Browse Arabic grammar terminology by its two sciences, Naḥw (syntax) and Ṣarf (morphology). Pick a tab, use the category chips to jump within a branch, and search to find any term. Each entry gives its Arabic name, a plain explanation, and real Qur’anic examples.
Naḥw, Syntax
How a word works once it is in a sentence: its case (iʿrāb), its role, the particles that govern it, and the words that follow it.
The three word kinds
3Every Arabic word is one of three kinds. The explorer colours them: Ism green, Fiʿl amber, Harf grey.
A name for a person, place, thing, or idea. Adjectives and pronouns count as ism too. It carries no tense.
An action or state tied to a time: past, present, or a command.
Person, gender & number
8For verbs and pronouns these features stack, e.g. “3rd person · masc. · plural” = they (men).
The speaker: “I” or “we”.
The one being addressed: “you”.
The one being spoken about: “he”, “she”, “they”.
Feminine gender.
Exactly two, Arabic has a special form just for pairs.
Three or more.
Number: the kinds of plural
3A noun is single, dual, or plural; the plural comes in three kinds. In the dars-e-niẓāmī naḥw these are taught under “the noun by number”.
Plural for male rational beings by suffixing -ūna (nominative) or -īna (accusative/genitive), leaving the singular intact.
Rafʿ by wāw (-ūna); naṣb and jarr by yāʾ (-īna).
Plural formed by suffixing alif and tāʾ (-āt) to the singular, typically replacing the tāʾ marbūṭah.
Rafʿ by ḍammah; naṣb and jarr both by kasrah (not fatḥah).
A plural formed by internally altering the singular's structure rather than adding a fixed suffix; it follows fixed templates.
Fully declinable; e.g. rusul (sing. rasūl), qulūb (sing. qalb).
Definiteness
2Whether the noun points to a specific, known thing or to any one of a kind.
A specific, known thing, often carries “al-” (“the”).
A general, any-one-of-a-kind thing, often ends in tanwīn (“-un”).
Definite nouns & pronouns (al-maʿārif waḍ-ḍamāʾir)
6The kinds of definite noun, proper names, relative and demonstrative nouns, and the three kinds of pronoun.
A definite noun naming a specific person, place, or thing on its own, with no added qualifier needed.
A category of the definite (maʿrifah) nouns.
A definite noun (alladhī, allatī, man, mā) that needs a following clause (ṣilah) to complete its meaning.
Requires a connecting clause (ṣilah) with a returning pronoun.
A definite noun used to point to something specific, near or far, e.g. hādhā (this), dhālika (that).
Distinguishes proximity (hādhā) from distance (dhālika).
A pronoun standing independently, only in the nominative or accusative, e.g. anā, huwa, iyyāka.
Cannot occur in the genitive (jarr).
A pronoun joined to a verb, noun, or particle as subject, object, or possessor, e.g. the -hu, -nā, -ka suffixes.
Never stands alone at the start of speech.
A pronoun with no visible form, understood from the verb, e.g. the implied "he" in qāma or "you" in a command.
Can be obligatorily hidden (wujūban) or optionally (jawāzan).
Case (the “Status” chip)
3A noun’s ending shows its job in the sentence. These three cases appear as the “Status” chip.
The nominative case (ending “-u”). Usually marks the subject, the one doing the action.
The accusative case (ending “-a”). Usually marks the object, the one the action is done to.
The genitive case (ending “-i”). Comes after a preposition, or in a possessive (“of”) relationship.
Verb mood (of the present verb)
3The present verb changes its ending after certain particles. That ending is its mood.
The default present-verb mood (ends “-u”): a plain statement, “he does”.
After particles like “an / lan” (ends “-a”): “to do”, or “will never do”.
After particles like “lam” (the ending vowel drops): negates the past, “he did not do”.
Iʿrāb & bināʾ (declension)
3Whether a word changes its ending with its position (muʿrab) or stays fixed (mabnī), the heart of naḥw, and the noun that refuses tanwīn.
A word whose ending changes (rafʿ, naṣb, jarr/jazm) according to the governing factor in the sentence.
Most nouns, and the present-tense verb, are muʿrab.
A word whose ending stays fixed and does not change with grammatical position, all particles, the past and command verbs, and many nouns.
Pronouns, demonstratives and relatives are mabnī nouns.
A noun that refuses tanwīn and is made genitive with fatḥah instead of kasrah, unless it has “al-” or is annexed.
Includes the afʿal pattern (aḥsan) and ṣīghat muntahā al-jumūʿ (masājid).
