Arabic grammar (Arabic:النَّحْوُ العَرَبِيُّ) is the grammar of theArabic language. Arabic is aSemitic language and its grammar has many similarities with thegrammar of other Semitic languages.Classical Arabic andModern Standard Arabic have largely the same grammar; colloquial spokenvarieties of Arabic can vary in different ways.

The largest differences between classical and colloquial Arabic are the loss ofmorphological markings ofgrammatical case; changes inword order, an overall shift towards a moreanalytic morphosyntax, the loss of the previous system ofgrammatical mood, along with the evolution of a new system; the loss of the inflectedpassive voice, except in a few relict varieties; restriction in the use of thedual number and (for most varieties) the loss of the feminineplural. Many Arabic dialects,Maghrebi Arabic in particular, also have significantvowel shifts and unusualconsonant clusters. Unlike in other dialects, first person singular verbs inMaghrebi Arabic begin with a n- (ن). This phenomenon can also be found in theMaltese language, which itself emerged fromSicilian Arabic.

The identity of the oldest Arabic grammarian is disputed; some sources state that it wasAbu al-Aswad al-Du'ali, who establisheddiacritical marks and vowels forArabic in the mid-600s,^[1] Others have said that the earliest grammarian would have beenIbn Abi Ishaq (died AD 735/6,AH 117).^[2]

The schools ofBasra andKufa further developed grammatical rules in the late 8th century with the rapid rise of Islam,^[3][4] usingQuran as the main source for Arabic grammar rules.^[5] From the school of Basra, generally regarded as being founded byAbu Amr ibn al-Ala,^[6] two representatives laid important foundations for the field:Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi authored the first Arabic dictionary and book of Arabicprosody, and his studentSibawayh authored the first book on theories of Arabic grammar.^[1] From the school of Kufa,Al-Ru'asi is universally acknowledged as the founder, though his own writings are considered lost,^[7][8] with most of the school's development undertaken by later authors. The efforts of al-Farahidi andSibawayh consolidated Basra's reputation as the analytic school of grammar, while the Kufan school was regarded as the guardian ofArabic poetry andArab culture.^[2] The differences were polarizing in some cases, with early Muslim scholarMuhammad ibn `Isa at-Tirmidhi favoring the Kufan school due to its concern with poetry as a primary source.^[9]

Early Arabic grammars were more or less lists of rules, without the detailed explanations which would be added in later centuries. The earliest schools were different not only in some of their views on grammatical disputes, but also their emphasis. The school of Kufa excelled in Arabic poetry andexegesis of theQur'an, in addition toIslamic law and Arab genealogy. The more rationalist school of Basra, on the other hand, focused more on the formal study of grammar.^[10]

For classical Arabic scholars, the arabic language sciences are divided into four branches:

• matn al-lughahمتن اللُغة (language/lexicon) concerned with collecting and explainingvocabulary.
• aṣ-ṣarfالصَرْف (morphology) determining the form of the individual words.s
• an-naḥwالنَحْو (syntax) primarily concerned withinflection (i‘rāb).
• al-balāghahالبَلاغة (rhetoric) which elucidates stylistic quality, or eloquence.

The grammar or grammars of contemporaryvarieties of Arabic are a different question.Said M. Badawi, an expert on Arabic grammar, divides Arabic grammar in Egypt into five different types based on the speaker's level ofliteracy and the degree to which the speaker deviates fromClassical Arabic: Illiterate Spoken Arabic (عامِّيّة الأُمِّيِّينِ‘āmmīyat al-ummiyyīn), Semi-literate Spoken Arabic (عامِّيّة المُتَنَوِّرِينَ‘āmmīyat al-mutanawwirīn), Educated Spoken Arabic (عامِّيّة اَلمُثَقَّفِينَ‘āmmīyat al-muthaqqafīn),Modern Standard Arabic (فُصْحَى العَصْرfuṣḥá l-‘aṣr), andClassical Arabic (فُصْحَى التُراثfuṣḥá t-turāth).^[11]

Classical Arabic has 28consonantalphonemes, including twosemi-vowels, which constitute theArabic alphabet.

