Lesson 25 – الدَّرْسُ الْخَامِسُ وَالْعِشْرُونَ

Introduction - مُقَدِّمَةٌ
The Declinable and the non-Declinable –الْمُعْرَبُ وَالْمَبْنِيُّ

• In this lesson we will learn the difference between the declinable and the non-declinable words, In-Shaa’-Allaah (God willing).
• We will study that the vowel endings in the declinable nouns are changeable according to the grammatical case and according to the position in the sentence. You can see a noun like /kitāb/كِتَاب signed with /đammah/ on its end in a certain situation كِتَابٌ, and signed with /fatħah/ in another situation كِتَابًا, and signed with /kasrah/ in a third situation كِتَابٍ. This change in the ending of the word (according to its position in the sentence) means that the word is declinable. Consider the declension of the noun /kitābun/ in the following examples (please read from right to left):

Explanation	Declension		Sentence
	Case	Sign	English	Arabic
The word /kitābun/ is a predicate, so it is in the nominative case signed with đammah on its end	Nominative	đammah	This is a book.	هَذَا كِتَابٌ.
The word /kitāban/ is a direct object, so it is in the accusative case signed with fatħah on its end	Accusative	Fatħah	I took a book.	أَخَذْتُ كِتَابًا.
The word /al kitābi/ is Muđâf ilaihi, so it is in the genitive case signed with kasrah on its end	Genitive	Kasrah	The color of the book is beautiful.	لَوْنُ الْكِتَابِجَمِيلٌ.

• We will also learn the indeclinable words, i.e. the words which do not change according to their position in the sentence. The indeclinable words have constant endings whatever their position in the sentence is. Consider the ending of the demonstrative noun ذَلِكَ /dhālika/ in the following three sentences:

Explanation	Indeclension		Sentence
	Place of (case)	Sign	English	Arabic
Although the word /dhālika/ is a subject in the nominative case, but it is signed with fatħah as a constant ending.	Nominative	Fatħah (always indeclinable on the fatħah)	That’s right.	ذَلِكَ صَحِيحٌ.
The word /dhālika/ is a direct object in the accusative case; it is signed with fatħah as a constant ending.	Accusative		I know that.	أَعْلَمُ ذَلِكَ.
Although the word /dhālika/ is a Maĵrur noun in the genitive case, but it is signed with fatħah as a fixed ending.	Genitive		I doubt that.	أَشُكُّ فِيذَلِكَ.

• We will also learn the types of indeclinable words (verbs, nouns, and articles) and the different signs of indeclensoin for each.
  
  
  • Any Arabic word is either declinable or indeclinable. The declinable words are the words that have the feature of changing their endings according to their grammatical position in the sentence. The indeclinable words are those words that do not have that feature (i.e. their vowel endings never change whatever their grammatical position is). Arabic language (like most Semitic languages) is classified as a declension language. The declension language is the language in which we distinguish the position of each word by certain signs above or below each word, while in the non-declension languages (e.g.: English) we guess the position of each word in the sentence from the word form and the word order in the sentence.
  • Consider the following two English sentences:
  • The man killed the snake.
  • The snake killed the man.
  • In the first sentence, we understand that the killer is the man, while he is the one killed in the second sentence. We understand this meaning from the word order (i.e. the doer comes before the direct object).
  • In Arabic the doer is that which is in the nominative case (i.e. signed originally with đammah) regardless of its order in the sentence, and the direct object is that which is in the accusative case (i.e. signed originally with fatħah) regardless its order in the sentence. Consider the following two sentences:

  Explanation	English meaning	Arabic sentence
  The killer here is the man because the noun is signed with the đammah (nominative case)	The man killed the snake.	قَتَلَ الرَّجُلُ الثُّعْبَانَ.
  The killer here is the snake because its noun is signed with the đammah (nominative case) while the man is signed with fatħah (direct object)	The snake killed the man.	قَتَلَ الرَّجُلَ الثُّعْبَانُ.

  • This means that you have to learn the declension cases and signs in order to speak and to understand properly Arabic Language.  In these lessons we will help you learn the different grammatical cases of words and the signs related to each case In-Shaa’-Allaah (God willing).
  • In spite of this, there are some types of Arabic words which have constant (fixed) endings, without consideration to their position in the sentence. These are called الْكَلِمَاتُ الْمَبْنِيَّةُ the indeclinable words.
  • Arabic words are divided into three categories: nouns, verbs and articles. The general rule of the nouns is that they experience declension, so the indeclinable nouns are an exception to the rule. The general rule of the verbs is one of indeclension, so a few cases of verbs are declinable. The articles are all indeclinable (without exception).
  • In the next part (part 3) we will learn the declinable nouns and in part 4 we will learn the indeclinable nouns.
  • The declinable and the indeclinable verbs will be studied in part 6 of this lesson.
  • And finally the indeclension of the articles we be studied in part 8.
    
