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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.

Arabic is a Semitic language. See Arabic language for more information on the language in general. This article describes the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic - the Arabic grammar (نحو عربي naḥw ʻarabī or قواعد اللغة العربية qawāʻidu 'l-luġati 'lʻarabiyyah).

Contents 1 History 2 Division 3 Phonology 4 Noun 4.1 State 4.2 Article 4.3 Inflection (case) 4.3.1 Nominative case 4.3.2 Accusative case 4.3.3 Genitive case 4.4 Number 4.5 Gender 4.6 Adjective and apposition 4.7 Nisba 4.8 Adverb 5 Pronoun 5.1 Personal pronouns 5.2 Enclitic pronouns 5.3 Demonstratives 6 Numerals 6.1 Cardinal numerals 6.2 Ordinal numerals 7 Verb 7.1 Conjugation - prefixes and suffixes 7.2 Perfective/perfect (past tense) 7.3 Imperfective (present tense) 7.4 Mood 7.5 Voice 7.6 Weak roots 7.7 Stem formation 7.8 Participle 7.9 Verbal noun (masdar) 8 Syntax 8.1 Genitive construction (iḍāfa) 8.2 Word order 8.3 'inna 8.4 Numbers 8.5 Other 9 References 10 See also 11 External links

[edit] History

The identity of the oldest Arabic grammarian is disputed with some sources saying Ibn Abi Ishaq and medieval sources saying Abu-Aswad al-Du'ali, the oldest known Arabic grammarian, established diacritical marks and vowels for Arabic in the mid-600s. The schools of Basra, Kufa, Sibawaih further developed grammatical rules in the late 700s.^[1][2]

Due to the rapid expansion of Islam in the 8th century, many people learned Arabic as a lingua franca. For this reason, the earliest grammatical treatises on Arabic are often written by non-native speakers. The earliest grammarian who is known is ʻAbd Allāh ibn Abī Isḥāq (died AD 735/6, AH 117). The efforts of three generations of grammarians culminated in the book of the Persian scholar Sibāwayhi (ca. 760–793).

[edit] Division

Traditionally, the grammatical sciences are divided into five branches:

• al-luġah Arabic: اللغة‎ (lexicon) concerned with collecting and explaining vocabulary
• at-taṣrīf Arabic: التصريف‎ (morphology) determining the form of the individual words
• an-naḥw Arabic: النحو‎ (syntax) primarily concerned with inflection (iʻrāb) which had already been lost in dialects.
• al-ištiqāq Arabic: الاشتقاق‎ (derivation) examining the origin of the words
• al-balāġah Arabic: 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-'ummiyyīn), Semi-literate Spoken Arabic (عامية المتنورين ʻāmmiyat al-mutanawwirīn), Educated Spoken Arabic (عامية المثقفين ʻāmmiyat al-'muthaqqafīn), Modern Standard Arabic (فصحى العصر fuṣḥā al-ʻaṣr), and Classical Arabic (فصحى التراث fuṣḥā at-turāth).^[3] This article is concerned with the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic exclusively.

[edit] Phonology

Classical Arabic has 28 consonantal phonemes, including two semi-vowels, which comprise 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.

Hamzatu 'l-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 fatḥa (فتحة) /a/ , ـِ a kasra (كسرة) /i/ or ـُ a ḍamma (ضمة) /u/. If the preceding word ends in a sukūn (سكون) (i.e. not followed by a short vowel), the Hamzatu 'l-waṣl assumes a kasrah /i/. Symbol ـّ shadda (شدة) indicates a gemination or consonant doubling. See more in Tashkīl.

[edit] Noun

اسم ism

[edit] State

Nouns (and their modifying adjectives) are either definite or indefinite (there is an article for the definite state only). A noun is definite if it has the definite article prefix (الـ al-), if it has a suffixed pronoun (كلبها الكبير kalbu-ha l-kabīr "her big dog"), if it is inherently definite by being a proper noun (مصر القديمة Miṣru l-qadīma, "old Cairo"), or if it is in a genitive construction (iḍāfa, status constructus) with a definite noun or nouns (بنت الملك bintu l-malik(i), "the daughter of the king").

[edit] Article

The article (أداة التعريف adātu-t-taʻrīf) الـ al- is indeclinable and expresses definite state of a noun of any gender and number. It is also prefixed to each of that noun's modifying adjectives. The initial vowel (hamzatu-l-waṣl), is volatile in the sense that it disappears in sandhi, the article becoming mere -l- (although the alif is retained in orthography in any case as it is based on pausal pronunciation).