It also has sixvowel phonemes (three short vowels and three long vowels). These appear as variousallophones, depending on the preceding consonant. Short vowels are not usually represented in the written language, although they may be indicated with diacritics.

Word stress varies from one Arabic dialect to another. A rough rule for word-stress in Classical Arabic is that it falls on the penultimatesyllable of a word if that syllable is closed, and otherwise on the antepenultimate.^[12]

Hamzat al-waṣl (هَمْزة الوَصْل), elidablehamza, is a phonetic object prefixed to the beginning of a word for ease of pronunciation, sinceLiterary Arabic doesn't allow consonant clusters at the beginning of a word. Elidablehamza drops out as a vowel, if a word is preceding it. This word will then produce an ending vowel, "helping vowel" to facilitate pronunciation. This short vowel may be, depending on the preceding vowel, afatḥah (فَتْحة:ـَ ), pronounced as/a/; akasrah (كَسْرة:ـِ ), pronounced as/i/; or aḍammah (ضَمّة:ـُ ), pronounced as/u/. If the preceding word ends in asukūn (سُكُون), meaning that it is not followed by a short vowel, thehamzat al-waṣl assumes akasrah/i/. The symbolـّ (شَدّةshaddah) indicatesgemination or consonant doubling. See more inTashkīl.

InClassical Arabic andModern Standard Arabic (MSA), nouns and adjectives (‏اِسْمٌ‎ism) aredeclined, according tocase (i‘rāb),state (definiteness),gender andnumber. In colloquial orspoken Arabic, there are a number of simplifications such as the loss of certain final vowels and the loss of case. A number of derivational processes exist for forming new nouns and adjectives. Adverbs can be formed from adjectives.^{[citation needed]}

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In Arabic,personal pronouns have 12 forms. In singular and plural, the 2nd and 3rd persons have separatemasculine andfeminine forms, while the 1st person does not. In the dual, there is no 1st person, and only a single form for each 2nd and 3rd person. Traditionally, the pronouns are listed in the order 3rd, 2nd, 1st.

Informal Arabic tends to avoid the dual formsantumāأَنْتُمَا andhumāهُمَا. The feminine plural formsantunnaأَنْتُنَّ andhunnaهُنَّ are likewise avoided, except by speakers of conservative colloquial varieties that still possess separate feminine plural pronouns.

Theenclitic forms of personal pronouns (اَلضَّمَائِر الْمُتَّصِلَةaḍ-ḍamā’ir al-muttaṣilah) are used both as accusative and genitive forms of the pronouns. As genitive forms they appear in the following contexts:

• After theconstruct state of nouns, where they have the meaning of possessive determiners, e.g. "my, your, his"
• After prepositions, where they have the meaning of objects of the prepositions, e.g. "to me, to you, to him"

As accusative forms they appear:

• Attached to verbs, where they have the meaning of direct object pronouns, e.g. "me, you, him"
• Attached to conjunctions and particles likeأَنَّanna "that ...",لِأَنَّli-anna "because ...",وَ)لٰكِنَّ))(wa)lākinna "but ...",إِنَّinna (topicalizing particle), where they have the meaning of subject pronouns, e.g. "because I ...", "because you ...", "because he ...". (These particles are known in Arabic asakhawāt innaأَخَوَات إِنَّ (lit. "sisters ofinna".)

Only the first person singular makes a distinction between the genitive and accusative function.[13] As a possessive it takes the form-ī while as an object form it has the form-nī (e.g. (رَأَيْتَنِيraʼayta-nī "you saw me").

Most of the enclitic forms are clearly related to the full personal pronouns.

For all but the first person singular, the same forms are used regardless of the part of speech of the word attached to. In the third person masculine singular,-hu occurs after the vowelsu ora (-a, -ā, -u, -ū, -aw), while-hi occurs afteri ory (-i, -ī, -ay). The same alternation occurs in the third person dual and plural.

