In the older Semitic languages, the use of the construct state is the standard (often only) way to form a
genitive construction with a semantically definite modified noun. The modified noun is placed in the construct state, which lacks any
definite article (despite being semantically definite), and is often phonetically shortened (as in
Biblical Hebrew). The modifying noun is placed directly afterwards, and no other word can intervene between the two, though in
Biblical Hebrew a prefix often intervenes, as in the case of śimḥat ba/qāṣîr in
Isaiah 9:2. For example, an adjective that qualifies either the modified or modifying noun must appear after both. (This can lead to potential ambiguity if the two nouns have the same gender, number and case; otherwise, the agreement marking of the adjective will indicate which noun is modified.) In some languages, e.g.
Biblical Hebrew and the modern
varieties of Arabic, feminine construct-state nouns preserve an original
-t suffix that has dropped out in other circumstances. In some modern Semitic languages, the use of the construct state in forming genitive constructions has been partly or completely displaced by the use of a preposition, much like the use of the modern English "of", or the omission of any marking. In these languages (e.g.
Modern Hebrew and
Moroccan Arabic), the construct state is used mostly in forming compound nouns. An example is Hebrew
bet ha-sefer "the school", lit. "the house of the book";
bet is the construct state of
bayit "house". Alongside such expressions, the construct state is sometimes neglected, such as in the expression
mana falafel (a portion of
falafel), which should be
menat falafel using the construct state. However, the lack of a construct state is generally considered informal, and is inappropriate for formal speech.
Arabic In
Arabic grammar, the construct state is used to mark the first noun (the thing possessed) in the
genitive construction. The second noun of the genitive construction (the possessor) is marked by the
genitive case. In Arabic, the genitive construction is called
ʼiḍāfah (literally "attachment") and the first and second nouns of the construction are called
muḍāf ("attached"; also the name for the construct state) and
muḍāf ʼilayhi ("attached to"). These terms come from the verb
ʼaḍāfa "he added, attached",
verb form IV from the root
ḍ-y-f (Form I:
ḍāfa) (a
hollow root). In this conceptualization, the possessed thing (the noun in the construct state) is attached to the possessor (the noun in the genitive case). The construct state is one of the three
grammatical states of nouns in Arabic, the other two being the indefinite state and the definite state. Concretely, the three states compare like this: In
Classical Arabic, a word in the construct state is semantically definite if the following word is definite. The word in the construct state takes neither the
definite article prefix
al- nor the indefinite suffix
-n (
nunation), since its definiteness depends on the following word. Some words also have a different suffix in the construct state, for example masculine plural '
"teachers" vs. ' "the teachers of ...". Formal Classical Arabic uses the feminine marker
-t in all circumstances other than before a
pause, but the normal spoken form of the literary language omits it except in a construct-state noun. This usage follows the colloquial spoken
varieties of Arabic. In the spoken
varieties of Arabic, the use of the construct state has varying levels of productivity. In conservative varieties (e.g.
Gulf Arabic), it is still extremely productive. In
Egyptian Arabic, both the construct state and the particle can be used, e.g. or . In
Moroccan Arabic, the construct state is used only in forming compound nouns; in all other cases,
dyal "of" or
d- "of" is used. In all these varieties, the longer form with the "of" particle (a
periphrastic form) is the normal usage in more complicated constructions (e.g. with an adjective qualifying the head noun, as in the above example "the beautiful queen of the nation") or with nouns marked with a dual or sound plural suffix.
Aramaic In
Aramaic, genitive noun relationships can either be built using the construct state or with a relative particle, *
ḏī >
dī, which became a prefix
d- in Late Aramaic. "The king's house" can be expressed in several ways: • בית מלכא "(the) house of the king" • ביתא די מלכא or ביתא דמלכא "the house, that of the king" • ביתיה די מלכא or ביתיה דמלכא "his house, that of the king" In later Aramaic, the construct state became less common.
Hebrew In
Hebrew grammar, the construct state is known as
smikhut () (, lit. "support" (the noun), "adjacency"). Simply put, smikhut consists of combining two nouns, often with the second noun combined with the definite article, to create a third noun. : — — "(a) house" : — — "the house" : — — "house-of" : — — "(a) book" : — — "(a) school" (
literally "house(-of) book") : — — "the school" (formal;
literally "house(-of) the book") : — — "cake" (feminine) : — — "cheese" : — — "cheesecake" : — — "speech" : — — "freedom" (an example of a noun for which the
smikhut-form is identical to the regular form) : — — "freedom of speech" (
literally "freedom(-of) speech") : — — "the freedom of speech" (
literally "freedom(-of) the speech") As in Arabic, the
smikhut construct state, the indefinite, and definite states may be expressed succinctly in a table:
Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew grammar makes extensive use of the preposition
shel (evolved as a contraction of
she-le- "which (is belonging) to") to mean both "of" and "belonging to". The construct state (
smikhút) — in which two nouns are combined, the first being modified or possessed by the second — is not highly productive in Modern Hebrew. Compare the classical Hebrew construct-state with the more analytic Israeli Hebrew phrase, both meaning "the mother of the child", i.e. "the child's mother": However, the construct state is still used in Modern Hebrew fixed expressions and names, as well as to express various roles of the dependent (the second noun), including: • A qualifier • A domain • A complement • A modifier Hebrew adjectival phrases composed of an adjective and a noun feature adjectives in the construct state, as in: == Berber ==