters, which are ww, y and hamza, respectively); or (2) verbs where the second and third root consonants are the same. Some verbs that would be classified as "weak" according to the consonants of the verb root are nevertheless conjugated as a strong verb. This happens, for example: Largely, to all verbs whose only weakness is a hamza radical; the irregularity is in the Arabic spelling but not the pronunciation, except in a few minor cases. Largely, to all verbs whose only weakness is a y in the first radical (the "assimilated" type). To all verbs conjugated in Forms II, III, V, VI whose only weakness is a w or y in the first or second radicals (or both). Form VIII assimilations Form VIII has a t that is infixed into the root, directly after the first root consonant. This t assimilates to certain coronal consonants occurring as the first root consonant. In particular, with roots whose first consonant is d z , the combination of root and infix t appears as dd zd . That is, the t assimilates the emphasis of the emphatic consonants and the voicing of d z, and assimilates entirely to the interdental consonants . Note also the unexpected combination , as in iarra "compel, force"; this reflects the fact that was formerly pronounced voiced, and was pronounced as the emphatic equivalent not of d but of an unusual lateral sound. ( was possibly an emphatic voiced alveolar lateral fricative // or a similar affricated sound /d/ or /d/; see the article on the letter d.) Defective (third-weak) verbs Other than for Form I active, there is only one possible form for each verb, regardless of whether the third root consonant is w or y. All of the derived third-weak verbs have the same active-voice endings as fa (yaf) verbs except for Forms V and VI, which have past-tense endings like fa (yaf) verbs but non-past endings like faiya (yaf) verbs. The passive-voice endings of all third-weak verbs (whether Form I or derived) are the same as for the faiya (yaf) verbs. Note also the various irregularities in the verbal nouns: feminine in Form II, -in declension in Form V and VI, glottal stop in place of root w/y in Forms VIIX.
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The active and passive participles of derived defective verbs consistently are of the -in and -an declensions, respectively. Defective Form IX verbs are extremely rare. Heywood and Nahmad list one such verb, imya "be/become blind", which does not follow the expected form *imayya.[6] They also list a similarly rare Form XI verb imyya "be/become blind" this time with the expected form. Verbs Active voice Past (3rd sg. masc.) fa Present (3rd sg. masc.) yaf Passive voice Imperative Past (2nd sg. (3rd sg. masc.) masc.) ifi Present (3rd sg. masc.) Derived nouns Active Passive participle participle Sg. masc. nom. fay, faw, faan, fian, fa, fiyah, fiyah, fawah, mafh, mafiyah, fuyah, fuwah, fuuww, fuwn etc. mufiyah, fi Verbal noun
mafiyy
fa
yaf
ufu
fuiya
yuf
fin
mafuww
faiya II fa
yaf yufa yuf yuf yatafa yataf
ifa fai fi afi tafaa tafa fuiya fiya ufiya yufa yuf yuf mufain mufin mufin
mafiyy mufaan mufan mufan
tafiyah
III f IV af V tafa
VIII ifta IX X
VII infa
VI taf
tufuiya yutafa mutafain mutafaan tafain tufiya yutaf mutafin mutafan tafin (yunfa) munfain munfaan infi muftain mufy muftaan ifti ifiy (unfu)
if
yanfa yafta
infai iftai
ifya yafyu ifay? (ifayaytu?) (yafayna?) istaf yastaf istafi
uftuiya yufta
ustufiya yustaf mustafin mustafan istif
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Hollow (second-weak) verbs Only the forms with irregularities are shown. The missing forms are entirely regular, with w or y appearing as the second radical, depending on the root. Note also the unexpected feminine forms of the verbal nouns of Form IV, X. Verbs Active voice Past (3rd sg. masc.) fla (filtu) Present (3rd sg. masc.) yaflu yaflu yaflu yaflu Passive voice Present (3rd sg. masc.) Derived nouns Active Passive Verbal noun participle participle Sg. masc. nom. mafl mafl mafl mafl ufla yuflu n/a uftla yuftlu mufl munfl muftl mufl munfl muftl mustafl
Imperative Past (2nd sg. (3rd sg. masc.) masc.) fil ful fal fal afil infal iftal
fla (fultu) fla (filtu)
fuwila
yuflu
fil
IV VII VIII X
afla yuflu (afaltu)
fla (fultu)
usually fawl, fayl; also fl, fawl, fiyl (ah), fiwl, fuwl, mafl (ah), mafl etc. iflah infiyl iftiyl istiflah
infla yanflu (infaltu) iftla (iftaltu) yaftlu
istafla yastaflu istafil
ustufla yustaflu mustafl
