Arabic grammar

Arabic grammar or Arabic language sciences (Arabic: ‫النحو العربي‬‎an-naḥw al-‘arabī or Arabic: ‫ُع ُلوم‬
‫اللَغ ة الَع َر ِبَّي ة‬‎ulūm al-lughah al-‘arabīyah) 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.

Visualization of Arabic grammar from the Quranic Arabic Corpus

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 classical/standard and the colloquial Arabic are the loss of
morphological markings of grammatical case; changes in word order, an overall shift towards a
more analytic morphosyntax, 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; restriction in the use of the dual number and (for most varieties) the loss of the
feminine plural. Many Arabic dialects, Maghrebi Arabic in particular also have significant vowel
shifts and unusual consonant clusters. Unlike other dialects, in Maghrebi Arabic first person
singular verbs begin with a n- (‫)ن‬.

History

The identity of the oldest Arabic grammarian is disputed; some sources state that it was Abu al-
Aswad al-Du'ali, who established diacritical marks and vowels for Arabic in the mid-600s,[1]
Others have said that the earliest grammarian would have been Ibn Abi Ishaq (died AD 735/6, AH
117).[2]

The schools of Basra and Kufa further developed grammatical rules in the late 8th century with
the rapid rise of Islam.[3][4] From the school of Basra, generally regarded as being founded by
Abu Amr ibn al-Ala,[5] two representatives laid important foundations for the field: Al-Khalil ibn
Ahmad al-Farahidi authored the first Arabic dictionary and book of Arabic prosody, and his
student Sibawayh authored the first book on theories of Arabic grammar.[1] From the school of
Kufa, Al-Ru'asi is universally acknowledged as the founder, though his own writings are
considered lost,[6][7] with most of the school's development undertaken by later authors. The
efforts of al-Farahidi and Sibawayh consolidated Basra's reputation as the analytic school of
grammar, while the Kufan school was regarded as the guardian of Arabic poetry and Arab
culture.[2] The differences were polarizing in some cases, with early Muslim scholar Muhammad
ibn `Isa at-Tirmidhi favoring the Kufan school due to its concern with poetry as a primary
source.[8]

Early Arabic grammars were more or less lists of rules, without the detailed explanations which
would be added in later centuries. The earliest schools were different not only in some of their
views on grammatical disputes, but also their emphasis. The school of Kufa excelled in Arabic
poetry and exegesis of the Qur'an, in addition to Islamic law and Arab genealogy. The more
rationalist school of Basra, on the other hand, focused more on the formal study of grammar.[9]

Division

For classical Arabic grammarians, the grammatical sciences are divided into five branches:

al-lughah ‫( َا لُّلَغ ة‬language/lexicon) concerned with collecting and explaining vocabulary.

at-taṣrīf ‫( َا لَّت ْص ِر يف‬morphology) determining the form of the individual words.

an-naḥw ‫( َا لَّن ْح و‬syntax) primarily concerned with inflection (i‘rāb).

al-ishtiqāq ‫( َا الْش ِت َق اق‬derivation) examining the origin of the words.

al-balāghah ‫( َاْلَب اَل َغ ة‬rhetoric) which elucidates stylistic quality, or eloquence.

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 (‫‘ َع اِّم َّي ة َا ُأْلِّم ِّي ين‬āmmīyat al-ummiyyīn), Semi-literate Spoken Arabic (‫َع اِّم َّي ة َاْلُم َت َنِّو ِرين‬
‘āmmīyat al-mutanawwirīn), Educated Spoken Arabic (‫‘ َع اِّم َّي ة َاْلُم َث َّق ِف ين‬āmmīyat al-muthaqqafīn),
Modern Standard Arabic (‫ ُف ْص َح ى َاْلَع ْص ر‬fuṣḥá l-‘aṣr), and Classical Arabic (‫ ُف ْص َح ى َا لُّت َر اث‬fuṣḥá t-
turāth).[10]

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 the written language, although they may be indicated with diacritics.

Word stress varies from one Arabic dialect to another. A rough rule for word-stress in Classical
Arabic is that it falls on the penultimate syllable of a word if that syllable is closed, and
otherwise on the antepenultimate.[11]
Hamzat al-waṣl (‫)َه ْم َز ة َاْلَو ْص ل‬, 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 vowel, if a word is preceding it. This word will
then produce an ending vowel, "helping vowel" to facilitate pronunciation. This short vowel may
be, depending on the preceding vowel, a fatḥah (‫َف ْت َح ة‬‎: ‫) َـ‬, pronounced as /a/; a kasrah (‫َكْس َر ة‬‎: ‫) ِـ‬,
pronounced as /i/; or a ḍammah (‫َض َّم ة‬‎: ‫) ُـ‬, pronounced as /u/. If the preceding word ends in a
sukūn (‫)ُس ُكون‬, meaning that it is not followed by a short vowel, the hamzat al-waṣl assumes a
kasrah /i/. The symbol ‫َش َّد ة( ّـ‬‎shaddah) indicates gemination or consonant doubling. See more in
Tashkīl.

Nouns and adjectives

In Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), nouns and adjectives (‫ِا ْس ٌم‏‬‎ism) are
declined, according to case (i‘rāb), state (definiteness), gender and number. In colloquial or
spoken Arabic, there are a number of simplifications such as the loss of certain final vowels and
the loss of case. A number of derivational processes exist for forming new nouns and
adjectives. Adverbs can be formed from adjectives.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

In Arabic, personal pronouns have 12 forms. In singular and plural, the 2nd and 3rd persons have
separate masculine and feminine forms, 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 the order 3rd, 2nd, 1st.
 Person Singular Dual Plural

‫َأ َن ا‏‬‎
‫َن ْح ُن‏‬‎

1st
anā naḥnu

‫َأ ْن َت‏‬‎
‫َأ ْن ُت ْم‏‬‎

masculine
anta ‫َأ ْن ُت َم ا‏‬‎
antum
2nd
‫َأ ْن ِت ‏‬‎
antumā ‫َأ ْن ُت َّن‏‬‎

feminine
anti antunna

‫ُه َو‏‬‎
‫ُه ْم‏‬‎

masculine
huwa ‫ُه َم ا‏‬‎
hum
3rd
‫ِه َي‏‬‎
humā ‫ُه َّن‏‬‎

feminine
hiya hunna

Informal Arabic tends to avoid the dual forms antumā ‫ َأ ْن ُت َم ا‬and humā ‫ُه َم ا‬. The feminine plural
forms antunna ‫ َأ ْن ُت َّن‬and hunna ‫ ُه َّن‬are likewise avoided, except by speakers of conservative
colloquial varieties that still possess separate feminine plural pronouns.

