This article contains Arabic text, written from right to left in a cursive style with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined Arabic letters written left-to-right instead of right-to-left or other symbols instead of Arabic script.

Visualization of Arabic grammar from the Quranic Arabic Corpus

Arabic grammar (Arabic: نحو عربي‎ naḥw ʻarabī or قواعد اللغة العربية qawāʻid al-luġa al-ʻarabiyya) 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.

History[link]

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 ʻAbd Allāh ibn ʼAbī ʼIsḥāq (died AD 735/6, AH 117).^{[citation needed]}

Division[link]

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

• al-luġah اللغة (language/lexicon) concerned with collecting and explaining vocabulary
• at-taṣrīf التصريف (morphology) determining the form of the individual words
• an-naḥw النحو (syntax) primarily concerned with inflection (ʼiʻrāb) which had already been lost in dialects.
• al-ištiqāq الاشتقاق (derivation) examining the origin of the words
• al-balāġah البلاغة (rhetoric) which elucidates construct quality

The grammar or grammars of contemporary varieties of Arabic are a different question. Said M. Badawi, an expert on Arabic grammar, divided Arabic grammar into five different types based on the speaker's level of literacy and the degree to which the speaker deviated from Classical Arabic. Badawi's five types of grammar from the most colloquial to the most formal are Illiterate Spoken Arabic (عامية الأميين ʻāmmiyat al-ʼummiyyīn), Semi-literate Spoken Arabic (عامية المتنورين ʻāmmiyat al-mutanawwirīn), Educated Spoken Arabic (عامية المثقفين ʻāmmiyat al-muṯaqqafīn), Modern Standard Arabic (فصحى العصر fuṣḥā l-ʻaṣr), and Classical Arabic (فصحى التراث fuṣḥā t-turāṯ).^[3] This article is concerned with the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic exclusively.

Phonology[link]

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 (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 ul-waṣl assumes a kasrah /i/. Symbol ـّ šaddah (شدة) indicates a gemination or consonant doubling. See more in Tashkīl.

Noun and Adjective[link]

Noun and Adjective Inflection (Classical Arabic)[link]

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

• Case (حالات 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[link]

The following table is an overview of noun and adjective inflection in Classical Arabic:

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 ʼayādin "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" (ـا) rather than alif maqṣūrah (ـی). Examples are ʻaṣan عصاً "stick" (and possibly riḍan رضاً "approval").

The following table shows some examples of noun inflections.

The following table shows some examples of adjective inflections.

Number[link]

Arabic distinguishes between nouns based on number (عدد ʻadad). All nouns are either singular (مفرد mufrad) dual (مثنى muṯannā), or plural (جمع ǧamʻ). 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 if 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 اِمْتِحان 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[link]

Arabic has two genders (جنس ǧins), masculine (مذكر muḏakkar) and feminine (مؤنث muʼannaṯ). As mentioned above, verbs, adjectives and pronouns must agree in gender with the corresponding noun. Gender in Arabic is logically very similar to a language like Spanish: Animate nouns, such as those referring to people, usually have the grammatical gender corresponding to their natural gender, but for inanimate nouns the grammatical gender is largely arbitrary.

Most feminine nouns end in ـة -at-, but some do not (e.g. أم ʼumm "mother", أرض ʼarḍ "earth"). Most words ending in ـا are also feminine (and are indeclinable).

The letter ـة used for feminine nouns is a special form known as تاء مربوطة tāʼ marbūṭah "tied T", which looks like the letter hāʼ "H" with the two dots that form part of the letter tāʼ "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 ـة 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 simply pronounced -a in all other circumstances.)