In the first person singular, however, the situation is more complicated. Specifically,-nī "me" is attached to verbs, but-ī/-ya "my" is attached to nouns. In the latter case,-ya is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a long vowel or diphthong (e.g. in the sound masculine plural and the dual), while-ī is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a short vowel, in which case that vowel is elided (e.g. in the sound feminine plural, as well as the singular and broken plural of most nouns). Furthermore,-ū of the masculine sound plural is assimilated to-ī before-ya (presumably,-aw of masculine defective-an plurals is similarly assimilated to-ay). Examples:

• From ‏كِتابٌ‎kitāb "book", pl ‏كُتُبٌ‎kutub (most of nouns in general).

• From ‏كَلِمةٌ‎kalimah "word" (nouns ending onة‎), pl ‏كَلِمَات‎ or ‏كَلِم‎.

• From ‏دُنْيَا‎dunyā "world"; ‏مُسْتَشْفًى‎mustashfan "hospital" (nouns ending onـَا ـَى ـًى‎).

• From nom. dual ‏مُعَلِّمانَ‎mu‘allimān "teachers", acc./gen. dualمُعَلِّمَينَmu‘allimayn (dual nouns)

• From nom. pl.مُعَلِّمُونَmu‘allimūn "teachers", acc./gen. pl.مُعَلِّمِينَmu‘allimīn (regular pluralـُون‎ nouns)

• From pl. ‏مُصْطَفَوْنَ‎muṣṭafawn "chosen" (regular pluralـَوْن‎ nouns)

• From ‏قاضٍ‎qāḍin "judge" (active participle nouns ending onـٍ‎ as nominative)

• From ‏أَبٌ‎ab "father", long construct formأَبُوabū (long construct nouns)

• From any nouns ending onـُو‎-ū,ـَو‎-aw orـِي‎-ī (more commonly loanwords).

• From any nouns ending onـَي‎-ay (more commonly loanwords).

Prepositions use-ī/-ya, even though in this case it has the meaning of "me" (rather than "my"). The "sisters ofinna" can use either form (e.g.إنَّنِيinna-nī orإِنِيinnī), but the longer form (e.g.إنَّنِيinnanī) is usually preferred.

The second-person masculine plural past tense verb ending-tum changes to the variant form-tumū before enclitic pronouns, e.g.كَتَبْتُمُوهُkatabtumūhu "you (masc. pl.) wrote it (masc.)".

Some very common prepositions — including the proclitic prepositionli- "to" (also used for indirect objects) — have irregular or unpredictable combining forms when the enclitic pronouns are added to them:

In the above cases, when there are two combining forms, one is used with "... me" and the other with all other person/number/gender combinations. (More correctly, one occurs before vowel-initial pronouns and the other before consonant-initial pronouns, but in Classical Arabic, only-ī is vowel-initial. This becomes clearer in the spoken varieties, where various vowel-initial enclitic pronouns exist.)

Note in particular:

• إلَىilá "to" andعَلَى‘alá "on" have irregular combining formsإلَيْـilay-,عَلَيْـ‘alay-; but other pronouns with the same base form are regular, e.g.مَعَma‘a "with".
• لِـli- "to" has an irregular combining formla-, butبِـbi- "in, with, by" is regular.
• مِنْmin "from" andعَنْ‘an "on" double the finaln before-ī.

In a less formal Arabic, as in many spoken dialects, the endings-ka, -ki, and -hu and many others have their final short vowel dropped, for example, كِتابُكَkitābuka would become كِتابُكkitābuk for ease of pronunciation. This doesn't make a difference to the spelling as the diacritics used to represent short vowels are not usually written.

There are twodemonstratives (أَسْماء الإشارةasmā’ al-ishārah), near-deictic ('this') and far-deictic ('that'):

The dual forms are only used in very formal Arabic.

Some of the demonstratives (hādhā, hādhihi, hādhāni, hādhayni, hā’ulā’i, dhālika, andulā’ika) should be pronounced with a longā, although the unvocalised script is not written with alif (ا). Instead of an alif, they have the diacriticـٰ (dagger alif:أَلِف خَنْجَرِيّةalif khanjarīyah), which doesn't exist on Arabic keyboards and is seldom written, even in vocalised Arabic.

