Nouns ( '''') and
adjectives in
Classical Arabic are declined according to the following properties: •
Case (
nominative,
genitive, and
accusative) •
State (indefinite, definite or construct) •
Gender (masculine or feminine): an inherent characteristic of nouns, but part of the declension of adjectives •
Number (singular, dual or plural) Nouns are normally given in their
pausal form. For example, '''' 'king' would be declined as '''' 'king-', '''' 'the king-', etc. A feminine noun like '''' 'queen' would be declined as '''' 'queen-', '''' 'the queen-', etc. The citation form with final ''
reflects the formal pausal pronunciation of this word (i.e. as it would be pronounced at the end of an utterance) – although in practice the h
is not usually pronounced, and hence the word may be cited in some sources as ''.
Overview of inflection The following table is an overview of noun and adjective inflection in Classical Arabic:
NOTE: • The plural forms listed are actually separate declensions. Most singular adjectives of the indicated declensions, as well as some singular nouns, are declined in the plural according to the indicated plural declensions. However, most nouns have a plural from a different declension — either a
sound plural (declined according to one of the plural declensions, sometimes with a different stem as well) or a
broken plural (invariably with a different stem, and declined according to one of the singular declensions). Some adjectives also have broken plurals (again, with different stems, and declined according to one of the singular declensions). See the discussion below on
case for more details. • The so-called "sound masculine" and "sound feminine" plural declensions refer to
form, not gender – grammatically masculine nouns often have sound feminine plurals, and occasionally vice versa. (Note, however, that most nouns of this sort are inanimate objects, and as a result actually have feminine-singular agreement in the plural, regardless of their inherent gender or the form of their plural. See discussion below.) • Diptotes are declined exactly like regular triptotes other than in the singular
indefinite state. • In the defective-in-
-in declension, accusative
-iyan occurs in singular nouns, while
-iya occurs in broken plurals (especially three-syllable broken plurals such as '
"nights" or ' "hands", whose stem is of a form that would be declined as a diptote if it were declined regularly). • There are only limited classes of invariable nouns and adjectives and none have their own plural declension; instead, they decline like one of the other singular or plural declensions. • Only a limited number of nouns in
-an have a dual in
-awāni/-awayni; all of these are short nouns with a two-character stem, and are spelled in Arabic script with a "tall alif" () rather than '
(). Examples are ' "stick" (and possibly '''' "approval"). The following table shows some examples of noun inflections. The following table shows some examples of adjective inflections.
Number Arabic distinguishes between nouns based on
number ( '
). All nouns are singular ( ')
dual ( '
), or plural ( '). In Classical Arabic, the use of the dual is mandatory whenever exactly two objects are referred to, regardless of whether the "two-ness" of the objects is explicit or not. For example, in a sentence like "I picked up my children from school yesterday and then helped them with their homework", the words "children", "them" and "their" must be in the dual if exactly two children are referred to, regardless of whether the speaker wants to make this fact explicit or not. This implies that when the plural is used, it
necessarily implies three or more. (Colloquial
varieties of Arabic are very different in this regard, as the dual is normally used only for emphasis, i.e. in cases similar to when an English speaker would use the word "two".) Nouns take either a
sound plural or
broken plural. The sound plural is formed by adding endings, and can be considered part of the declension. The broken plural, however, is a different stem. It may belong to a different declension (see below), and is
declined as a singular noun. For example, the plural of the masculine triptote noun '
"book" is ', which is declined as a normal singular triptote noun: indefinite nominative '
; indefinite accusative '; indefinite genitive '
; etc. On the other hand, the masculine triptote noun ' "desk, office" has the plural ''
, which declines as a singular diptote'' noun: indefinite nominative '
; indefinite accusative/genitive '; etc. Generally, the only nouns that have the "masculine" sound plural '
are nouns referring to male human beings (e.g. ' "engineer"). On the other hand, the feminine sound plural '
occurs not only on nouns referring to female human beings, but also on many nouns referring to objects, whether masculine or feminine (e.g. masculine ' "exam", feminine '''' "car"). Note that all inanimate objects take feminine singular or feminine plural agreement in the plural, regardless of their "inherent" gender and regardless of the form of the plural. Some nouns have two or more plural forms, usually to distinguish between different meanings. There are over 70 broken plural patterns of which only 31 are common. These patterns are usually unpredictable and should be memorized for every word, however according to the generative linguistics McCarthy and Prince (1990), it's possible to guess the main broken plural form of around 83% of all CVCC and CVCVC nouns by using an algorithm that analyses syllables in moraic trochees.