Enclitic pronouns

Enclitic forms of personal pronouns (‫ َا لَّض َم اِئ ر اْلُم َّت ِص َلة‬aḍ-ḍamā’ir al-muttaṣilah) are affixed to various
parts of speech, with varying meanings:

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 ‫ َأ َّن‬anna "that ...", ‫ َأِلَّن‬li-anna "because ...", )) ‫( َو )ٰل ِك َّن‬wa)lākinna
"but ...", ‫ ِإ َّن‬inna (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
akhawāt inna ‫( َأ َخ َو ات ِإ َّن‬lit. "sisters of inna".)

If the personal pronoun -ī is added to a word ending in a vowel (e.g. ‫ َر َأ ْي َت‬raʼayta "you saw"), an
extra -n- is added between the word and the enclitic form to avoid a hiatus between the two
vowels (‫ َر َأ ْي َت ِن ي‬raʼayta-nī "you saw me").

Most of them are clearly related to the full personal pronouns.

 Person Singular Dual Plural

‫ ـَي‏‬,‫ ِـي‬,‫ـِن ي‬‎

‫ـَن ا‏‬‎

1st
-nī/-ī/-ya -nā

‫ـَك‏‬‎
‫ـُكْم‏‬‎

masculine
-ka ‫ـُكَم ا‏‬‎
-kum
2nd
‫ـِك ‏‬‎
-kumā ‫ـُكَّن‏‬‎

feminine
-ki -kunna

‫ ـِه‏‬, ‫ـُه‬‎
‫ ـِه ْم‏‬, ‫ـُه ْم‬‎

masculine
-hu/-hi ‫ ـِه َم ا‏‬,‫ـُه َم ا‬‎
-hum/-him
3rd
-humā/-himā ‫ ـِه َّن‏‬, ‫ـُه َّن‬‎

feminine -hā ‫ـَه ا‏‬‎

-hunna/-hinna

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 u or a (-
a, -ā, -u, -ū, -aw), while -hi occurs after i or y (-i, -ī, -ay). The same alternation occurs in the third
person dual and plural.

In the first person singular, however, the situation is more complicated. Specifically, -nī "me" is
attached to verbs, but -ī/-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 -ī 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, -ū of the masculine sound plural is assimilated to -ī before -
ya (presumably, -aw of masculine defective -an plurals is similarly assimilated to -ay). Examples:

From ‫ِك َت اب‏‬‎kitāb "book", pl. ‫ ُكُت ب‬kutub:‫ كتابي‬kitāb-ī "my book" (all cases), ‫ كتبي‬kutub-ī "my books"
(all cases), ‫ كتاباي‬kitābā-ya "my two books (nom.)", ‫ كتابي‬kitābay-ya "my two books (acc./gen.)"

From ‫َكِلَم ة‏‬‎kalimah "word", pl. ‫ َكِلَم ات‬kalimāt: ‫ َكِلَم ِت ي‬kalimat-ī "my word" (all cases), ‫ َكِلَم اِت ي‬kalimāt-ī
"my words" (all cases)

From ‫ُد ْن َي ا‏‬‎dunyā "world", pl. ‫ ُد ْن َي َي ات‬dunyayāt: ‫ ُد ْن َي اَي‬dunyā-ya "my world" (all cases), ‫ُد ْن َي َي اِت ي‬
dunyayāt-ī "my worlds" (all cases)

From ‫َق اٍض ‏‬‎qāḍin "judge", pl. ‫ ُق َض اة‬quḍāh: ‫ َق اِض َّي‬qāḍiy-ya "my judge" (all cases), ‫ ُق َض اِت ي‬quḍāt-ī "my
judges" (all cases)
 From ‫ُم َع ِّلم‏‬‎mu‘allim "teacher", pl. ‫ ُم َع ِّلُم ون‬mu‘allimūn: ‫ ُم َع ِّلِم ي‬mu‘allim-ī "my teacher" (all cases),
‫ِّل‬
‫ ُم َع ِم َّي‬mu‘allimī-ya "my teachers" (all cases, see above)
From ‫َأ ب‏‬‎ab "father": ‫ َأ ُبوَي‬abū-ya "my father" (nom.), ‫ َأ َباَي‬abā-ya "my father" (acc.), ‫ َأ ِب َّي‬abī-ya "my
father" (gen.)

Prepositions use -ī/-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. ‫ ِإ َّن ِن ي‬inna-nī or ‫ ِإ ِن ي‬inn-ī), but the longer form (e.g. ‫ِإ َّن ِن ي‬
inna-nī) is usually preferred.

The second-person masculine plural past tense verb ending -tum changes to the variant form -
tumū before enclitic pronouns, e.g. ‫ َكَت ْب ُت ُم وُه‬katab-tumū-hu "you (masc. pl.) wrote it (masc.)".

Pronouns 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 to them:

Meaning Independent form With "... me" With "... you" (masc. sg.) With "... him"

‫
ِل ـ‬ ‫
ِل ي‬ ‫
َلَك‬ ‫
َلُه‬
"to", indirect object
li- lī laka lahu

‫
ِب ـ‬ ‫
ِب ي‬ ‫
ِب َك‬ ‫
ِب ِه‬
"in", "with", "by"
bi- bī bika bihi

‫
ِف ي‬ ‫
ِف َّي‬ ‫
ِف يَك‬ ‫
ِف يِه‬
"in"
fī fīya fīka fīhi

‫
ِإ َلى‬ ‫َل‬
‫
ِإ َّي‬ ‫
ِإ َلْي َك‬ ‫
ِإ َلْي ِه‬
"to"
ilá ilayya ilayka ilayhi

‫
َع َلى‬ ‫َل‬
‫
َع َّي‬ ‫
َع َلْي َك‬ ‫
َع َلْي ِه‬
"on"
‘alá ‘alayya ‘alayka ‘alayhi

‫
َم َع‬ ‫
َم ِع ي‬ ‫
َم َع َك‬ ‫
َم َع ُه‬
"with"
ma‘a ma‘ī ma‘aka ma‘ahu

‫
ِم ْن‬ ‫
ِم ِّن ي‬ ‫
ِم ْنَك‬ ‫
ِم ْن ُه‬
"from"
min minnī minka minhu

‫
َع ْن‬ ‫
َع ِّن ي‬ ‫
َع ْنَك‬ ‫
َع ْن ُه‬
"on", "about"
‘an ‘annī ‘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 -ī is
vowel-initial. This becomes clearer in the spoken varieties, where various vowel-initial enclitic
pronouns exist.)

