Arabic
grammar

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Arabic grammar (Arabic: نحو عربي‎ naḥw ‘arabī or قواعد اللغة العربية qawā‘id al-lughah al-‘arabīyah) is the
grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic
is a Semitic language and
its grammar has many similarities with the grammar of other
Semitic languages.

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 Nouns and
adjectives

5 Pronouns

5.1 Personal pronouns

5.1.1 Enclitic
pronouns

5.1.1.1 Variant
forms

5.1.1.2 Pronouns with
prepositions

5.1.1.3 Less formal
pronominal forms

5.2 Demonstratives

5.3 Relative
pronoun

5.4 Colloquial
varieties

6 Numerals

6.1 Cardinal
numerals

6.2 Ordinal
numerals

7 Verbs

8 Prepositions

9 Syntax

9.1 Genitive construction
(iḍāfah)

9.2 Word order

9.3 inna

9.4 Other

10 Reform

11 See also

12 References

13 External
links

History[edit]

The identity of the oldest Arabic grammarian is disputed; some sources state
that it was Abu-Aswad
al-Du'ali, who established diacritical marks and vowels
for Arabic in the mid-600s,
though none of his works have survived.[1]
Others have said that the earliest grammarian would have been Ibn Abi
Ishaq (died AD 735/6, AH 117).[2]

The schools of Basra and Kufa further developed grammatical
rules in the late 700s with the rapid rise of Islam.[3][4]
From the school of Basra, generally regarded as being founded by Abu Amr ibn
al-Ala,[5]
two representatives laid important foundations for the field: Al-Khalil
ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi authored the first Arabic dictionary and book of
Arabic prosody authored
the first book on theories of Arabic grammar.[1]
From the school of Kufa, Al-Ru'asi is universally
acknowledged as the founder, though his own writings are considered lost,[6][7]
with most of the school's development undertaken by later authors. The efforts
of al-Farahidi and Sibawayh consolidated Basra's reputation as the analytic
school of grammar, while the Kufan school was regarding as the guardian of Arabic
poetry and Arab culture.[2]
The differences were polarizing in some cases, with early Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn
`Isa at-Tirmidhi favoring the Kufan school due to its concern with poetry as
a primary source.[8]

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

Division[edit]

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

al-lughah اللغة (language/lexicon)
concerned with collecting and explaining vocabulary.

al-taṣrīf التصريف (morphology)
determining the form of the individual words.

al-naḥw النحو (syntax) primarily
concerned with inflection (i‘rāb) which had already been
lost in dialects.

al-ishtiqāq الاشتقاق (derivation)
examining the origin of the words.

al-balāghah البلاغة (rhetoric) which
elucidates construct[clarification
needed] quality.

The grammar or grammars of contemporary varieties of Arabic
are a different question. Said
M. Badawi, an expert on Arabic grammar, divided Arabic grammar into five
different types based on the speaker's level of literacy and the degree to
which the speaker deviated from Classical Arabic.
Badawi's five types of grammar from the most colloquial to the most formal are
Illiterate Spoken Arabic (عامية الأميين ‘āmmīyat al-ummīyīn), Semi-literate Spoken
Arabic (عامية المتنورين ‘āmmīyat al-mutanawwirīn),
Educated Spoken Arabic (عامية المثقفين ‘āmmīyat al-muthaqqafīn), Modern Standard
Arabic (فصحى العصر fuṣḥá al-‘aṣr), and Classical Arabic (فصحى
التراث fuṣḥá al-turāth).[10]

Phonology[edit]

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 al-waṣl (همزة الوصل), 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, ـَ a fatḥah (فتحة) /a/, ـِ a kasrah (كسرة) /i/
or ـُ a ḍammah (ضمة) /u/.
If the preceding word ends in a sukūn (سكون) (i.e. not followed by a
short vowel), the hamzat al-waṣl assumes a
kasrah /i/.
Symbol ـّ shaddah (شدة) indicates
a gemination or consonant doubling. See more in Tashkīl.