Also, the l is assimilated to a number of consonants (dentals and sibilants), so that in these cases, the article in pronunciation is expressed only by geminating the initial consonant of the noun (while in orthography, the writing الـ alif lām is retained, and the gemination may be expressed by putting šadda 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' (حروف الشمسيه ḥurūf aš-šamsiyya), while the remaining 14 are called 'lunar letters' or 'moon letters' (حروف القمرية ḥurūf al-qamariyya). The solar letters all have in common that they are dental, alveolar and postalveolar consonants 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.)

[edit] Inflection (case)

إﻋﺮﺍﺏ iʿrāb

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Arabic has three grammatical cases (حالات ḥālāt) roughly corresponding to: nominative, genitive and accusative. Normally, singular nouns take the ending -u(n) in the nominative, -i(n) in the genitive and -a(n) in the accusative. Some exceptional nouns, known as diptotes (الممنوع من الصرف al-mamnūʻu mina 'ṣ-ṣarf), never take the final n, and have the suffix -a in the genitive except when the diptotic noun is in the definite state (preceded by al- or is in the construct state). However, case is not shown in standard orthography, with the exception of indefinite accusative nouns ending in any letter but ة tāʾ marbūṭa or ء hamza, where the -a(n) "sits" upon an alif added to the end of the word (the alif still shows up in unvowelled texts). When speaking or reading aloud, articulating the case ending is optional, but rarely used except in religious situations. Technically, every noun has such an ending, although at the end of a sentence, no inflection is pronounced, even in formal speech, because of the rules of 'pause' (الوقف al-waqf). Case is not shown in standard orthography, with the exception of indefinite accusative nouns ending in any letter but ta marbuta or hamza, where the -a(n) "sits" upon an alif added to the end of the word (the alif still shows up in unvowelled texts). Cases, however, are marked in the Koran, children's books, primers and to remove ambiguous situations. If marked, it is shown at the end of the noun.

[edit] Nominative case

المرفوع al-marfūʿ

• Subjects of a verbal sentence.
• Subjects and predicates of an equational (non-verbal) sentence, with some notable exceptions.
• Certain adverbs retain the nominative marker.
• 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.

[edit] Accusative case

المنصوب al-manṣūb

• 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 jamīlatun "the girl is beautiful" but البنت كانت جميلة al-bintu kānat jamīla(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 alif e.g. ـًا, which is added to the ending of all nouns (e.g. كان تعباناً kāna taʿbānan "he was tired") not ending with a hamza or ta marbuta. 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.

[edit] Genitive case

المجرور al-majrūr

• Objects of prepositions.
• All, but not necessarily the first member (the first nomen regens), of an iḍāfa (genitive construction) .
• The object of a locative adverb.
• Semi-prepositions if preceded by another (true or semi) preposition
• Objects of كم kam "how much/many" and أي 'ayy "any".
• Elative (comparative/superlative) adjectives behave similarly: أطول ولد "ʼaṭwalu waladin" "the tallest boy".

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.

Note: there is no dative case; instead, the preposition لـ "li-" is used.

[edit] Number

عدد ʿadad

Arabic distinguishes between nouns based on quantity. All nouns are either singular (مفرد múfrad) when there is one, dual (مثنى muṯánna) when there are two, and plural (جمع jamʻ) if there are three or more.

The dual is formed by adding ـان -ān(i) to the noun stem in the nominative and ـين -ayn(i) in the accusative and genitive.^[4] The final vowel "-i" is not pronounced in pausa and more colloquial forms of Arabic (not affecting the Arabic unvocalised spelling). The final ending ـن "-ni" is dropped in the iḍāfa construct form (Status constructus), resulting in ـا -ā and in the nominative and ـي -ay in the accusative and genitive (affects the spelling as well).

The plurals are formed in two ways. The "sound plurals" are formed by the addition of a suffix. Masculine sound plurals take the forms ـون "-ūn(a)" in the nominative and ـين "-īn(a)" in the genitive and accusative. These do not change whether the noun is definite or indefinite. Note that in written Arabic (without vocalisation) dual and sound plural forms are spelled identically but pronounced differently. The final "-a" is not pronounced in pausa and in less formal Arabic.