Qur'anic Arabic has another demonstrative, normally followed by a noun in a genitive construct and meaning 'owner of':

Note that the demonstrative and relative pronouns were originally built on this word.hādhā, for example, was originally composed from the prefixhā- 'this' and the masculine accusative singulardhā; similarly,dhālika was composed fromdhā, an infixed syllable-li-, and theclitic suffix-ka 'you'. These combinations had not yet become completely fixed in Qur'anic Arabic and other combinations sometimes occurred, e.g.dhāka,dhālikum. Similarly, the relative pronounalladhī was originally composed based on the genitive singulardhī, and the old Arabic grammarians noted the existence of a separate nominative plural formalladhūna in the speech of theHudhayl tribe in Qur'anic times.

This word also shows up inHebrew, e.g. masculineזה‎zeh (cf.dhī), feminineזאת‎zot (cf.dhāt-), pluralאלה‎eleh (cf.ulī).

Therelative pronoun is declined as follows:

Note that the relative pronoun agrees in gender, number and case, with the noun it modifies—as opposed to the situation in other inflected languages such asLatin andGerman, where the gender andnumber agreement is with the modified noun, but the case marking follows the usage of the relative pronoun in the embedded clause (as in formal English "the manwho saw me" vs. "the manwhom I saw").

When the relative pronoun serves a function other than the subject of the embedded clause, aresumptive pronoun is required:اَلَّرَجُلُ ٱلَّذِي تَكَلَّمْتُ مَعَهُal-rajul(u) (a)lladhī takallamtu ma‘a-hu, literally "the man who I spoke with him".

The relative pronoun is normally omitted entirely when an indefinite noun is modified by a relative clause:رَجُلٌ تَكَلَّمْتُ مَعَهُrajul(un) takallamtu ma‘a-h(u) "a man that I spoke with", literally "a man I spoke with him".

The above system is mostly unchanged in the colloquial varieties, other than the loss of the dual forms and (for most varieties) of the feminine plural. Some of the more notable changes:

• The third-person-hi, -him variants disappear. On the other hand, the first person-nī/-ī/-ya variation is preserved exactly (including the different circumstances in which these variants are used), and new variants appear for many forms. For example, inEgyptian Arabic, the second person feminine singular appears either as-ik or-ki depending on various factors (e.g. the phonology of the preceding word); likewise, the third person masculine singular appears variously as-u,-hu, or- (no ending, but stress is moved onto the preceding vowel, which is lengthened).
• In many varieties, theindirect object forms, which appear in Classical Arabic as separate words (e.g.lī "to me",lahu 'to him'), become fused onto the verb, following a direct object. These same varieties generally develop acircumfix/ma-...-ʃ(i)/ for negation (from Classicalmā ... shay’ 'not ... a thing', composed of two separate words). This can lead to complicatedagglutinative constructs, such asEgyptian Arabic/ma-katab-ha-ˈliː-ʃ/ 'he didn't write it (fem.) to me'. (Egyptian Arabic in particular has many variant pronominal affixes used in different circumstances, and very intricatemorphophonemic rules leading to a large number of complex alternations, depending on the particular affixes involved, the way they are put together, and whether the preceding verb ends in a vowel, a single consonant, or two consonants.)
• Other varieties instead use a separate Classical pseudo-pronounīyā- for direct objects (but inHijazi Arabic the resulting construct fuses with a preceding verb).
• Affixation of dual and sound plural nouns has largely vanished. Instead, all varieties possess a separate preposition with the meaning of "of", which replaces certain uses of theconstruct genitive (to varying degrees, depending on the particular variety). InMoroccan Arabic, the word isdyal (alsod- before a noun), e.g.l-kitab dyal-i "my book", since the construct-state genitive is mostly unproductive.Egyptian Arabic hasbitā‘, which agrees in gender and number with the preceding noun (femininebitā‘it/bita‘t, pluralbitū‘). In Egyptian Arabic, the construct-state genitive is still productive, hence eitherkitāb-i oril-kitāb bitā‘-i can be used for "my book" [the difference between them is similar to the difference between 'my book' and 'the book is mine'], but onlyil-mu‘allimūn bitū‘-i "my teachers".
• The declined relative pronoun has vanished. In its place is an indeclinable particle, usuallyilli or similar.
• Various forms of the demonstrative pronouns occur, usually shorter than the Classical forms. For example, Moroccan Arabic usesha l- "this",dak l-/dik l-/duk l- "that" (masculine/feminine/plural). Egyptian Arabic is unusual in that the demonstrative follows the noun, e.g.il-kitāb da "this book",il-bintⁱ di "this girl".
• Some of the independent pronouns have slightly different forms compared with their Classical forms. For example, usually forms similar tointa, inti "you (masc./fem. sg.)" occur in place ofanta, anti, and(n)iḥna "we" occurs in place ofnaḥnu.

