arabic grammar

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Arabic grammarFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arabic grammar (Arabic: �� naḥw ʿarabī or ا�� qawāʿid al-luġat al-ʿarabiyyah) is the grammar ا�� ا��

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.

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�ā (yaf�ī)■7.8.4.2 fa�ā (yaf�ū)■7.8.4.3 fa�iya (yaf�ā)■

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 (maṣdar)■

8 Verb (Colloquial Arabic)■



9 Syntax ■9.1 Genitive construction (�iḍāfah)■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 ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʾAbī ʾIsḥāq (died AD 735/6, AH 117).

Division

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

al-luġah � ■(language/lexicon) concerned with collecting and explaining vocabulary ا��at-taṣrīf ��■(morphology) determining the form of the individual words ا��an-naḥw ��ا (syntax) primarily concerned with inflection (ʾiʿrāb) which had already been

lost in dialects.

■

al-ištiqāq ق��■(derivation) examining the origin of the words اal-balāġah ��■(rhetoric) which elucidates construct quality ا� �

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 ( ��!��-ʿāmmiyat al ��!�� ا�%��ر�") ʿāmmiyat al-ʾummiyyīn), Semi-literate Spoken Arabic ا#!��"mutanawwirīn), Educated Spoken Arabic ("�&�'%�ا ��!�� ʿāmmiyat al-muṯaqqafīn), Modern Standard

Arabic ( fuṣḥā t-turāṯ).[3] This article is (��) ا��اث) fuṣḥā l-ʿaṣr), and Classical Arabic (��) ا��

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.



Hamzat ul-waṣl (+,��ه%.ة ا), 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, ـ a fatḥah (��)) /a/ , ـ a kasrah (ة a ḍammah (�%6) /u/. If the preceding ـ i/ or/ (آ3

word ends in a sukūn (�89ن) (i.e. not followed by a short vowel), the Hamzat ul-waṣl assumes a

kasrah /i/. Symbol ـ šaddah (ة��) indicates a gemination or consonant doubling. See more in Tashkīl.

Noun and Adjective

Noun and Adjective Inflection (Classical Arabic)

Nouns (:ism) and adjectives in Classical Arabic are declined according to the following properties ا

Case (ت �� ḥālāt) (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)



Declension→

(1) Regular Triptote (2) Triptote w/

"Long Construct"

(3) Diptote

(4) Defectivein

(usu. masc.)(1a) No suffix (usu. masc.)

(1b) in ة (----atatatat----) (usu. feminine)

(1c) in اة (----āāāātttt----) (usu. feminine)

Pausal pronun. (in singular) →

-

-ah -āh -ū, -ā, -ī

-Informal pronun.

(in singular) →-a -āt -ū

Number ↓

State→ Case↓

Indef. Def. Const. Indef. Def. Const. Indef. Def. Const. Const. Indef. Indef.

Singular

Nominative -un -u-at-un

-at-u-āt-un

-āt-u -ū -u -in

Accusative -an -a-at-an

-at-a-āt-an

-āt-a -ā-a

-iyan, -iya

Genitive -in -i-at-in

-at-i-āt-in

-āt-i -ī -in

Dual

Nominative -āni -ā -at-āni -at-ā -āt-āni -āt-ā

same as (1a) regular triptote

-iy-ā

Accusative, Genitive

-ayni -ay -at-ayni-at-ay

-āt-ayni-āt-ay

-iy-ayni

Declension→(7) Sound Masculine

(8) Sound Feminine

same as (1a) regular triptote

(7) Sound Masculine

Plural

Nominative -ūna -ū -ātun -ātu

-ay-ātun, -aw-ātun

-ay-ātu, -aw-ātu

-ūna

Accusative, Genitive

-īna -ī -ātin -āti

-ay-ātin, -aw-ātin

-ay-āti, -aw-āti

-īna

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.

■



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 layālin "nights" or ʾayādin

"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 -awāni/-awayni; all of these are short nouns with a two-character stem, and are spelled in Arabic script with a "tall alif" (ـ�) rather

than alif maqṣūrah (ـ�). Examples are ʿaṣan �� "stick" (and possibly riḍan �6ر

"approval").

■

The following table shows some examples of noun inflections.

Examples of inflection in nouns



Singular Declension Meaning Gender Type,Notes Root Plural Declension

yad (1a) triptote hand feminine root noun y-d

ʾaydin(4) broken plural defective in -in

ʾayādin(4) broken plural defective in -in

ʾab(2) "long construct" triptote

father masculine root noun �-b ʾābāʾ(1a) broken plural triptote

yawm (1a) triptote day masculine root nouny-w-m

ʾayyām(1a) broken plural triptote

laylah (1b) triptote in -ah

night feminine root noun l-y-l

laylāt(8) sound feminine plural

layālin(4) broken plural defective in -in

layāʾil(3) broken plural diptote

baḥr (1a) triptote sea masculine root noun b-ḥ-r

biḥār(1a) broken plural triptote

buḥūr(1a) broken plural triptote

ʾabḥār(1a) broken plural triptote

ʾabḥur(1a) broken plural triptote

ʾarḍ (1a) triptote land feminine root noun �-r-ḍ

ʾarāḍin(4) broken plural defective in -in

ʾaraḍūna(7) sound masculine plural



ṭālib (1a) triptote student masculineForm I active participle

ṭ-l-b

ṭullāb(1a) broken plural triptote

ṭalabah(1b) broken plural triptote in -ah

muʿallim (1a) triptote teacher masculineForm II active participle

�-l-m muʿallimūna(7) sound masculine plural

ḥayāh (1c) triptote in -āh

life feminineForm I verbal noun

ḥ-y-w

ḥayawāt(8) sound feminine plural

ḥayawān (1a) triptote animal masculinederived noun in -ān (intensive)

ḥ-y-w

ḥayawānāt(7) sound feminine plural

qāḍin(4) defective in -in

judge masculineForm I active participle

q-ḍ-y

quḍāh(1c) broken plural triptote in -āh

qaḍiyyah (1b) triptotein -ah

lawsuit femininederived noun (verbal-noun form, Form I)

q-ḍ-y

qaḍāyā(6) broken plural invariable -ā

mustašfan(5) defective in -an

hospital masculine??

Form X noun of place (passive-particle form)

š-f-y mustašfayāt(7) sound feminine plural

kitāb (1a) triptote book masculine

derived noun (verbal-noun form, Form I or possibly Form III)

k-t-b kutub(1a) broken plural triptote

maktab (1a) triptotedesk, office

masculineForm I noun of place

k-t-b makātib(3) broken plural diptote

maktabah (1b) triptote in -ah

library feminineForm I noun of place

k-t-b

maktabāt(8) sound feminine plural

makātib(3) broken plural diptote

dunyā(6) invariable -ā

world (lit. "lowest (place)")

feminine

nominalized feminine elative adjective

d-n-y dunyayāt(8) sound feminine plural



ṣaḥrāʾ (3) diptote

desert (lit. "desert-like (place)" < "desert-sand-colored")

feminine

nominalized feminine color/defect adjective

ṣ-ḥ-r

ṣaḥārin(4) broken plural defective in -in

ṣaḥārā(6) broken plural invariable -ā

ṣaḥrāwāt(8) sound feminine plural

šajarah (1b) triptote in -ah

tree feminine noun of unity š-j-r

šajar

(1a) triptote, root noun, collective singular ("trees" in general)

šajarāt

(8) sound feminine plural, plural of paucity ("trees" when counting 3-10)

ʾašjār

(1a) broken plural triptote, plural of variety ("different kinds of trees")

ʿabd (1a) triptote

slave, servant

masculinederived noun (verbal-noun form)

�-b-d

ʿabīd(1a) broken plural triptote

ʿubdān(1a) broken plural triptote

ʿibdān(1a) broken plural triptote

servant (of God), human being

ʿibād(1a) broken plural triptote



tilivizyōn (1a) triptote television masculineborrowed noun

— tilivizyōnāt(8) sound feminine plural

film (1a) triptote film masculineborrowed noun

— (or f-l-m)

ʾaflām(1a) broken plural triptote

sigārah (1b) triptote in -ah

cigarette feminineborrowed noun

— (or s-g-r)

sagāʾir(3) broken plural diptote

The following table shows some examples of adjective inflections.

Examples of inflection in adjectives



Type,Notes Root MeaningMasculine Singular

DeclensionFeminine Singular

DeclensionMasculine

PluralDeclension

Feminine

faʿīl k-b-r big kabīr (1a) triptote

kabīrah(1b) triptote in -ah

kibār(1a) broken plural triptote kab

kubarāʾ(3) broken plural diptote

elative k-b-r bigger, biggest

ʾakbar (3) diptote kubrā(6) invariable -ā

ʾakbarūna(7) sound masculine plural kubray

ʾakābir(3) broken plural diptote

faʿīl, third-

weak

d-n-w near, low daniyy (1a)

triptotedaniyyah

(1b) triptote in -ah

ʾadniyāʾ(3) broken plural diptote

daniyy

elative, third-weak

d-n-w

nearer, nearest; lower, lowest

ʾadnā(6) invariable -ā

dunyā(6) invariable -ā

ʾadānin(4) broken plural defective in -in

dunan

ʾadnawna(7) sound masculine plural defective in -an

dunyaw

color/defectḥ-m-r red ʾaḥmar (3) diptote ḥamrāʾ (3) diptote ḥumr

(1a) broken plural triptote

ḥ

faʿlān

(intensive)ʿ-ṭ-š thirsty ʿaṭšān (3) diptote ʿaṭšā

(6) invariable -ā

ʿiṭāš(1a) broken plural triptote

?

ʿaṭšā(6) broken plural invariable -ā

Number

Arabic distinguishes between nouns based on number (د�� ʿadad). All nouns are either singular (د&!

mufrad) dual ((�'! muṯannā), or plural (=%> ǧamʿ). 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



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 kitāb "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 makātib, which declines as

a singular diptote noun: indefinite nominative makātibu; indefinite accusative/genitive makātiba; etc.

Generally, the only nouns that have the "masculine" sound plural -ūn/īn- are nouns referring to male

human beings (e.g. muhandis "engineer"). On the other hand, the "feminine" sound plural -āt- 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 ا!��ن imtihān "exam", feminine sayyārah "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 (@�> ǧins), masculine ( A! muḏakkar) and feminine (BCD! muʾannaṯ). Asآ

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 ـ� -at-, but some do not (e.g. أم ʾumm "mother", أرض ʾarḍ "earth"). Most

words ending in ـ� are also feminine (and are indeclinable).

The letter ـ� used for feminine nouns is a special form known as �� ء�� tāʾ marbūṭah "tied T", which

looks like the letter hāʾ "H" with the two dots that form part of the letter tāʾ "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 ـ� 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



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 ا�ـ 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 kabīrun "a big dog (nom.) آ�H آ �■"raʾaytu kalban kabīran "I saw a big dog (acc.) رأ�I آ� � آ �ا■"maʿa kalbin kabīrin "with a big dog (gen.) != آ�H آ �■"al-kalbu l-kabīru "the big dog (nom.) ا�H�8 ا�8 � kalbu-hā l-kabīru "her big dog (nom.)" (the definite article does not appear with a آ� �J ا�8 �

suffixed possessive, but the noun is still definite)

■

■"ṣūratan ǧamīlatan "I saw a nice picture (acc.) رأ�I ,�رة <%�� ا��%��! Miṣru l-qadīmatu "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 (ʾiḍāfah) 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�I ا��8�%■" bintu l-malikati l-qaṣīratu "the short daughter (nom.) of the queen�I ا�%��8 ا��ة■" bintu l-malikati l-qaṣīrati "the daughter (nom.) of the short queen�I ا�%��8 ا��ة binti l-malikati l-qaṣīrati "the short daughter (gen.) of the queen" or "the�I ا�%��8 ا��ة

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:

�J�� bintu-hā "her daughter (nom.)"■�J�� binti-hā "her daughter (gen.)"■K�� bintu-hu "his daughter (nom.)"■K�� binti-hi "his daughter (gen.)"■L�� bint-ī "my daughter (nom./acc./gen.)"■�J�8�! malikati-hā "his queen (gen.)"■�J آ� kalbu-hā "her dog (nom.)"■



�J آ� ا�8 � kalbu-hā l-kabīru "her big dog (nom.)"■

Note that in writing, the special form tāʾ marbūṭah indicating the feminine changes into a regular tāʾ 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 �8�%�� I� bintun li-l-malikati lit. "a daughter to the queen" is used.