Feminine indefinite sound plurals take ـات "-āt(un)" in the nominative and ـات "-āt(in)" in the accusative and genitive. Feminine definite sound plurals take ـات "-āt(u)" in the nominative and ـات "-āt(i)" in the accusative and genitive. The broken plurals are formed by altering the vowel structure according to one of about five established patterns. Some nouns have two or more plural forms, usually to distinguish between different meanings. All these feminine forms are spelled identically in Arabic, the endings in brackets are not pronounced in pausa and in less formal Arabic.

[edit] Gender

جنس jins

Arabic has two genders, expressed by pronominal, verbal and adjectival agreement. Agreement with numerals shows a peculiar 'polarity', c.f. the section on numerals. The genders are usually referred to as masculine (مذكر muḏákkar) and feminine (مؤنث muʼánnaṯ), but the situation is more complicated than that. The 'feminine' singular forms are also used to express 'singulatives', which are singulars of collective nouns meaning irrationals of both grammatical genders.

The marker for the feminine gender is a ـة -at- (always follows a fat'ḥa, hence the short vowel /a/) suffix, e.g. جامعة jāmiʻa(t)- "University" but some nouns without this marker also take feminine agreement (e.g. أم ʼumm 'mother', أرض ʼarḍ 'earth'). Already in Classical Arabic, the -t marker was not pronounced in pausa. It is written with a special letter ة (Arabic: تاء مربوطة tāʾ marbūṭa) indicating that a t sound is to be pronounced in sandhi, but not in pausa. Strictly speaking, Classical Arabic requires this letter to be pronounced as [h] in pausa (hence its form, a hāʾ with the two dots of a tāʾ), but even in Modern Standard Arabic the letter is most often ignored altogether, so مدينة "city", "town" is simply pronounced as madīna in less formal Arabic (all cases). Words ending in ـا are usually also feminine and are indeclinable.

Ending ـة never takes an alif marker in the accusative indefinite but the ending "-tan" may be still pronounced in non-pausal, formal Arabic.

[edit] Adjective and apposition

In Arabic, adjectives and appositions follow the noun and agree with the preceding noun in state, gender and case. For example:

• Adjective (نعت naʻt):
  • 'al-baytu 'l-kabīr(u) (البيت الكبير) "the big house"
  • raʼaytu ṣūra(tan) jamīla(tan) (رأيت صورة جميلة) "I saw a nice picture"
• Apposition:
  • 'ar-rasūlu Muḥammad(un) (الرسول محمد) "the prophet Muhammad"

[edit] Nisba

The Nisba (النسبة an-nisba) 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 lubnāniyya "Lebanese (singular feminine)", لبنانيون lubnāniyyūn "Lebanese (plural masculine)" لبنانيات lubnāniyyāt "Lebanese (plural feminine)".

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

The Arabic nisba has affected some English adjective of Arabic or related origin: Iraqi, Kuwaiti, Pakistani, etc.

[edit] Adverb

ظرف ẓarf

Adverbials are expressed using adjectives in the indefinite accusative, often written with the ending ـًا (e.g. أيصاً ayḍan "also") but pronounced "-an" even if it's not written (see accusative), e.g.: قرأ الكتاب قراءة بطيئة qara’a al-kitāba qirā’atan 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: كثيراً kathīran frequently, a lot, often, نادراً nādiran rarely, أولاً awwalan firstly or from nouns: عادةً ʿaadatan usually, جداً jiddan very.

The second method to form adverbs is to use a preposition and a noun, e. g. بـ bi-, e.g. بسرعة bi-surʿa(ti) fast, "with speed", بالضبط bi-ḍ-ḍabṭ(i) exactly

[edit] Pronoun

ضمير ḍamīr

A pronominal paradigm consists of 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.

[edit] Personal pronouns

Person		Singular	Dual	Plural
1st		ana (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)

Note: "anta" can be shortened to "ant" in pausa.

Dual forms: antumā أنتما and humā هما, plural feminine antunna أنتنّ and hunna هنّ are only used in very formal Arabic.

[edit] Enclitic pronouns

Enclitic forms of the pronoun (الضمائر المتصلة aḍ-ḍamāʼiru 'l-muttaṣila(tu)) may be affixed to nouns (representing genitive case, i. e. possession) and to verbs (representing accusative, i. e. a direct object). Most of them are clearly related to the full personal pronouns. They are identical in form in both cases, except for the 1st person singular, which is -ī after nouns (genitive) and -nī after verbs (accusative).