Note in particular:

‫ ِإ َلى‬ilá "to" and ‫‘ َع َلى‬alá "on" have irregular combining forms ‫ ِإ َلْي ـ‬ilay-, ‫‘ َع َلْي ـ‬alay-; but other
pronouns with the same base form are regular, e.g. ‫ َم َع‬ma‘a "with".

‫ ِل ـ‬li- "to" has an irregular combining form la-, but ‫ ِب ـ‬bi- "in, with, by" is regular.

‫ ِم ْن‬min "from" and ‫‘ َع ْن‬an "on" double the final n before -ī.
Less formal pronominal forms

In a less formal Arabic, as in many spoken dialects, the endings -ka, -ki, and -hu and many others
have their final short vowel dropped, for example, ‫ ِك تاُبَك‬kitābuka would become ‫ ِك تاُبك‬kitābuk for
ease of pronunciation. This doesn't make a difference to the spelling as the diacritics used to
represent short vowels are not usually written.

Demonstratives

There are two demonstratives (‫ َأ ْس َم اء َا ِإْل َش اَر ة‬asmā’ al-ishārah), near-deictic ('this') and far-deictic
('that'):

"This, these"
Gender Singular Dual Plural

‫
ٰه َذ اِن‬
nominative
‫ٰه َذ ‏ا‬‎
hādhāni
Masculine
‫
ٰه َذ ْي ِن‬
hādhā
accusative/genitive
hādhayni ‫
ٰه ُؤ اَل ِء‬

‫
ٰه اَت اِن‬
hā’ulā’i
nominative
‫
ٰه ِذ ِه‬ hātāni
Feminine
‫
ٰه اَت ْي ِن‬
hādhihī
accusative/genitive
hātayni
"That, those"
Gender Singular Dual Plural

‫
َذ اِنَك‬
nominative
‫ َذ اَك‏‬، ‫ٰذ ِلَك‬‎
dhānika
Masculine
dhālika, dhāka ‫
َذ ْي ِنَك‬
accusative/genitive
dhaynika ‫
ُأ وٰل ِئَك‬

‫
َت اِنَك‬ ulā’ika
nominative
‫
ِت ْلَك‬ tānika
Feminine
tilka ‫
َت ْي ِنَك‬
accusative/genitive
taynika

The dual forms are only used in very formal Arabic.

Some of the demonstratives (hādhā, hādhihi, hādhāni, hādhayni, hā’ulā’i, dhālika, and ulā’ika)
should be pronounced with a long ā, although the unvocalised script is not written with alif (‫)ا‬.
Instead of an alif, they have the diacritic ‫( ٰـ‬dagger alif: ‫ َأ ِل ف َخ ْن َج ِر َّي ة‬alif khanjarīyah), which doesn't
exist on Arabic keyboards and is seldom written, even in vocalised Arabic.

Qur'anic Arabic has another demonstrative, normally followed by a noun in a genitive construct
and meaning 'owner of':

"Owner of"
Gender Singular Dual Plural

‫ُذ و‏‬‎
‫
َذ َو ا‬ ‫ ُأ وُلو‬،‫
َذ ُو و‬
nominative
dhū dhawā dhawū, ulū

‫
َذ ا‬
Masculine accusative
dhā ‫
َذ َو ْي‬ ‫ ُأ وِل ي‬،‫
َذ ِو ي‬
‫
ِذ ي‬ dhaway dhawī, ulī
genitive
dhī
‫
َذ اُت‬ ‫
َذ َو اَت ا‬ ‫ ُأ واَل ُت‬، ‫
َذ َو اُت‬
nominative
dhātu dhawātā dhawātu, ulātu
‫
َذ اَت‬
Feminine accusative
dhāta ‫
َذ َو اَت ْي‬ ‫ ُأ واَل ِت‬، ‫
َذ َو اِت‬
‫
َذ اِت‬ dhawātay dhawāti, ulāti
genitive
dhāti
Note that the demonstrative and relative pronouns were originally built on this word. hādhā, for
example, was originally composed from the prefix hā- 'this' and the masculine accusative
singular dhā; similarly, dhālika was composed from dhā, an infixed syllable -li-, and the clitic suffix
-ka 'you'. These combinations had not yet become completely fixed in Qur'anic Arabic and other
combinations sometimes occurred, e.g. dhāka, dhālikum. Similarly, the relative pronoun alladhī
was originally composed based on the genitive singular dhī, and the old Arabic grammarians
noted the existence of a separate nominative plural form alladhūna in the speech of the Hudhayl
tribe in Qur'anic times.

This word also shows up in Hebrew, e.g. masculine ‫זה‬‎zeh (cf. dhī), feminine ‫זאת‬‎zot (cf. dhāt-),
plural ‫אלה‬‎eleh (cf. ulī).

Relative pronoun

The relative pronoun is declined as follows:

Relative pronoun ("who, that, which")

Gender Singular Dual Plural
‫َا َّل‬
‫
ل َذ اِن‬
nominative
‫
َا َّلِذ ي‬ alladhāni ‫
َا َّلِذ يَن‬
Masculine
‫َا َّل‬
‫
ل َذ ْي ِن‬
alladhī alladhīn(a)
accusative/genitive
alladhayni
‫َا َّل‬
‫
ل َت اِن‬
nominative
‫
َا َّلِت ي‬ allatāni ‫
َا لاَّل ِت ي‬
Feminine
allatī ‫َا َّل‬ allātī
‫
ل َت ْي ِن‬
accusative/genitive
allatayni

Note that the relative pronoun agrees in gender, number and case, with the noun it modifies—as
opposed to the situation in other 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: ‫ َا َّلَر ُج ُل ٱَّلِذ ي َت َكَّلْم ُت َم َع ُه‬al-rajul(u) (a)lladhī takallamtu ma‘a-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: ‫ َرُج ٌل َت َكَّلْم ُت َم َع ُه‬rajul(un) takallamtu ma‘a-h(u) "a man that I spoke with", literally "a
man I spoke with him".

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 -nī/-ī/-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. lī "to me", lahu 'to him'), become fused onto the verb, following a direct object.
These same varieties generally develop a circumfix /ma-...-ʃ(i)/ for negation (from Classical
mā ... shay’ 'not ... a thing', composed of two separate words). This can lead to complicated
agglutinative constructs, such as Egyptian Arabic /ma-katab-ha-ˈliː-ʃ/ '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 īyā- for direct 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 bitā‘ , which agrees in gender and number
with the preceding noun (feminine bitā‘it/bita‘t, plural bitū‘ ). In Egyptian Arabic, the construct-
state genitive is still productive, hence either kitāb-i or il-kitāb bitā‘-i can be used for "my book"
 [the difference between them is simlar to the difference between 'my book' and 'the book is
mine'], but only il-mu‘allimūn bitū‘-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-kitāb 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)iḥna "we" occurs in place of naḥnu.