Note also the following appositional construction:

A)وا9= ا��ا I� �ا al-baytu wāsiʿu l-nawāfiḏi "the house with the wide windows" (lit. "the house

wide of windows")

■

Article

Main article: Al-

The article (�� al- is indeclinable and expresses the definite state of a noun of ا�ـ (ʾadāt ut-taʿrīf أداة ا

any gender and number. As mentioned above, it is also prefixed to each of that noun's modifying

adjectives. The initial vowel (!"�� hamzat ul-waṣl), is volatile in the sense that it disappears in ه$#ة ا

sandhi, the article becoming mere l- (although the ʾalif 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 ا�ـ ʾalif lām is retained, and the gemination may be expressed by putting

šaddah on the following letter).

The consonants causing assimilation (trivially including ل (l)) are ت (t), ث (ṯ), د (d), ذ (ḏ), ر (r), ز (z), س

(s), ش (š), ص (ṣ), ض (ḍ), ط (ṭ), ظ (ẓ), ل (l), ن (n). These 14 letters are called 'solar letters' (�&'$(� ا��وف اal-ḥurūf aš-šamsiyyah), while the remaining 14 are called 'lunar letters' or 'moon letters' (��$+� ا��وف اal-ḥurūf 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. (ج ǧīm

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 ج ǧīm 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".



Case

Main article: I�rāb

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 kitāb "book",

with indefinite declension kitābun, kitāban, kitābin and definite declension al-kitābu, al-kitāba, al-kitābi. Most feminine nouns have an additional stem -ة (-at-), and decline the same

way. Some feminine nouns (and a few masculine nouns) have a variant stem -اة (-āt-), 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 -ة) have broken plurals in -ة, and likewise some feminine nouns have broken plurals without -ة. 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 three-

syllable stems, as in makātib "desks, offices". Certain adjectives are also diptotes, such as the

form ʾafʿal of masculine singular elative (i.e. comparative/superlative) and color/defect

adjectives, as well as the forms faʿlāʾ (feminine singular color/defect adjectives) and faʿlān

(masculine singular "intensive" adjectives expressing emotional concepts such as "angry, thirsty").

■

The "long construct" declension. These are triptotes with long case endings -ū -ā -ī in the singular construct state, and normal triptote endings elsewhere. There are only five nouns in

this declension, all very short (see below): ʾab "father" (e.g. ʾabū ḥasan "the father of

Hasan"); ʾax "brother"; ḥam "father-in-law"; fam "mouth" (which assumes an irregular stem f- in the construct state, e.g. fū "the mouth of (nom.)"); and ðū "the owner of" (which appears

only in construct and has a seriously irregular declension; see under demonstrative pronouns).

■

The -in declension (Arabic 'ism ul-manqūṣ). 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-.

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The -an declension (Arabic 'ism ul-maqṣūr). 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 third-

weak 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 -āh (singular/dual) or -ayāt- (plural).

■

The invariable -ā declension (written either with "tall" 'alif or 'alif maqṣūra). 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

■



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

kubrā "bigger/biggest (fem.)", and of "intensive" adjectives in faʿlān, e.g. ʿaṭšā "thirsty

(fem.)". Masculine singular elatives and color/defect adjectives from third-weak roots have

this declension themselves, e.g. ʾaʿmā "blind", ʾadnā "nearer, lower".

Note that many (but not all) nouns in the -in, -an or -ā declensions originate as adjectives of some sort,

or as verbal nouns of third-weak verbs. Examples: qāḍin "judge" (a form-I active participle);

mustašfan "hospital" (a form-X passive participle in its alternative meaning as a "noun of place");

fusḥā "formal Arabic" (originally a feminine elative, lit. "the most eloquent (language)"); dunyā

"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 -ā(ni)/-ay(ni), differing only in the form

of the stem.

Nominative case

The nominative case (ع�):al-marfūʿ ) is used for ا�%

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 ḍammah (-u) for the definite or ḍammah +

nunation (-un) for the indefinite. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding -āni and -ūna respectively (-ā and -ū in the construct state). The regular feminine plural is formed by adding -ātu

in the definite and -ātun in the indefinite.

Accusative case

The accusative case (ا�%��ب al-manṣūb) 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 kāna/yakūnu "be" and its sisters. Hence, ��%> I� �ا al-bintu ǧamīlatun "the

girl is beautiful" but ��%> ICآ� I� �ا al-bintu kānat ǧamīla(tan) "the girl was

beautiful" (spelling ��%> is not affected here (letter ة) 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 ẓanna 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.■



For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a fatḥah (-a) for the definite or fatḥah + nunation

(-an) for the indefinite. For the indefinite accusative, the fatḥah + nunation is added to an ʾalif e.g. �ـ, which is added to the ending of all nouns (e.g. �C� �Z آ�ن kāna taʿbāna(n) "he was tired") not ending with

a ʾalif followed by hamzah or a tāʾ marbūṭah. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by

adding -ayn(i) and -īn(a) (both spelled "ـ� in Arabic) respectively (-ay and -ī in the construct state, both

spelled Lـ in Arabic). The regular feminine plural is formed by adding -āt(i) in the definite and -āt(in) in

the indefinite, both spelled ـ�ت in Arabic.

Genitive case

The genitive case (ور:al-maǧrūr) is used for ا�%]

Objects of prepositions.■All, but not necessarily the first member (the first nomen regens), of an ʾiḍāfah (genitive

construction) .

■

The object of a locative adverb.■Semi-prepositions if preceded by another (true or semi) preposition■Objects of أي ʾayy "any".■Elative (comparative/superlative) adjectives behave similarly: ��أ[�ل و "ʾaṭwalu 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 -īn(a) respectively (both spelled "ـ� in Arabic) (-ay and -ī in the construct state, both spelled Lـ in Arabic). The

regular feminine plural is formed by adding -āt(i) in the definite and -āt(in) in the indefinite, both

spelled ـ�ت in Arabic.

Note: diptotic nouns receive a fatḥah (-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 (��ا al-waqf). Final short vowels, as well as short vowels followed by a nunation, are omitted;

but accusative -an sounds as -ā. 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 ة tāʾ marbūṭah

(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.



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 -ū 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 -ā, which are both rendered by -a (shortened from -ā); similarly, defective -in nouns now have an ending -i, shortened from pausal/definite -ī.

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 ʾakbar walad, with the adjective in the construct state

(rather than expected al-walad al-ʾakbar, with the adjective in its normal position after the noun and

agreeing with it in state).

Preservation of remainder of system



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 -ā 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 -āh normally is marked with -āt in all circumstances (even outside of the construct state). Sound masculine plurals are marked with -īn, and sound feminine plurals with -āt; duals often use -ēn (< -ayn, still preserved in the occasional variety that has not undergone the changes ay > ē, aw > ō).

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 -ēn (< -ayn), has a separate construct form -ē (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. ištirākiyyah "socialism"), and is sometimes added directly onto foreign nouns (e.g. dimuqrātiyyah

"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.



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 ـ�, which forms the so-called singulative ( ا��_�ة ا9^ ʾism-u l-waḥdah lit. "noun of unity"). These singulative nouns in turn can be pluralized, using either the

broken plural or the sound feminine plural in -āt; 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:

[_ ḥajar "rocks" or "rock" (the material in general); ة[_ ḥajarah "a rock"■[� šajar "trees"; ة[� šajarah "a tree"; ʾašjār (3 to 10) "trees"■`%� qamḥ "wheat", ��%� qamḥah "a grain of wheat"■� baqar "cattle"; ة� baqarah "a cow"■

A similar singulative ending ي ī applies to human or other sentient beings:

��> jund "army"; ي��> jundī "a soldier"■"> jinn "genies, jinns"; L�> jinnī "a genie"■aCز zinj "black people" (as a race); ([Cز zinjī "a black person"■

Nisba

The Nisba (� 3��ا an-nisbah) is a common suffix to form adjectives of relation or pertinence. The suffix

is Lـ -iyy- for masculine and ـ�� -iyya(t)- for feminine gender (in other words, it is -iyy- and is inserted

before the gender marker).

E. g. ن�� Lubnān(u) "Lebanon",■LC�� lubnāniyy "Lebanese (singular masculine)",■��C�� lubnāniyyah "Lebanese (singular feminine)",■■"��C�� lubnāniyyūn "Lebanese (plural masculine)ن■."��C�� lubnāniyyāt "Lebanese (plural feminine)ت

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 اك��-al اištirāk "partnership, cooperation, participation (definite)", اآ�� al-ištirākiyyah is the Arabic word ا

for "socialism," and the word "socialist" (both as an adjective and as the term for one who believes in

socialism) is Lاآ��.ištirākiyy in the masculine and ištirākiyyah in the feminine ا

The Arabic nisbah has affected some English adjectives of Arabic or related origin: Iraqi, Kuwaiti, etc.



Participles and verbal nouns

Every verb has associated active and passive participles, as well as a verbal noun (ر-.� maṣdar, lit. "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 jihād (from the Form III verb jāhada

"to strive"); intifāḍa (lit. "uprising", the feminine of the verbal noun of the Form VIII verb intafāḍa "to

rise up"); Islām (lit. "submission", from a Form IV verb); istiqlāl (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 faʿʿāl, e.g. kattāb

"scribe". Some of these nouns have the meaning of "person who habitually does X" rather than an

occupation as such, e.g. kaððāb "liar".

The active participle can also be used to form occupational nouns, e.g. ṭālib "student" (from ṭalaba "to

ask"). Sometimes the variant form faʿīl is seen in place of the normal Form I active participle fāʿil, e.g.

wazīr "minister", safīr "ambassador", šahīd "martyr" (cf. šāhid "witness").

Nouns of place

A common type of derivational noun is the noun of place, with a form mafʿal or similar, e.g. maktab,

maktaba "library" (from kataba "to write"); maṭbax "kitchen" (from ṭabaxa "to cook"); masraḥ

"theater" (from saraḥa "to release"). Nouns of place formed from verbs other than Form I have the

same form as the passive participle, e.g. mustašfan "hospital" (from the Form X verb istašfā "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 ʾismu ʾālatin lit. "noun of tool") were traditionally formed using a prefix mi-. Examples are miftāḥ "key" (from fataḥ "to open"); minhāj "road" (from nahaja "to pursue"); miktal "large basket" (from katala "to gather"); miktal "large basket" (from katala "to gather"); mīzān

"balance (i.e. scales)" (from wazana "to weigh"); miksaḥa "broom" (from kasaḥa "to sweep").



However, the current trend is to use a different form faʿʿāla. This is in origin a feminine occupational

noun (e.g. kattāla "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. naððārah "telescope, eyeglasses" (naðara "to look"); θallājah "refrigerator" (θalaja "to

freeze quickly" < θalj "snow"); dabbāsah "stapler"; dabbābah "tank" (dababa "to crawl").