Person		Singular	Dual	Plural
1st		-(n)ī/-ya ـي		-nā ـنا
2nd	masculine	-k(a) ـك	-kumā ـكما	-kum ـكم
	feminine	-ki ـك		-kunna ـكن
3rd	masculine	-h(u) ـه	-humā ـهما	-hum ـهم
	feminine	-hā ـها		-hunna ـهن

In a less formal Arabic, like in many spoken dialects, -ka and -ki are pronounced as -ak, and -ik in all case endings, thus, the case endings (-u, -i and -a) are often ignored.

[edit] Demonstratives

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

• hādha (هذا), f. hādhih(i) (هذه), pl. hāʼulāʼ(i) (هؤلاء ) 'this, these'
• dhālik(a) (ذلك), f. tilka (تلك), pl. ʼulāʼik(a) (أولئك) 'that, those'

Plural forms of non-human nouns are treated as feminine singular.

Some of the demonstratives (hādha, hādhihi, hāʼulāʼi, ʼulāʼika and dhālika) 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 alif khanjariyya), which doesn't exist on Arabic keyboards and is seldom written, even in the vocalised Arabic.

[edit] Numerals

[edit] Cardinal numerals

Cardinal numerals (الأعداد الأصليّة al-aʿdād al-aṣliyya) from 1-10 (0 (٠) zero is صفر ṣifr, from which the English words "cipher" and "zero" are ultimately derived)

• 1 wāḥid(un) (واحدٌ)
• 2 iṯnān(i) (اثنانِ)
• 3 ṯalāṯa(tun) (ثلاثةٌ)
• 4 arbaʿa(tun) (أربعةٌ)
• 5 ḫamsa(tun) (خمسةٌ)
• 6 sitta(tun) (ستّةٌ)
• 7 sabʿa(tun) (سبعةٌ)
• 8 ṯamāniya(tun) (ثمانيّةٌ)
• 9 tisʿa(tun) (تسعةٌ)
• 10 ʿašara(tun) (عشرةٌ)

The Arabic numerals are written as follows: ٠ - zero, ١ - one, ٢ - two, ٣ - three, ٤ - four, ٥ - five, ٦ - six, ٧ - seven, ٨ - eight, ٩ - nine.

The endings in brackets are dropped in less formal Arabic and in pausa. Note that ة (tāʾ marbūṭa) 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 (iṯnān(i)) is changed to إثنين (iṯnayn(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 11-19 are indeclinable, perpetually in the indefinite accusative. Numbers 11 and 12 show gender agreement in the ones, and 13-19 show polarity in the ones. 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.

• 11 aḥada ʿašara (أحدَ عشر)
• 12 iṯnā ʿašara (إثنا عشر)
• 13 ṯalāṯata ʿašara (ثلاثةَ عشر)

The numerals 20-99 are followed by a noun in the indefinite accusative singular as well. There is agreement in gender with the numerals 1 and 2, and polarity for numerals 3-9.

• 20 ʿišrūn(a) (عشرون) (dual of '10')
• 21 wāḥidun wa ʿišrūn(a) (واحد وعشرون)
• 22 iṯnāni wa ʿišrūn(a) (إثنان وعشرون)
• 23 ṯalāṯatu wa ʿišrūn(a) (ثلاثة وعشرون)
• 30 ṯalāṯūn(a) (ثلاتون)
• 40 arbaʿūn(a) (أربعون)

Whole hundreds, thousands etc. appear as first terms of genitive constructions, e.g. alf(u) layla(ti) wa-layla(tu) (1001 nights)ألف ليلة وليلة

• 100 miʼa(tu) (مئة), can also be spelled مائة (same pronunciation)
• 1000 alf(u) (ألف)

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

• niṣf(un) (نصف) "half"
• ṯulṯ(un) (ثلث) "one third"
• ṯulṯān(i) (ثلثان) "two thirds"
• rubʿ(un) (ربع) "one quarter"
• ṯalaṯatu arbāʿ(in) (ثلاثة أرباع) "three quarters"

etc.

[edit] Ordinal numerals

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

• m. أول awwal(u), f. أولى ūlā "first"
• m. ثانٍ ṯānin (definite form: الثاني aṯ-ṯāniyy), f. ثانية ṯāniya(tun) "second"
• m. ثالث ṯāliṯ(un), f. ثالثة ṯāliṯa(tun) "third"
• m. رابع rābiʿ(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 sābiʿ(un), f. سابعة sābiʿa(tun) "seventh"
• m. ثامن ṯāmin(un), f. ثامنة ṯāmina(tun) "eighth"
• m. تاسع tāsiʿ(un), f. تاسعة tāsiʿa(tun) "ninth"
• m. عاشر ʿāšir(un), f. عاشرة ʿāšira(tun) "tenth"

etc.