Numbers behave in a very complicated fashion.wāḥid- "one" andithnān- "two" are adjectives, following the noun and agreeing with it.thalāthat- "three" through‘asharat- "ten" require a following noun in the genitive plural, but disagree with the noun in gender, while taking the case required by the surrounding syntax.aḥada ‘ashara "eleven" throughtis‘ata ‘ashara "nineteen" require a following noun in the accusative singular, agree with the noun in gender, and are invariable for case, except forithnā ‘ashara/ithnay ‘ashara "twelve".

The formal system ofcardinal numerals, as used in Classical Arabic, is extremely complex. The system of rules is presented below. In reality, however, this system is never used: Large numbers are always written as numerals rather than spelled out, and are pronounced using a simplified system, even in formal contexts.

Example:

Formal:أَلْفَانِ وَتِسْعُمِئَةٍ وَٱثْنَتَا عَشْرَةَ سَنَةًalfāni wa-tis‘u mi’atin wa-thnatā ‘ashrata sanah "2,912 years"

Spoken:ألفين وتسعمئة واثنتا عشرة سنةalfayn wa-tis‘ mīya wa-ithna‘shar sana "2,912 years"

Formal:بَعْدَ أَلْفَيْنِ وَتِسْعِمِئَةٍ وَٱثْنَتَيْ عَشْرَةَ سَنَةًba‘da alfayni wa-tis‘i mi’atin wa-thnatay ‘ashrata sanah "after 2,912 years"

Spoken:بعد ألفين وتسعمئة واثنتا عشرة سنةba‘da alfayn wa-tis‘ mīya wa-ithna‘shar sana "after 2,912 years"

Cardinal numerals (الأَعْداد الأَصْلِيّةal-a‘dād al-aṣlīyah) from 0–10. Zero isṣifr, from which the words "cipher" and "zero" are ultimately derived.

• 0٠ṣifr(un) (‏صِفْرٌ‎)
• 1١wāḥid(un) (‏واحِدٌ‎)
• 2٢ithnān(i) (‏اِثْنانِ‎)
• 3٣thalātha(tun) (‏ثَلاثةٌ‎)
• 4٤arba‘a(tun) (‏أَرْبَعةٌ‎)
• 5٥khamsa(tun) (‏خَمْسةٌ‎)
• 6٦sitta(tun) (‏سِتّةٌ‎)
• 7٧sab‘a(tun) (‏سَبْعةٌ‎)
• 8٨thamāniya(tun) (‏ثَمَانِيةٌ‎)
• 9٩tis‘a(tun) (‏تِسْعةٌ‎)
• 10١٠‘ashara(tun) (‏عَشَرةٌ‎) (feminine form‘ashr(un) ‏عَشْرٌ‎)

It is very common, even by news announcers and in official speeches, to pronounce numerals in local dialects.^[14]

The endings in brackets are dropped in less formal Arabic and in pausa.ة (tā’ marbūṭah) is pronounced as simple/a/ in these cases. If a noun ending inة is the first member of anidafa, theة is pronounced as/at/, while the rest of the ending is not pronounced.

اِثْنانِithnān(i) is changed toاِثْنَيْنِithnayn(i) in oblique cases. This form is also commonly used in a less formal Arabic in the nominative case.