Nouns of unity

Diminutives

Diminutives (al-ʾismu l-muṣaġġaru) usually follow a pattern fuʿayl or similar (fuʿaylil if there are four

consonants). Examples are kulayb "little dog" (kalb "dog"); bunayy "little son" (ibn "son"); Ḥusayn

"Hussein" (ḥasan "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", ṣuġayyar "small" < Classical ṣaġīr "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 fuʿay-. (f�ila < fuʿaylah; f�iyyel < fuʿayyal; f�ilel < fuʿaylil.)

Adverb

ẓarf /�فAdverbials are expressed using adjectives in the indefinite accusative, often written with the ending �ـ (e.g. �cأ� ayḍan "also") but pronounced "-an" even if it's not written (see accusative), e.g.: اءةأ ا��8ب ��e�f qaraʾa al-kitāba qirāʾatanananan baṭīʾatanananan, literally: "he read the book a slow reading"; i.e., "He read the

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: ا �Cدرا ,kaṯīran frequently, a lot, often آ'�nādiran rarely, �.ǧiddan very <�ا ,ʿādatan usually ��دة :ʾawwalan firstly or from nouns أو

The second method to form adverbs is to use a preposition and a noun, e. g. ـ bi-, e.g. ��3 bi-surʿa(ti) swift, "with speed", h c�� bi-ḍ-ḍabṭ(i) exactly



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 Singular Dual Plural

1st ʾanā (�Cأ) naḥnu ("�C)

2ndmasculine ʾanta (ICأ) ʾantumā (�%�Cأ)

ʾantum (^�Cأ)

feminine ʾanti (ICأ) ʾantunna ("�Cأ)

3rdmasculine huwa (ه�) humā (�%ه)

hum (^ه)

feminine hiya (Lه) hunna ("ه)

Informal Arabic tends to avoid the dual forms ʾantumā �%�Cأ and humā �%ه. The feminine plural forms

ʾantunna "�Cأ and hunna "ه are likewise avoided, except by speakers of conservative colloquial

varieties that still possess separate feminine plural pronouns.

Enclitic pronouns

Enclitic forms of personal pronouns (�0.�$� aḍ-ḍamāʾir ul-muttaṣila(tu)) are affixed to various ا�2$��1 ا

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 ʾanna "that ...", liʾanna "because ...", (wa)lākinna "but ...",

ʾinna (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 ʾaḫawāt ʾinna ات إن�jأ (lit. "sisters of ʾinna".)

■

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

Person Singular Dual Plural

1st -nī/-ī/-ya Lـ -nā ـ��

2ndmasculine -ka kـ -kumā �%8ـ

-kum ^8ـ

feminine -ki kـ -kunna "8ـ

3rdmasculine -hu/-hi Kـ -humā/-himā �%Jـ

-hum/-him ^Jـ

feminine -hā �Jـ -hunna/-hinna "Jـ



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, -ā, -u, -ū, -aw), while -hi occurs after vowels ending in i (-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 kitāb "book", pl. kutub: kitāb-ī "my book" (all cases), kutub-ī "my books" (all cases),

kitābā-ya "my two books (nom.)", kitābay-ya "my two books (acc./gen.)"

■

From kalimah "word", pl. kalimāt: kalimat-ī "my word" (all cases), kalimāt-ī "my

words" (all cases)

■

From dunyā "world", pl. dunyayāt: dunyā-ya "my world" (all cases), dunyayāt-ī "my

worlds" (all cases)

■

From qāḍin "judge", pl. quḍāh: qāḍiy-ya "my judge" (all cases), quḍāt-ī "my judges" (all

cases)

■

From muʿallim "teacher", pl. muʿallimūn: muʿallim-ī "my teacher" (all cases), muʿallimiy-ya

"my teachers" (all cases, see above)

■

From ʾab "father": ʾabū-ya "my father (nom.)" (or is it assimilated?), ʾabā-ya "my father

(acc.)", ʾabiy-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 ʾinna" can use either form (e.g. ʾinna-nī or ʾinn-ī), but the longer form (e.g. ʾinna-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. katab-tumū-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:



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

"to", indirect object li- lī laka lahu"in", "with", "by" bi- bī bika bihi"in" fī fiyya fīka fīhi"to" ʾilā ʾilayya ʾilayka ʾilayhi"on" ʿalā ʿalayya ʿalayka ʿalayhi"with" maʿā maʿāya maʿāka maʿāhu"from" min minnī minka minhu"on", "about" ʿan ʿannī ʿanka ʿanhu

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:

ʾilā "to" and ʿalā "on" have irregular combining forms ʾilay-, ʿalay-; but other pronouns with

the same base form are regular, e.g. maʿā "with".

■

li- "to" has an irregular combining form la-, but bi- "in, with, by" is regular.■min "from" and ʿan double the final n before -ī. (This should be interpreted as having an

irregular stem with doubled n, rather than unexpected use of -nī. 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 consonant-

initial endings, e.g. kitāb-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 ismi-ka, depending on the behavior of the speaker's native variety).

Demonstratives

There are two demonstratives (ء ا�34رة�$ ʾasmāʾ al-ʾišāra(ti)), near-deictic ('this') and far-deictic أ

('that'):

"This, these"



Gender Singular Dual Plural

Masculinenominative

hāḏā اAهhāḏāni انAه

hāʾulāʾ(i) ء�Dهaccusative/genitive hāḏayni "�Aه

Femininenominative

hāḏih(i) lAه hātāni ه��ن

accusative/genitive hātayni "ه��


Masculinenominative

ḏālik(a) k�ذhātāni ه��ن

ʾulāʾik(a) ke�أوaccusative/genitive hātayni "ه��

Femininenominative

tilka k�Ztānika kC�Z

accusative/genitive taynika k��Z

"That, those"

The dual forms are only used in very formal Arabic.

Some of the demonstratives (hāḏā, hāḏihi, hāḏāni, hāḏayni, hātāni, hātayni, hāʾulāʾi, ḏālika, and

ʾulāʾika should be pronounced with a long "ā", although the unvocalised script doesn't contain an alif (ا). They have letter ـ "dagger alif" (��[�j ��أ ʾalif ḫanǧariyyah), 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":


Masculine

nominative ḏū ḏawā ḏawū, ʾulūaccusative ḏā ḏaway ḏawī, ʾulī

genitive ḏī

Feminine

nominative ḏātu ḏawātā ḏawātu, ʾulātuaccusative ḏāta ḏawātī ḏawāti, ʾulāti

genitive ḏāti

"Owner of ..."

This form is not used in Modern Standard Arabic.

Note that the demonstrative and relative pronouns were originally built on this word. hāḏā, for example,

was originally composed from the prefix hā- "this" and the masculine accusative singular ḏā; similarly,

ḏālika was composed from ḏā, an infixed syllable -li-, and the clitic suffix -ka "you". These

combinations had not yet become completely fixed in Koranic Arabic and other combinations



sometimes occurred, e.g. ḏāka, ḏālikum. Similarly, the relative pronoun al-laḏī was originally

composed based on genitive singular ḏī, and the old Arab grammarians noted the existence of a separate

nominative plural form al-laḏūna in the speech of the Huḏayl tribe in Koranic times.

This word also shows up in Hebrew, e.g. masculine zeh < ḏī, feminine masculine zot < ḏāt-, plural �eleh

< ʾulī.

Relative pronoun

The relative pronoun is conjugated as follows:


Masculinenominative

al-laḏī يA�اal-laḏāni انA��ا al-laḏīn(a) "�A�ا

accusative/genitive al-laḏayni "�A��ا

Femininenominative

al-latī L��اal-latāni ا��ن al-lātī LZ��ا

accusative/genitive al-latayni "��ا

Relative pronoun ("who, that, which")

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-laðī tatakallamtu maʿā-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 -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 a circumfix /ma-...-ʃ(i)/ for negation (from Classical

■



mā ... šayʾ "not ... a thing", composed of three 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 iyyā- 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 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", 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

ʾanta, ʾanti, and (n)iḥna "we" occurs in place of naḥnu.

■

Numerals

Cardinal numerals

Numbers behave in a quite complicated fashion. "wāḥid-" "one" and "ʾiṯnān-" "two" are adjectives,

following the noun and agreeing with it. "ṯalāṯat-" "three" through "ʿašarat-" "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. "ʾaḥada ʿašarah" "eleven" through "tisʿata ʿašarah" "nineteen" require a

following noun in the accusative singular, agree with the noun in gender, and are invariable for case,

except for "ʾiṯnā ʿašarah/ʾiṯnay ʿašara" "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: ʾalfāni wa-tisʿu miʾatin wa-ṯnatā ʿašratan sanatan "2,912 years"

Formal: baʿda ʾalfayni wa-tisʿi miʾatin wa-ṯnatay ʿašratan sanatan "after 2,912 years"

Spoken: (baʿda) ʾalfayn wa-tisʿ miyya wa-ʾiṯnaʿšar sana(tan) "(after) 2,912 years"



Cardinal numerals (�&0"6ا�6-اد ا al-ʾaʿdād al-ʾaṣliyyah) from 0-10. Naught is ṣifr, from which the words

"cipher" and "zero" are ultimately derived.

0 ٠ ṣifr (&,)■1 ١ wāḥid(un) (�_وا)■2 ٢ ʾiṯnān(i) (ن��rإ)■3 ٣ ṯalāṯa(tun) (�r�r)■4 ٤ ʾarbaʿa(tun) (��أر)■5 ٥ ḫamsa(tun) (�3%j)■6 ٦ sitta(tun) (��9)■7 ٧ sabʿa(tun) (�� 9)■8 ٨ ṯamāniya(tun) (��C�%r)■9 ٩ tisʿa(tun) (��3Z)■10 ١٠ ʿašara(tun) (ةz�)■

The endings in brackets are dropped in less formal Arabic and in pausa. Note that ة (tāʾ marbūṭah) is

pronounced as simple /a/ in this cases. There are cases when -t in ة must be pronounced but not the rest

of the ending.

in oblique cases. This form is also commonly used in a less (ʾiṯnayn(i)) إis changed to "��r (ʾiṯnān(i)) إ��rن

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. ṯalāṯu fatayātin (ت��) ث�r) 'three 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 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 z� 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 InformalMasculine nominative

Masculine oblique

Feminine nominative

Feminine oblique

11aršaʿada ḥaʾ أ_� )

z�)adaḥaʾ ʿašara ratanšaʿ ādḥiʾ

12ʾiṯnā ʿašar ( ��rإ z�)

ʾiṯnā ʿašara ʾiṯnay ʿašara ʾiṯnatā ʿašratan ʾiṯnatay ʿašratan

13ṯalāṯata ʿašar (z� �r�r)

ṯalāṯata ʿašara ṯalāṯa ʿašratan



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:

ʿišrūna "20" through tisʿūna "90" decline as masculine plural nouns■miʾat- "100" (�e!, formerly �{�!) declines as a feminine singular noun■ʾalf- "1000" (��أ) 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 ʿišrūn(a) (ونz�) (dual of 10)■21 wāḥidun wa-ʿišrūn(a) (ونzوا_� و�)■22 ʾiṯnāni wa-ʿišrūn(a) ( ون إ��rنzو� )■23 ṯalāṯatu wa-ʿišrūn(a) (ونzو� �r�r)■30 ṯalāṯūn(a) (ن�Z�r)■40 ʾarbaʿūn(a) (ن��أر)■

miʾat- "100" and ʾalf- "1000" can themselves be modified by numbers (to form numbers such as 200 or