Gender Arabic has two
genders ( ''
): masculine
( ) and feminine
( ''). As mentioned above, verbs, adjectives and pronouns must agree in gender with the corresponding noun. Gender in Arabic is logically very similar to a language like
Spanish:
animate nouns, such as those referring to people, usually have the grammatical gender corresponding to their
natural gender, but for inanimate nouns the grammatical gender is largely arbitrary. Most feminine nouns end in '
, but some do not (e.g. ' "mother", '''' "earth"). Most words ending in are also feminine (and are indeclinable). The letter used for feminine nouns is a special form known as '
"tied T", which looks like the letter ' (
h) with the two dots that form part of the letter ''
(t'') written above it. This form indicates that the feminine ending '
is pronounced ' in
pausa (at the end of an utterance). Words with the ending never take
alif ending for the indefinite accusative. Thus, '
("son", ) has final alif, but ' ("daughter", ) does not. In the
colloquial variants, and in all but the most formal pronunciations of spoken
Modern Standard Arabic, the feminine ending '
appears only with nouns in the construct state, and the ending is simply pronounced ' in all other circumstances.
State The grammatical property of
state is specific to Arabic and other
Semitic languages. The basic division is between
definite and
indefinite, corresponding approximately to English nouns preceded, respectively, by
the (the definite article) and
a or
an (the indefinite article). More correctly, a definite noun signals either a particular entity previously referenced or a generic concept, and corresponds to one of the following in English: English nouns preceded by
the,
this,
that, or a
possessive adjective (e.g.
my,
your); English nouns taken in a generic sense ("Milk is good", "Dogs are friendly"); or
proper nouns (e.g.
John or
Muhammad). Indefinite nouns refer to entities not previously mentioned, and correspond to either English nouns preceded by
a,
an or
some, or English
mass nouns with no preceding
determiner and not having a generic sense ("We need milk"). Definite nouns are usually marked by a definite article
prefix '
(which is reduced to ' following vowels, and further assimilates to ''
etc. preceding certain consonants). Indefinite nouns are usually marked by nunation (a following ''). Adjectives modifying a noun agree with the noun in definiteness, and take the same markings: • '''' "a big dog (nom.)" • '''' "I saw a big dog (acc.)" • '''' "with a big dog (gen.)" • '''' "the big dog (nom.)" • '''' "her big dog (nom.)" (the definite article does not appear with a suffixed possessive, but the noun is still definite, so the adjective takes the definite article) • '''' "I saw a nice picture (acc.)" • '''' "Ancient Egypt (nom.)" (
proper nouns do not take the definite article, but are still definite) A third value for state is
construct. Nouns assume the
construct state when they are definite and modified by another noun in an
iḍāfah (Classical Arabic: ), the Arabic realization of a
genitive construction. For example, in a construction like "the daughter of John", the Arabic word corresponding to "the daughter" is placed in the construct state and is marked neither with a definite article nor with nunation, even though it is semantically definite. Furthermore,
no other word can intervene between a construct-state noun and a following genitive, other than in a few exceptional cases. An adjective modifying a construct-state noun is in the definite state and is placed
after the modifying genitive. Examples: • '''' "the daughter (nom.) of the queen" • '''' "the short daughter (nom.) of the queen" • '''' "the daughter (nom.) of the short queen" • ''
"the short daughter (gen.) of the queen" or'' "the daughter (gen.) of the short queen" Note that the adjective must follow the genitive regardless of which of the two nouns it modifies, and only the agreement characteristics (case, gender, etc.) indicate which noun is modified. The construct state is likewise used for nouns with an attached
possessive suffix: • '''' "her daughter (nom.)" • '''' "her daughter (gen.)" • '''' "his daughter (nom.)" • '''' "his daughter (gen.)" • '''' "my daughter (nom./acc./gen.)" • '''' "her queen (gen.)" • '''' "her dog (nom.)" • '''' "her big dog (nom.)" Note that in writing, the special form '
indicating the feminine changes into a regular ' before suffixes. This does not affect the formal pronunciation. When an indefinite noun is modified by another noun, the construct state is not used. Instead, a construction such as lit. "a daughter to the queen" is used. Note also the following
appositional construction: • '''' "the house with the wide windows" (lit. "the house wide of windows")
Article The article ( '
) الـ ' is indeclinable and expresses the definite state of a noun of any gender and number. As mentioned above, it is also prefixed to each of that noun's modifying adjectives. The initial vowel ( '
), is volatile in the sense that it disappears in sandhi, the article becoming mere ' (although the is retained in orthography in any case as it is based on pausal pronunciation). Also, the '
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 ' is retained, and the gemination may be expressed by putting '''' on the following letter). The consonants causing assimilation (trivially including ()) are (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (). These 14 letters are called 'solar letters' ( ''''), while the remaining 14 are called 'lunar letters' or 'moon letters' ( '
). The solar letters all have in common that they are dental, alveolar, and postalveolar consonants (all coronals) in the classical language, and the lunar consonants are not. ( ' 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 '''' is often spoken as if solar.)