Numerals

Cardinal numerals

Numbers behave in a very complicated fashion. wāḥid- "one" and ithnān- "two" are adjectives,
following the noun and agreeing with it. thalāthat- "three" through ‘asharat- "ten" require a
following noun in the genitive plural, but disagree with the noun in gender, while taking the case
required by the surrounding syntax. aḥada ‘asharah "eleven" through tis‘ata ‘asharah "nineteen"
require a following noun in the accusative singular, agree with the noun in gender, and are
invariable for case, except for ithnā ‘asharah/ithnay ‘ashara "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: ‫ َأ ْلَف اِن َو ِت ْس ُع ِم َئ ٍة َو ٱْث َنَت ا َع ْش َر َة َس َن ًة‬alfāni wa-tis‘u mi’atin wa-thnatā ‘asharatan sanah "2,912
years"
Formal: ‫ َبْع َد َأ ْلَف ْي ِن َو ِت ْس ِع ِم َئ ٍة َو ٱْث َنَت ْي َع ْش َر َة َس َن ًة‬ba‘da alfayni wa-tis‘i mi’atin wa-thnatay ‘asharatan sanah
"after 2,912 years"
Spoken: )‫( بعَد ) ألفين وتسعمئة واثنتا عشرة سنة‬ba‘da) alfayn wa-tis‘ mīya wa-ithna‘shar sana "(after)
2,912 years"
Cardinal numerals (‫ َا َأْلْع َد اد َا َأْلْص ِل َّي ة‬al-a‘dād al-aṣlīyah) from 0-10. Zero is ṣifr, from which the words
"cipher" and "zero" are ultimately derived.

0 ٠ ṣifr(un) (‫ِص ْف ٌر‏‬‎)

1 ١ wāḥid(un) (‫َو اِح ٌد‏‬‎)

2 ٢ ithnān(i) (‫ِا ْث َناِن‏‬‎)

3 ٣ thalātha(tun) (‫َث اَل َثٌة‏‬‎)

4 ٤ arba‘a(tun) (‫َأ ْر َبَع ٌة‏‬‎)

5 ٥ khamsa(tun) (‫َخ ْم َس ٌة‏‬‎)

6 ٦ sitta(tun) (‫ِس ّت ٌة‏‬‎)

7 ٧ sab‘a(tun) (‫َس ْب َع ٌة‏‬‎)

8 ٨ thamāniya(tun) (‫َث َم اِن َي ٌة‏‬‎)

9 ٩ tis‘a(tun) (‫تسعٌة‏‬‎)

10 ١٠ ‘ashara(tun) (‫َع َش َر ٌة‏‬‎) (feminine form ‘ashr(un) ‫َع ْش ٌر‏‬‎)

The endings in brackets are dropped in less formal Arabic and in pausa. ‫( ة‬tā’ marbūṭah) is
pronounced as simple /a/ in these cases. If a noun ending in ‫ ة‬is the first member of an idafa,
the ‫ ة‬is pronounced as /at/, while the rest of the ending is not pronounced.

‫ ِا ْث َناِن‬ithnān(i) is changed to ‫ ِا ْث َن ْي ِن‬ithnayn(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 3–10 have a peculiar rule of agreement known as polarity: A feminine referrer agrees
with a numeral in masculine gender and vice versa, e.g. thalāthu fatayātin ( ‫" )َث اَل ُث َف َت َي اٍت‬three
girls". The noun counted takes indefinite genitive plural (as the attribute in a genitive construct).

Numerals 11 and 13–19 are indeclinable for case, perpetually in the 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 ‫ َع َش ر‬in numbers 11-19
agrees with the counted noun (unlike the standalone numeral 10 which shows polarity). The
counted noun takes indefinite accusative singular.
 Masculine
Masculine
Feminine
Feminine

Number Informal
nominative oblique nominative oblique

aḥada ‘ashar
aḥada ‘ashara
iḥdá ‘ashrata

11
‫َأ َح َد َع َش ر‬ ‫َأ َح َد َع َش َر‬ ‫إْح َد ى َع ْش رَة‬

ithnā ‘ashar
ithnā ‘ashara
ithnay ‘ashara
ithnatā ‘ashrata
ithnatay ‘ashratan

12
‫ِا ْث َنا َع َش ر‬ ‫ِا ْث َنا َع َش َر‬ ‫ِا ْث َن ْي َع َش َر‬ ‫ِا ْث َنَت ا َع ْش رَة‬ ‫ِا ْث َنَت ْي َع ْش رَة‬

thalāthata ‘ashar
thalāthata ‘ashara
thalātha ‘ashrata

13
‫َث اَل َثَة َع َش ر‬ ‫َث اَل َثَة َع َش َر‬ ‫َث اَل َث َع ْش رَة‬

Unitary numbers from 20 on (i.e. 20, 30, ... 90, 100, 1000, 1000000, etc.) behave entirely as
nouns, showing the case required by the surrounding syntax, no gender agreement, and a
following noun in a fixed case. 20 through 90 require their noun to be in the accusative singular;
100 and up require the genitive singular. The unitary numbers themselves decline in various
fashions:

‘ishrūna "20" through tis‘ūna "90" decline as masculine plural nouns

mi’at- "100" (‫ِم َئ ة‏‬‎or ‫ِم اَئ ة‏‬‎) declines as a feminine singular noun

alf- "1,000" (‫َأ ْلف‏‬‎) 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 3–9. The whole construct is
followed by the accusative singular indefinite.

20 ‘ishrūna (‫ِع ْش ُر وَن‏‬‎) (plural of 10)

21 wāḥidun wa-‘ishrūna ( ‫)َو اِح ٌد َو ِع ْش ُر وَن‬

22 ithnāni wa-‘ishrūna ( ‫)اْث َناِن َو ِع ْش ُر وَن‬

23 thalāthatu wa-‘ishrūna ( ‫)َث اَل َثُة َو ِع ْش ُر وَن‬

30 thalāthūna (‫َث اَل ُت وَن‏‬‎)

40 arba‘ūna (‫َأ ْر َبُع وَن‏‬‎)

mi’at- "100" and alf- "1,000" can themselves be modified by numbers (to form numbers such as
200 or 5,000) and will be declined appropriately. For example, mi’atāni "200" and alfāni "2,000"
with dual endings; thalāthatu ālāfin "3,000" with alf in the plural genitive, but thalāthu mi’atin "300"
since mi’at- appears to have no plural.
In compound numbers, the number formed with the last two digits dictates the declension of the
associated noun, e.g. 212, 312, and 54,312 would all behave like 12.