5,000) and will be declined appropriately. For example, miʾatāni "200" and ʾalfāni "2,000" with dual

endings; ṯalāṯatu ʾālāfin "3,000" with ʾalf in the plural genitive, but ṯalāṯu miʾatin "300" since miʾat- appears 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.:

ʾalfun wa-tisʿu miʾatin wa-tisʿu sinīn(a) "1,909 years"■baʿda ʾalfin wa-tisʿi miʾatin wa-tisʿi sinīn(a) "after 1,909 years"■ʾarbaʿatun wa-tisʿūna ʾalfan wa-ṯamānī-miʾatin wa-ṯalāṯun wa-sittūna sanat(an) "94,863

years"

■

baʿda ʾarbaʿatin wa-tisʿīna ʾalfan wa-ṯamānī-miʾatin wa-ṯalāṯin wa-sittīna sanat(an) "after 94,863 years"

■

ʾiṯnā ʿašara ʾalfan wa-miʾatāni wa-ṯnatāni wa-ʿišrūna sanat(an) "12,222 years"■baʿda ṯnay ʿašara ʾalfan wa-miʾatayni wa-ṯnatayni wa-ʿišrīna sanat(an) "after 12,222

years"

■

ʾiṯnā ʿašara ʾalfan wa-miʾatāni wa-sanatān(i) "12,202 years"■baʿda ṯnay ʿašara ʾalfan wa-miʾatayni wa-sanatayn(i) "after 12,202 years"■

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

ʾalfu laylatin wa-laylat(un) (1001 nights) ��أ�� و■

Fractions of a whole smaller than "half" are expressed by the structure sg. fiʿl (+�)), pl. ʾafʿāl (ل��)أ).

half niṣf(un)(��C)■



one-third ṯulṯ(un)(B�r)■two-thirds ṯulṯān(i)(ن�'�r)■one-fourth rubʿ(un)(=ر)■three-fourths ṯalaṯatu arbāʿ(in) ( �r�r ع�أر )■etc.■

Ordinal numerals

Ordinal numerals (�&7&�� al-ʾaʿdād at-tartiyabiyyah) higher than "second" are formed using the ا�6-اد ا

structure fāʿil(un), fāʿila(tun):m. أول ʾawwal(u), f. (�أو ʾūlā "first"■m. ن�r ṯānin (definite form: LC�'�ا aṯ-ṯāniyy), f. ��C�r ṯāniyya(tun) "second"■m. B��r ṯāliṯ(un), f. �'��r ṯāliṯa(tun) "third"■m. =را rābiʿ(un), f. ��را rābiʿa(tun) "fourth"■m. @!�j ḫāmis(un), f. �3!�j ḫāmisa(tun) "fifth"■m. �9دس sādis(un), f. �9�9د sādisa(tun) "sixth"■m. =�9 sābiʿ(un), f. ��9 sābiʿa(tun) "seventh"■m. "!�r ṯāmin(un), f. ��!�r ṯāmina(tun) "eighth"■m. =9�Z tāsiʿ(un), f. ��9�Z tāsiʿa(tun) "ninth"■m. �� ʿāšir(un), f. ة�� ʿāšira(tun) "tenth"■

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.

Verb (Classical Arabic)

Introduction

The verb in Arabic (!�8 fiʿl), 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-ʾ "read", ʾ-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":



Active Passive

Past Present Imperative Past Present

kataba "he wrote"yaktubu "he

writes"

ʾiktub "write!

(sg.)"

kutiba "it was

written"

yuktabu "it is

written"

kattaba "he caused

to write"

yukattibu "he

causes to write"

kattib "cause to

write! (sg.)"

kuttiba "he was

made to write"

yukattabu "he is

made to write"

takātaba "he

corresponded (with someone, mutually)"

yatakātabu "he

corresponds (with someone, mutually)"

takātab

"correspond (with someone, mutually)! (sg.)"

tukūtiba "he was

corresponded (with)"

yutakātabu "he

is corresponded (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-ʿ-l to indicate the particular shape of any given element of a

verbal paradigm. As an example, the form yutakātabu "he is corresponded (with)" would be listed

generically as yutafāʿalu, 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.



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 non-past 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. -ūna for masculine plural indicative vs. -ū 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-ʿ-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 ḥ-m-r "red" for Form IX, which is limited to colors and physical defects):



Form Past Meaning Non-past Meaning

I kkkkattttabbbba "he wrote" yaktktktktubbbbu "he writes"

II kkkkattttttttabbbba "he made (someone) write" yukkkkattttttttibbbbu "he makes (someone) write"

III kkkkāttttabbbba "he corresponded with, wrote to (someone)"

yukkkkāttttibbbbu "he corresponds with, writes to (someone)"

IV ʾaktktktktabbbba "he dictated" yuktktktktibbbbu "he dictates"

V takkkkattttttttabbbba nonexistent yatakkkkattttttttabbbbu nonexistent

VI takkkkāttttabbbba "he corresponded (with someone, esp. mutually)"

yatakkkkāttttabbbbu "he corresponds (with someone, esp. mutually)"

VII inkkkkattttabbbba "he subscribed" yankkkkattttibbbbu "he subscribes"

VIII ikkkktattttabbbba "he copied" yakkkktattttibbbbu "he copies"

IX iḥḥḥḥmmmmarrrrrrrra "he turned red" yaḥḥḥḥmmmmarrrrrrrru "he turns red"

X istaktktktktabbbba "he asked (someone) to write" yastaktktktktibbbbu "he asks (someone) to write"

The main types of weakness are as follows:

Weakness RootPast, 3Sg

MascPast, 1Sg

Present, 3Sg Masc

Present, 3Pl Fem

Sound (Non-Weak) k-t-b "to write" kataba katabtu yaktubu yaktubnaAssimilated (First-Weak), W

w-j-d "to find" wajada wajadtu yajidu yajidnaAssimilated (First-Weak), Y

y-b-s "to dry" yabisa yabistu yaybasu yaybasnaHollow (Second-Weak), W

q-w-l "to say" qāla qultu yaqūlu yaqulnaHollow (Second-Weak), Y

s-y-r "to travel,

go"sāra sirtu yasīru yasirna

Defective (Third-Weak), W

d-ʿ-w "to call" daʿā daʿawtu yadʿū yadʿūnaDefective (Third-Weak), Y

r-m-y "to

throw"ramā ramaytu yarmī yarmīna

Doubledm-d-d "to

extend"madda madadtu yamuddu yamdudna

Main weakness varieties for Form I, with verbs in the active indicative

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 (Hآ�) "to

write". Final short vowels that are part of the formal paradigm but often omitted in speech are given in



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)kataba (yaktubu)kataba (yaktubu)kataba (yaktubu) "to write"



PastPresent

IndicativeFuture

IndicativeSubjunctive Jussive

Long Energetic

ShortEnergetic

Active

Singular

1st

katab----tttt(u)(u)(u)(u)

ʾʾʾʾaaaa----ktub----((((u)u)u)u)

sasasasa----ʾʾʾʾaaaa----ktub----((((u)u)u)u)

ʾʾʾʾaaaa----ktub----((((a)a)a)a) ʾʾʾʾaaaa----ktub

ʾʾʾʾaaaa----ktub----annaannaannaanna

ʾʾʾʾaaaa----ktub

----anananan

Iآ� H�أآ 9H|آ� H�أآ Hأآ� "أآ� "

2nd

masculine

katab----tttt(a)(a)(a)(a)

tatatata----ktub----((((u)u)u)u)

sasasasa----tatatata----ktub----((((u)u)u)u)

tatatata----ktub----((((a)a)a)a)

tatatata----ktub

tatatata----ktub----annaannaannaanna

tatatata--------anananan

Iآ� �8ZH �8�9H H�8Z �8ZH �8Z" "

feminine

katab----titititi

tatatata----ktub----īīīīn(a)n(a)n(a)n(a)

sasasasa----tatatata----ktub----īīīīn(a)n(a)n(a)n(a) tatatata----ktub----īīīī tatatata----

ktub----īīīītatatata----ktub----innainnainnainna

tatatata--------inininin

Iآ� �8Z� " �8�9� " �8ZL �8Z L �8Z" "

3rd

masculine

katab----((((a)a)a)a)

yayayaya----ktub

----((((u)u)u)u)sasasasa----yayayaya----ktub----((((u)u)u)u)

yayayaya----ktub----((((a)a)a)a)

yayayaya----ktub

yayayaya----ktub

----annaannaannaannayayayaya----ktub

anananan

H�آ �8�H �8�9H H�8� �8�H �8�" "

feminine

katab----atatatat

tatatata----ktub----((((u)u)u)u)

sasasasa----tatatata----ktub----((((u)u)u)u)

tatatata----ktub----((((a)a)a)a)

tatatata----ktub

tatatata----ktub----annaannaannaanna

tatatata--------anananan

Iآ� �8ZH H�8Z H�8Z �8ZH �8Z" "Dual

2ndmasculine

& feminine

katab----tumtumtumtumāāāā

tatatata----ktub----āāāān(i)n(i)n(i)n(i)

sasasasa----tatatata----ktub----āāāān(i)n(i)n(i)n(i) tatatata----ktub----āāāā tatatata----

ktub----āāāātatatata----ktub----āāāānninninninni –



�%�آ� �8Z� ن ن �8�9� �8Z� �8Z � �8Zن� –

3rd

masculine

katab----āāāā

yayayaya----ktub

----āāāān(i)n(i)n(i)n(i)sasasasa----yayayaya----ktub----āāāān(i)n(i)n(i)n(i)

yayayaya----ktub----āāāā

yayayaya----ktub----āāāā

yayayaya----ktub

----āāāānninninninni –

�آ� �ن8�� ن �8�9� �8�� 8� � �ن8�� –

feminine

katab----atatatatāāāā

tatatata----ktub----āāāān(i)n(i)n(i)n(i)

sasasasa----tatatata----ktub----āāāān(i)n(i)n(i)n(i) tatatata----ktub----āāāā tatatata----

ktub----āāāātatatata----ktub----āāāānninninninni –

��آ� �8Z� ن ن �8�9� �8Z� �8Z � �8Zن� –

Plural

1st

katab----nnnnāāāā

nananana----ktub

----((((u)u)u)u)sasasasa----nananana----ktub----((((u)u)u)u)

nananana----ktub----((((a)a)a)a)

nananana----ktub

nananana----ktub

----annaannaannaannanananana----ktub

anananan

��آ� �8CH �8�9H H�8C �8CH �8C" "

2nd

masculine

katab----tumtumtumtum

tatatata----ktub----ūūūūn(a)n(a)n(a)n(a)

sasasasa----tatatata----ktub----ūūūūnnnn(a)(a)(a)(a)

tatatata----ktub----ūūūū tatatata----ktub----ūūūū

tatatata----ktub----unnaunnaunnaunna

tatatata--------unununun

�آ� �8Z� ن ن �8�9� �8Zا� �8Z ا� �8Z" "

feminine

katab----tunnatunnatunnatunna

tatatata----ktub----nananana

sasasasa----tatatata----ktub----nananana



tatatata----ktub----nnnnāāāānninninninni –

"�آ� �8Z" �8�9" �8Z" �8Z " �8Z� ن� –



3rd

masculine

katab----ūūūū

yayayaya----ktub

----ūūūūn(a)n(a)n(a)n(a)sasasasa----yayayaya----ktub----ūūūūnnnn(a)(a)(a)(a)

yayayaya----ktub----ūūūū

yayayaya----ktub----ūūūū

yayayaya----ktub

----unnaunnaunnaunnayayayaya----ktub

unununun

�اآ� ن �8�� ن �8�9� �ا8�� ا 8�� 8�" "

feminine

katab----nananana

yayayaya----ktub

----nanananasasasasa----yayayaya----ktub----nananana

yayayaya----ktub----nananana

yayayaya----ktub----nananana

yayayaya----ktub

----nnnnāāāānninninninni –

"آ� �8�" �8�9" �8�" �8� " �ن 8�� –

Passive

Singular

1st

kutib----tttt(u)(u)(u)(u)

