lesson 3 - Arabic Gems
Lesson 3: Case Some important aspects of English grammar which is essential to understand in order to understand better Arabic grammar inshallahSubject: The person or thing that is performing the action of the verb. Object: The person or thing that is receiving the action of the verb. Verb: An action or a doing word (ie: sat, swim, run, read, write etc) For example: The boy read the book. subject verb object In Arabic, words take on different status: “cases” – what this means is that they will display different vowels on their final letter depending on what “case” they are in. Word case will be altered depending on its grammatical status in a sentence: for example, words following a preposition will in general, display kessrah; words which are the subject, will in general display dummah; words which are the object, will in general display a fatha. (that which effects words to display different cases is explained in following lessons – lesson 3 is primarily to show and explain the concept of case and what it does). There are different factors which ultimately effect or determine which case a word will be and how exactly its case is displayed While in general certain vowels are used to show case, sometimes it happens that a word cannot display it as such and so will take on a different appearance….therefore you cannot rely on solely looking at which final vowel a word takes to identify its case. Rather, look also to grammatical status in the sentence. (this becomes clearer in following lessons). Identifying case and sentence meaning If we were to say in English: The man hit the wrongdoer. Then from the structure of the sentence, we can see that it is the “man” who is the subject; the one who performs the action of hitting. And the “wrongdoer” is the object; the one whom is receiving the action – being hit. If however, we switch the words around a little and say instead: The wrongdoer hit the man. Now, we understand that it is the wrong doer who is the subject: doing the action of hitting, and it is the man who is the object: the one being hit. Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 1 In English we have a clear word order- the position of words in a sentence, tell us its grammatical status or meaning. In Arabic however, this is not quite so. Grammatical status is not necessarily identified by a words position in the sentence. Rather, it is the case which tells us this (identified by the the final vowel / word ending). If we write our sentence in Arabic, we have: ُب الظَالِ َم َُ ض َر ُُ الر ُج َ ل Object: The wrongdoer Verb: hit Subject: The man Take a look at the final vowel for each word: It is this final vowel which tells us the grammatical status of each word - which word is the subject or the object. – The dummah on ُ الر ُج ُلtells us that this is the subject. The Fatha on الظَالِ َُمtells us that this is the object. So…..if we mix the word order up a little…like this: ُب الر ُج ُل َُ ض َر َ الظَالِ َُم ُالر ُج ُل ُب ُُ الظَالِ َُم الر ُج َ ض َر َ ل ُل الظَالِ َم ُُ ب الر ُج َُ ض َر َ ُب ُُ الر ُج َ ض َر َ ل الظَالِ َُم ُب الظَالِ َُم الر ُج ُل َُ ض َر َ Then all these sentences mean the same thing: The man hit the wrongdoer! Look at the final vowel on each word to determine its grammatical status: In each sentence ُ الر ُج ُلhas the dummah- therefore this dummah tells us this word is the subject. Like wise in each sentence, م َُ ِ الظَالtakes fatha- therefore this fatha tells us this word is the object. Remember: The grammatical status of a word is not based on its position in a sentence, but rather, how the end of the word looks. The word “inflection” إعرابrefers to the ending of a word which represents its case. Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 2 Lets take another example: Subject Object Possessive They sat down. I saw them. That is their house. The man sat down. I saw the man. That is the man’s son Notice the noun man: no matter how it occurs in the sentence its form does not change. In Arabic, the word will change grammatically (and not structurally) when the above three sentences are rendered in Arabic: Subject Object Possessive ُس الر ُج ُل َُ ََجل ُالرج َُل ُُ َرأَي َ ْت ُابن الرج ُِل ُُ ك َُ َِذل It is clear to see, that a word shows its grammatical status by displaying different word endings. So, it is understood that grammatical status is indicated by the way a word ends – this is the way in which its final vowel is displayed, as shown above – however some words may express their state in alternate ways: For example: Here we can see that in each of these sentences, the word highlighted is the subject. – Although the grammatical position of each word is the same (in that they are all the subject), they are different “word types” (explained further in lesson) and therefore have different word endings to represent or display its status (case). Subject Subject Subject ُجا َُء الر ُج ُل ُُالن ِ جا َُء الرج ُمون َ ِجا َُء ال ُمسل The man came. The two men came. The Muslims came. Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 3 Classifying Case Each of the different states / cases have a name, and there are 4 in total. َمجْ رُور Nominative مرْ فُوع َ Accusative م ْنصُوب َ ُ َْمج Jussive زوم 1. Genitive 2. 3. 4. Although there are 4 cases in total, nouns ُ اِسْمand verbs ُ فِعْلeach will apply only 3 of the cases to their word types: [Term 1 only deals with cases for nouns.] Genitive َم ْج ُرور Inflection Nominative َم ْرفُوع Accusative Jussive صوب ُ َم ْن َم ْج ُزوم إعراب The word “inflection” إعرابrefers to the ending of a word to represent or display its case. Word endings can be divided into 2 categories: 1. Fully inflected 2. Partially inflected Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 4 Inflection Fully inflected Partially inflected These are words in vocab list that end in tanween when indefinite These are words that cannot take tanween when indefinite, showing instead just a single vowel. i.e. َرسُول i.e. Can display all three vowels on the end to correspond to the different cases َم َنافِ ُع Cannot always display all three vowels – sometimes have to make substitutions Word type There are 5 “word types” – each of them having different ways to demonstrate their case. Words ending in taa’marbootah Fully inflected Act as any normal noun ة Partially inflected (proper nouns only) When َمجرورdisplay fathah instead of kasrah Definite in meaning so no or tanween. ال Type 1 partially inflected words refer only to proper nouns. (a proper noun is the name of a specific person (Maryam), place (Masjid al-Haram) or thing (Mercedes Benz). Because a proper noun is the name of someone/thing specific, it is automatically definite in meaning, therefore just as in English we would not say “the Maryam” or “Maryam”, there is no need for الor tanween. Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 5 Examples of Type 1 partially inflected proper names ending in ُفاط َم ُة ِ Fatima Proper noun, therefore no الor tanween, as is definite by meaning. ة َفاط َم ُة ِ قَلَ ُُم ُفاط َم ُةَ اللَ ِطيفَ ِة ِ قَلَ ُُم The pen of Fatima The pen of gentle Fatima Two nouns together form a Mudaf the 2nd noun in this Fatima is type 1 partially inflected – therefore cannot construction should beُ َمجْ رور (taught in lesson 7)- therefore should have kessrah – however because this is a partially inflected word, it displays a fatha instead. display kessrah when َمجْ رور and instead displays a fatha. Notice: ُم َح َّمدis a proper noun- however does not end -therefore it is not a type 1 word, so can and does take kessrah, unlike فاط َمة ِ ُقَلَ ُُم ُم َح َّمد ُة Remember, although it displays fatha, it is still majroor case here, so therefore, as we learnt in lesson 1, an adjective must agree with the noun it describes in case. So, here, لَ ِطيفَةmust agree with the case of َة ُ فاط َم ِ the adjective which we know is majroor. لَ ِطيفَة is not a type 1 word, therefore has no problem displaying the kessrah to indicate it is majroor along with Fatima. Nouns and adjectives that are not of any of the other types Fully inflected Act as any normal noun – but you must add an alif as a seat for the when indefinite ا Partially inflected (only when indefinite- when definite functions normally with all three vowels) َمجْ رُور When genitive display fathah instead of kasrah, and cannot take tanween eg مُسْ لِما Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 6 Examples of Type 2 partially inflected nouns ُفَوا ِك ُه َصحْ ُنُ فوا ِك ُه َ (a) fruit Is a partially inflected noun; it cannot display tanween even though it is indefinite. ُن الفوا ِك ِه ُُ ْصح َ A plate of fruit The plate of fruit As we will learnt in lesson 7, this construction is an idafa – which means that the 2nd noun must be majroor. It is no longer partially inflected as is now definite, therefore can display kessrah as normal. َفوا ِك ُه However, because is a partially inflected word (it can not take tanween even when indefinite), it can not display kessrah as most majroor words do – instead it shows fatha. If we make فوا ِكهdefinite Words