    Articles - الْحُرُوفُ
    • All articles In Arabic are indeclinable without any exception.
    • We cannot study all the Arabic articles in one lesson; rather we will learn each type of article in its own grammatical topic and lesson. Here we will gain a general idea about how they are indeclinable.
    • There is no rule for the vowel ending on which the article is indeclinable (some of them are indeclinable on fatħah, others on sukūn, others on long vowel, etc.) Therefore you have to memorize the vowel ending of each new article you learn. The following table contains some examples of each type of article and their sign of indeclension:

    Category	Sign of indeclension	Meaning	Article
    Preposition حَرْفُ جَرٍّ	Sukūn	From	مِنْ
    	Sukūn	About	عَنْ
    	Sukūn of long vowel	To	إلَى
    	Sukūn of long vowel	On	عَلَى
    	Sukūn of long vowel	In	فِي
    	Kasrah	With	بِـ
    	Kasrah	For	لِـ
    Coordinating articles حَرْفُ عَطْفٍ	Fatħah	And	وَ
    	Sukun	Or	أَوْ
    	Sukun	Rather, but	بَلْ
    	Sukun	But	لَكِنْ
    Annular article (sisters of /inna/) حَرْفٌ نَاسِخٌ	Fatħah	Indeed	إنَّ
    	Fatħah	If only! (Would that!)	لَيتَ
    	Fatħah	But	لَكِنَّ
    	Fatħah	I hope (it is hoped)	لَعَلَّ
    Interrogative Article حَرْفُ اسْتِفْهَامٍ	Sukun	Is…?	هَلْ؟
    	Fatħah	Is…?	أَ؟
    Conditional article حَرْفُ شَرْطٍ	Sukūn	If	لَوْ
    	Sukūn	If	إنْ
    Accusative article حَرْفُ نَصْبٍ	Sukūn	To	أَنْ
    	Sukūn	Will not	لَنْ
    Jussive article حَرْفُ جَزْمٍ	Sukūn	Did not	لَمْ
    Answering article حَرْفُ جَوَابٍ	Sukūn	Yes	نَعَمْ
    Negating article حرْفُ نَفْيٍ	Sukūn of long vowel	No	لا

    • N.B.: Exceptionally, the vowel ending of some articles may change when followed by a sukūn on the first letter of the following word as in the following examples:

    Note	Example
    	English	Arabic
    The vowel ending of /minn/ is changed from sukūn into fatħah, because the following sound is sukūn	From home	مِنَ الْبَيْتِ
    The vowel ending of /ξann/ is changed from sukūn into kasrah, because the following sound is sukūn	About the moon	عَنِ الْقَمَرِ
    The vowel ending of /Aw/ is changed from sukūn into kasrah, because the following sound is sukūn	The night or the day	اللَّيلُ أَوِالنَّهارُ
    The vowel ending of /hal/ is changed from sukūn into kasrah, because the following sound is sukūn	Is the square far?	هَلِ الْمَيْدَانُ بَعِيدٌ؟

    • In the above mentioned examples the articles are indeclinable with virtual signs which were found on the single article before the structure and the vowel ending is changed (for phonetic reasons).
      
      
      Revision - مُرَاجَعَةٌ
      • In this lesson we have learnt the following:
      • The declinable nouns which are changeable in their vowel endings according to their grammatical positions in the sentence.
      • The indeclinable nouns which have constant endings regardless their positions, cases or grammatical functions in the sentence.
      • The indeclinable nouns are divided into 6 main categories:
      1. Pronouns الضَّمَائِرُ.
      2. Demonstrative pronouns أسْمَاءُ الإِشَارَةِ.
      3. Relative pronouns الأسْمَاءُ الْمَوْصُولَةُ.
      4. Interrogative nouns أَسْمَاءُ الاسْتِفْهَامِ.
      5. Conditional nouns أَسْمَاءُ الشَّرْطِ.
      6. Verbal nouns أسْمَاءُ الأَفْعَالِ.
      • The declinable and the indeclinable verbs.
      • Examples of the Arabic articles (many types). We also learnt that all articles are permanently indeclinable.
      • Several new words as summarized in the following table:

      Vocabulary Revision – مُرَاجَعَةُ الْمُفْرَدَاتِ
      English	Arabic	English	Arabic
      Declinable	الْمُعْرَبُ	Indeclinable/structured	الْمَبْنِيُّ
      Right/true	صَحِيحٌ	I doubt	أَشُكُّ
      It has been stolen	سُرِقَت	The snake	الثُّعْبَانَ
      Pro-agent	نَائِبُ الْفَاعِلِ	He explained	شَرَحَ
      Damascus	دِمَشْق	Diptote	الْمَمْنُوعُ مِنَ الصَّرْفِ
      The field	الْحَقْل	Yesterday	أَمْسِ
      I passed by	مَرَرْتُ بِـ	The employees	الْمُوَظَّفُونَ
      Active (pl.)	نَشِيطُونَ	Conditional nouns	أَسْمَاءُ الشَّرْطِ
      Whenever	أَيَّانَ	Wherever	أَيْنَما
      Hush	صَهْ	The pain	الأَلَم
      Releasing	إِطْلاق	Rumors	الشَّائِعات
      In a such way	كَيْتَ	Malicious	الخَبيثة
      Since	مُنْذُ	The nūn of plural feminine	نُونُ النِّسْوَةِ
      The tā’ of the doer	تَاءُ الْفَاعِلِ	Nā of the plural doers	نَا الْفَاعِلِينَ
      Wāw of the third person plural	وَاوُ الْجَمَاعَةِ	Emphatic nūn	نُونُ التَّوْكِيدِ
      Bad companions	رِفَاقِ السُّوءِ	If only	لَيتَ
      It is hoped that	لَعَلَّ	But	لَكِنْ