They are adjectives, hence, there is agreement in gender with the noun, not polarity as with the cardinal numbers. Note that "sixth" uses a different, older route than the number six.

[edit] Verb

فعل fiʿl

As in many other Semitic languages, Arabic verb formation is based on a (usually) triconsonantal root (جذر ثلاثي, jiḏr ṯulāṯī), which is not a word in itself but contains the semantic core. The consonants كـتـب k-t-b, for example, indicate 'write', قـرـء (e.g. قرأ) q-r-ʼ indicate 'read', ءـكـل (e.g. أكل) ʼ-k-l indicate 'eat' etc.; Words are formed by supplying the root with a vowel structure and with affixes. Traditionally, Arabic grammarians have used the root فـعـل f-ʻ-l 'do' as a template to discuss word formation. The personal forms a verb can take correspond to the forms of the pronouns, except that in the 3rd person dual, gender is differentiated, yielding paradigms of 13 forms.

[edit] Conjugation - prefixes and suffixes

اقتران iqtirān

In Arabic the grammatical person and number as well as the mood is designated by a variety of prefixes and suffixes. Most Arabic verbs are regular and follow the pattern detailed below.

NOTE:The Arabic example below is the Arabic verb kataba (كتب), "to write". Only the prefixes and suffixes of the verb have been vocalised, the vocalisation of the stems (كَتَب for the past and كْتُب for the present) has been omitted for reasons of legibility.

Prefixes and suffixes of the Arabic verb

		Perfective	Imperfective	Subjunctive and Jussive
Singular
1st		STEM-t(u)	a-STEM	no written change
		كتبْتُ	أكتب
2nd	masculine	STEM-t(a)	ta-STEM	no written change
		كتبْتَ	تَكتب
	feminine	STEM-ti	ta-STEM-īn(a)	ta-STEM-ī
		كتبْتِ	تَكتبِينَ	تَكتبِي
3rd	masculine	STEM(-a)	ya-STEM	no written change
		كتبَ	يَكتب
	feminine	STEM-at	ta-STEM	no written change
		كتبَتْ	تَكتب
Dual
2nd	masculine & feminine	STEM-tumā	ta-STEM-ān(i)	ta-STEM-ā
		كتبْتُمَا	تَكتبَانِ	تَكتبَا
3rd	masculine	STEM-ā	ya-STEM-ān(i)	ya-STEM-ā
		كتبَا	يَكتبَانِ	يَكتبَا
	feminine	STEM-atā	ta-STEM-ān(i)	ta-STEM-ā
		كتبَتَا	تَكتبَانِ	تَكتبَا
Plural
1st		STEM-nā	na-STEM	no written change
		كتبْنَا	نَكتب
2nd	masculine	STEM-tum	ta-STEM-ūn(a)	ta-STEM-ū
		كتبْتُم	تَكتبُونَ	تَكتبُوا
	feminine	STEM-tunna	ta-STEM-na	no written change
		كتبْتُنَّ	تَكتبْنَ
3rd	masculine	STEM-ū	ya-STEM-ūn(a)	ya-STEM-ū
		كتبُوا	يَكتبُونَ	يَكتبُوا
	feminine	STEM-na	ya-STEM-na	no written change
		كتبْنَ	يَكتبْنَ

In unvocalised Arabic, كتبْت - katabtu, katabta, katabti and katabat are all written the same. Forms katabtu and katabta and even katabti can be abbreviated to "katabt" in spoken Arabic and in pausa, making them also sound the same.

"kataba" can be abbreviated to "katab" in spoken Arabic and in pausa.

Dual verb and feminine plural forms are only used in very formal Arabic.

ا (alif) in final ـوا (-ū) is silent.

[edit] Perfective/perfect (past tense)

الماضي al-māḍī

In the perfective (occasionally called 'perfect') form, the perfective stem faʻal is affixed with a personal ending, e. g. kataba 'he wrote', qaraʼa 'he read'. The perfective expresses a completed action, i.e. mostly past tense. The second vowel is /a/ in most verbs, but /i/ in some verbs (especially intransitive) and /u/ in a few (especially verbs whose meaning is "be X" or "become X" where X is an adjective, usually naming a permanent or semi-permanent quality, e.g. kabura 'he became big, he grew up').