Large compound numbers can have, e.g.:

‫ َأ ْلٌف َو ِت ْس ُع ِم َئ ٍة َو ِت ْس ُع ِس ِن يَن‬alfun wa-tis‘u mi’atin wa-tis‘u sinīna "1,909 years"

‫ َبْع َد َأ ْلٍف َو ِت ْس ِع ِم َئ ٍة َو ِت ْس ِع ِس ِن يَن‬ba‘da alfin wa-tis‘i mi’atin wa-tis‘i sinīna "after 1,909 years"
‫ َأ ْر َبَع ٌة َو ِت ْس ُع وَن َأ ْلًف ا َو َث َم اِن ي ِم َئ ٍة َو َث اَل ٌث َو ِس ُّت وَن َس َن ًة‬arba‘atun wa-tis‘ūna alfan wa-thamānī mi’atin wa-
thalāthun wa-sittūna sanatan "94,863 years"

‫ َبْع َد َأ ْر َبَع ٍة َو ِت ْس ِع يَن َأ ْلًف ا َو َث َم اِن ي ِم َئ ٍة َو َث اَل ٍث َو ِس ِّت يَن َس َن ًة‬ba‘da arba‘atin wa-tis‘īna alfan wa-thamānī mi’atin
wa-thalāthin wa-sittīna sanatan "after 94,863 years"

‫ ِا ْث َنا َع َش َر َأ ْلًف ا َو ِم َئ َت اِن َو ٱْث َنَت اِن َو ِع ْش ُر وَن َس َن ًة‬iṯnā ‘ašara alfan wa-mi’atāni wa-thnatāni wa-‘ishrūna sanatan
"12,222 years"

‫ َبْع َد ٱْث َن ْي َع َش َر َأ ْلًف ا َو ِم َئ َت ْي ِن َو ٱْث َنَت ْي ِن َو ِع ْش ريَن َس َن ًة‬ba‘da thnay ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atayni wa-thnatayni
wa-‘ishrīna sanatan "after 12,222 years"
‫َأ ْل‬
‫ ِا ْث َنا َع َش َر ًف ا َو ِم َئ َت اِن َو َس َنَت اِن‬ithnā ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atāni wa-sanatāni "12,202 years"
‫َأ ْل‬
‫ َبْع َد ٱْث َن ْي َع َش َر ًف ا َو ِم َئ َت ْي ِن َو َس َنَت ْي ِن‬ba‘da thnay ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atayni wa-sanatayni "after 12,202
years"

Note also the special construction when the final number is 1 or 2:

alfu laylatin wa-laylatun "1,001 nights"

‫َأ ْلُف َل َلٍة َو َل َلٌٌة‬

‫ْي‬ ‫ْي‬

mi’atu kitābin wa-kitābāni "102 books"

‫َئُة‬
‫ِم ا ِك َت اٍب َو ِك َت اَباِن‬
Fractions

Fractions of a whole smaller than "half" are expressed by the structure fi‘l (‫ )ِف ْع ل‬in the singular,
af‘āl (‫ )َأْف َع ال‬in the plural.

half niṣfun (‫ِنْص ٌف ‏‬‎)

one-third thulthun (‫ُث ْلٌث ‏‬‎)

two-thirds thulthāni (‫ُث ْلَث اِن‏‬‎)

one-fourth rub‘un (‫ُر ْبٌع‏‬‎)

 three-fourths thalāthatu arbā‘in ( ‫)َث اَل َثُة َأ ْر َباٍع‬

etc.

Ordinal numerals

Ordinal numerals (‫ األعداد الترتيبية‬al-a‘dād al-tartībīyah) higher than "second" are formed using the
structure fā‘ilun, fā‘ilatun, the same as active participles of Form I verbs:

m. ‫ َأ َّو ُل‬awwalu, f. ‫ ُأ وَلى‬ūlá "first"

m. ‫ َث اٍن‬thānin (definite form: ‫ َا لَّث اِن ُي‬al-thānī), f. ‫ َث اِن َي ٌة‬thāniyatun "second"

m. ‫ َث اِل ٌث‬thālithun, f. ‫ َث اِل َث ٌة‬thālithatun "third"

m. ‫ َر اِب ٌع‬rābi‘un, f. ‫ َر اِب َع ٌة‬rābi‘atun "fourth"

m. ‫ َخ اِم ٌس‬khāmisun, f. ‫ َخ اِم َس ٌة‬khāmisatun "fifth"

m. ‫ َس اِد ٌس‬sādisun, f. ‫ َس اِد َس ٌة‬sādisatun "sixth"

m. ‫ َس اِب ٌع‬sābi‘un, f. ‫ َس اِب َع ٌة‬sābi‘atun "seventh"

m. ‫ َث اِم ٌن‬thāminun, f. ‫ َث اِم َن ٌة‬thāminatun "eighth"

m. ‫ َت اِس ٌع‬tāsi‘un, f. ‫ َت اِس َع ٌة‬tāsi‘atun "ninth"

m. ‫‘ َع اِش ٌر‬āshirun, f. ‫‘ َع اِش َر ٌة‬āshiratun "tenth"

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.

Verbs
Arabic Verb Chart

Arabic verbs (‫ فعل‬fi‘l), like the verbs in other Semitic languages, are extremely complex. Verbs in
Arabic are based on a root made up of three or four consonants (called a 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
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), and functions such as causative,
intensive, or reflexive.

Since Arabic lacks an auxiliary verb "to have", constructions using li-, ‘inda, and ma‘a with the
pronominal suffixes are used to describe possession. For example: ‫( عنده بيت‬ʿindahu bayt) -
literally: At him (is) a house. → He has a house.

For the negation of Arabic verbs, see Negation in Arabic.

Prepositions
Common prepositions
Arabic English

‫بـ‏‬‎bi- with, in, at

‫تـ‏‬‎ta- only used in the expression ‫ تٱِهلل‬tallāhi 'I swear to God'

‫َل‏ـ‬‎la- certainly (also used before verbs)