State[link]

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 الـ 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:

• كلب كبير kalbun kabīrun "a big dog (nom.)"
• رأيت كلبا كبيرا raʼaytu kalban kabīran "I saw a big dog (acc.)"
• مع كلب كبير maʻa kalbin kabīrin "with a big dog (gen.)"
• الكلب الكبير al-kalbu l-kabīru "the big dog (nom.)"
• كلبها الكبير kalbu-hā l-kabīru "her big dog (nom.)" (the definite article does not appear with a suffixed possessive, but the noun is still definite)
• رأيت صورة جميلة ṣūratan ǧamīlatan "I saw a nice picture (acc.)"
• مصر القديمة 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 (ʼiḍāfah) 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. An adjective modifying a construct-state noun is in the definite state and is placed after the modifying genitive. Examples:

• بنت الملكة bintu l-malikati "the daughter (nom.) of the queen"
• بنت الملكة القصيرة bintu l-malikati l-qaṣīratu "the short daughter (nom.) of the queen"
• بنت الملكة القصيرة bintu l-malikati l-qaṣīrati "the daughter (nom.) of the short queen"
• بنت الملكة القصيرة binti l-malikati l-qaṣīrati "the short daughter (gen.) of the queen" or "the daughter (gen.) of the short queen"

Note that the adjective must follow the genitive regardless of which of the two nouns it modifies, and only the agreement characteristics (case, gender, etc.) indicate which noun is modified.

The construct state is likewise used for nouns with an attached possessive suffix:

• بنتها bintu-hā "her daughter (nom.)"
• بنتها binti-hā "her daughter (gen.)"
• بنته bintu-hu "his daughter (nom.)"
• بنته binti-hi "his daughter (gen.)"
• بنتي bint-ī "my daughter (nom./acc./gen.)"
• ملكتها malikati-hā "his queen (gen.)"
• كلبها kalbu-hā "her dog (nom.)"
• كلبها الكبير kalbu-hā l-kabīru "her big dog (nom.)"

Note that in writing, the special form tāʼ marbūṭah indicating the feminine changes into a regular tāʼ 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 بنت للملكة bintun li-l-malikati lit. "a daughter to the queen" is used.

Note also the following appositional construction:

• البيت واسع النوافذ al-baytu wāsiʻu l-nawāfiḏi "the house with the wide windows" (lit. "the house wide of windows")

Article[link]

The article (أداة التعريف ʼadāt ut-taʻrīf) الـ al- is indeclinable and expresses the definite state of a noun of any gender and number. As mentioned above, it is also prefixed to each of that noun's modifying adjectives. The initial vowel (همزة الوصل hamzat ul-waṣl), is volatile in the sense that it disappears in sandhi, the article becoming mere l- (although the ʼalif 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 الـ ʼalif 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' (الحروف الشمسية al-ḥurūf aš-šamsiyyah), while the remaining 14 are called 'lunar letters' or 'moon letters' (الحروف القمرية al-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[link]

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[link]

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 ʼafʻal of masculine singular elative (i.e. comparative/superlative) and color/defect adjectives, as well as the forms faʻlāʼ (feminine singular color/defect adjectives) and faʻlān (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): ʼab "father" (e.g. ʼabū ḥasan "the father of Hasan"); ʼaḫ "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 ḏū "the owner of" (which appears only in construct and has a seriously irregular declension; see under demonstrative pronouns).
• The -in declension (Arabic ʼism 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-.
• The -an declension (Arabic ʼism 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" ʼalif or ʼalif 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 faʻlān, e.g. ʻaṭšā "thirsty (fem.)". Masculine singular elatives and color/defect adjectives from third-weak roots have this declension themselves, e.g. ʼaʻmā "blind", ʼadnā "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[link]

The nominative case (المرفوع al-marfūʻ ) is used for:

• Subjects of a verbal sentence.
• Subjects and predicates of an equational (non-verbal) sentence, with some notable exceptions.
• Certain adverbs retain the nominative marker (although not necessarily representing the nominative case).
• The citation form of words is (if noted at all) in the nominative case.

For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a 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[link]

The accusative case (المنصوب 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, البنت جميلة al-bintu ǧamīlatun "the girl is beautiful" but البنت كانت جميلة al-bintu kānat ǧamīla(tan) "the girl was beautiful" (spelling جميلة 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 ʼalif e.g. ـًا, which is added to the ending of all nouns (e.g. كان تعباناً kāna taʻbāna(n) "he was tired") not ending with a ʼalif followed by hamzah or a tāʼ marbūṭah. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding -ayn(i) and -īn(a) (both spelled ـين in Arabic) respectively (-ay and -ī in the construct state, both spelled ـي in Arabic). The regular feminine plural is formed by adding -āt(i) in the definite and -āt(in) in the indefinite, both spelled ـات in Arabic.