ʾʾʾʾuuuu----ktab----((((u)u)u)u)

sasasasa----ʾʾʾʾuuuu----ktab

----((((u)u)u)u)ʾʾʾʾuuuu----ktab----((((a)a)a)a) ʾʾʾʾuuuu----ktab

ʾʾʾʾuuuu----ktab----annaannaannaanna

ʾʾʾʾuuuu----ktab

----anananan

Iآ� H�أآ 9H|آ� H�أآ Hأآ� "أآ� "

2nd

masculine

kutib----tttt(a)(a)(a)(a)

tutututu----ktab----((((u)u)u)u)

sasasasa----tutututu----ktab----((((u)u)u)u)

tutututu----ktab----((((a)a)a)a) tutututu----ktab

tutututu----ktab----annaannaannaanna

tutututu--------anananan

Iآ� �8ZH �8�9H H�8Z �8ZH �8Z" "

feminine

kutib----titititi tutututu----ktab----īīīīn(a)n(a)n(a)n(a)

sasasasa----tutututu----ktab----īīīīn(a)n(a)n(a)n(a) tutututu----ktab----īīīī tutututu----ktab

----īīīītutututu----ktab----innainnainnainna

tutututu--------inininin

Iآ� �8Z� " �8�9� " �8ZL �8Z L �8Z" "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 ū.■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.■



In unvocalised Arabic, katabtu, katabta, katabti and katabat are all written the same: I آ�. 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.

.is silent (ū-) ـ�ا in final (ʾalif) ا

Tense

The main tenses in Arabic are the past tense (�9�$� .(al-muḍāriʿ ا�$�2رع) al-māḍī) and the present tense اThe future tense in Classical Arabic is formed by adding either the prefix 9ـ sa- or the separate word

sawfa �9ف �sawfa onto the beginning of the present tense verb, e.g. H�8�9 sa-yaktubu or H�8 �9فyaktubu "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 kāna "to be" with the present tense or

active participle, e.g. kāna yaktubu or kāna kātibun "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"■qaraʾa yaqraʾu "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 ʾ ʿ h ḥ■past: i; non-past: a■past: u; non-past: u■



Mood

�� ḥālahModal forms can be derived from the imperfective stem: the subjunctive (ب�.<� manṣūb) by (roughly

speaking) replacing the final vowel by a, the jussive (وم#>� maǧzūm) by dropping this a of the

subjunctive. In a less formal Arabic and in spoken dialects, verbs in the indicative mood (�8ع�� marfūʿ ) have shortened endings, identical to subjunctive and jussive.

The imperative ( ا��6 "&?� ṣīġat ul-ʾamr(i)) (positive, only 2nd person) is formed by dropping the verbal

prefix from the imperfective jussive stem, e.g. م�� qaddim "present!". If the result starts with two

consonants followed by a vowel ("a" or "i"), an elidible ʾalif is added to the beginning of the word,

usually pronounced as "i", e.g. +3� ifʿal "do!" if the present form vowel is "u", then ا(�+ ʾiġsil "wash!" or ا

the alif is also pronounced as "u", e.g. Hأآ� ʾuktub "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. +9أر ʾarsil "send!", 5] �6أ]ʾaḍif "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 tafʿalu 'you are doing'■subjunctive an tafʿala 'that you do'■jussive lā tafʿal 'do not!'■energic tafʿalanna■imperative ifʿal 'do!'.■

Voice

�?&" ṣīġahArabic has two verbal voices, active (�0م�$�) ṣīġat ul-maʿlūm), and passive "&?� ا ا�$<�Aل "&?� ṣīġat ul-maǧhūl). The passive voice is expressed by a change in vocalization. For example:

active +�) faʿala 'he did', +�&� yafʿalu 'he is doing' +�)■passive +�) fuʿila 'it was done', +�&� yufʿalu 'it is being done' +�)■

Notice that active and passive forms are spelled identically in Arabic.

Weak roots

Roots containing one or two of the radicals w (wāw), y (yāʾ ) or ʾ (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



case of hamzah, these peculiarities are mainly orthographical, since hamzah is not subject to elision

(the orthography of hamzah and ʾalif 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 faʿala (yafʿulu) type. See notes following the table for explanation.

Paradigm of a form I doubled Arabic verb, madda (yamuddu)madda (yamuddu)madda (yamuddu)madda (yamuddu) "to extend"



PastPresent


Long Energetic

Short Energetic

Singular

1st

madad-

tu

�a-

mudd-u

�a-mudd-

a

�a-mudd-a, �a-

mudd-i, �a-mdud

�a-mudd-

anna

�a-

mudd-

an

–

!�دت أ!� أ!� !�أ, أ!�,أ!�د أ!�ن أ!�ن –

2nd

masculine

madad-

ta

ta-

mudd-u

ta-mudd-

a

ta-mudd-a, ta-

mudd-i, ta-mdud

ta-mudd-

anna

ta-

mudd-

an

mudd

-i, u

!�دت �%Z �%Z Z,�%Z ,�%Z%�د Z%�ن �%Zن �!

feminine

madad-

ti

ta-

mudd-

īna

ta-mudd-

īta-mudd-ī

ta-mudd-

inna

ta-

mudd-

in

mudd

!�دت �%Z"� Z%�ي Z%�ي Z%�ن �%Zن !�ي

3rd

masculine

madd-aya-

mudd-u

ya-mudd

-a

ya-mudd-a, ya-

mudd-i, ya-

mdud

ya-mudd

-anna

ya-

mudd-

an

–

�! �%� �%� �%�, �%�,�%�د �%�ن ن�%� –

feminine

madd-

at

ta-

mudd-u

ta-mudd-

a

ta-mudd-a, ta-

mudd-i, ta-mdud

ta-mudd-

anna

ta-

mudd-

an

–

!�ت �%Z �%Z Z,�%Z ,�%Z%�د Z%�ن �%Zن –

Dual



2ndmasculine

& feminine

madad-

tumā

ta-

mudd-

āni

ta-mudd-

āta-mudd-ā

ta-mudd-

ānni– mudd

Z�د!%� �%Zان Z%�ا Z%�ا Z%�ان – !�ا

3rd

masculine

madd-ā

ya-

mudd-

āni

ya-mudd

-āya-mudd-ā

ya-mudd

-ānni– –

!�ا ن�%�ا �%�ا �%�ا �%�ان – –

feminine

madd-

atā

ta-

mudd-

āni

ta-mudd-

āta-mudd-ā

ta-mudd-

ānni– –

Z�!� �%Zان Z%�ا Z%�ا Z%�ان – –

Plural

1st

madad-

nā

na-

mudd-u

na-mudd

-a

na-mudd-a, na-

mudd-i, na-

mdud

na-mudd

-anna

na-

mudd-

an

–

C�د!� �%C �%C C,�%C ,�%C%�د C%�ن C%�ن –

2nd masculine

madad-

tum

ta-

mudd-

ūna

ta-mudd-

ūta-mudd-ū

ta-mudd-

unna

ta-

mudd-

un

mudd

Z�د! �%Zون Z%�وا Z%�وا Z%�ن �%Zن !�وا



feminine

madad-

tunna

ta-

mdud-

na

ta-mdud-

nata-mdud-na

ta-mdud-

nānni– umdud

Z�د!" نZ%�د Z%�دن Z%�دن C�د%Zن� – ا!�دن

3rd

masculine

madd-ū

ya-

mudd-

ūna

ya-mudd

-ūya-mudd-ū

ya-mudd

-unna

ya-

mudd-

un

–

!�وا ن�%�و �%�وا �%�وا �%�ن ن�%� –

feminine

madad-

na

ya-

mdud-

na

ya-mdud

-naya-mdud-na

ya-mdud

-nānni– –

!�دن ن�%�د �%�دن �%�دن Cن�%�د� – –

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 non-past 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.



The are various types of doubled Form I verbs:

Modified past stem

(3rd sing. masc.)

Regular past stem

(3rd plur. fem.)

Modified non-past stem

(3rd sing. masc.)

Regular past stem

(3rd plur. fem.)

MeaningSound verb

parallel

madd-a madad-na ya-mudd-u ya-mdud-na "to extend"

faʿala (yafʿulu)tamm-a tamam-na ya-timm-u ya-tmim-na "to finish" faʿala (yafʿilu)ẓall-a ẓalil-na ya-ẓall-u ya-ẓlal-na "to

remain"faʿila (yafʿalu)

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:



Past stem (3rd sing.

masc.)

Non-past stem

(3rd sing. masc.)

Imperative (masc. sing.)

Meaning Sound verb parallel

wajad-a yajid-u jid "to find" faʿala (yafʿilu)

wariθ-a yariθ-u riθ ?

faʿila (yafʿilu) (rare normally, but in assimilated verbs,

rather more common than faʿila (yafʿalu))

waḍaʿ-a yaḍaʿ-u ḍaʿ "to put" faʿala (yafʿalu)

wajil-a yawjal-u ījal ?

faʿila (yafʿalu) (rare case where w is preserved

in non-past)

yasar-a yaysir-u īsir ?

faʿala (yafʿilu) (y is normally preserved

in non-past)

yabis-a yaybas-u ības "to be/become dry"

faʿila (yafʿalu) (y is normally preserved

in non-past)

wadd-a (wadid-tu) yadd-u īdad ?

faʿila (yafʿalu) (also a doubled verb)

waliy-a yalī li "to protect"faʿila (yafʿilu) (also a defective verb)

Hollow (second-weak) roots

The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I hollow (second-weak) verb qāla (qultu, yaqūlu) "to say", parallel to verbs of the faʿala (yafʿulu) type. See notes following the table for explanation.