Assimilated (first-weak) verbs When the first radical is w, it drops out in the Form I non-past. Most of the derived forms are regular, except that the sequences uw iw are assimilated to , and the sequence wt in Form VIII is assimilated to tt throughout the paradigm. The following table only shows forms with irregularities in them. Note in particular the common Form I verbal noun ilah (e.g. ilah "arrival, link" from waalah "arrive"), with the initial w missing entirely.
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Verbs Active voice Past (3rd sg. masc.) waala waala I waala waila waila Present (3rd sg. masc.) yaulu yailu yaalu Passive voice Present (3rd sg. masc.)
Derived nouns Active Passive Verbal participle participle noun Sg. masc. nom.
Imperative Past (2nd sg. (3rd sg. masc.) masc.) il ul al
yaalu yailu yilu
VIII ittaala X
IV awala
waula
yaulu yattailu
il
al
wuila
yalu
wil-
mawd-
wal, wul, ilah etc.
awil
ul
ittaal
ila
uttuila
yalu
yuttaalu
mil-
muttail-
mal-
istawala yastawilu istawil
ustila yustawalu
mustawil mustawal istl-
muttaal-
l-
ittil-
When the first radical is y, the forms are largely regular. The following table only shows forms that have some irregularities in them, indicated in boldface. Verbs Active voice Past (3rd sg. masc.) yaala waala yaala Present (3rd sg. masc.) yayulu yayalu yayilu Passive voice Present (3rd sg. masc.) Derived nouns Active Passive Verbal participle participle noun Sg. masc. nom.
Imperative Past (2nd sg. (3rd sg. masc.) masc.) ul al il
VIII ittaala itta X
IV ayala
waula
waila
waila
yayilu yilu
yayalu
yayulu yatta yattailu
ul
il
al
yuila
yalu
yil-
mayd-
yaletc.
ayil
itta ittaal
ila
uttu uttuila
yalu
yutta yuttaalu
milil-
muttailmuttail-
malal-
muttaalmuttaal-
l-
istayala yastayilu
istayil
ust ustila yustayalu mustayil-
mustayal ist istl-
itti ittil-
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Doubled verbs Verbs Active voice Past (3rd sg. masc.) Present (3rd sg. masc.) Imperative (2nd sg. masc.) fulla, fulli, uflul filla, filli, iflil falla, falli, iflal fulla yufallu fllmafllfall- etc. Passive voice Past (3rd sg. masc.) Present (3rd sg. masc.) Derived nouns Active Passive participle participle Sg. masc. nom. Verbal noun
falla yafullu (falaltu) falla yafillu (falaltu)
falla yafallu (falaltu) falla (faliltu) yafallu yufllu yufillu yatafllu yanfalla yaftalla
III flla IV afalla VI taflla VII infalla VIII iftalla
flla, flli, flil
falla, falli, iflal flla yufllu yufallu yutafllu n/a yuftallu mufllmufillmutafllmunfallmuftallmufllmufallmutafllmunfallmuftall-
taflil
afilla, afilli, ufilla aflil infalla, infalli, infalil
mufllat -, filliflltafllinfilliftill-
tuflla
iftalla, iftalli, uftulla iftalil istafilla, istafilli, istaflil
istafalla yastafillu
ustufilla yustafallu mustafill- mustafall- istifll-
Hamzated verbs The largest problem with so-called "hamzated" verbs (those with a glottal stop or "hamza" as any of the root consonants) is the complicated way of writing such verbs in the Arabic script (see the article on hamza for the rules regarding this). In pronunciation, these verbs are in fact almost entirely regular. The only irregularity occurs in verbs with a hamza as the first radical. A phonetic rule in Classical Arabic disallows the occurrence of two hamzas in a row separated by a short vowel, assimilating the second to the preceding vowel (hence a i u become ). This affects the following forms: The first-person singular of the non-past of Forms I, IV and VIII. The entire past and imperative of Form IV.
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In addition, any place where a hamzatu l-wal (elidable hamza) occurs will optionally undergo this transformation. This affects the following forms: The entire imperative of Form I. The entire past and imperative of Form VIII, as well as the verbal noun of Form VIII. Note also the following irregularities: The common verbs akala "eat", axada "take", amara "command" have irregular, short imperatives kul, xud, mur. Form VIII of the common verb axada "take" is ittaxada "take on, assume", with irregular assimilation of the hamza. The common verb saala yasalu "ask" has an alternative non-past yasalu with missing hamza. Verbs Active voice Past (3rd sg. masc.) I etc. IV ala VIII itaala, taala yuilu (ilu) il itail, tail il utuila, tuila yualu (alu) muilmutailmualmutaallitil-, tilaala Present (3rd sg. masc.) yaulu (ulu) Imperative (2nd sg. masc.) uul, ul Passive voice Past (3rd sg. masc.) uila Present (3rd sg. masc.) yualu (alu) il Derived nouns Active Passive Verbal participle participle noun Sg. masc. nom. malal- etc.
yatailu (tailu)
yutaala (taala)