Genitive case[link]

The genitive case (المجرور al-maǧrūr) is used for:

• Objects of prepositions.
• All, but not necessarily the first member (the first nomen regens), of an ʼiḍāfah (genitive construction) .
• The object of a locative adverb.
• Semi-prepositions if preceded by another (true or semi) preposition
• Objects of أي ʼayy "any".
• Elative (comparative/superlative) adjectives behave similarly: أطول ولد "ʼaṭwalu 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 ـين in Arabic) (-ay and -ī in the construct state, both spelled ـي in Arabic). The regular feminine plural is formed by adding -āt(i) in the definite and -āt(in) in the indefinite, both spelled ـات in Arabic.

Note: diptotic nouns receive a fatḥah (-a) in the genitive indefinite and are never nunated.

Pronunciation[link]

When speaking or reading aloud, nouns at the end of an utterance are pronounced in a special pausal form (الوقف 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 Quran, and occasionally elsewhere to remove ambiguity. Feminine nouns are indicated using a ة tāʼ 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)[link]

This section requires expansion.

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 ʼakbar walad, with the adjective in the construct state (rather than expected *al-walad al-ʼakbar, 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[link]

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[link]

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 ـة, which forms the so-called singulative (اسم الوحدة ʼism-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:

• حجر ḥajar "rocks" or "rock" (the material in general); حجرة ḥajarah "a rock"
• شجر šajar "trees"; شجرة šajarah "a tree"; ʼašǧār (3 to 10) "trees"
• قمح qamḥ "wheat", قمحة qamḥah "a grain of wheat"
• بقر baqar "cattle"; بقرة baqarah "a cow"

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

• جند jund "army"; جندي jundī "a soldier"
• جنّ jinn "genies, jinns"; جنّي jinnī "a genie"
• زنج zinj "black people" (as a race); زنجى zinjī "a black person"

[edit] Nisba

The Nisba (النسبة an-nisbah) is a common suffix to form adjectives of relation or pertinence. The suffix is ـي -iyy- for masculine and ـية -iyya(t)- for feminine gender (in other words, it is -iyy- and is inserted before the gender marker).

• E. g. لبنان Lubnān(u) "Lebanon",
• لبناني lubnāniyy "Lebanese (singular masculine)",
• لبنانية lubnāniyyah "Lebanese (singular feminine)",
• لبنانيون lubnāniyyūn "Lebanese (plural masculine)"
• لبنانيات lubnāniyyāt "Lebanese (plural feminine)".

A construct noun and nisbah-adjective is often equivalent to nominal composition in English and other languages (solar cell is equivalent to sun cell).

The feminine nisbah is often used in Arabic as a noun relating to concepts, most frequently corresponding to ones ending in -ism, with the masculine and feminine nisbah being used as adjectival forms of the concept-noun (e.g. -ist) depending on agreement. Thus the feminine nisbah of الاشتراك al-ištirāk "partnership, cooperation, participation (definite)", الاشتراكية al-ištirākiyyah is the Arabic word for "socialism," and the word "socialist" (both as an adjective and as the term for one who believes in socialism) is اشتراكي ištirākiyy in the masculine and ištirākiyyah in the feminine.

The Arabic nisbah has given rise to English adjectives of nationality for Arabic countries: Iraqi, Kuwaiti, etc.

Participles and verbal nouns[link]

Every verb has associated active and passive participles, as well as a verbal noun (مصدر 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 ǧāhada "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[link]

This section requires expansion.

Occupational nouns can be derived from many verb stems, generally using the form faʻʻāl, 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. kaḏḏāb "liar". The active participle can also be used to form occupational nouns, e.g. ṭālib "student" (from ṭalaba "to ask"),kātib "writer. Sometimes the variant form fāʻil is seen in place of the normal Form I active participle e.g. zā'ir "visitor", bā‘iʻ "vendor".