Person		Singular	Plural	Dual
1st		faʻal-tu	faʻal-nā
2nd	masculine	faʻal-ta	faʻal-tum	faʻal-tumā
	feminine	faʻal-ti	faʻal-tunna
3rd	masculine	faʻal-a	faʻal-ū	faʻal-ā
	feminine	faʻal-at	faʻal-na	faʻal-atā

[edit] Imperfective (present tense)

المضارع al-muḍāriʻ

The imperfective expresses an action in progress, or incompleted, i.e. mostly present tense. There are several vowel patterns (a-a, a-u, a-i) the root can take. The root takes a prefix as well as a suffix to build the verb form. E. g. يكتب yaktubu 'he is writing'. Note the co-incidence of 3rd f. sg. and 2nd m. sg. To explain the future tense, it is possible to use the prefix سـ sa- in front of the imperfective forms (or fully written سوف sawfa), e.g. سيكتب sayaktubu or سوف يكتب sawfa yaktubu "he will write".

Person		Singular	Plural	Dual
1st		a-fʻal-u	na-fʻal-u
2nd	masculine	ta-fʻal-u	ta-fʻal-ūna	ta-fʻal-āni
	feminine	ta-fʻal-īna	ta-fʻal-na
3rd	masculine	ya-fʻal-u	ya-fʻal-ūna	ya-fʻal-āni
	feminine	ta-fʻal-u	ya-fʻal-na	ta-fʻal-āni

[edit] Mood

حالة ḥāla

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 majzūm) 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 ṣīġatu 'l-'amr(i)) (only 2nd person masculine) is formed by dropping the verbal prefix from the imperfective stem, e.g. قدم qaddim "present!". If the result starts with two consonants followed by a vowel ("a" or "i"), a non-elided alif added the beginning, usually pronounced as "i", e.g. إغسل iġsil "wash!" or إفعل ifʻal "do!" if the present form vowel is "u", then the alif is also pronounced as "u", e.g. أكتب uktub "write!".

Note: the exception to the above rule is the form (or stem) IV verbs. In these verbs an alif pronounced as "a" is always prefixed to the shortened form, e.g. أرسل arsil "send!", أضيف aḍīf "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!'.

[edit] Voice

صيغة ṣīġa

Arabic has two verbal voices, active (صيغة المعلوم ṣīġatu 'l-maʻmūl) and passive (صيغة المجهول ṣīġatu 'l-majhūl). The passive voice is expressed by a change in vocalization and is normally not expressed in unvocalized writing. 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.

[edit] Weak roots

Roots containing one or two of the radicals w (wāw), y (yā) or ʼ (hamza) 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 hamza, these peculiarities are mainly orthographical, since hamza is not subject to elision (the orthography of hamza and alif is unsystematic due to confusion in early Islamic times). According to the position of the weak radical in the root, the root can be classified into four classes: first weak, second weak, third weak and doubled, where both the second and third radicals are identical. Some roots fall into more than one category at once.

[edit] Stem formation

"Derived" verbs are those which do not have just three consonants in the perfect tense, namely, all verbs except the primary verbs (those like kataba). For instance, verbs such as kattaba, kātaba, inkataba, takattaba are called "derived" verbs. Semantically, we would like to be able to say that the meaning of the "derived" verbs somehow "derives" from the meaning of their primary verbs, by operations like the intensive, reflexive, and causative, but in fact the actual meaning of all verbs is unpredictable and needs to be recorded in the lexicon^{[citation needed]}. Classical Arabic has a great number of derived stems, not all of which are still in use^{[citation needed]}. For the modern language, it is mostly sufficient to consider stems I-VIII and X, plus IX for verbs meaning "whiten", "blacken", "yellowen" and so on.

In the following chart, a boldfaced transliteration indicates a word that would actually exist in an Arabic lexicon for this particular root (ف - ع - ل) (f - ʻ - l - right-to-left).