Compounds (al-murakkabāt)
5When two words join to make one unit. Classical naḥw teaches the kinds of compound early, before parsing them in detail.
Two nouns joined so the first (muḍāf) belongs to or is defined by the second (muḍāf ilayh), which stays genitive.
The muḍāf drops its tanwīn and any “al-”.
A noun (mawṣūf) followed by an adjective (ṣifah) that describes it, agreeing in case, number, gender, and definiteness.
Also called al-murakkab al-waṣfī or al-bayānī.
A demonstrative (ism ishārah) joined with the thing pointed to (mushār ilayh), such as “this book”, forming one referring unit.
When the mushār ilayh has “al-”, the demonstrative is its badal or ʿaṭf bayān, not a muḍāf.
Two words fused into a single word naming one thing, such as the place-names Baʿlabakk and Ḥaḍramawt, or a name like Sībawayh.
If it ends in “-wayh” it is mabnī on kasr; otherwise treated as a diptote.
A construction of a predicate (musnad) and a subject (musnad ilayh) conveying a complete meaning, in effect, a full sentence.
Also called al-murakkab al-bināʾī; stays mabnī when used as a proper name.
Sentences & the verb (al-jumlah, transitivity)
6The two kinds of Arabic sentence, and whether a verb reaches an object on its own, questions of how words combine, so they belong to naḥw.
A sentence beginning with a noun, built on two pillars: a subject (mubtadaʾ) and a predicate (khabar).
Both mubtadaʾ and khabar are marfūʿ by default.
A sentence beginning with a verb, built on a verb (fiʿl) and its doer (fāʿil), optionally with an object.
The fāʿil is always marfūʿ; the object (mafʿūl) is manṣūb.
An adverb (ẓarf) or a preposition-plus-object (jārr wa-majrūr); it gives only a partial meaning, so it is like an incomplete sentence.
It is always “attached” (mutaʿalliq) to a verb or its meaning.
An adverb (or jārr-majrūr) plus its complement standing in for a clause, with an underlying verb of “being/occurring” omitted.
The ẓarf relates to an omitted verb (taqdīr: istaqarra/kāna).
A verb whose meaning is complete with its subject alone and needs no direct object.
Also called qāṣir; to take an object it needs a preposition.
A verb that passes beyond its subject to one or more direct objects without needing a preposition.
May govern one, two, or even three objects.
Sentence roles: the nominatives (marfūʿāt)
7Roles that put a word in the rafʿ (nominative) case, the doers and the things spoken about.
The noun a nominal sentence begins with, about which the predicate gives information; it is marfūʿ.
Usually definite and at the start of the sentence.
The part of a nominal sentence that completes the meaning by giving information about the mubtadaʾ; it is marfūʿ.
Agrees with the mubtadaʾ in number and gender.
The noun that comes after an active verb and performs the action; it is always marfūʿ.
The verb stays singular even when the fāʿil is plural.
The noun that replaces the deleted fāʿil after a passive verb and takes its marfūʿ status.
Used when the doer is unmentioned; the verb is built for the passive.
The noun that the incomplete verbs kāna, ṣāra, laysa and the like make marfūʿ as their subject.
These verbs make the subject marfūʿ and the predicate manṣūb.
The predicate that stays marfūʿ after the emphatic particles inna, anna, kaʾanna, lākinna, layta and laʿalla.
These particles make the noun manṣūb but the predicate stays marfūʿ.
The present-tense verb when no naṣb or jazm particle precedes it; the only verb that takes rafʿ.
Marfūʿ with a ḍamma, or the retained nūn in the five verbs.
Special governing & noun-like words
6Verbs and words with special syntactic power: those taking two objects, those working like kāna or laysa, and words that act as verbs or imitate sounds.
Mental verbs like ẓanna, ḥasiba, ʿalima, raʾā that enter a nominal sentence and make both the subject and predicate their two objects.
Split into verbs of certainty (ʿalima, raʾā) and of opinion (ẓanna, ḥasiba).
Verbs like kāda, ʿasā, akhadha, jaʿala that govern like kāna: subject marfūʿ, and a predicate that is always a verbal sentence.
Approach (kāda), hope (ʿasā), beginning (akhadha, jaʿala, ṭafiqa).
The negating mā and lā (Ḥijāzī usage) that work like laysa: they raise the subject and make the predicate manṣūb.
mā works only if the subject precedes the predicate and no illā follows.
The frozen verbs niʿma (praise) and biʾsa (blame); each takes a subject, then the noun singled out for praise or blame (al-makhṣūṣ).