Nouns of place[link]

This section requires expansion.

A common type of derivational noun is the noun of place, with a form mafʻal or similar, e.g. maktab, maktaba "library" (from kataba "to write"); maṭbaḫ "kitchen" (from ṭabaḫa "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[link]

Just as nouns of place are formed using a prefix ma-, tool nouns (also nouns of usage or nouns of instrument; Arabic ʼismu ʼālatin lit. "noun of tool") were traditionally formed using a prefix mi-. Examples are miftāḥ "key" (from fataḥ "to open"); minhāǧ "road" (from nahaǧa "to pursue"); 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 faʻʻāla. 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. naẓẓārah "telescope, eyeglasses" (naẓara "to look"); ṯallāǧah "refrigerator" (ṯalaǧa "to freeze quickly" < ṯalǧ "snow"); dabbāsah "stapler"; dabbābah "tank" (dababa "to crawl").

Nouns of unity[link]

This section requires expansion.

Diminutives[link]

This section requires expansion.

Diminutives (al-ʼismu l-muṣaġġaru) usually follow a pattern fuʻayl or similar (fuʻaylil 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, reflecting 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 other 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 fʻila, fʻiyyel, fʻilel or similar – always with two initial consonants and a following /i/, which is the regular outcome of Classical fuʻay-. (fʻila < fuʻaylah; fʻiyyel < fuʻayyal; fʻilel < fuʻaylil.)

Adverb[link]

ظرف ẓarf

Adverbials are expressed using adjectives in the indefinite accusative, often written with the ending ـًا (e.g. أيضًا ayḍan "also") but pronounced "-an" even if it's not written (see accusative), e.g.: قرأ الكتاب قراءة بطيئة qaraʼa al-kitāba qirāʼatan baṭīʼatan, 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: كثيرًا kaṯīran frequently, a lot, often, نادرًا nādiran rarely, أولاً ʼawwalan firstly or from nouns: عادةً ʻādatan usually, جدًا ǧiddan very.

The second method to form adverbs is to use a preposition and a noun, e. g. بـ bi-, e.g. بسرعةٍ bi-surʻa(ti) swift, "with speed", بالضبطِ bi-ḍ-ḍabṭ(i) exactly

Pronoun[link]

Personal pronouns[link]

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.

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

Enclitic pronouns[link]

Enclitic forms of personal pronouns (الضمائر المتصلة aḍ-ḍamāʼir ul-muttaṣila(tu)) 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 ʼanna "that ...", liʼanna "because ...", (wa)lākinna "but ...", ʼinna (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 ʼaḫawāt ʼinna أخوات إنّ (lit. "sisters of ʼinna".)

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

Variant forms[link]

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 muʻallim "teacher", pl. muʻallimūn: muʻallim-ī "my teacher" (all cases), muʻallimiy-ya "my teachers" (all cases, see above)
• From ʼab "father": ʼabū-ya "my father (nom.)" (or is it assimilated?), ʼabā-ya "my father (acc.)", ʼabiy-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 ʼinna" can use either form (e.g. ʼinna-nī or ʼinn-ī), but the longer form (e.g. ʼinna-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[link]

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:

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:

• ʼilā "to" and ʻalā "on" have irregular combining forms ʼilay-, ʻalay-; but other pronouns with the same base form are regular, e.g. maʻā "with".
• li- "to" has an irregular combining form la-, but bi- "in, with, by" is regular.
• min "from" and ʻan 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[link]

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[link]

There are two demonstratives (أسماء الإشارة ʼasmāʼ al-ʼišāra(ti)), near-deictic ('this') and far-deictic ('that'):

The dual forms are only used in very formal Arabic.

Some of the demonstratives (hāḏā, hāḏihi, hāḏāni, hāḏayni, hātāni, hātayni, hāʼulāʼi, ḏālika, and ʼulāʼika should be pronounced with a long "ā", although the unvocalised script doesn't contain an alif (ا). They have letter ـٰ "dagger alif" (ألف خنجرية‎‎ ʼalif 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":

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 ʼeleh < ʼulī.