Nouns and
adjectives[edit]

Main article: Arabic nouns and
adjectives

Arabic
noun chart

In Classical Arabic, nouns and adjectives are declined according to case,
state, gender and number. In colloquial or spoken Arabic, there are number of
simplifications such as loss of certain final vowels and loss of case. A number
of derivational processes exist for forming new nouns and adjectives. Adverbs
can be formed from adjectives.

Pronouns[edit]

Personal pronouns[edit]

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

anā أنا

naḥnu نحن

2nd

masculine

anta أنت

antumā أنتما

antum أنتم

feminine

anti أنت

antunna
أنتنّ

3rd

masculine

huwa هو

humā هما

hum هم

feminine

hiya هي

hunna
هنّ

Informal Arabic tends to avoid the dual forms antumā أنتما and humā هما. The feminine plural forms
antunna أنتنّ and hunna هنّ are likewise avoided, except
by speakers of conservative colloquial varieties that still possess separate
feminine plural pronouns.

Enclitic pronouns[edit]

Enclitic forms of personal
pronouns (الضمائر المتصلة al-ḍamā’ir al-muttaṣilah) are affixed
to various parts of speech, with varying meanings:

To the construct state of
nouns, where they have the meaning of possessive demonstratives, e.g. "my,
your, his"

To verbs, where they have the meaning of direct object pronouns, e.g. "me,
you, him"

To prepositions, where they have the meaning of objects of the
prepositions, e.g. "to me, to you, to him"

To conjunctions and particles like anna "that ...", li-anna "because ...", (wa)lākinna "but ...", inna (topicalizing particle), where
they have the meaning of subject pronouns, e.g. "because I ...", "because you
...", "because he ...". (These particles are known in Arabic as akhawāt inna أخوات إنّ (lit. "sisters of
inna".)

If a word ends on a vowel and the enclitic form personal pronoun is -ī
(e.g. ra´aytanī "you saw me"), an extra -n- will be added between the word and
the enclitic form so that there won´t be a hiatus between two vowels.

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

Person

Singular

Dual

Plural

1st

-nī/-ī/-ya ـي

-nā ـنا

2nd

masculine

-ka ـك

-kumā ـكما

-kum ـكم

feminine

-ki ـك

-kunna ـكن

3rd

masculine

-hu/-hi ـه

-humā/-himā
ـهما

-hum/-him
ـهم

feminine

-hā ـها

-hunna/-hinna
ـهن

Variant forms[edit]

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 mu‘allim
'teacher', pl. mu‘allimūn: mu‘allim-ī  'my teacher'
(all cases), mu‘allimī-ya  'my
teachers'  (all cases, see above)

From ab  'father':
abū-ya  'my father'
(nom.) (or is it assimilated?), abā-ya  'my father' (acc.),
abī-ya  'my father'
(gen.)

Prepositions use -ī/-ya, even though in
this case it has the meaning of "me" (rather than "my"). The "sisters of inna" can use either form (e.g. inna-nī or inn-ī), but the longer form (e.g.
inna-nī) is usually preferred.

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

Pronouns with
prepositions[edit]

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

fīya

fīka

fīhi

"to"

ilá

ilayya

ilayka

ilayhi

"on"

‘alá

‘alayya

‘alayka

‘alayhi

"with"

ma‘a

ma‘ī

ma‘aka

ma‘ahu

"from"

min

minnī

minka

minhu

"on", "about"

‘an

‘annī

‘anka

‘anhu

In the above cases, when there are two combining forms, one is used with "...
me" and the other with all other person/number/gender combinations. (More
correctly, one occurs before vowel-initial pronouns and the other before
consonant-initial pronouns, but in Classical Arabic, only -ī is vowel-initial. This becomes
clearer in the spoken varieties, where various vowel-initial enclitic pronouns
exist.)