Sound verbs[5]					Derived nouns[6]
	Active voice		Passive voice		Active participle	Passive participle	Maṣdar
	Past (3rd sg. masc.)	Present (3rd sg. masc.)	Past (3rd sg. masc.)	Present (3rd sg. masc.)	Sg. masc. nom.
I	faʻala	yafʻalu	fuʻila	yufʻalu	fāʻilun	mafʻūlun	Many
II	faʻʻala	yufaʻʻilu	fuʻʻila	yufaʻʻalu	mufaʻʻilun	mufaʻʻalun	tafʻiilun
III	fāʻala	yufāʻilu	fūʻila	yufāʻalu	mufāʻilun	mufāʻalun	fiʻālun
IV	ʼafʻala	yufʻilu	ʼufʻila	yufʻalu	mufʻilun	mufʻalun	ʼifʻālun
V	tafaʻʻala	yatafaʻʻalu	tufuʻʻila	yutafaʻʻalu	mutafaʻʻilun	mutafaʻʻalun	tafʻʻulun
VI	tafāʻala	yatafāʻalu	tufūʻila	yutafāʻalu	mutafāʻilun	mutafāʻalun	tafāʻulun
VII	infaʻala	yanfaʻilu	n/a		munfaʻilun	munfaʻalun	infiʻālun
VIII	iftaʻala	yaftaʻilu	uftiʻila	yuftaʻalu	muftaʻilun	muftaʻalun	iftiʻālun
IX	ifʻalla	yafʻallu	n/a		mufʻallun	n/a	ifʻilālun
X	istafʻala	yastafʻilu	ustufʻila	yustafʻalu	mustafʻilun	mustafʻalun	istifʻālun
XII	ifʻawʻala	yafʻawʻilu	ufʻulila	yufʻawʻalu	mufʻawʻilun	mufʻawʻalun	ifʻilalun

The middle vocal in form I active voice can be a, i or u, depending on the root applied in form I. The exact vocalization depends on the word form. Forms XI (ifʻālla), XIII (ifʻawwala), XIV (ifʻanlala), and XV (ifʻanlā) are very rare.^[7]

Common uses of those stems include:

• faʻʻala is often used to make an intransitive verb transitive. Eg: karuma is "be noble" but karrama is "make (someone) to be noble", or, more idiomatically, to "honor".
• infaʻala gives a passive meaning. Eg: kasara "break" and inkasara "be broken".
• ifʻalla is used only to render stative verbs meaning "to be or become X" where X is a color or physical defect, eg: iḥmarra "turn red, blush" or iṭrašša "go deaf".

A more complete list of meanings is found at Wiktionary's appendix on Arabic verb forms.

[edit] Participle

Every verb has a corresponding active participle, and most have passive participles. E.g. muʻallim 'teacher' is the active participle to stem II. of the root ʻ-l-m ('know').

• The active participle to Stem I is fāʻilun, and the passive participle is mafʻūlun.
• Stems II-X take prefix mu- and nominal endings for both the participles, active and passive. The difference between the two participles is only in the vowel between the last two root letters, which is -i- for active and -a- for passive (e.g. II. active mu-faʻʻil-un, and passive mu-faʻʻal-un').

[edit] Verbal noun (masdar)

In addition to a participle, there is a verbal noun (in Arabic, مصدر maṣdar, literally meaning "source") sometimes called a gerund, which is similar to English gerunds and verb-derived nouns of various sorts (e.g. 'running' and 'a run' from 'to run'; 'objection' from 'to object'). As shown by the English examples, its meaning refers both to the act of doing something and (by frequent semantic extension) to its result. One of its syntactic functions is as a verbal complement of another verb, and this usage it corresponds to the English gerund or infinitive (He prevented me from running or He began to run).

• verbal noun formation to stem I is irregular.
• the verbal noun to stem II is tafʻīlun. For example: taʼrīḫun 'date, history' is the verbal noun to stem II. of ʼ-r-ḫ ('date').
• stem III often forms its verbal noun with the feminine form of the passive participle, so for sāʻada, "he helped", produces the verbal noun musāʻadatun. There are also some verbal noun of the form fiʻālun: jāhada, "he strove", yields jihādun (a struggle for a cause or purpose).

[edit] Syntax

[edit] Genitive construction (iḍāfa)

A noun may be defined more closely by a subsequent noun in the genitive (إضافة iḍāfa, literally "an addition"). The relation is hierarchical; the first term (al-muḍāf) governs the second term (al-muḍāf ilayhi). E. g. بيت رجل baytu rajul(in) 'the house of a man', 'a man's house'. The construction as a whole represents a nominal phrase, the state of which is inherited from the state of the second term. The first term must "be in construct state", namely, it cannot carry the definite article nor the tanween. Genitive constructions of multiple terms are possible. In this case, all but the final term take construct state, and all but the first member take the genitive case.

This construction is typical for a Semitic language. In many cases the two members become a fixed coined phrase, the iḍāfa being used as the equivalent of nominal composition in some Indo-European languages (which does not exist in Semitic). بيت الطلبة baytu-ṭ-ṭalabati thus may mean either 'house of the (certain, known) students' or 'the student hostel'.