Relative pronoun[link]

The relative pronoun is conjugated as follows:

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-raǧulu l-laḏī tatakallamtu maʻā-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[link]

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 ... šayʼ "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 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 bitāʻ, which agrees in gender and number with the preceding noun (feminine bitāʻit/bitaʻt, plural bitūʻ). In Egyptian Arabic, the construct-state genitive is still productive, hence either kitāb-i or il-kitāb bitāʻ-i can be used for "my book", but only il-muʻallimūn bitūʻ-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 ʼanta, ʼanti, and (n)iḥna "we" occurs in place of naḥnu.

Numerals[link]

Cardinal numerals[link]

Numbers behave in a quite complicated fashion. "wāḥid-" "one" and "ʼiṯnān-" "two" are adjectives, following the noun and agreeing with it. "ṯalāṯat-" "three" through "ʻašarat-" "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. "ʼaḥada ʻašarah" "eleven" through "tisʻata ʻašarah" "nineteen" require a following noun in the accusative singular, agree with the noun in gender, and are invariable for case, except for "ʼiṯnā ʻašarah/ʼiṯnay ʻašara" "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: ʼalfāni wa-tisʻu miʼatin wa-ṯnatā ʻašratan sanatan "2,912 years"

Formal: baʻda ʼalfayni wa-tisʻi miʼatin wa-ṯnatay ʻašratan sanatan "after 2,912 years"

Spoken: (baʻda) ʼalfayn wa-tisʻ miyya wa-ʼiṯnaʻšar sana(tan) "(after) 2,912 years"

Cardinal numerals (الأعداد الأصليّة al-ʼaʻdād al-ʼaṣliyyah) from 0-10. Naught is ṣifr, from which the words "cipher" and "zero" are ultimately derived.

• 0 ٠ ṣifr (صفر)
• 1 ١ wāḥid(un) (واحدٌ)
• 2 ٢ ʼiṯnān(i) (إثنانِ)
• 3 ٣ ṯalāṯa(tun) (ثلاثةٌ)
• 4 ٤ ʼarbaʻa(tun) (أربعةٌ)
• 5 ٥ ḫamsa(tun) (خمسةٌ)
• 6 ٦ sitta(tun) (ستّةٌ)
• 7 ٧ sabʻa(tun) (سبعةٌ)
• 8 ٨ ṯamāniya(tun) (ثمانيّةٌ)
• 9 ٩ tisʻa(tun) (تسعةٌ)
• 10 ١٠ ʻašara(tun) (عشرةٌ)

The endings in brackets are dropped in less formal Arabic and in pausa. Note that ة (tāʼ 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.

إثنان (ʼiṯnān(i)) is changed to إثنين (ʼiṯnayn(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. ṯalāṯu 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 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 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.

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:

• ʻišrūna "20" through tisʻūna "90" decline as masculine plural nouns
• miʼat- "100" (مئة, formerly مائة) declines as a feminine singular noun
• ʼalf- "1000" (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 ʻišrūn(a) (عشرون) (dual of 10)
• 21 wāḥidun wa-ʻišrūn(a) (واحد وعشرون)
• 22 ʼiṯnāni wa-ʻišrūn(a) (إثنان وعشرون)
• 23 ṯalāṯatu wa-ʻišrūn(a) (ثلاثة وعشرون)
• 30 ṯalāṯūn(a) (ثلاتون)
• 40 ʼarbaʻūn(a) (أربعون)

miʼat- "100" and ʼalf- "1000" can themselves be modified by numbers (to form numbers such as 200 or 5,000) and will be declined appropriately. For example, miʼatāni "200" and ʼalfāni "2,000" with dual endings; ṯalāṯatu ʼālāfin "3,000" with ʼalf in the plural genitive, but ṯalāṯu miʼatin "300" since miʼat- 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.:

• ʼalfun wa-tisʻu miʼatin wa-tisʻu sinīn(a) "1,909 years"
• baʻda ʼalfin wa-tisʻi miʼatin wa-tisʻi sinīn(a) "after 1,909 years"
• ʼarbaʻatun wa-tisʻūna ʼalfan wa-ṯamānī-miʼatin wa-ṯalāṯun wa-sittūna sanat(an) "94,863 years"
• baʻda ʼarbaʻatin wa-tisʻīna ʼalfan wa-ṯamānī-miʼatin wa-ṯalāṯin wa-sittīna sanat(an) "after 94,863 years"
• ʼiṯnā ʻašara ʼalfan wa-miʼatāni wa-ṯnatāni wa-ʻišrūna sanat(an) "12,222 years"
• baʻda ṯnay ʻašara ʼalfan wa-miʼatayni wa-ṯnatayni wa-ʻišrīna sanat(an) "after 12,222 years"
• ʼiṯnā ʻašara ʼalfan wa-miʼatāni wa-sanatān(i) "12,202 years"
• baʻda ṯnay ʻašara ʼalfan wa-miʼatayni wa-sanatayn(i) "after 12,202 years"

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

• ʼalfu laylatin wa-laylat(un) (1001 nights) ألف ليلة وليلة

Fractions of a whole smaller than "half" are expressed by the structure sg. fiʻl (فعل), pl. ʼafʻāl (أفعال).

• half niṣf(un)(نصف)
• one-third ṯulṯ(un)(ثلث)
• two-thirds ṯulṯān(i)(ثلثان)
• one-fourth rubʻ(un)(ربع)
• three-fourths ṯalaṯatu arbāʻ(in) (ثلاثة أرباع)
• etc.

Ordinal numerals[link]

Ordinal numerals (الأعداد الترتيبية al-ʼaʻdād at-tartiyabiyyah) higher than "second" are formed using the structure fāʻil(un), fāʻila(tun):

• m. أول ʼawwal(u), f. أولى ʼūlā "first"
• m. ثانٍ ṯānin (definite form: الثاني aṯ-ṯāniyy), f. ثانية ṯāniyya(tun) "second"
• m. ثالث ṯāliṯ(un), f. ثالثة ṯāliṯa(tun) "third"
• m. رابع rābiʻ(un), f. رابعة rābiʻa(tun) "fourth"
• m. خامس ḫāmis(un), f. خامسة ḫāmisa(tun) "fifth"
• m. سادس sādis(un), f. سادسة sādisa(tun) "sixth"
• m. سابع sābiʻ(un), f. سابعة sābiʻa(tun) "seventh"
• m. ثامن ṯāmin(un), f. ثامنة ṯāmina(tun) "eighth"
• m. تاسع tāsiʻ(un), f. تاسعة tāsiʻa(tun) "ninth"
• m. عاشر ʻāšir(un), f. عاشرة ʻāšira(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)[link]

Introduction[link]

The verb in Arabic (فعل fiʻl), 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-ʼ "read", ʼ-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":

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-ʻ-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 yutafāʻalu, 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[link]

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[link]

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-ʻ-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):

The main types of weakness are as follows:

Conjugation, prefixes and suffixes[link]

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 (كتب) "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.)

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: كتبت. 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.

ا (ʼalif) in final ـوا (-ū) is silent.

Tense[link]

The main tenses in Arabic are the past tense (الماضي al-māḍī) and the present tense (المضارع al-muḍāriʻ). The future tense in Classical Arabic is formed by adding either the prefix سـ sa- or the separate word سوف sawfa onto the beginning of the present tense verb, e.g. سيكتب sa-yaktubu or سوف يكتب sawfa yaktubu "he will write".

In some contexts, the tenses represent aspectual distinctions rather than tense distinctions. The usage of Arabic tenses is as follows:

• The past tense often (but not always) specifically has the meaning of a past perfective, i.e. it expresses the concept of "he did" as opposed to "he was doing". The latter can be expressed using the combination of the past tense of the verb 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"
• qaraʼa yaqraʼu "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 ʼ ʻ h ḥ
• past: i; non-past: a
• past: u; non-past: u

Mood[link]

حالة ḥālah

Modal forms can be derived from the imperfective stem: the subjunctive (منصوب manṣūb) by (roughly speaking) replacing the final vowel by a, the jussive (مجزوم maǧzūm) by dropping this a of the subjunctive. In a less formal Arabic and in spoken dialects, verbs in the indicative mood (مرفوع marfūʻ ) have shortened endings, identical to subjunctive and jussive.