Note in particular:

ilá  'to'  and ‘alá  'on'  have irregular
combining forms ilay-, ‘alay-; but other pronouns with the
same base form are regular, e.g. ma‘a  'with'.

li-  'to'  has an
irregular combining form la-, but bi-  'in, with, by'  is
regular.

min  'from'  and ‘an double the final n before
-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
pronominal forms[edit]

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[edit]

There are two demonstratives (أسماء
الإشارة asmā’ al-ishārah),
near-deictic
('this') and far-deictic ('that'):

"This, these"

Gender

Singular

Dual

Plural

Masculine

nominative

hādhā هذا

hādhāni هذان

hā’ulā’i
هؤلاء

accusative/genitive

hādhayni
هذين

Feminine

nominative

hādhihi هذه

hātāni هتان

accusative/genitive

hātayni
هتين

"That, those"

Gender

Singular

Dual

Plural

Masculine

nominative

dhālika ذلك

dhānika ذانك

ulā’ika
أولئك

accusative/genitive

dhaynika
ذينك

Feminine

nominative

tilka تلك

tānika تانك

accusative/genitive

taynika
تينك

The dual forms are only used in very formal Arabic.

Some of the demonstratives (hādhā, hādhihi, hādhāni, hādhayni, hātāni,
hātayni, hā’ulā’i, dhālika, and ulā’ika should be pronounced with a long
"ā", although the unvocalised script is not
written with alif (ا). Instead of an alif, they have the diacritic ـٰ "dagger
alif" (ألف خنجرية alif khanjarīyah), which
doesn't exist on Arabic keyboards and is seldom written, even in vocalised
Arabic.

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

"Owner of ..."

Gender

Singular

Dual

Plural

Masculine

nominative

dhū

dhawā

dhawū, ulū

accusative

dhā

dhaway

dhawī, ulī

genitive

dhī

Feminine

nominative

dhātu

dhawātā

dhawātu,
ulātu

accusative

dhāta

dhawātī

dhawāti,
ulāti

genitive

dhāti

Note that the demonstrative and relative pronouns were originally built on
this word. hādhā, for example, was
originally composed from the prefix hā-  'this'  and the
masculine accusative singular dhā; similarly, dhālika was composed from dhā, an infixed syllable -li-, and the clitic suffix -ka  'you'. These combinations
had not yet become completely fixed in Qur'anic Arabic and other combinations
sometimes occurred, e.g. dhāka, dhālikum. Similarly, the relative
pronoun alladhī was originally
composed based on genitive singular dhī, and the old Arabic grammarians
noted the existence of a separate nominative plural form alladhūna in the speech of the Hudhayl tribe in Qur'anic
times.

This word also shows up in Hebrew, e.g. masculine
זה zeh (cf. dhī), feminine זאת
zot (cf. dhāt-), plural אלה
eleh (cf. ulī).

Relative pronoun[edit]

The relative pronoun is
conjugated as follows:

Relative pronoun ("who, that, which")

Gender

Singular

Dual

Plural

Masculine

nominative

alladhī الّذي

alladhāni
اللّذان

alladhīn(a)
الّذين

accusative/genitive

alladhayni
الّذين

Feminine

nominative

allatī الّتي

allatāni
اللّتان

allātī
الّاتي

accusative/genitive

allatayni
الّتين

Note that the relative pronoun agrees in gender, number and case, with the
noun it modifies—as opposed to the situation in other inflected languages such
as Latin and German, where the gender
and number agreement is with the modified noun, but the case marking follows the
usage of the relative pronoun in the embedded clause (as in formal English "the
man who saw me" vs. "the man whom I saw").

When the relative pronoun serves a function other than the subject of the
embedded clause, a resumptive pronoun is
required: al-rajul alladhī tatakallamtu
ma‘a-hu, literally  'the man who I spoke with him'.

The relative pronoun is normally omitted entirely when an indefinite noun is
modified by a relative clause: rajulun tatakallamtu
ma‘a-hu  'a man that I spoke with'; literally  'a man I
spoke with him'.

Colloquial
varieties[edit]

The above system is mostly unchanged in the colloquial varieties, other than
the loss of the dual forms and (for most varieties) of the feminine plural. Some
of the more notable changes:

The third-person -hi, -him variants disappear. On the
other hand, the first person -nī/-ī/-ya variation is preserved
exactly (including the different circumstances in which these variants are
used), and new variants appear for many forms. For example, in Egyptian Arabic, the
second person feminine singular appears either as -ik or -ki depending on various factors
(e.g. the phonology of the preceding word); likewise, the third person
masculine singular appears variously as -u, -hu, or - (no ending, but stress is moved
onto the preceding vowel, which is lengthened).