The makhṣūṣ is a delayed mubtadaʾ, or khabar of an omitted “huwa”.
An indeclinable word that carries a verb’s meaning and governance but takes no verbal signs, e.g. hayhāta, ṣah, āmīn, ḥayya.
By tense: past (hayhāta = baʿuda), present (uffin), or command (ṣah = uskut).
An indeclinable word used to call an animal or small child, or to imitate a sound, e.g. ghāqi (a crow), nakh (a camel kneeling).
Unlike ism al-fiʿl it carries no pronoun and neither governs nor is governed.
Sentence roles: the accusatives (manṣūbāt)
12Roles that put a word in the naṣb (accusative) case, the object, and the many details around a verb.
The noun that the subject's action falls upon; the receiver or target of a transitive verb.
The most common manṣūb; a verb may take more than one.
A verbal noun from the verb's own root, used to emphasise it, specify its type, or count its occurrences.
Always manṣūb; shares the verb's root letters.
A verbal noun stating the reason or motive for which the action was done; answers "why?".
Also called al-mafʿūl min ajlih; usually a heart-related verbal noun.
A noun of time or place in the accusative, implying "in", stating when or where the action occurred.
Two kinds: ẓarf zamān (time) and ẓarf makān (place).
A noun after wāw meaning "together with", naming what the action happened alongside, not a coordinated partner.
Here the wāw means maʿa (with), not regular conjunction.
An accusative noun describing the state or condition of the subject or object while the action occurs.
Answers "how / in what state?"; usually a derived adjective.
An indefinite accusative noun that removes ambiguity from a preceding amount, measure, or vague word.
Often follows numbers, weights, or measures.
The noun after illā (except) excluded from the preceding ruling; accusative in an affirmative complete sentence.
Manṣūb when the sentence is affirmative and complete.
The noun addressed after a calling particle like yā; manṣūb when it is muḍāf or an indefinite unspecified noun.
A single proper-noun vocative is mabnī on ḍamm, not manṣūb.
The noun that inna or a sister particle (anna, kaʾanna, lākinna, layta, laʿalla) puts into the accusative.
These particles make the subject manṣūb and the predicate marfūʿ.
The predicate that kāna or a sister verb (aṣbaḥa, ṣāra, laysa…) renders accusative, while the subject stays nominative.
These verbs make the subject marfūʿ and the predicate manṣūb.
The noun after lā that negates its entire genus; built on fatḥ (manṣūb in place) when joined directly without tanwīn.
Means "no … at all"; also called lā at-tabriʾa.
The followers (tawābiʿ)
5Words that copy the case of the noun before them: adjectives, emphasis, substitutes, and conjoined nouns.
A follower describing a quality of the noun before it (the manʿūt), agreeing in case, number, gender, and definiteness.
Matches its noun in all four: case, number, gender, definiteness.
A follower added to confirm the preceding word and remove any doubt or oversight, agreeing with it in case.
Two kinds: lafẓī (repetition) and maʿnawī (nafs, kull, jamīʿ, ajmaʿūn).
A follower standing in for the noun before it (the mubdal minh) as the real intended word, taking the same case.
Kinds: badal kull min kull, badal baʿḍ min kull, badal ishtimāl.
A follower joined to the preceding word by a coordinating particle such as wāw, fā, thumma, aw, taking the same case.
Differs from ʿaṭf al-bayān by the conjunction between the two nouns.
A follower, usually a solid noun more familiar than the one before it, that clarifies it without any conjunction.
Like the naʿt, but a noun rather than a derived adjective.
Sentence roles: the genitives & iḍāfah (majrūrāt)
4Roles that put a word in the jarr (genitive) case, after a preposition or in a possessive construction.
A noun put into the genitive because a preposition precedes it, such as min, ilā, ʿan, fī, bi, li.
Prepositions govern only nouns; the default sign of jarr is kasrah.
A construction joining two nouns to express possession or specification; the second noun is put into the genitive.
The first noun (muḍāf) drops its tanwīn and any 'al-'.
The first noun in an iḍāfah; it carries the case its sentence role requires and loses tanwīn and 'al-'.
Its case is not fixed at genitive; it follows the muḍāf's function.
The second noun of an iḍāfah, always genitive, which specifies or completes the meaning of the muḍāf.
The second main kind of majrūr: genitive by iḍāfah, not by a preposition.
Particles & operators (al-ḥurūf al-ʿāmilah)
10The small words that govern others: prepositions, inna and kāna with their sisters, and the particles that make verbs subjunctive or jussive.