Paradigm of a hollow (second-weak) Arabic verb, qqqqāāāāla (qultu, yaqla (qultu, yaqla (qultu, yaqla (qultu, yaqūūūūlu)lu)lu)lu) "to say"



PastPresent


Long Energetic

Short Energetic

Imperative

Singular

1st

qul-tu �a-qūl-u �a-qūl-a �a-qul�a-qūl-

anna

�a-qūl-

an–

I�� أ��ل أ��ل أ�+ أ��" "أ�� –

2nd

masculine

qul-ta ta-qūl-u ta-qūl-a ta-qulta-qūl-

anna

ta-qūl-

anqul

I�� Z��ل Z��ل +�Z ��Z" ��Z"� +�

feminine

qul-tita-qūl-

īnata-qūl-ī ta-qūl-ī

ta-qūl-

inna

ta-qūl-

inqūl-ī

I�� Z"� ��ZL ��ZL� ��Z" ��Z"� L��

3rd

masculine

qāl-a ya-qūl-u ya-qūl-a ya-qulya-qūl-

anna

ya-qūl-

an–

��ل ��ل ��ل +�� " ��" –

feminine

qāl-at ta-qūl-u ta-qūl-a ta-qulta-qūl-

anna

ta-qūl-

an–

I�� Z��ل Z��ل +�Z ��Z" ��Z"� –

Dual

2ndmasculine

& feminine

qul-

tumā

ta-qūl-

ānita-qūl-ā

ta-qūl-

ā

ta-qūl-

ānni– qūl-ā

��% ��Zن� ��Z� ��Z�� Zن� – ��



3rd

masculine

qāl-āya-qūl-

āniya-qūl-ā

ya-qūl-

ā

ya-qūl-

ānni– –

�� ن�� ن�� – –

feminine

qāl-atāta-qūl-

ānita-qūl-ā

ta-qūl-

ā

ta-qūl-

ānni– –

�� Zن� ��Z� ��Z�� Zن� – –

Plural

1st

qul-nā na-qūl-u na-qūl-a na-qulna-qūl-

anna

na-qūl-

an–

�� C��ل C��ل +�C "��C ��C" –

2nd

masculine

qul-

tum

ta-qūl-

ūnata-qūl-ū

ta-qūl-

ū

ta-qūl-

unna

ta-qūl-

unqūl-ū

�� Zن� ��Zا� ��Zا�� Z" ��Z"� ��ا

feminine

qul-

tunna

ta-qul-

nata-qul-na

ta-qul-

na

ta-qul-

nānni– qul-na

��" ��Z" "��Z ��Z" ��Zن� – "��

3rd

masculine

qāl-ūya-qūl-

ūnaya-qūl-ū

ya-qūl-

ū

ya-qūl-

unna

ya-qūl-

un–

ا�� ن�� ا�� ا�� " ��" –

feminine qul-naya-qul-

naya-qul-na

ya-qul-

na

ya-qul-

nānni– –



"�� "�� "�� " �ن�� – –

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 ā 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:

qāla qulna (yaqūlu yaqulna) "to say", formed from verbs with w as their second root

consonant and parallel to verbs of the faʿala (yafʿulu) type

■

sāra sirna (yasīru yasirna) "to say", formed from verbs with y as their second root

consonant and parallel to verbs of the faʿala (yafʿilu) type

■

xāfa xufna (yaxāfu yaxafna) "to fear", formed from verbs with w as their second root

consonant and parallel to verbs of the faʿila (yafʿalu) type

■

nāma nimna (yanāmu yanamna) "to sleep", formed from verbs with y as their second root

consonant and parallel to verbs of the faʿila (yafʿalu) type

■

The passive paradigm of all Form I hollow verbs is as follows:

qīla qilna (yuqālu yuqalna) "to be said"■

Defective (third-weak) rootsfafafafaʿʿʿʿā ā ā ā ((((yafyafyafyafʿʿʿʿīīīī))))The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I defective (third-weak) verb ramā (yarmī) "to

throw", parallel to verbs of the faʿala (yafʿilu) type. See notes following the table for explanation.

Paradigm of a defective (third-weak) yyyy Arabic verb, ramramramramā ā ā ā ((((yarmyarmyarmyarmīīīī)))) "to throw"



PastPresent


Long Energetic

Short Energetic

Imperative

Singular

1st

ramay-

tu�a-rmī �a-rmiy-a �a-rmi

�a-rmiy-

anna

�a-rmiy

-an–

I�!ر L!أر L!أر أرم أر!�" "أر!� –

2nd

masculine

ramay-

tata-rmī ta-rmiy-a ta-rmi

ta-rmiy-

anna

ta-rmiy

-ani-rmi

I�!ر L!Z L!Z مZ �!Z" �!Z" ارم

feminine

ramay-

ti

ta-rm-

īnata-rm-ī ta-rm-ī

ta-rm-

inna

ta-rm-

ini-rm-ī

I�!ر �!Z" L!Z L!Z "!Z "!Z L!ار

3rd

masculine

ram-ā ya-rmīya-rmiy-

aya-rmi

ya-rmiy-

anna

ya-

rmiy-

an

–

ر!� L!� L!� م� �!�" �!�" –

feminine

ram-at ta-rmī ta-rmiy-a ta-rmita-rmiy-

anna

ta-rmiy

-an–

I!ر L!Z L!Z مZ �!Z" �!Z" –

Dual

2ndmasculine

& feminine

ramay-

tumā

ta-rmiy-

ānita-rmiy-ā

ta-rmiy

-ā

ta-rmiy-

ānni– i-rmiy-ā



�%ر!�� !Zن� �!Z� �!Z� �!Zن� – �ار!�

3rd

masculine

ramay-āya-rmiy

-āni

ya-rmiy-

ā

ya-

rmiy-ā

ya-rmiy-

ānni– –

ر!�� !�ن� �!�� !�� !�ن� – –

feminine

ram-atāta-rmiy-

ānita-rmiy-ā

ta-rmiy

-ā

ta-rmiy-

ānni– –

ر!�� !Zن� �!Z� �!Z� �!Zن� – –

Plural

1st

ramay-

nāna-rmī

na-rmiy-

ana-rmi

na-rmiy-

anna

na-

rmiy-

an

–

�ر!�� L!C L!C مC �!C" �!C" –

2nd

masculine

ramay-

tum

ta-rm-

ūnata-rm-ū ta-rm-ū

ta-rm-

unna

ta-rm-

uni-rm-ū

ر!�� !Zن !�اZ �!Zا "!Z "!Z ار!�ا

feminine

ramay-

tunna

ta-rmī-

nata-rmī-na

ta-rmī-

na

ta-rmī-

nānni– i-rmī-na

"ر!�� !Z" �!Z" �!Z" �!Z��ن – ار!�"

3rd masculine ram-awya-rm-

ūnaya-rm-ū

ya-rm-

ū

ya-rm-

unna

ya-rm-

un–



ر!�ا �!ن� !�ا� �!ا� "!� "!� –

feminine

ramay-

na

ya-rmī-

na

ya-rmī-

na

ya-rmī-

na

ya-rmī-

nānni– –

ر!�" �!�" �!�" �!�" ��!�ن� – –

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 -ū -ī. The full non-past stem rmiy- appears as rmī- 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-ā "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 -rmī 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).

■

fafafafaʿʿʿʿā ā ā ā ((((yafyafyafyafʿʿʿʿūūūū))))The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I defective (third-weak) verb daʿā (yadʿū) "to call",

parallel to verbs of the faʿala (yafʿulu) type. Verbs of this sort are entirely parallel to verbs of the faʿā (yafʿī) type, although the exact forms can still be tricky. See notes following the table for explanation.

Paradigm of a defective (third-weak) wwww Arabic verb, dadadadaʿʿʿʿā ā ā ā ((((yadyadyadyadʿʿʿʿūūūū)))) "to call"



PastPresent


Long Energetic

Short Energetic

Imperative

Singular

1st

da�aw-tu �a-d��ū�a-d�uw-

a�a-d��u

�a-d�uw-

anna

�a-d�uw

-an–

د��ت أد�� أد�� أدع أد��ن أد��ن –

2nd

masculine

da�aw-ta ta-d��ūta-d�uw-

ata-d��u

ta-d�uw-

anna

ta-d�uw

-anu-d�u

د��ت ��Z ��Z Z�ع Z��ن ��Zن ادع

feminine

da�aw-ti ta-d�-īna ta-d�-ī ta-d�-ī ta-d�-inna ta-d�-in u-d�-ī

د��ت ��Z" L��Z L��Z "��Z "��Z L�اد

3rd

masculine

da�-ā ya-d��ūya-d�uw-

aya-d��u

ya-d�uw-

anna

ya-d�uw

-an–

د�� ع ��ن ن�� –

feminine

da�-at ta-d��ūta-d�uw-

ata-d��u

ta-d�uw-

anna

ta-d�uw

-an–

I�د ��Z ��Z Z�ع Z��ن ��Zن –

Dual

2ndmasculine

& feminine

da�aw-

tumā

ta-d�uw-

āni

ta-d�uw-

ā

ta-d�uw

-ā

ta-d�uw-

ānni–

u-d�uw

ā

Z��د%� ��Zان ��Zا ��Zا نZ��ا – اد��ا



3rd

masculine

da�aw-āya-d�uw-

āni

ya-d�uw-

ā

ya-d�uw

-ā

ya-d�uw-

ānni– –

د��ا ان�� ا�� ا�� ن��ا – –

feminine

da�-atāta-d�uw-

āni

ta-d�uw-

ā

ta-d�uw

-ā

ta-d�uw-

ānni– –

د�� Zان ��Zا ��Zا نZ��ا – –

Plural

1st

da�aw-

nāna-d��ū

na-d�uw-

ana-d��u

na-d�uw-

anna

na-d�uw

-an–

C��د� ��C ��C C�ع C��ن ��Cن –

2nd

masculine

da�aw-

tumta-d�-ūna ta-d�-ū ta-d�-ū

ta-d�-

unnata-d�-un u-d�-ū

Z��د ��Zن Z��ا ��Zا "��Z "��Z اد��ا

feminine

da�aw-

tunnata-d�ū-na ta-d�ū-na

ta-d�ū-

na

ta-d�ū-

nānni– u-d�ū-na

Z��د" ��Zن Z��ن ��Zن C��Zن� – اد��ن

3rd

masculine

da�-awya-d�-

ūnaya-d�-ū ya-d�-ū

ya-d�-

unna

ya-d�-

un–

د��ا ��ن ��ا ا�� "�� "�� –

feminineda�aw-

na

ya-d�ū-

na

ya-d�ū-

na

ya-d�ū-

na

ya-d�ū-

nānni– –



د��ن ��ن ��ن ن�� C��ن� – –

Verbs of this sort are work nearly identically to verbs of the faʿā (yafʿī) 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 daʿaw-, shortened to daʿ-.■In the non-past, the full stem is dʿuw-, rendered as dʿū- when not before a vowel and

shortened to dʿ- before -ū -ī.■

In the Arabic script, the most important things to note are:

In the third person masculine singular past, regular ʾalif appears instead of ʾalif maqṣūrah:

hence ��د not *(�د.■

The otiose final ʾalif appears only after the final wāw of the plural, not elsewhere: hence ��Z "you (masc. sg.) call (indic.)" but ��اZ "you (masc. pl.) call (subj.)", even though they are both

pronounced tadʿū.

■

fafafafaʿʿʿʿiya (yafiya (yafiya (yafiya (yafʿʿʿʿāāāā))))The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I defective (third-weak) verb nasiya (yansā) "to

call", parallel to verbs of the faʿila (yafʿalu) type. These verbs differ in a number of significant respects

from either of the above types.