In many varieties, the indirect object forms,
which appear in Classical Arabic as separate words (e.g. lī "to me", lahu  'to him'), become fused
onto the verb, following a direct object. These same varieties generally
develop a circumfix /ma-...-ʃ(i)/
for negation (from Classical mā ... shay’  'not ... a
thing', composed of two separate words). This can lead to complicated agglutinative
constructs, such as Egyptian Arabic /ma-katab-ha-ˈliː-ʃ/
'he didn't write it (fem.) to me'. (Egyptian Arabic in particular has
many variant pronominal affixes used in different circumstances, and very
intricate morphophonemic rules
leading to a large number of complex alternations, depending on the particular
affixes involved, the way they are put together, and whether the preceding
verb ends in a vowel, a single consonant, or two consonants.)

Other varieties instead use a separate Classical pseudo-pronoun īyā- for direct objects (but in Hijazi Arabic the
resulting construct fuses with a preceding verb).

Affixation of dual and sound plural nouns has largely vanished. Instead,
all varieties possess a separate preposition with the meaning of "of", which
replaces certain uses of the construct genitive (to
varying degrees, depending on the particular variety). In Moroccan Arabic, the
word is dyal (also d- before a noun), e.g. l-kitab dyal-i
"my book", since the construct-state genitive is mostly unproductive. Egyptian Arabic has
bitā‘ , which agrees in gender and number with the preceding noun
(feminine bitā‘it/bita‘t, plural bitū‘ ). In Egyptian
Arabic, the construct-state genitive is still productive, hence either
kitāb-i or il-kitāb bitā‘-i can be used for "my book", but only
il-mu‘allimūn bitū‘-i "my teachers".

The declined relative pronoun has vanished. In its place is an
indeclinable particle, usually illi or similar.

Various forms of the demonstrative pronouns occur, usually shorter than
the Classical forms. For example, Moroccan Arabic uses ha l- "this",
dak l-/dik l-/duk l- "that" (masculine/feminine/plural). Egyptian
Arabic is unusual in that the demonstrative follows the noun, e.g. il-kitāb
da "this book", il-binti di "this girl".

Some of the independent pronouns have slightly different forms compared
with their Classical forms. For example, usually forms similar to inta,
inti "you (masc./fem. sg.)" occur in place of anta, anti, and (n)iḥna "we"
occurs in place of naḥnu.

Numerals[edit]

Cardinal numerals[edit]

Numbers behave in a quite complicated fashion. wāḥid-  'one'  and ithnān-  'two'  are
adjectives, following the noun and agreeing with it. thalāthat-  'three'  through
‘asharat-  'ten'  require a
following noun in the genitive plural, but disagree with the noun in gender,
while taking the case required by the surrounding syntax. aḥada ‘asharah  'eleven'
through tis‘ata ‘asharah
'nineteen'  require a following noun in the accusative singular,
agree with the noun in gender, and are invariable for case, except for ithnā ‘asharah/ithnay ‘ashara
'twelve'.

The formal system of cardinal numerals, as
used in Classical Arabic, is extremely complex. The system of rules is presented
below. In reality, however, this system is never used: Large numbers are always
written as numerals rather than spelled out, and are pronounced using a
simplified system, even in formal contexts.

Example:

Formal: alfāni wa-tis‘u mi’atin wa-thnatā
‘ashratan sanatan  '2,912 years'

Formal: ba‘da alfayni wa-tis‘i mi’atin
wa-thnatay ‘ashratan sanatan  'after 2,912 years'

Spoken: (ba‘da) alfayn wa-tis‘ mīya
wa-ithna‘shar sana(tan)  '(after) 2,912 years'

Cardinal numerals (الأعداد الأصليّة al-a‘dād al-aṣlīyah) from 0-10. Zero
is ṣifr, from which the words "cipher" and "zero" are
ultimately derived.