Doubly-weak verbs Doubly-weak verbs have two "weak" radicals; a few verbs are also triply-weak. Generally, the above rules for weak verbs apply in combination, as long as they don't conflict. The following are cases where two types of weaknesses apply in combination: Verbs with a w in the first radical and a w or y in the third radical. These decline as defective (third-weak) verbs, and also undergo the loss of w in the non-past of Form I, e.g. waq yaq "guard", waf yaf "complete, fulfill (a promise)", waliya yal "be near, follow". Note that these verbs have extremely short imperatives qi fi li (feminine q f l, masculine plural q f l, feminine plural iqna ifna ilna), although these are not normally used in Modern Standard Arabic. Similarly, verbs of this sort in Form IV and Form VIII are declined as defective but also have the normal assimilations of w-initial verbs, e.g. Form IV awf yf "fulfill a vow", Form VIII ittaf yattaf "fear (God)", both augmentations of waf yaf (see above). Verbs with a hamza in the first radical and a w or y in the third radical. These decline as defective (third-weak) verbs, and also undergo the assimilations associated with the initial
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hamza, e.g. the common verb at yat "come" (first singular non-past t "I come") and the related Form IV verb t yut "bring" (first singular non-past t "I being"). The following are examples where weaknesses would conflict, and hence one of the "weak" radicals is treated as strong: Verbs with a w or y in both the second and third radicals. These are fairly common, e.g. raw yarw "recount, transmit". These decline as regular defective (third-weak) verbs; the second radical is treated as non-weak. Verbs with a w in the first radical and the second and third radicals the same. These verbs do not undergo any assimilations associated with the first radical, e.g. wadda (wadidtu) yawaddu "to love". Verbs with a hamza in the first radical and the second and third radicals the same. These verbs do not undergo any assimilations associated with the first radical, e.g. ajja yaujju "burn", first singular non-past aujju "I burn" despite the two hamzas in a row. The following are cases with special irregularities: Verbs with a w or y in the second radical and a hamza in the third radical. These are fairly common, e.g. the extremely common verb ja yaju "come". The only irregularity is the Form I active participle, e.g. jin "coming", which is irregularly declined as a defective (third -weak) participle (presumably to avoid a sequence of two hamzas in a row, as the expected form would be *ji). The extremely common verb ra yar "see". The hamza drops out entirely in the non-past. Similarly in the passive, ruiya yur "be seen". The active participle is regular rin and the passive participle is regular mariyy-. The related Form IV verb ar yr "show" is missing the hamza throughout. Other augmentations are regular: Form III r yur "dissemble", Form VI tar yatar "look at one another", Form VIII irta yarta "think". The common verb ayiya yay "live", with an alternative past tense ayya. Form IV ay yuy "resuscitate, revive" is regular. Form X istay yastay "spare alive, feel ashamed" also appears as istaayya and ista. Summary of vowels The vowels for the various forms are summarized in this table:
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Active voice Past (3rd sg. masc.) a in Forms IV-VI. In Before first Forms VIIroot XII one consonant (if has i when vowel is the hamza present) is not elided. Just before a, , or 2nd root none consonant Just before third root a consonant After final root consonant, 3rd person sing. indicative Present (3rd sg. masc.)
Passive voice Past (3rd sg. masc.) Present (3rd sg. masc.)
Active participle
Passive participle
Verbal noun
a except in Forms IIu IV, where it's u.
u, and a after the t u of Forms V and VI
a in Forms II, V, and VI. In u except in Forms VII-XII Form I one has i where it's when the a. hamza is not elided. a, , or none a except in Form I where it's . i, a, , or none
a, , or none
u, , or a, , or none none
a, , or none i except in Form IX where it's a.
Form I a, i, or u. a in Forms V, i VI, and IX, i in others.
in Form II, u in Forms V and VI, elsewhere
n/a
n/a
n/a
See also Wiktionary's appendix on Arabic verb forms.
Participle
Every verb has a corresponding active participle, and most have passive participles. E.g. muallim 'teacher' is the active participle to stem II. of the root -l-m ('know'). The active participle to Stem I is fil, and the passive participle is mafl. Stems II-X take prefix mu- and nominal endings for both the participles, active and passive. The difference between the two participles is only in the vowel between the last two root letters, which is -i- for active and -a- for passive (e.g. II. active mu-fail, and passive mufaal').
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Verbal noun (ma dar)