Paradigm of a defective (third-weak) aaaa Arabic verb, nasiya (yansnasiya (yansnasiya (yansnasiya (yansāāāā)))) "to forget"



PastPresent


Long Energetic

Short Energetic

Imperative

Singular

1st

nasī-tu �a-nsā �a-nsā �a-nsa�a-nsay-

anna

�a-nsay-

an–

�3CI (3Cأ (3Cأ @Cأ �3Cأ" �3Cأ" –

2nd

masculine

nasī-ta ta-nsā ta-nsā ta-nsata-nsay-

anna

ta-nsay-

ani-nsa

�3CI 3�Z( (3�Z @�Z 3�Z"� 3�Z"� @Cا

feminine

nasī-tita-nsa-

ynata-nsa-y

ta-nsa-

y

ta-nsa-

yinna

ta-nsa-

yini-nsa-y

�3CI 3�Z"� L3�Z 3�ZL 3�Z"� 3�Z"� L3Cا

3rd

masculine

nasiy-a ya-nsā ya-nsā ya-nsaya-nsay-

anna

ya-nsay

-an–

L3C 3��( (3�� @�� 3��" 3��"� –

feminine

nasiy-

atta-nsā ta-nsā ta-nsa

ta-nsay-

anna

ta-nsay-

an–

�3CI 3�Z( (3�Z @�Z 3�Z"� 3�Z"� –

Dual

2ndmasculine

& feminine

nasī-

tumā

ta-nsay-

ānita-nsay-ā

ta-nsay

-ā

ta-nsay-

ānni– i-nsay-ā

�3C��% 3�Z��ن �3�Z� 3�Z�� 3�Z��ن – �3Cا�



3rd

masculine

nasiy-āya-nsay

-āni

ya-nsay-

ā

ya-

nsay-ā

ya-nsay-

ānni– –

�3C� ن3�� 3�� 3�� ن3�� – –

feminine

nasiy-

atā

ta-nsay-

ānita-nsay-ā

ta-nsay

-ā

ta-nsay-

ānni– –

�3C�� 3�Z��ن �3�Z� 3�Z�� 3�Z��ن – –

Plural

1st

nasī-nā na-nsā na-nsā na-nsana-nsay-

anna

na-nsay

-an–

�3C�� 3�C( (3�C @�C �3�C" 3�C"� –

2nd

masculine

nasī-

tum

ta-nsa-

wnata-nsa-w

ta-nsa-

w

ta-nsa-

wunna

ta-nsa-

wuni-nsa-w

�3C� 3�Z�ن �3�Zا 3�Z�ا 3�Z�ن 3�Z�ن �3Cاا

feminine

nasī-

tunna

ta-nsay-

na

ta-nsay-

na

ta-nsay

-na

ta-nsay-

nānni–

i-nsay-

na

�3C�" 3�Z"� �3�Z" 3�Z�" 3�Z��ن� – �3Cا"

3rd masculine

nas-ūya-nsa-

wnaya-nsa-w

ya-nsa-

w

ya-nsa-

wunna

ya-nsa-

wun–

�3Cا �ن3�� ا3�� ا3�� ن3�� ن3�� –



feminine

nasī-naya-nsay

-na

ya-nsay-

na

ya-

nsay-

na

ya-nsay-

nānni– –

�3C" 3��"� �3��" 3��" ن3�� – –

Multiple stems

This variant is somewhat different from the variants with -ī or -ū in the non-past. As with other third-

weak 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-ū "they (masc.) forgot". All

other forms are constructed regularly, using the full stem nasiy- or its automatic pre-

consonant variant nasī-.

■

In the non-past, however, there are at least three different stems:■

The full stem -nsay- occurs before -a/ā- or -n-, that is before dual endings, feminine plural

endings and energetic endings corresponding to forms that are endingless in the jussive.

1.

The modified stem -nsā 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.

2.

Before endings normally beginning with -i/ī- or -u/ū-, the stem and endings combine together into

a shortened form: e.g. expected *ta-nsay-īna "you (fem. sg.) forget", *ta-nsay-ūna "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 < *-īna, -wna < *-ūna. Similarly subjunctive/jussive ta-nsaw < *ta-nsay-ū; but note energetic ta-nsawunna < *ta-nsay-unna, where the original *-yu- has assimilated to -wu-. Consistent with the above analysis, we analyze this form as ta-nsa-wunna, 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.

3.

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

-nsā 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).

■



In the forms that would normally have suffixes -i/ī- or -u/ū-, 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 iḥmarra "be red,

become red, blush", Form XI iḥmārra 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 f–ʿ–l ( ل–ع–ف ),

based on the verb faʿala "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 faʿala 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 faʿlala. 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 faʿlaqa.

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

tafaʿʿala form".



Verbs Derived nouns

Active voice Passive voiceActive

participlePassive

participleVerbal noun

Past (3rd sg.

masc.)

Present (3rd sg. masc.)

Imperative (2nd sg. masc.)

Past (3rd sg.

masc.)


Sg. masc. nom.

I

faʿala yafʿulu ufʿul

fuʿila yufʿalu fāʿil mafʿūl

faʿl, fuʿūl, fiʿl, fuʿl(ah), faʿāl(ah), fiʿāl(ah), etc.

faʿala yafʿilu ifʿil

faʿala yafʿalu ifʿal

faʿila yafʿalu ifʿal

faʿila yafʿilu ifʿil



faʿula yafʿulu ufʿul

II faʿʿala yufaʿʿilu faʿʿil fuʿʿila yufaʿʿalu mufaʿʿil mufaʿʿal tafʿīl

III fāʿala yufāʿilu fāʿil fūʿila yufāʿalu mufāʿil mufāʿal mufāʿalah, fiʿāl

IV ʾafʿala yufʿilu ʾafʿil ʾufʿila yufʿalu mufʿil mufʿal ʾifʿāl



V tafaʿʿala yatafaʿʿalu tafaʿʿal tufuʿʿila yutafaʿʿalu mutafaʿʿil mutafaʿʿal tafaʿʿul

VI tafāʿala yatafāʿalu tafāʿal tufūʿila yutafāʿalu mutafāʿil mutafāʿal tafāʿul

VII infaʿala yanfaʿilu infaʿil (unfuʿila) (yunfaʿalu) munfaʿil munfaʿal infiʿāl

VIII iftaʿala yaftaʿilu iftaʿil uftuʿila yuftaʿalu muftaʿil muftaʿal iftiʿāl



IX ifʿalla yafʿallu ifʿalil (ufʿulla) (yufʿallu) mufʿall n/a ifʿilāl

X istafʿala yastafʿilu istafʿil ustufʿila yustafʿalu mustafʿil mustafʿal istifʿāl

XI ifʿālla yafʿāllu ifʿālil n/a mufʿāll n/a ifʿīlāl

XII ifʿawʿala yafʿawʿilu ifʿawʿil ??ufʿulila yufʿawʿalu mufʿawʿil mufʿawʿal ifʿīʿāl

XIII ifʿawwala yafʿawwilu ifʿawwil ufʿuwwila yufʿawwalu mufʿawwil mufʿawwal ifʿiwwāl



XIV ifʿanlala yafʿanlilu ifʿanlil ufʿunlila yufʿanlalu mufʿanlil mufʿanlal ifʿinlāl

XV ifʿanlā yafʿanlā ifʿanla ufʿunliya yufʿanlā mufʿanlin mufʿanlan ifʿinlāʾ

Iq faʿlaqa yufaʿliqu faʿliq fuʿliqa yufaʿlaqu mufaʿliq mufaʿlaqfaʿlaqat, occ. faʿlāqfiʿlāq

IIq tafaʿlaqa yatafaʿlaqu tafaʿlaq tufuʿliqa yutafaʿlaqu mutafaʿliq mutafaʿlaq tafaʿluq

IIIq ifʿanlaqa yafʿanliqu ifʿanliq tufʿunliqa yutafʿanlaqu mufʿanliq mufʿanlaq ifʿinlāq



IVq ifʿalaqqa yafʿaliqqu ifʿalqiq tufʿuliqqa yutafʿalaqqu mufʿaliqq mufʿalaqq ifʿilqāq

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 (و), y (ي) or the glottal stop ʾ (�) (also known by the

Arabic names of the corresponding letters, which are wāw, yāʾ 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 ð ṣ ṭ ḍ ð�, the combination of root and infix t appears as dd zd ðð ṣṭ ṭṭ ḍṭ ð�ð�. That is, the t assimilates the emphasis of the emphatic consonants ṣ ṭ ḍ ð� and the voicing of d z, and assimilates

entirely to the interdental consonants ð ð�. Note also the unexpected combination ḍṭ, as in iḍṭarra

"compel, force"; this reflects the fact that ṭ was formerly pronounced voiced, and ḍ was pronounced as

the emphatic equivalent not of d but of an unusual lateral sound. (ḍ was possibly an emphatic voiced

alveolar lateral fricative /ɮˤ/ or a similar affricated sound /dɮˤ/ or /dˡˤ/; see the article on the letter ḍād.)

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

faʿā (yafʿī) verbs except for Forms V and VI, which have past-tense endings like faʿā (yafʿī) verbs but

non-past endings like faʿiya (yafʿā) verbs. The passive-voice endings of all third-weak verbs (whether

Form I or derived) are the same as for the faʿiya (yafʿā) 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 VII–X.



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, iʿmāya

"be/become blind", which does not follow the expected form *iʿmayya.[6] They also list a similarly rare

Form XI verb iʿmāyya "be/become blind" — this time with the expected form.

Verbs Derived nouns


participlePassive


Past (3rd sg. masc.)





Sg. masc. nom.

I

faʿā yafʿī ifʿi

fuʿiya yufʿā fāʿin

mafʿiyyfaʿy, faʿw, faʿan, fiʿan, faʿāʾ, fāʿiyah, fiʿāyah, faʿāwah, mafʿāh, mafʿiyah, fuʿyah, fuʿwah, fuʿuww, fuʿwān etc.

faʿā yafʿū ufʿu mafʿuww

faʿiya yafʿā ifʿa mafʿiyy

II faʿʿā yufaʿʿī faʿʿi fuʿʿiya yufaʿʿā mufaʿʿin mufaʿʿan tafʿiyah

III fāʿā yufāʿī fāʿi fūʿiya yufāʿā mufāʿin mufāʿan mufāʿiyah, fiʿāʾ

IV ʾafʿā yufʿī ʾafʿi ʾufʿiya yufʿā mufʿin mufʿan ʾifʿāʾV tafaʿʿā yatafaʿʿā tafaʿʿa tufuʿʿiya yutafaʿʿā mutafaʿʿin mutafaʿʿan tafaʿʿinVI tafāʿā yatafāʿā tafāʿa tufūʿiya yutafāʿā mutafāʿin mutafāʿan tafāʿinVII infaʿā yanfaʿī infaʿi (unfuʿī) (yunfaʿā) munfaʿin munfaʿan infiʿāʾVIII iftaʿā yaftaʿī iftaʿi uftuʿiya yuftaʿā muftaʿin muftaʿan iftiʿāʾ

IXifʿāya (ifʿayaytu?)

yafʿāyu (yafʿayna?) ifʿay? — — mufʿāy — ifʿiyāʾ

X istafʿā yastafʿī istafʿi ustufʿiya yustafʿā mustafʿin mustafʿan istifʿāʾ



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 Derived nouns


participlePassive







Sg. masc. nom.

I

fāla (filtu) yafīlu fil

fuwila yufālu fāʾil

mafīlusually fawl, fayl; also fūl, fawāl, fiyāl(ah), fiwāl, fuwāl, mafāl(ah), mafīl etc.

fāla (fultu) yafūlu ful mafūl

fāla (filtu) yafālu fal mafīl

fāla (fultu) yafālu fal mafūl

IVʾafāla (ʾafaltu) yufīlu ʾafil ʾufīla yufālu mufīl mufāl ʾifālah

VIIinfāla (infaltu) yanfālu infal n/a munfāl munfāl infiyāl

VIIIiftāla (iftaltu) yaftālu iftal uftīla yuftālu muftāl muftāl iftiyāl

X istafāla yastafīlu istafil ustufīla yustafālu mustafīl mustafāl istifālah

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 ū ī, 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 ʿilah (e.g. ṣilah "arrival, link" from waṣalah

"arrive"), with the initial w missing entirely.



Verbs Derived nouns


participlePassive







Sg. masc. nom.

I

waʿala yaʿulu ʿul

wuʿila yūʿalu wāʿil- mawʿūd-waʿl, wuʿūl, ʿilah

etc.

waʿala yaʿilu ʿilwaʿala yaʿalu ʿalwaʿila yaʿalu ʿalwaʿila yaʿilu ʿilwaʿula yaʿulu ʿul

IV ʾawʿala yūʿilu ʾawʿil ʾūʿila yūʿalu mūʿil- mūʿal- ʾīʿāl-VIII ittaʿala yattaʿilu ittaʿal uttuʿila yuttaʿalu muttaʿil- muttaʿal- ittiʿāl-

X istawʿala yastawʿilu istawʿil ustūʿila yustawʿalu mustawʿil-

mustawʿal- istīʿāl-

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 Derived nouns


participlePassive


Past (3rd sg.

masc.)