Note: ة (tāʾ marbūṭa) of the first term must always have a pronounced -t (after /a/). This applies to spoken Arabic as well.

[edit] Word order

Classical Arabic tends to prefer the word order VSO (verb before subject) rather than SVO (subject before verb). However, the word order is fairly flexible, since words are tagged by case endings. Subject pronouns are normally omitted except for emphasis or when using a participle as a verb (participles are not marked for person). Auxiliary verbs precede main verbs, and prepositions precede their objects.

Adjectives follow the noun they are modifying, and agree with the noun in case, gender, number, and state: For example, بنت جميلة "bint(un) jamīla(tun)" "a beautiful girl" but البنت الجميلة "al-bintu l-jamīla(tu)" "the beautiful girl". (Compare البنت جميلة "al-bint(u) jamīla(tun)" "the girl is beautiful".) Elative adjectives, however, precede their modifying noun, do not agree with it, and require that the noun be in the genitive case (see below).

Note that case endings are dropped in pausal forms, in colloquial Arabic and in less formal MSA ("Formal Spoken Arabic"), hence SVO is more common in spoken Arabic.

[edit] 'inna

The subject of a sentence can be topicalized and emphasized by moving it to the beginning of the sentence and preceding it with the word إن inna ~"indeed". Examples are إنك أنت جميل "innaka anta jamīlun" "YOU are beautiful" or إن السماء زرقاء "inna s-samā’a zarqā’u" "THE SKY is blue". (In older texts, "inna" was translated "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.

[edit] Numbers

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 ʻašara" "eleven" through "tisʻata ʻašara" "nineteen" require a following noun in the accusative singular, agree with the noun in gender, and are invariable for case, except for "ʼiṯnā ʻašara/ʼiṯnay ʻašara" "twelve". Numbers above this behave entirely as nouns, showing case agreement as required by the surrounding syntax, no gender agreement, and a following noun in a fixed case. "ʻišrūna" "twenty" through "tisʻūna" "ninety" require the accusative singular; "miʼat-" "hundred" and up require the genitive singular. The numbers themselves decline in various fashions; for example, "ʻišrūna" "twenty" through "tisʻūna" "ninety" decline as masculine plural nouns, while "miʼat-" "hundred" declines as a feminine singular noun and "ʼalf-" "thousand" as a masculine singular noun. "miʼat-" "hundred" and "ʼalf-" "thousand" can themselves be modified by numbers (to form numbers such as 200 or 5,000) and will be declined appropriately. ("miʼatāni" and "200" "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.:

• "'alfun wa-tis`u mi'atin wa-tis`u sineen(a)" "1,909 years"
• "ba`da 'alfin wa-tis`i mi'atin wa-tis`i sineen(a)" "after 1,909 years"
• "'arba`atun wa-tis`ūna 'alfan wa-ṯamānu-mi'atin wa-ṯalāṯatun wa-sittūna sanat(an)" "94,863 years"
• "ba`da 'arba`atin wa-tis`īna 'alfan wa-ṯamānī-mi'atin wa-ṯalāṯatin wa-sittīna sanat(an)" "after 94,863 years"
• "'iṯnā `ašara 'alfan wa-mi'atāni wa-ṯnāni wa-`išrūna sanat(an)" "12,222 years"
• "ba`da 'iṯnay `ašara 'alfan wa-mi'atayni wa-ṯnayni wa-`išrīna sanat(an)" "after 12,222 years"
• "'iṯnā `ašara 'alfan wa-mi'atāni wa-sanatān(i)" "12,202 years"
• "ba`da 'iṯnay `ašara 'alfan wa-mi'atayni wa-sanatayn(i)" "after 12,202 years"

[edit] Other

Object pronouns are clitics and are attached to the verb, e.g. arā-hā "I see her". Possessive pronouns are likewise attached to the noun they modify, e.g. "kitābu-hu" "his book". The definite article "al-" is a clitic, as are the prepositions "li-" "to" and "bi-" "in/with" and the conjunctions "ka-" "as" and "fa-" "thus, so".

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Arabic language
• Literary Arabic
• Varieties of Arabic
• Arabic alphabet
• Romanization of Arabic
• WikiBook: Learn Arabic

[edit] External links

• Learn Arabic Online - Live Teachers From Middle East
• Xerox Arabic Morphological Analysis and Generation (uses Java)
• Arabic verb conjugator
• Classical Arabic Blog
• Arabic Grammar Online

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