‫ِل ـ‏‬‎li- to, for

‫كـ‏‬‎ka- like, as

‫فـ‏‬‎fa- [and] then

‫ِإ َلى‏‬‎’ilá to, towards

True

‫َح َّت ى‏‬‎ḥattá until, up to

prepositions
‫َع َلى‏‬‎‘alá on, over; against

‫َع ن‏‬‎‘an from, about

‫ِف ي‏‬‎fī in, at

‫َم َع‏‬‎ma‘a[a] with, along with

‫ِم ن‏‬‎min from; than

‫ُم ْن ُذ‏‬‎mundhu since

‫ُم ْذ‏‬‎mudh since

Semi-prepositions ‫َأ ماَم‏‬‎’amāma in front of

‫َب ْي َن‏‬‎bayna between, among

‫َت ْح َت‏‬‎taḥta under, below

‫َح ْو َل ‏‬‎ḥawla around

‫خاِرَج‏‬‎khārija outside

‫ِخ الَل ‏‬‎khilāla during

‫داِخ َل ‏‬‎dākhila inside

‫ُد وَن‏‬‎dūna without

‫ِض َّد‏‬‎ḍidda against

‫ِع ْنَد‏‬‎‘inda on the part of; at; at the house of; in the possession of

‫َف ْو َق ‏‬‎fawqa above

‫َم َع‏‬‎ma‘a with

 ‫ِم ْث َل ‏‬‎mithla like

‫َو راَء‏‬‎warā’a behind

There are two types of prepositions, based on whether they arise from the triconsonantal roots
system or not. The 'true prepositions' ( ‫ ُح ُر وف َاْلَج ّر‬ḥurūf al-jarr) do not stem from the
triconsonantal roots. These true prepositions cannot have prepositions preceding them, in
contrast to the derived triliteral prepositions. True prepositions can also be used with certain
verbs to convey a particular meaning. For example, ‫ َبَح َث‬baḥatha means "to discuss" as a
transitive verb, but can mean "to search for" when followed by the preposition ‫‘ َع ْن‬an, and "to do
research about" when followed by ‫ ِف ي‬fī.

The prepositions arising from the triliteral root system are called "adverbs of place and time" in
the native tradition (‫ ُظ ُر وف َم َكان َو ُظ ُر وف َز َم ان‬ẓurūf makān wa-ẓurūf zamān) and work very much in
the same way as the 'true' prepositions.[14]

A noun following a preposition takes the genitive case.[15] However, prepositions can take whole
clauses as their object too if succeeded by the conjunctions ‫’ َأ ْن‬an or ‫’ َأ َّن‬anna, in which case the
subject of the clause is in the nominative or the accusative respectively.

Syntax

Genitive construction (iḍāfah)

A noun may be defined more precisely by adding another noun immediately afterwards. In
Arabic grammar, this is called ‫ ِإ َض اَف ة‬iḍāfah ("annexation, addition") and in English is known as the
"genitive construct", "construct phrase", or "annexation structure". The first noun must be in the
construct form while, when cases are used, the subsequent noun must be in the genitive case.
The construction is typically equivalent to the English construction "(noun) of (noun)". This is a
very widespread way of forming possessive constructions in Arabic,[16] and is typical of a
Semitic language.[17]

Simple examples include:

‫ ِب ْنُت َح َس ٍن‬bintu Ḥasan "the daughter of Hasan/Hasan's daughter".

‫ َد اُر الَّس َالِم‬dāru‿s-salām "the house of peace".
‫ُل‬
‫ ِك ي و َم ْو ٍز‬kīlū mawz "a kilo of bananas".
 ‫ َب ْي ُت َرُج ٍل‬baytu‿rajul "the house of a man/a man's house".

‫ َب ْي ُت ٱلَّر ُج ِل‬baytu‿r-rajul "the house of the man/the man's house".

The range of relationships between the first and second elements of the idafah construction is
very varied, though it usually consists of some relationship of possession or belonging.[18] In the
case of words for containers, the idāfah may express what is contained: ‫ ِف ْن َج اُن َق ْه َو ٍة‬finjānu
qahwatin "a cup of coffee". The idāfah may indicate the material something is made of: ‫َخ اَت ُم َخ َش ٍب‬
khātamu khashabin "a wooden ring, ring made of wood". In many cases the two members
become a fixed coined phrase, the idafah being used as the equivalent of a compound noun
used in some Indo-European languages such as English. Thus ‫ َب ْي ُت ٱلَّط َلَب ِة‬baytu al-ṭalabati can
mean "house of the (certain, known) students", but is also the normal term for "the student
hostel".

Word order

Classical Arabic tends to prefer the word order VSO (verb before subject before object) rather
than SVO (subject before verb). Verb initial word orders like in Classical Arabic are relatively rare
across the world's languages, occurring only in a few language families including Celtic,
Austronesian, and Mayan. The alternation between VSO and SVO word orders in Arabic results in
an agreement asymmetry: the verb shows person, number, and gender agreement with the
subject in SVO constructions but only gender (and possibly person) agreement in VSO, to the
exclusion of number.[19]

Full agreement: SVO order[20]

‫َاْلُم َع ِّلُم وَن َق َر ُؤ وا ٱْلِك َت اَب‬
al-mu‘allimūna qara’u l-kitāb
the-teachers-m.pl.nom read.past-3.m.pl the-book-acc
'The (male) teachers read the book.'

‫َاْلُم َع ِّلَم اُت َق َر ْأ َن ٱْلِك َت اَب‬

al-mu‘allimātu qara’na l-kitāb
the-teachers-f.pl-nom read.past-3.f.pl the-book-acc
'The (female) teachers read the book.'
 Partial agreement: VSO order
‫َق َر َأ ٱْلُم َع ِّلُم وَن ٱْلِك َت اَب‬
qara’a l-mu‘allimūna l-kitāb
read.past-3m.sg the-teacher-m.pl.nom the-book-acc
'The (male) teachers read the book.'

‫َق َر َأ ْت ٱْلُم َع ِّلَم اُت ٱْلِك َت اَب‬

qara’at al-mu‘allimātu l-kitāb
read.past-3.f.sg the-teacher-f.pl-nom the-book-acc
'The (female) teachers read the book.'

Despite the fact that the subject in the latter two above examples is plural, the verb lacks plural
marking and instead surfaces as if it was in the singular form.

Though early accounts of Arabic word order variation argued for a flat, non-configurational
grammatical structure,[21][22] more recent work[20] has shown that there is evidence for a VP
constituent in Arabic, that is, a closer relationship between verb and object than verb and
subject. This suggests a hierarchical grammatical structure, not a flat one. An analysis such as
this one can also explain the agreement asymmetries between subjects and verbs in SVO versus
VSO sentences, and can provide insight into the syntactic position of pre- and post-verbal
subjects, as well as the surface syntactic position of the verb.

In the present tense, there is no overt copula in Arabic. In such clauses, the subject tends to
precede the predicate, unless there is a clear demarcating pause between the two, suggesting a
marked information structure.[20] It is a matter of debate in Arabic literature whether there is a
null present tense copula which syntactically precedes the subject in verbless sentences, or
whether there is simply no verb, only a subject and predicate.[23][24][25][26][27][28]

Subject pronouns are normally omitted except for emphasis or when using a participle as a verb
(participles are not marked for person). Because the verb agrees with the subject in person,
number, and gender, no information is lost when pronouns are omitted. Auxiliary verbs precede
main verbs, prepositions precede their objects, and nouns precede their relative clauses.