Sg. masc. nom.

I

yaʿala yayʿulu ūūūūʿʿʿʿulululul

yuʿila yyyyūūūūʿʿʿʿalualualualu yāʿil- mayʿūd- yaʿl- etc.

yaʿala yayʿilu īīīīʿʿʿʿililililwaʿala yayʿalu īīīīʿʿʿʿalalalalwaʿila yayʿalu īīīīʿʿʿʿalalalalwaʿila yayʿilu īīīīʿʿʿʿililililwaʿula yayʿulu ūūūūʿʿʿʿulululul

IV ʾayʿala yyyyūūūūʿʿʿʿiluiluiluilu ʾayʿil ʾʾʾʾūūūūʿʿʿʿilailailaila yyyyūūūūʿʿʿʿalualualualu mmmmūūūūʿʿʿʿilililil---- mmmmūūūūʿʿʿʿalalalal---- ʾʾʾʾīīīīʿʿʿʿāāāāllll----VIII ittaittaittaittaʿʿʿʿalaalaalaala yattayattayattayattaʿʿʿʿiluiluiluilu ittaittaittaittaʿʿʿʿalalalal uttuuttuuttuuttuʿʿʿʿilailailaila yuttayuttayuttayuttaʿʿʿʿalualualualu muttamuttamuttamuttaʿʿʿʿilililil---- muttamuttamuttamuttaʿʿʿʿalalalal---- ittiittiittiittiʿʿʿʿāāāāllll----

X istayʿala yastayʿilu istayʿil ustustustustūūūūʿʿʿʿilailailaila yustayʿalu mustayʿil- mustayʿal- ististististīīīīʿʿʿʿāāāāllll----



Doubled verbs

Verbs Derived nouns


participlePassive







Sg. masc. nom.

I

falla (falaltu) yafullu fulla, fulli,

uflul

fulla yufallu fāll- maflūl- fall- etc.

falla (falaltu) yafillu filla, filli, iflil

falla (falaltu) yafallu falla, falli,

iflalfalla (faliltu) yafallu falla, falli,

iflal

III fālla yufāllu fālla, fālli, fālil fūlla yufāllu mufāll- mufāll- mufāllat

-, filāl-

IV ʾafalla yufillu ʾafilla, ʾafilli, ʾaflil ʾufilla yufallu mufill- mufall- ʾiflāl-

VI tafālla yatafāllu tafālil tufūlla yutafāllu mutafāll- mutafāll- tafāll-

VII infalla yanfalla infalla, infalli, infalil n/a munfall- munfall- infilāl-

VIII iftalla yaftalla iftalla, iftalli, iftalil uftulla yuftallu muftall- muftall- iftilāl-

X istafalla yastafilluistafilla, istafilli, istaflil

ustufilla yustafallu mustafill- mustafall- istiflāl-

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 �ā �ī �ū). 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.■



In addition, any place where a hamzatu l-waṣl (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 ʾakala "eat", ʾaxada "take", ʾamara "command" have irregular, short

imperatives kul, xud, mur.■

Form VIII of the common verb ʾaxada "take" is ittaxada "take on, assume", with irregular

assimilation of the hamza.

■

The common verb saʾala yasʾalu "ask" has an alternative non-past yasalu with missing

hamza.

■

Verbs Derived nouns


participlePassive







Sg. masc. nom.

I ʾaʿala yaʾʿulu (ʾāʿulu) uʾʿul, ūʿul ʾuʿila yuʾʿalu

(ʾūʿalu) ʾāʿil maʾʿūl- ʾaʿl- etc.

etc.

IV ʾāʿala yuʾʿilu (ʾūʿilu) ʾāʿil ʾūʿil yuʾʿalu

(ʾūʿalu) muʾʿil- muʾʿal- ʾīʿāl-

VIIIiʾtaʿala, ītaʿala

yaʾtaʿilu (ʾātaʿilu) iʾtaʿil, ītaʿil uʾtuʿila,

ūtuʿilayuʾtaʿala (ʾūtaʿala) muʾtaʿil- muʾtaʿal- iʾtiʿāl-,

ītiʿāl-

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. waqā yaqī "guard", wafā yafī "complete, fulfill (a promise)", waliya yalī "be near, follow". Note that

these verbs have extremely short imperatives qi fi li (feminine qī fī lī, masculine plural qū fū lū, 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 ʾawfā yūfī "fulfill a vow",

Form VIII ittafā yattafī "fear (God)", both augmentations of wafā yafī (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

■



hamza, e.g. the common verb ʾatā yaʾtī "come" (first singular non-past ʾātī "I come") and the

related Form IV verb ʾātā yuʾtī "bring" (first singular non-past ʾūtī "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. rawā yarwī "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. ʾajja yaʾujju "burn",

first singular non-past ʾaʾujju "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 jāʾa yajīʾu "come". The only irregularity is the

Form I active participle, e.g. jāʾin "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 *jāʾiʾ).

■

The extremely common verb raʾā yarā "see". The hamza drops out entirely in the non-past.

Similarly in the passive, ruʾiya yurā "be seen". The active participle is regular rāʾin and the

passive participle is regular marʾiyy-. The related Form IV verb ʾarā yūrī "show" is missing

the hamza throughout. Other augmentations are regular: Form III rāʾā yurāʾī "dissemble",

Form VI tarāʾā yatarāʾā "look at one another", Form VIII irtaʾā yartaʾī "think".

■

The common verb ḥayiya yaḥyā "live", with an alternative past tense ḥayya. Form IV ʾaḥyā yuḥyī "resuscitate, revive" is regular. Form X istaḥyā yastaḥyī "spare alive, feel ashamed"

also appears as istaḥayya and istaḥā.

■

Summary of vowels

The vowels for the various forms are summarized in this table:




participlePassive




Past (3rd sg.

masc.)


Before first root

consonant (if vowel is present)

a in Forms IV-VI. In Forms VII-XII one has i when the hamza is not elided.

a except in Forms II-IV, where it's u.

u

u, and a after the t of Forms V and VI

u

u except in Form I where it's a.

a in Forms II, V, and VI. In Forms VII-XII one has i when the hamza is not elided.

Just before 2nd root

consonant

a, ā, or none

a, ā, or none

u, ū, or none

a, ā, or none

a, ā, or none

a, ā, or none

i, a, ā, or none

Just before third root consonant

a

Form I a, i, or u. a in Forms V, VI, and IX, i in others.

i a

i except in Form IX where it's a.

a except in Form I where it's ū.

ī in Form II, u in Forms V and VI, ā elsewhere

After final root

consonant, 3rd person

sing. indicative

a u a u 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. muʿallim

'teacher' is the active participle to stem II. of the root ʿ-l-m ('know').

The active participle to Stem I is fāʿil, and the passive participle is mafʿūl.■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-faʿʿil, and passive mu-faʿʿal').

■



Verbal noun (maṣṣṣṣdar)

In addition to a participle, there is a verbal noun (in Arabic, ر-.� maṣdar, 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 tafʿīl. For example: taḥḍīr 'preparation' is the verbal noun to stem

II. of ḥḥḥḥ----ḍḍḍḍ----rrrr ('to be present').

■

stem III often forms its verbal noun with the feminine form of the passive participle, so for

sāʿada, "he helped", produces the verbal noun musāʿadah. There are also some verbal noun

of the form fiʿāl: ǧāhada, "he strove", yields ǧihād (a struggle for a cause or purpose).

■

Some well-known examples of verbal nouns are fatḥ (see Fatah) (Form I), tanẓīm (Form II), jihād

(Form III), �islām (Form IV), intifāḍah (feminine of Form VIII verbal noun), and istiqlāl (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, kátab/yíktib "write"



Tense/Mood Past Present Subjunctive Present Indicative Future Imperative

Singular

1st katáb-t á-ktib bá-ktib ḥá-ktib

2ndmasculine katáb-t tí-ktib bi-tí-ktib ḥa-tí-ktib í-ktib

feminine katáb-ti ti-ktíb-i bi-ti-ktíb-i ḥa-ti-ktíb-i i-ktíb-i

3rdmasculine kátab yí-ktib bi-yí-ktib ḥa-yí-ktib

feminine kátab-it tí-ktib bi-tí-ktib ḥa-tí-ktib

Plural

1st katáb-na ní-ktib bi-ní-ktib ḥá-ní-ktib

2nd katáb-tu ti-ktíb-u bi-ti-ktíb-u ḥa-ti-ktíb-u i-ktíb-u

3rd kátab-u yi-ktíb-u bi-yi-ktíb-u ḥa-yi-ktíb-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 feminine-plural 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 -īn -ūn 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 ḥa-, Levantine raḥ-, Moroccan ɣa(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 it- derived 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 (��iḍḍḍḍāfah)

A noun may be defined more closely by a subsequent noun in the genitive (�)�6إ ʾiḍāfah, literally "an

addition"). The relation is hierarchical; the first term (ف�c%�ا al-muḍāf) governs the second term (

إ��K ا�%�cف al-muḍāf ilayhi). E. g. +>ر I� baytu raǧul(in) 'the house of a man', 'a man's house'. The



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 ʾiḍāfah being used as the equivalent of nominal composition in some Indo-European

languages (which does not exist in Arabic). � �f�ا I� baytu-ṭ-ṭalabati thus may mean either 'house of the

(certain, known) students' or 'the student hostel'.

Note: ة (tāʾ marbūṭah) 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, ��%> I� "bint(un) ǧamīla(tun)" "a beautiful girl" but ��%[�ا I� �ا "al-bintu l-ǧamīla(tu)" "the beautiful girl". (Compare ��%> I� �ا "al-bint(u) ǧamīla(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 إن ʾinna ~"indeed". Examples are +�%> ICأ kCإ "ʾinnaka anta ǧamīlun" "You are beautiful indeed" or إن ا�3%�ء زر��ء "ʾinna s-samāʾa zarqāʾu" "The sky is blue

indeed". (In older texts, "ʾinna" was translated "verily".)

"ʾinna", along with its "sister" terms أن "ʾanna" ("that", as in "I think that ..."), "ʾinna" ("that" after

��ل/��ل qāla/yaqūlu "say"), "8�و "(wa-)lākin(na)" "but" and آ|ن "kaʾanna" "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. arā-hā "I see her". Possessive pronouns are

likewise attached to the noun they modify, e.g. "kitābu-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".



See also

Arabic language■Irab ( ابإ� )■Literary Arabic■Varieties of Arabic■Arabic alphabet■Quranic Arabic Corpus■Romanization of Arabic■WikiBook: Learn Arabic■

References

^ Goodchild, Philip. Difference in Philosophy of Religion, 2003. Page 153.1.^ Sayce, Archibald Henry. Introduction to the Science of Language, 1880. Page 28.2.^ Alaa Elgibali and El-Said M. Badawi. Understanding Arabic: Essays in Contemporary Arabic Linguistics in Honor of El-Said M. Badawi, 1996. Page 105.

3.

^ Wright, William. A Grammar of the Arabic language. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 147. ISBN 1843560283.

4.

^ Note: When a verb in Arabic ends with a vowel, the vowel is replaced with the corresponding short vocal when converted into imparitive.

5.

^ Possibly, iʿmāya is contracted from *iʿmayaya using the same process that produces hollow verbs. A

dictionary of modern written Arabic (Hans Wehr, J. Milton Cowan) also lists a supposed Form IX defective

verb irʿawā "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.

6.

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

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learn arabic grammar (http://www.arabic-keyboard.org/arabic) ■Arabic Grammars book (http://www.al3arabiya.info/search/label/Arabic%20Grammar?&max-results=10)

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