In addition to a participle, there is a verbal noun (in Arabic, madar, literally meaning "source") sometimes called a gerund, which is similar to English gerunds and verb-derived nouns of various sorts (e.g. 'running' and 'a run' from 'to run'; 'objection' from 'to object'). As shown by the English examples, its meaning refers both to the act of doing something and (by frequent semantic extension) to its result. One of its syntactic functions is as a verbal complement of another verb, and this usage it corresponds to the English gerund or infinitive (He prevented me from running or He began to run). verbal noun formation to stem I is irregular. the verbal noun to stem II is tafl. For example: tar 'preparation' is the verbal noun to stem II. of --r ('to be present'). stem III often forms its verbal noun with the feminine form of the passive participle, so for sada, "he helped", produces the verbal noun musadah. There are also some verbal noun of the form fil: hada, "he strove", yields ihd (a struggle for a cause or purpose). Some well-known examples of verbal nouns are fat (see Fatah) (Form I), tan m (Form II), jihd (Form III), islm (Form IV), intif ah (feminine of Form VIII verbal noun), and istiqll (Form X).
Verb (Colloquial Arabic)

The Classical Arabic system of verbs is largely unchanged in the colloquial spoken varieties of Arabic. The same derivational system of augmentations exists, including triliteral Forms I through X and quadriliteral Forms I and II, constructed largely in the same fashion (the rare triliteral Forms XI through XV and quadriliteral Forms III and IV have vanished). The same system of weaknesses (strong, defective/third-weak, hollow/second-weak, assimilated/first-weak, doubled) also exists, again constructed largely in the same fashion. Within a given verb, two stems (past and non-past) still exist along with the same two systems of affixes (suffixing past-tense forms and prefixing/suffixing non-past forms). The largest changes are within a given paradigm, with a significant reduction in the number of forms. The following is an example of a regular verb paradigm in Egyptian Arabic. Example of a regular Form I verb in Egyptian Arabic, ktab/yktib "write"
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Tense/Mood 1st 2nd 3rd