0 ٠ ṣifr‍(un) (صفرٌ)

1 ١ wāḥid(un) (واحدٌ)

2 ٢ ‍ithnān(i)
(اثنانِ)

3 ٣ thalātha(tun)
(ثلاثةٌ)

4 ٤ arba‘a(tun)
(أربعةٌ)

5 ٥ khamsa(tun)
(خمسةٌ)

6 ٦ sitta(tun)
(ستّةٌ)

7 ٧ sab‘a(tun)
(سبعةٌ)

8 ٨ thamāniya(tun)
(ثمانيةٌ)

9 ٩ tis‘a(tun)
(تسعةٌ)

10 ١٠ ‘ashara(tun)
(عشرةٌ)

The endings in brackets are dropped in less formal Arabic and in pausa. Note
that ة (tā’ marbūṭah) is pronounced
as simple /a/ in these cases. There are cases when -t in ة must be pronounced, but not
the rest of the ending.

اثنان ithnān(i) is changed to
اثنين ithnayn(i) in oblique cases. This form
is also commonly used in a less formal Arabic in the nominative case.

The numerals 1 and 2 are adjectives. Thus they follow the noun and agree with
gender.

Numerals 3–10 have a peculiar rule of agreement known as polarity: A feminine
referrer agrees with a numeral in masculine gender and vice versa, e.g. thalāthu fatayātin (ثلاثُ فتياتٍ)
'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
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 عشر 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

Informal

Masculine nominative

Masculine oblique

Feminine nominative

Feminine oblique

11

aḥada ‘ashar (أحدَ
عشر)

aḥada ‘ashara

iḥdá
‘ashratan

12

ithnā ‘ashar (اثنا
عشر)

ithnā ‘ashara

ithnay ‘ashara

ithnatā
‘ashratan

ithnatay
‘ashratan

13

thalāthata ‘ashar
(ثلاثةَ عشر)

thalāthata
‘ashara

thalātha
‘ashratan

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

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

mi’at- / mā’at-  '100'
(مئة or مائة) declines as a feminine singular noun

alf-  '1,000'  (ألف)
declines as a masculine singular noun

The numbers 20-99 are expressed with the units preceding the tens. There is
agreement in gender with the numerals 1 and 2, and polarity for numerals 3–9.
The whole construct is followed by the accusative singular indefinite.

20 ‘ishrūna (عشرون)
(plural of 10)

21 wāḥidun wa-‘ishrūna
(واحد وعشرون)

22 ithnāni wa-‘ishrūna
(إثنان وعشرون)

23 thalāthatu wa-‘ishrūna
(ثلاثة وعشرون)

30 thalāthūna
(ثلاتون)

40 arba‘ūna
(أربعون)

mi’at-  '100'  and alf-  '1,000'  can
themselves be modified by numbers (to form numbers such as 200 or 5,000) and
will be declined appropriately. For example, mi’atāni  '200'  and
alfāni  '2,000'  with dual
endings; thalāthatu ālāfin
'3,000'  with alf in the plural genitive, but
thalāthu mi’atin  '300'
since mi’at- appears to have no plural.

In compound numbers, the number formed with the last two digits dictates the
declension of the associated noun, e.g. 212, 312, and 54,312 would all behave
like 12.

Large compound numbers can have, e.g.:

alfun wa-tis‘u mi’atin wa-tis‘u
sinīna  '1,909 years'

ba‘da alfin wa-tis‘i mi’atin wa-tis‘i
sinīna  'after 1,909 years'

arba‘atun wa-tis‘ūna alfan wa-thamānī mi’atin
wa-thalāthun wa-sittūna sanatan  '94,863 years'

ba‘da arba‘atin wa-tis‘īna alfan wa-thamānī
mi’atin wa-thalāthin wa-sittīna sanatan  'after 94,863
years'

iṯnā ‘ašara alfan wa-mi’atāni wa-thnatāni
wa-‘ishrūna sanatan  '12,222 years'

ba‘da ithnay ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atayni
wa-thnatayni wa-‘ishrīna sanatan 'after 12,222 years'

ithnā ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atāni
wa-sanatāni  '12,202 years'

ba‘da ithnay ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atayni
wa-sanatayni  'after 12,202 years'