Agreement Adjectives generally agree with their corresponding nouns in gender, number, case and state. Pronouns and verbs likewise agree in person, gender and number. However, there is an important proviso:
inanimate plural nouns take feminine-singular agreement. This so-called "deflected agreement" applies to
all agreement contexts, whether of adjectives, verbs or pronouns, and applies regardless of both the inherent gender of the noun (as indicated by singular and dual agreement) and the form of the plural of the noun. Note that this does not apply to dual nouns, which always have "strict agreement".
Case There are six basic noun/adjective singular declensions: • The normal triptote declension, which includes the majority of nouns and adjectives. The basic property is a three-way case marking distinction
-u -a -i. An example is '
"book", with indefinite declension ', '
, ' and definite declension '
, ', '
. Most feminine nouns have an additional stem ('), and decline the same way. Some feminine nouns (and a few masculine nouns) have a variant stem (''
), again with the same declensional endings. Note that there are some cases of nouns (and a few adjectives) whose gender does not match the stem form (in both directions). In addition, some masculine nouns (with and without ) have broken plurals in , and likewise some feminine nouns have broken plurals without . This affects the form'', but not the inherent gender (or agreement properties) of these nouns. • The diptote declension, which refers to words whose genitive and accusative inflections are identical. When the noun is indefinite, the endings are -u for the nominative and -a for the genitive and accusative with no nunation. The genitive reverts to the normal -i when the diptotic noun becomes definite (preceded by al- or is in the construct state)). These words are missing the
nunation (final '
) normally marking the indefinite. The class of diptote nouns mostly includes certain names, and broken plurals of particular forms (especially those with four stem consonants and three-syllable stems, as in ' "desks, offices". Certain adjectives are also diptotes, such as the form '
of masculine singular elative (i.e. comparative/superlative) and color/defect adjectives, as well as the forms ' (feminine singular color/defect adjectives) and '''' (masculine singular "intensive" adjectives expressing, but not exclusively, emotional concepts such as "angry, thirsty"). • The "long construct" declension. These are triptotes with long case endings
-ū -ā -ī in the singular
construct state, and normal triptote endings elsewhere. There are only five nouns in this declension, all very short (see below): '
"father" (e.g. ' "the father of Hasan"); '
"brother"; ' "father-in-law"; '
"mouth" (which assumes an irregular stem ' in the construct state, e.g. '
"the mouth of (nom.)"); and ' "the owner of" (which appears
only in construct and has a seriously irregular declension; see under
demonstrative pronouns). • The
-in declension (Arabic '
). This is used primarily for nouns and adjectives whose final root consonant is ' or '
, and which would normally have an ' before the last consonant (e.g. the active participles of third-weak verbs). Such words were once declined as normal triptotes, but
sound change has caused the last stem syllable to collapse together with the ending, leading to an irregular declension. In adjectives, this irregularity occurs
only in the masculine; such adjectives have a normal feminine with a stem ending in ''''. • The
-an declension (Arabic ''
). Like the -in'' declension, this is used primarily for nouns and adjectives whose final root consonant is '
or ', but these are words that would normally have an ''
before the last consonant (e.g. the passive participles of third-weak verbs). Again, sound change has caused the last stem syllable to collapse together with the ending, and again, in adjectives the irregularity occurs only'' in the masculine, with regularly-declined feminines having a stem ending in '
(singular/dual) or ' (plural). • The invariable '
declension (written either with "tall" ' or '
). These words have the same form in all cases, both indefinite and definite. When this declension occurs in adjectives, it generally occurs as either the masculine or feminine singular portion of a complex paradigm with a differently-stemmed diptote conjugation in the other gender. Examples are the feminine singular of elative (i.e. comparative/superlative) adjectives, such as ' "bigger/biggest (fem.)", and of "intensive" adjectives in '