that end kessrah-tanween when they are indefinite and marfu in vocab list: for example مرفوع Definite Indef مرفوع Singular Indefinite ي واد منصوب مجرور Definite Indefinite Definite ُي َ ُيا ُواديا ي Indefinite ends in –in eg واد Plural الوادي الجواري َ ُ واد ُجوار ُي َُ ي الوا ِدي َ الواد َُ يُ الجوار ي َ الجواري جوار ِ ُ واد ُجوار Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 7 ًىً ا Words that end or The ending never changes for case, but the word losesits tanween when definite (which is normal!) Definite مرفوع indefinite َُرجُل ُالر ُج ُل ُقُرى ُى َ القُر ُن َرجُال َُّ ِإ ُن الر ُج َل َُّ ِإ As this is a word quoted in isolation, it will be in the default case – – مرفوعand so should carry a dammah As this is a word that ends in ا, the ending will not change, the tanween is simply removed in the definite In this type of construction (which we will learn later) the second noun should be منصوبtherefore carry a fathah منصوب ُن قُرى َُّ ِإ ُى َُّ ِإ َ ن القُر ُمع رجُل ُمع الرج ُِل As this is a word that ends in ا, the ending will not change, the tanween is simply removed in the definite In this type of construction (which we will learn later) the second noun should be مجرورtherefore carry a kasrah مجرور ُمع قُرى ُى َ مع القُر As this is a word that ends in ا, the ending will not change, the tanween is simply removed in the definite َىً ًا َ Words that end or The ending never changes for case, other than adding الwhen definite Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 8 Sound Masculine Plural The last letter stays the same, whether definite or indefintite ًَن مرفوع End ُون َ منصوب مجرور ُين َ End To know whether a word is mansoob or majroor you must look at the context to determine which of the two it is – as both display the same To identify case look at the second to last letter – is it وor ي Sound Feminine Plural The ending functions the same way as any normal word; When it is indefinite it will have tanween and when definite will have الand one vowel removed مرفوع End ُات منصوب مجرور ُات End To know whether a word is mansoob or majroor you must look at the context to determine which of the two it is – as both display the same Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 9 Independent pronouns Pronouns are words which take the place of a noun, such as I, he, she, they etc. Ppl you are talking about /absent Ppl you are talking to self Singular Plural 3rd person masculine ُهُ َو ُهُ ْم They 3+ 3rd person feminine ُِه َي ُهُ َّن They 3+ 2nd person masculine َ أَ ْن ُت ُأَ ْنتُ ْم You 3+ 2nd person feminine ُت ِ أَ ْن ُأَ ْنتُ َّن You 3+ 1st person أَنا ُنَحْ ُن I / we 2+ Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 10 Lesson 3: Quick revision summary The grammatical position of a word is demonstrated by its case: its final vowels. The 3 cases which deal with nouns are َمجْ رُورgenerally (but not always) end kessrah Nominative مرْ فُوع َ generally (but not always) end dummah Accusative م ْنصُوب َ generally (but not always) end fatha 1. Genitive 2. 3. Word ending will ultimately depend on what word type the said word is: Check the case chart! Fully inflected: end tanween when definite – can display all 3 vowels Partially inflected: Cannot take tanween when indefinite (show just single vowel). Cannot display all 3 vowels representing each case . Type 1: words ending taa’marbootah Fully inflected: takes all 3 vowels Partially inflected: Proper nouns only (so no “al” or tanween as proper nouns are definite in meaning) ُ when َم ْج ُرورdisplay fatha not kessrah Type 2: nouns and adjectives not of other types Fully inflected: act like any normal noun- but when indefinite must add an alif” for tanween to sit on ُ Partially inflected: when َم ْج ُرورdisplay fatha not kessrah, and cannot take tanween Type 3: words end kessrah-tansween when indef & marfu ie: واد When all 3 cases both definite/indefinite and singular/plural: end َم ْج ُرور and َم ْرفُوع-When indefinite and singular / plural: end صوب ُ َم ْنWhen indefinite and singular end: ُي َ ي (kessrah-tanween) When indefinite and plural end: ُي َ ًىً ا: ending never changes for case, other than losing tanween when definite Type 4: words end or َىً ًا َ : ending never changes for case, other than adding الwhen definite Type 5: words end or Sound masculine plural: when َم ْرفُوعend ُون َ when صوب ُ َم ْن ُين َُ َ and َم ْج ُرورend ين when صوب ُ َم ْن ُ اتand َم ْج ُرورend ُات Sound Feminine plural: when َمرْ فُوعend ُات Arabic Gems Lesson 3: page 11
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