Note also the special construction when the final number created with the
last two digits is 01 or 02:

alfu laylatin wa-laylatun
'1,001 nights'  ألف ليلة وليلة

mi’atu kutubin wa-kitābāni
'102 books'  مائة كتب وكتابان

Fractions of a whole smaller than "half" are expressed by the
structure fi‘l (فعل), pl. af‘āl (أفعال).

half niṣfun (نصف)

one-third thulthun (ثلث)

two-thirds thulthāni (ثلثان)

one-fourth rub‘un (ربع)

three-fourths thalāthatu arbā‘in
(ثلاثة أرباع)

etc.

Ordinal numerals[edit]

Ordinal numerals
(الأعداد الترتيبية al-a‘dād al-tartībīyah) higher than
"second" are formed using the structure fā‘ilun, fā‘ilatun:

m. أول awwalu, f. أولى
ūlá  'first'

m. ثانٍ thānin (definite form:
الثاني al-thānī), f. ثانية
thāniyatun  'second'

m. ثالث thālithun, f. ثالثة
thālithatun  'third'

m. رابع rābi‘un, f. رابعة
rābi‘atun  'fourth'

m. خامس khāmisun, f. خامسة
khāmisatun  'fifth'

m. سادس sādisun, f. سادسة
sādisatun  'sixth'

m. سابع sābi‘un, f. سابعة
sābi‘atun  'seventh'

m. ثامن thāminun, f. ثامنة
thāminatun  'eighth'

m. تاسع tāsi‘un, f. تاسعة
tāsi‘atun  'ninth'

m. عاشر ‘āshirun, f. عاشرة
‘āshiratun
'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.

Verbs[edit]

Main article: Arabic
verbs

Arabic
Verb Chart

Arabic verbs (فعل fi‘l), like the verbs in other Semitic languages, are
extremely complex. Verbs in Arabic are based on a root made up of three or four
consonants (called a triliteral or quadriliteral root, respectively). The set of
consonants communicates the basic meaning of a verb, e.g. k-t-b  'write',
q-r-’  'read',  ’-k-l  'eat'. Changes to the vowels in between
the consonants, along with prefixes or suffixes, specify grammatical functions
such as tense, person and number, in addition to changes in the meaning of the
verb that embody grammatical concepts such as mood (e.g. indicative,
subjunctive, imperative), voice (active or passive), and forms such as
causative, intensive, or reflexive.

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

Prepositions[edit]

This section requires expansion
with: table (w/common meanings). (March
2014)

There are two types of prepositions, based on whether they arise from the triconsonantal roots system
or not. There are ten 'true prepositions' (حروف الجرّ ḥurūf al-jarr) that do not stem from the
triconsonantal roots: بـِ (bi-), لـِ (li-) and كـَ (ka-), في (fī), مِنْ (min), عَنْ (‘an), إِِلَى ('ilā), عَلى (‘alā), حَتّى (ḥattā), and مُنْذُ (mundhu) where the three first prepositions
are prefixes to nouns and pronouns. These true prepositions cannot have
prepositions preceding them, in contrast to the derived triliteral prepositions.
True prepositions can also be used with certain verbs to convey a particular
meaning. For example, "to discuss" and "to search for" share the same main verb
(َبَحَث baḥatha), but are succeeded by the
prepositions عَنْ (‘an) and في (fī) respectively.

The prepositions arising from the triliteral root system are called "adverbs
of place and time" (ظروف مكان وظروف زمان ẓurūf makān wa-ẓurūf zamān) and work very
much in the same way as the 'true' prepositions.[11]

The noun following a preposition takes the genitive
case, or if the preceding word is a pronoun, its pronoun suffix (the
enclitic pronouns above). However, prepositions can take whole clauses as their
object if succeeded by 'an or 'anna, in which case the subject of the clause is
in nominative.