masculine feminine masculine feminine
Past katb-t katb-t katb-ti ktab ktab-it
Present Subjunctive -ktib t-ktib ti-ktb-i y-ktib t-ktib
Present Indicative b-ktib bi-t-ktib bi-ti-ktb-i bi-y-ktib bi-t-ktib
Future -ktib a-t-ktib a-ti-ktb-i a-y-ktib a-t-ktib -n-ktib a-ti-ktb-u a-yi-ktb-u
Imperative
Singular -ktib i-ktb-i
Plural 1st 2nd 3rd katb-na n-ktib katb-tu ktab-u ti-ktb-u yi-ktb-u bi-n-ktib bi-ti-ktb-u bi-yi-ktb-u i-ktb-u
This paradigm shows clearly the reduction in the number of forms: The thirteen person/number/gender combinations of Classical Arabic have been reduced to eight, through the loss of dual and feminine-plural forms. (Some varieties still have feminineplural forms, generally marked with the suffix -an, leading to a total of ten forms. This occurs, for example, in Iraqi Arabic and in many of the varieties of the Arabian peninsula.) The system of suffix-marked mood distinctions has been lost, other than the imperative. Egyptian Arabic and many other "urban" varieties (e.g. Moroccan Arabic, Levantine Arabic) have non-past endings -i -u inherited from the original subjunctive forms, but some varieties (e.g. Iraqi Arabic) have -n -n endings inherited from the original indicative. Most varieties have also gained new moods, and a new future tense, marked through the use of prefixes (most often with an unmarked subjunctive vs. an indicative marked with a prefix, e.g. Egyptian bi-, Levantine b-, Moroccan ta-/ka-). Various particles are used for the future (e.g. Egyptian a-, Levantine ra -, Moroccan a(di)-), derived from reduced forms of various verbs. The internal passive is lost almost everywhere. Instead, the original reflexive/mediopassive augmentations (e.g. Forms V, VI, VII) serve as both reflexive and passive. The passive of Forms II and III is generally constructed with a reflex of Forms V and VI, using a prefix itderived from the Classical prefix ta-. The passive of Form I uses either a prefix in- (from Form VII) or it- (modeled after Forms V and VI). The other forms often have no passive. In addition, Form IV is lost entirely in most varieties, except for a few "classicizing" verbs (i.e. verbs borrowed from Modern Standard Arabic). See varieties of Arabic for more information on grammar differences in the spoken varieties.
Syntax
Genitive construction ( i fah)
A noun may be defined more closely by a subsequent noun in the genitive ( ifah, literally "an addition"). The relation is hierarchical; the first term ( al-muf) governs the second term ( al-muf ilayhi). E. g. baytu raul(in) 'the house of a man', 'a man's house'. The
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construction as a whole represents a nominal phrase, the state of which is inherited from the state of the second term. The first term must "be in construct state", namely, it cannot carry the definite article nor the tanween. Genitive constructions of multiple terms are possible. In this case, all but the final term take construct state, and all but the first member take the genitive case. This construction is typical for a Semitic language. In many cases the two members become a fixed coined phrase, the ifah being used as the equivalent of nominal composition in some Indo-European languages (which does not exist in Arabic). baytu--alabati thus may mean either 'house of the (certain, known) students' or 'the student hostel'. Note: ( t marbah) of the first term must always have a pronounced -t (after /a/). This applies to spoken Arabic as well.
Word order
Classical Arabic tends to prefer the word order VSO (verb before subject) rather than SVO (subject before verb). However, the word order is fairly flexible, since words are tagged by case endings. Subject pronouns are normally omitted except for emphasis or when using a participle as a verb (participles are not marked for person). Auxiliary verbs precede main verbs, and prepositions precede their objects. Adjectives follow the noun they are modifying, and agree with the noun in case, gender, number, and state: For example, "bint(un) amla(tun)" "a beautiful girl" but " al-bintu l-amla (tu)" "the beautiful girl". (Compare " al-bint(u) amla(tun)" "the girl is beautiful".) Elative adjectives, however, precede their modifying noun, do not agree with it, and require that the noun be in the genitive case (see below). Note that case endings are dropped in pausa forms, in colloquial Arabic and in less formal MSA ("Formal Spoken Arabic"), hence SVO is more common in spoken Arabic.
inna
The subject of a sentence can be topicalized and emphasized by moving it to the beginning of the sentence and preceding it with the word inna ~"indeed". Examples are " innaka anta amlun" "You are beautiful indeed" or " inna s-sama zarqu" "The sky is blue indeed". (In older texts, "inna" was translated "verily".) "inna", along with its "sister" terms " anna" ("that", as in "I think that ..."), "inna" ("that" after / qla/yaqlu "say"), (" wa-)lkin(na)" "but" and " kaanna" "as if" require that they be immediately followed by a noun in the accusative case, or an attached pronominal suffix.
Other
Object pronouns are clitics and are attached to the verb, e.g. ar-h "I see her". Possessive pronouns are likewise attached to the noun they modify, e.g. "kitbu-hu" "his book". The definite article "al-" is a clitic, as are the prepositions "li-" "to" and "bi-" "in/with" and the conjunctions "ka-" "as" and "fa-" "thus, so".
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See also
Arabic language Irab () Literary Arabic Varieties of Arabic Arabic alphabet Quranic Arabic Corpus Romanization of Arabic WikiBook: Learn Arabic
References
1. ^ Goodchild, Philip. Difference in Philosophy of Religion, 2003. Page 153. 2. ^ Sayce, Archibald Henry. Introduction to the Science of Language, 1880. Page 28. 3. ^ Alaa Elgibali and El-Said M. Badawi. Understanding Arabic: Essays in Contemporary Arabic Linguistics in Honor of El-Said M. Badawi, 1996. Page 105. 4. ^ Wright, William. A Grammar of the Arabic language. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 147. ISBN 1843560283. 5. ^ Note: When a verb in Arabic ends with a vowel, the vowel is replaced with the corresponding short vocal when converted into imparitive. is contracted from using the same process that produces hollow verbs. A 6. ^ Possibly, dictionary of modern written Arabic (Hans Wehr, J. Milton Cowan) also lists a supposed Form IX defective verb "desist (from sin), repent, see the light"; however, this has both an unexpected form and meaning, so it is unclear whether the classification as Form IX is accurate.
External links
Arabic Grammar through the Quran (http://quran.uk.net/documentation) Arabic Natural Language Processing (http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm? doid=1644879.1644881) special issue learn arabic grammar (http://www.arabic-keyboard.org/arabic) Arabic Grammars book (http://www.al3arabiya.info/search/label/Arabic%20Grammar?&maxresults=10)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_grammar" Categories: Arabic language | Grammars of specific languages This page was last modified on 2 September 2011 at 15:44. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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Arabic Grammar