, e.g. ' "thirsty (fem.)". Masculine singular elatives and color/defect adjectives from third-weak roots have this declension themselves, e.g. '
"blind", ' "nearer, lower". Many (but not all) nouns in the
-in,
-an or
-ā declensions originate as adjectives of some sort, or as
verbal nouns of third-weak verbs. Examples: '
"judge" (a form-I active participle); ' "hospital" (a form-X passive participle in its alternative meaning as a "noun of place"); '
"formal Arabic" (originally a feminine elative, lit. "the most eloquent (language)"); ' "world" (also a feminine elative, lit. "the lowest (place)"). In addition, many broken plurals are conjugated according to one of these declensions. Note that all dual nouns and adjectives have the same endings '''', differing only in the form of the stem.
Nominative case The
nominative case ( '''' ) is used for: • Subjects of a verbal sentence. • Subjects and predicates of an equational (non-verbal) sentence, with some notable exceptions. • Certain adverbs retain the nominative marker (although not necessarily representing the nominative case). • 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 ''
(-u
) for the definite or '' with nunation () for the indefinite. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding and respectively ( and in the construct state). The regular feminine plural is formed by adding in the definite and in the indefinite.
Accusative case The
accusative case ( '''') is used for: • Objects of a verbal sentence. • The subject of an equational (non-verbal) sentence, if it is initiated with ''''', or one of its "sisters". • The predicate of or '
or ' "be" and its "sisters". Hence, '
"the girl is beautiful" but ' "the girl was beautiful" (spelling is not affected here (letter ) 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 '''' 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 '
() for the definite or ' + nunation () for the indefinite. For the indefinite accusative, the '''' + nunation is added to an e.g. , which is added to the ending of all nouns (e.g. "he was thirsty") not ending with a followed by or a . The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding and (both spelled in Arabic) respectively ( and in the construct state, both spelled in Arabic). The regular feminine plural is formed by adding in the definite and in the indefinite, both spelled in Arabic.
Genitive case The
genitive case ( '''') is used for: • Objects of prepositions. • All, but not necessarily the first member (the first nomen regens), of an '''' (genitive construction) . • The object of a locative adverb. • Semi-prepositions if preceded by another (true or semi) preposition • Objects of '''' "any". • Elative (comparative/superlative) adjectives behave similarly: "" "tallest boy('s)". For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a '
() for the definite or ' + nunation () for the indefinite. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding and respectively (both spelled in Arabic) ( and in the construct state, both spelled in Arabic). The regular feminine plural is formed by adding in the definite and in the indefinite, both spelled in Arabic. :
Note: diptotic nouns receive a () in the genitive indefinite and are never nunated. Pronunciation When speaking or reading aloud, nouns at the end of an utterance are pronounced in a special
pausal form ( '
). Final short vowels, as well as short vowels followed by a nunation, are omitted; but accusative ' sounds as '
. The ' in the feminine ending '
sounds as '. In writing, all words are written in their pausal form; special diacritics may be used to indicate the case endings and nunation, but are normally only found in books for students and children, in the
Quran, and occasionally elsewhere to remove ambiguity. Only the accusative case for indefinite masculine nouns is often marked. Feminine nouns are indicated using a '
(graphically, the letter for ' with the markings for '''' added). When speaking in less formal registers, words are essentially pronounced in their pausal form. When speaking or reading aloud, the case endings are generally omitted in less formal registers. == Noun and adjective inflection in Colloquial Arabic ==