Although the prepositions for physical relationships can be mapped
coherently, abstract relationships do not, as is common in many languages like
English. Furthermore, there is large variety of meanings attached to
prepositions and their usage in colloquial
varieties.

Syntax[edit]

Genitive construction
(iḍāfah)[edit]

A noun may be defined more closely by a subsequent noun in the genitive
(إضافة iḍāfah, literally  'addition'). The
relation is hierarchical; the first term (المضاف al-muḍāf  'the thing added')
governs the second term (المضاف إليه al-muḍāf ilayhi  'the thing added
to'), e.g. بيت رجل baytu rajulin  '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 the construct state;
i.e., it carry neither the definite article nor the tanwīn. Genitive
constructions of multiple terms are possible. In such case, all but the final
term take the 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 iḍāfah being used as the equivalent of a
compound noun
used in some Indo-European languages (which does not exist in Arabic). بيت
الطلبة baytu al-ṭalabati thus may mean either
'house of the (certain, known) students'  or  'the student
hostel'.

Note: ة (tā’
marbūṭah) of the first term must always have a pronounced -t (after /a/) when spoken.

Word order[edit]

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, بنت جميلة "bintun jamīlatun"  'a beautiful
girl'  but البنت الجميلة "al-bintu al-jamīlatu"  'the beautiful
girl'. (Compare البنت جميلة "al-bintu jamīlatun"  '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 registers of MSA ("Formal
Spoken Arabic").

inna[edit]

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 inna  'indeed'. Examples are إنك
أنت جميل "innaka anta jamīlun"  'You are
beautiful indeed'  or إن السماء زرقاء "inna al-samā’a zarqā’u"  'The sky is
blue indeed'. (In older translations, "inna" was rendered as "verily".)

"Inna," along with its "sister" terms أن
"anna" ('that', as in "I think that ..."),
"inna" ('that' after قال/يقول qāla/yaqūlu  'say'), ولكن "(wa-)lākin(na)"  'but'  and كأن
"ka-anna"  'as if'  require that
they be immediately followed by a noun in the accusative case, or an attached
pronominal suffix.

Other[edit]

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-"  'then, so'.

Reform[edit]

An overhaul of the systematic categorization of Arabic grammar was first
suggested by the medieval philosopher al-Jāḥiẓ, though it was not
until two hundred years later when Ibn Maḍāʾ
wrote his Refutation of the Grammarians that concrete suggestions
regarding word order and linguistic
governance were made.[12]
In the modern era, Egyptian litterateur Shawqi Daif renewed the call
for a reform of Arabic grammar, advocating a sentence structure based on a
subject and predicate.[13]

See also[edit]

Arabic language

I‘rab (إﻋﺮﺍﺏ)

Literary Arabic

Varieties of
Arabic

Arabic alphabet

Quranic Arabic
Corpus

Romanization of
Arabic

Wiktionary:
appendix on Arabic verbs

WikiBook: Learn Arabic

Sibawayh

Ibn Adjurrum

Ajārūmīya

Ibn
Malik

Alfiya

References[edit]

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

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

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

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

^
al-Aṣmaʿī at the Encyclopædia
Britannica Online. ©2013 Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc.. Accessed 10 June 2013.

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

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

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

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

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

^
Ryding, Karin C.
(2005). A reference grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (6th printing
ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University press. p. 366. ISBN 978-0521777711.

^
Shawqi Daif, Introduction to Ibn Mada's
Refutation of the Grammarians (Cairo, 1947), p. 48.

^
"The Emergency of Modern Standard Arabic," by Kees
Versteegh. Taken from The Arabic Language by permission of the Edinburgh
University Press. 1997.

External links[edit]

Arabic Grammar through the Quran[dead link]

learn arabic grammar

consult or download Wright's Arabic Grammar

Arabic Grammar: Paradigms, Literature, Exercises and Glossary By
Albert Socin

A Practical Arabic Grammar, Part 1

Einleitung in das studium der arabischen grammatiker: Die
Ajrūmiyyah des Muh'ammad bin Daūd By Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Ibn
Ājurrūm

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