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Arabic Grammar

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Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Visualization of Arabic grammar from the Quranic Arabic Corpus

Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

10 See also 11 References 12 External links

Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Noun and Adjective

Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(4) Defective in (usu. masc.)

-un -an -in -ni

-atun -atan -atin -at-ni

-at-u -at-a -at-i -at-

-tun -tan -tin -t-ni

-t-u -t-a -t-i -t-

-in iyan, -iya -in -iy-

same as (1a) regular triptote

-iy-ayni (7) Sound Masculine -na

(7) Sound Masculine -na - -tun

(8) Sound Feminine -aytun, -awtun -aytin, -awtin -ay-tu, -aw-tu

same as (1a) regular triptote

Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(1a) triptote hand

(2) "long construct" triptote

(1a) triptote day

(1b) triptote night in -ah

l-y-l laylin layil bir bur

(1a) triptote sea

b- -r abr abur arin

(1a) triptote land

Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(1a) broken plural triptote (1b) broken plural triptote in ah

muallim ayh ayawn qin qaiyyah

Form II active participle

(5) mustafan defective in hospital -an

(1a) triptote book

(1b) triptote library maktabah in -ah

(6) world (lit. invariable - "lowest feminine (place)")

nominalized feminine elative adjective

Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

desert (lit. "desertlike (place)" < feminine "desertsandcolored")

arin nominalized feminine color/defect adjective ar arwt

(1b) triptote tree in -ah

noun of unity -j-r

servant (of God), human being

Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

tilivizyn film sigrah

(1a) triptote television

borrowed noun borrowed noun borrowed noun

(1a) triptote film (1b) triptote cigarette in -ah

(or f- aflm l-m) (or s- sagir g-r)

Arabic grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Type,Notes Root Meaning

bigger, k-b-r biggest

(3) diptote kubr

d-nnear, low daniyy w

(1b) daniyyah triptote in - adniy ah adnin

nearer, d-n- nearest; elative, third-weak w lower, lowest

(6) invariable - duny

(3) diptote amr

(3) diptote umr

faln -- thirsty (intensive)

i an (3) diptote a (6) invariable