The imperative (صيغة الأمر ṣīġat ul-ʼamr(i)) (positive, only 2nd person) is formed by dropping the verbal prefix from the imperfective jussive stem, e.g. قدم qaddim "present!". If the result starts with two consonants followed by a vowel ("a" or "i"), an elidible ʼalif is added to the beginning of the word, usually pronounced as "i", e.g. اغسل ʼiġsil "wash!" or افعل ifʻal "do!" if the present form vowel is "u", then the alif is also pronounced as "u", e.g. أكتب ʼuktub "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. أرسل ʼarsil "send!", أضف ^[5]ʼaḍif "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 tafʻalu 'you are doing'
• subjunctive an tafʻala 'that you do'
• jussive lā tafʻal 'do not!'
• energic tafʻalanna
• imperative ifʻal 'do!'.

Voice[link]

صيغة ṣīġah

Arabic has two verbal voices, active (صيغة المعلوم ṣīġat ul-maʻlūm), and passive (صيغة المجهول ṣīġat ul-maǧhūl). The passive voice is expressed by a change in vocalization. For example:

• active فعل faʻala 'he did', يفعل yafʻalu 'he is doing' فَعَلَ
• passive فعل fuʻila 'it was done', يفعل yufʻalu 'it is being done' فُعِلَ

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

Weak roots[link]

Roots containing one or two of the radicals w (wāw), y (yāʼ ) or ʼ (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 ʼalif 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[link]

The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I doubled verb madda (yamuddu) "to extend", parallel to verbs of the faʻala (yafʻulu) type. See notes following the table for explanation.

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:

Assimilated (first-weak) roots[link]

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. waǧada (yaǧidu) "to find"), where the stem is -ǧid- in place of a longer stem like -ǧlid- from the verb ǧalada (yaǧlidu) "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:

Hollow (second-weak) roots[link]

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

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 faʻala (yafʻulu) type
• sāra sirna (yasīru yasirna) "to say", formed from verbs with y as their second root consonant and parallel to verbs of the faʻala (yafʻilu) type
• ḫāfa ḫufna (yaḫāfu yaḫafna) "to fear", formed from verbs with w as their second root consonant and parallel to verbs of the faʻila (yafʻalu) type
• nāma nimna (yanāmu yanamna) "to sleep", formed from verbs with y as their second root consonant and parallel to verbs of the faʻila (yafʻalu) type

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

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

Defective (third-weak) roots[link]

[edit] faʻā (yafʻī)

The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I defective (third-weak) verb ramā (yarmī) "to throw", parallel to verbs of the faʻala (yafʻilu) type. See notes following the table for explanation.

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).

[edit] faʻā (yafʻū)

The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I defective (third-weak) verb daʻā (yadʻū) "to call", parallel to verbs of the faʻala (yafʻulu) type. Verbs of this sort are entirely parallel to verbs of the faʻā (yafʻī) type, although the exact forms can still be tricky. See notes following the table for explanation.

Verbs of this sort are work nearly identically to verbs of the faʻā (yafʻī) 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 daʻaw-, shortened to daʻ-.
• In the non-past, the full stem is dʻuw-, rendered as dʻū- when not before a vowel and shortened to dʻ- before -ū -ī.

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

• In the third person masculine singular past, regular ʼalif appears instead of ʼalif maqṣūrah: hence دَعَا not *دَعَى.
• The otiose final ʼalif appears only after the final wāw of the plural, not elsewhere: hence تَدْعُو "you (masc. sg.) call (indic.)" but تَدْعُوا "you (masc. pl.) call (subj.)", even though they are both pronounced tadʻū.

[edit] faʻiya (yafʻā)

The following shows a paradigm of a typical Form I defective (third-weak) verb nasiya (yansā) "to call", parallel to verbs of the faʻila (yafʻalu) type. These verbs differ in a number of significant respects from either of the above types.