Adjectives follow the noun they are modifying, and agree with the noun in case, gender, number,
and state: For example, ‫ َف َت اٌة َج ِم يَلٌة‬fatātun jamīlatun 'a beautiful girl' but ‫ َاْلَف َت اُة ٱْلَج ِم يَلُة‬al-fatātu al-
jamīlatu 'the beautiful girl'. (Compare ‫ َاْلَف َت اُة َج ِم يَلٌة‬al-fatātu jamīlatun 'the girl is beautiful'.) Elative
adjectives, however, usually don't agree with the noun they modify, and sometimes even precede
their noun while requiring it to be in the genitive case.

’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 ‫ ِإ َّن‬inna 'indeed' (or 'verily' in older translations). An
example would be ‫ ِإ َّن ٱلَّس َم اَء َز ْر َق اُء‬inna s-samā’a zarqā’(u) 'The sky is blue indeed'.

’Inna, along with its related terms (or ‫َأ َخ َو ات‏‬‎’akhawāt "sister" terms in the native tradition) ‫َأ َّن‏‬‎anna
'that' (as in "I think that ..."), inna 'that' (after ‫َق اَل ‏‬‎qāla 'say'), ‫َو ٰل ِك َّن‏‬‎(wa-)lākin(na) 'but' and ‫َكَأ َّن‏‬‎ka-anna
'as if' introduce subjects while requiring that they be immediately followed by a noun in the
accusative case, or an attached pronominal suffix.

Arabic English

‫ِإ َّن‏‬‎'inna indeed

‫َأ َّن‏‬‎'anna that (followed by noun clause)

‫ِإ َّن َو َأ َخ َو اُت َه ا‬ ‫َكَأ َّن‏‬‎ka'anna as, as though

‫لِك ‏‬‎lakinna but

'inna wa ’akhawātuha ‫َّن‬
‫َلْي َت‏‬‎layta to express a wish or desire

‫َلَع َّل ‏‬‎la'alla perhaps

‫اَل ‏‬‎lā there is no, there is not

Definite article

As a particle, al- does not inflect for gender, number, person, or grammatical case. The sound of
the final -l consonant, however, can vary; when followed by a sun letter such as t, d, r, s, n and a
few others, it is replaced by the sound of the initial consonant of the following noun, thus
doubling it. For example: for "the Nile", one does not say al-Nīl, but an-Nīl. When followed by a
moon letter, like m-, no replacement occurs, as in al-masjid ("the mosque"). This affects only the
pronunciation and not the spelling of the article.

Absolute object (al-maf'ūl al-muṭlaq)

The absolute object (‫ المفعول المطلق‬al-maf'ūl al-muṭlaq) is an emphatic cognate object
construction in which a verbal noun derived from the main verb appears in the accusative
(‫ منصوب‬manṣūb) case.[29]

Arabic transliteration English

‫ضحك الولد ضحكا‬ dahaka l-waladu dahikan The boy laughed much.

‫تدور األرض حول الشمس في‬ taduru l-'ardu hawla sh-shamsi fi s- The earth revolves around the
‫السنة دورة واحدة‬ sanati dawratan wahida sun once a year.

‫أحبك حبا جما‬ uhibbuki hubban jamman I love you so much.

Object of purpose (al-maf'ūl li-'ajlihi)

The object of purpose (‫ المفعول ألجله‬al-maf'ūl li-'ajlihi) is an adverbial structure used to indicate
purpose, motive, or reason for an action.[30] It consists of a verbal noun derived from the main
verb that appears in the accusative (‫ منصوب‬manṣūb) case.[30] It is followed immediately by a
prepositional phrase.

Arabic transliteration English

taraka baladahu bahthan an ar- He left his country in search of

‫ترك بلده بحثا عن الرزق‬
rizq sustenance.

‫ ذهبت إلى الجامعة طلبا‬dhahabat ila l-jāmi'ati talban lil- She went to the university seeking
‫للعلم‬ 'ilm knowledge.

‫كتب لحبيبته رسالة‬ kataba li-habibatih risalatan He wrote his beloved a letter out of love
‫عشقا لها‬ 'ishqan laha for her.

Dynasty or family

Some people, especially in the region of Arabia, when they are descended from a famous
ancestor, start their last name with ‫آل‬, a noun meaning "family" or "clan", like the dynasty Al Saud
(family of Saud) or Al ash-Sheikh (family of the Sheikh). ‫ آل‬is distinct from the definite article ‫ال‬.

Arabic meaning transcription example

‫ال‬ the al- Maytham al-Tammar

‫آل‬ family/clan of Al, Aal Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

‫أهل‬ tribe/people of Ahl Ahl al-Bayt

Other

Object pronouns are clitics and are attached to the verb; e.g., ‫ َأ َر اَها‬arā-hā 'I see her'. Possessive
pronouns are likewise attached to the noun they modify; e.g., ‫ ِك َت اُب ُه‬kitābu-hu 'his book'. The
definite article ‫ َا لـ‬al- is a clitic, as are the prepositions ‫ ِل ـ‬li- 'to' and ‫ ِب ـ‬bi- 'in, with' and the
conjunctions ‫ َكـ‬ka- 'as' and ‫ َف ـ‬fa- 'then, so'.

Reform of the Arabic tradition

An overhaul of the native systematic categorization of Arabic grammar was first suggested by
the medieval philosopher al-Jāḥiẓ, though it was not until two hundred years later when Ibn
Maḍāʾ wrote his Refutation of the Grammarians that concrete suggestions regarding word order
and linguistic governance were made.[31] In the modern era, Egyptian litterateur Shawqi Daif
renewed the call for a reform of the commonly used description of Arabic grammar, suggesting
to follow trends in Western linguistics instead.[32]

See also

Arabic language

List of Arabic dictionaries

I‘rab

Literary Arabic

Varieties of Arabic

Arabic alphabet

Quranic Arabic Corpus

Romanization of Arabic

Wiktionary: appendix on Arabic verbs

WikiBook: Learn Arabic

Sibawayh

Ibn Adjurrum

Ajārūmīya
 Ibn Malik

Alfiya

Notes

a. Some grammarians classify the word ‫ َم َع‬as a noun, not a preposition.[12][13]

References

1. Kojiro Nakamura, "Ibn Mada's Criticism of Arab Grammarians." Orient, v. 10, pgs. 89-113. 1974

2. Monique Bernards, "Pioneers of Arabic Linguistic Studies." Taken from In the Shadow of Arabic: The
Centrality of Language to Arabic Culture, pg. 213. Ed. Bilal Orfali. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2011.
ISBN 9789004215375

3. Goodchild, Philip. Difference in Philosophy of Religion, 2003. Page 153.

4. Archibald Sayce, Introduction to the Science of Language. Pg. 28, 1880.

5. al-Aṣmaʿī (http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/38758/al-Asmai#ref190690) at the

Encyclopædia Britannica Online. ©2013 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.. Accessed 10 June 2013.

6. Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 5, pg. 174, fascicules 81-82. Eds. Clifford Edmund Bosworth, E. van Donzel,
Bernard Lewis and Charles Pellat. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1980. ISBN 9789004060562

7. Arik Sadan, The Subjunctive Mood in Arabic Grammatical Thought, pg. 339. Volume 66 of Studies in
Semitic Languages and Linguistics. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2012. ISBN 9789004232952

8. "Sibawayh, His Kitab, and the Schools of Basra and Kufa." Taken from Changing Traditions: Al-Mubarrad's
Refutation of Sībawayh and the Subsequent Reception of the Kitāb, pg. 12. Volume 23 of Studies in
Semitic Languages and Linguistics. Ed. Monique Bernards. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1997.
ISBN 9789004105959

9. Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, pg. 350. Leiden: Brill Archive, 1954.
New edition 1980.

10. Alaa Elgibali and El-Said M. Badawi. Understanding Arabic: Essays in Contemporary Arabic Linguistics in
Honor of El-Said M. Badawi, 1996. Page 105.

11. Kees Versteegh, The Arabic Language (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997), p. 90.

12. Wright, William. A Grammar of the Arabic Language (https://archive.org/details/WrightsArabicGrammar2

Of2/page/n89/mode/2up) . 2 (3rd ed.). Librarie Du Liban. p. 165. "‫ مع‬is, as the Arab grammarians
remark, properly the accusative of a noun, signifying association, connexion."

13. Drissner, Gerald (2015). Arabic for Nerds. Berlin, Germany: createspace. p. 65. ISBN 978-1517538385.
14. Ryding, Karin C. (2005). A reference grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (6th printing ed.). Cambridge:
Cambridge University press. p. 366. ISBN 978-0521777711.

15. Fischer, Wolfdietrich (2002). A Grammar of Classical Arabic. Translated by Rodger, Jonathan (3rd ed.).
Yale University Press. p. 153.

16. Karin C. Ryding, A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2005), pp. 205-24 [§8.1].

17. Adam Pospíšil, 'The Idafa construction in Arabic and its morphosyntactic behaviour (https://dspace.cuni.
cz/bitstream/handle/20.500.11956/76386/BPTX_2011_2_11210_0_313970_0_126955.pdf?sequence=
1) ' (unpublished BA thesis, Univerzita Karlova v Praze, 2015), §7.1.

18. Karin C. Ryding, A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2005), pp. 206-11 [§8.1.1].

19. Benmamoun, Elabbas 1992. “Structural conditions on agreement.” Proceedings of NELS (North-Eastern
Linguistic Society) 22: 17-32.

20. Benmamoun, Elabbas. 2015. Verb-initial orders, with a special emphasis on Arabic. Syncom, 2 edition

21. Bakir, Murtadha. 1980. Aspects of clause structure in Arabic. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University,
Bloomington.

22. Fassi Fehri, Abdelkader. 1982. Linguistique Arabe: Forme et Interprétation. Rabat, Morocco, Publications
de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines.

23. Jelinek, Eloise. 1981. On Defining Categories: Aux and Predicate in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Doctoral
dissertation. University of Arizona, Tucson.

24. Fassi Fehri, Abdelkader. 1993. Issues in the Structure of Arabic Clauses and Words. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

25. Shlonsky, Ur 1997. Clause Structure and Word order in Hebrew and Arabic: An Essay in Comparative
Semitic Syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

26. Heggie, Lorie. 1988. The Syntax of Copular Structures. Doctoral dissertation. USC, Los Angeles.

27. Benmamoun, Elabbas. 2000. The Feature Structure of Functional Categories: A Comparative Study of
Arabic Dialects. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

28. Aoun, Joseph, Elabbas Benmamoun, and Lina Choueiri. 2010. The Syntax of Arabic. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

29. "Quranic Grammar - Cognate Accusatives" (https://corpus.quran.com/documentation/cognateaccusati

ve.jsp) . corpus.quran.com. Retrieved 2021-05-28.

30. "Quranic Grammar - The Accusative of Purpose" (https://corpus.quran.com/documentation/purposeaccu

sative.jsp) . corpus.quran.com. Retrieved 2021-05-28.

31. Shawqi Daif, Introduction to Ibn Mada's Refutation of the Grammarians (Cairo, 1947), p. 48.
32. "The Emergency of Modern Standard Arabic," (http://acc.teachmideast.org/texts.php?module_id=1&readi
ng_id=35&print=1) by Kees Versteegh. Taken from The Arabic Language by permission of the
Edinburgh University Press. 1997.

External links

Arabic conjugation 24000 Verbs (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.almared.

tarif)

Wright's Arabic Grammar (https://archive.org/details/WrightsArabicGrammar2Of2)

Arabic Grammar: Paradigms, Literature, Exercises and Glossary By Albert Socin (https://archiv
e.org/details/arabicgrammarpa00kenngoog/page/n134)

A Practical Arabic Grammar, Part 1 (https://books.google.com/books?id=ex4UAAAAYAAJ&pg

=PA183)

Einleitung in das studium der arabischen grammatiker: Die Ajrūmiyyah des Muh'ammad bin
Daūd By Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Ibn Ājurrūm (https://books.google.com/books?id=BkEY
AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA50)

Alexis Neme and Eric Laporte (2013) Pattern-and-root inflectional morphology: the Arabic broken
plural |year=2013 (https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00831338)

Alexis Neme (2011), A lexicon of Arabic verbs constructed on the basis of Semitic taxonomy and
using finite-state transducers (http://alpage.inria.fr/~sagot/woler2011/WoLeR2011/Program_
&_Proceedings_files/WoLeR%202011%20-%20Neme.pdf)

Alexis Neme and Eric Laporte (2015), Do computer scientists deeply understand Arabic
morphology? - ‫هل يفهم المهندسون الحاسوبّي ون علم الصرف فهًم ا عميًق ا؟‬, available also in Arabic,
Indonesian, French (https://www.academia.edu/13002690/Do_computer_scientists_deeply_u
nderstand_the_traditional_Arabic_morphology_%D9%87%D9%84_%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%87%
D9%85_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%87%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%
A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%91%D9%88%D9%86_%D
8%B9%D9%84%D9%85_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%81_%D9%81%D9%87%D9%8
5%D8%A7%D9%8B_%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%8B_)
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