Particles that put a following noun into the genitive. Members include min, ilā, ʿan, ʿalā, fī, bi, li, ka, rubba, ḥattā.
Always indeclinable (mabnī); the noun after them is always majrūr.
Particles entering a nominal sentence that make the subject manṣūb and keep the predicate marfūʿ: inna, anna, kaʾanna, lākinna, layta, laʿalla.
inna asserts, kaʾanna likens, lākinna corrects, layta wishes, laʿalla hopes.
Defective verbs entering a nominal sentence: they keep the subject marfūʿ and make the predicate manṣūb. E.g. kāna, ṣāra, aṣbaḥa, laysa, mā zāla.
Opposite of inna: subject marfūʿ, predicate manṣūb. laysa means "is not".
Particles that put a following present verb into the manṣūb (subjunctive) mood: an (that), lan (will never), kay (so that), idhan (in that case).
lan emphatically negates the future; an + verb forms an interpreted maṣdar.
Particles that put a single present verb into the majzūm (jussive) mood: lam (did not), lammā (not yet), lām of command, lā of prohibition.
lam negates and shifts the meaning to the past; lā an-nāhiya forbids.
Words linking a condition to its answer. The jussive ones make both verbs majzūm: in, man, mā, mahmā, matā, aynamā, ayy.
in and idhmā are particles; the rest are nouns.
Particles joining a following word to a preceding one in case and ruling: wāw, fā, thumma, ḥattā, aw, am, bal, lākin, lā.
wāw = simple joining; fā = order with immediacy; thumma = order with delay.
Particles used to call the addressed noun (al-munādā): yā, ayā, hayā, ay, the hamza, and wā (for lament). yā is the most common.
yā serves both near and far; the noun after it (munādā) takes a special case.
Particles that ask a question. The two pure ones are the hamza (a-) and hal; the hamza seeks confirmation or identification, hal seeks only confirmation.
The hamza has priority of place; hal cannot enter a negative question.
A "lā" that categorically negates an entire class. Like inna, it makes its indefinite noun manṣūb/mabnī and its predicate marfūʿ.
Both its noun and predicate are indefinite. Classic case: lā ilāha illā Allāh.
Attached prefixes
13Short particles that fuse onto the front of a word. The explorer lists each one it finds.
Makes the noun definite, “the”.
Joins words or sentences, “and”. (Can also begin an oath: “by”.)
Shows a result or a sequence, “so / then”.
A preposition “with / by / in”; its noun takes jar.
A preposition for purpose or belonging, “for / to”.
A preposition of comparison, “like / as”.
Stresses and confirms the statement, “surely”.
Turns a present verb into the near future, “will”.
Turns the sentence into a question, “?”.
An oath, “by”, as in “ta-llāhi” (by Allah).
The “lām of purpose” on a verb, “so that / in order to”. It makes the verb subjunctive.
The “hā of drawing attention” (hā at-tanbīh) on a demonstrative, “lo / behold”, as in hādhā (“behold, this”).
The vocative “yā”, “O!”, used to call or address someone, as in yā ayyuhā (“O you…”).
The number (al-ʿadad)
7How Arabic counts: the forms of the number, the case of the counted noun (tamyīz), and the famous reverse-agreement rule for 3–10.
A number in one word: 1–10, plus 100 and 1000. 1 and 2 agree with the counted noun in gender; 3–10 reverse it.
The noun after 3–10 is a plural in the genitive (e.g. thalāthatu rijālin).
A two-part number from eleven to nineteen formed by joining a unit to ʿashar/ʿashrata; both parts are built on fatḥah.
Its counted noun (tamyīz) is a single noun in the accusative. (ithnā ʿashar inflects like the dual.)
The round tens (twenty … ninety); one fixed form serves both genders and is declined like the sound masculine plural.
Never change for gender; their counted noun is a single accusative.
A number from 21–99 where a unit is conjoined by wāw to a ten (e.g. “one-and-twenty”). The counted noun stays single accusative.
The unit keeps its own gender rule (1–2 agree, 3–9 reverse).
The noun a number counts; its form and case shift by range: 3–10 plural genitive, 11–99 single accusative, 100/1000 single genitive.
A useful key to recognising a number’s value from its noun.
For 3–10 the number takes the opposite gender of its counted noun: a masculine noun → a feminine number, and vice versa.
Judge gender by the singular of the counted noun.
A number showing rank: ʾawwal for first, then second–tenth on the pattern fāʿil (thānī, thālith…), agreeing with the noun.
Unlike cardinals, ordinals agree with the noun in gender and definiteness.