The numerals 1 and 2 are adjectives. Thus they follow the noun and agree with gender.

Numerals 3–10 have a peculiar rule of agreement known aspolarity: A feminine referrer agrees with a numeral in masculine gender and vice versa, e.g.thalāthu fatayātin (ثَلَاثُ فَتَيَاتٍ) "three girls". The noun counted takes indefinite genitive plural (as the attribute in a genitive construct).

Numerals 11 and 13–19 are indeclinable for case, perpetually in the accusative. The form is always that of the construct state, whether preceded by a definite article or not:ithnatā ‘ašarata laylatan "twelve nights",al-ithnatā ‘ašarata laylatan "the twelve nights". Numbers 11 and 12 show gender agreement in the ones, and 13–19 show polarity in the ones. Number 12 also shows case agreement in the units. The gender ofعَشَر in numbers 11–19 agrees with the counted noun (unlike the standalone numeral 10 which shows polarity). The counted noun takes indefinite accusative singular.

Unitary numbers from 20 on (i.e. 20, 30, ... 90, 100, 1000, 1000000, etc.) behave entirely as nouns, showing the case required by the surrounding syntax, no gender agreement, and a following noun in a fixed case. 20 through 90 require their noun to be in the accusative singular; 100 and up require the genitive singular. The unitary numbers themselves decline in various fashions:

• ‘ishrūna "20" throughtis‘ūna "90" decline as masculine plural nouns
• mi’at- "100" (‏مِئة‎ or ‏مِائَة‎) declines as a feminine singular noun
• alf- "1,000" (‏أَلْف‎) declines as a masculine singular noun

The numbers 20–99 are expressed with the units preceding the tens. Both parts decline like independent nouns, taking thetanwīn in the indefinite state. There is agreement in gender with the numerals 1 and 2, and polarity for numerals 3–9. The whole construct is followed by the accusative singular indefinite.

• 20‘ishrūna (‏عِشْرُونَ‎) (plural of 10)
• 21wāḥidun wa-‘ishrūna (واحِدٌ وَعِشْرُونَ)
• 22ithnāni wa-‘ishrūna (اثْنانِ وَعِشْرُونَ)
• 23thalāthatun wa-‘ishrūna (ثَلاثةٌ وَعِشْرُونَ)
• 30thalāthūna (‏ثَلاتُونَ‎)
• 40arba‘ūna (‏أَرْبَعُونَ‎)

mi’at- "100" andalf- "1,000" can themselves be modified by numbers (to form numbers such as 200 or 5,000) and will be declined appropriately. For example,mi’atāni "200" andalfāni "2,000" with dual endings;thalāthatu ālāfin "3,000" withalf in the plural genitive, butthalāthu mi’atin "300" sincemi’at- appears to have no plural.

In compound numbers, the number formed with the last two digits dictates the declension of the associated noun, e.g. 212, 312, and 54,312 would all behave like 12.

Large compound numbers can have, e.g.:

• أَلْفٌ وَتِسْعُ مِئةٍ وَتِسْعُ سِنِينَalfun wa-tis‘u mi’atin wa-tis‘u sinīna "1,909 years"
• بَعْدَ أَلْفٍ وَتِسْعِ مِئةٍ وَتِسْعِ سِنِينَba‘da alfin wa-tis‘i mi’atin wa-tis‘i sinīna "after 1,909 years"
• أَرْبَعةٌ وَتِسْعُونَ أَلْفًا وَثَمَانِي مِئةٍ وَثَلاثٌ وَسِتُّونَ سَنةًarba‘atun wa-tis‘ūna alfan wa-thamānī mi’atin wa-thalāthun wa-sittūna sanatan "94,863 years"
• بَعْدَ أَرْبَعةٍ وَتِسْعِينَ أَلْفًا وَثَمانِي مِئةٍ وَثَلاثٍ وَسِتِّينَ سَنةًba‘da arba‘atin wa-tis‘īna alfan wa-thamānī mi’atin wa-thalāthin wa-sittīna sanatan "after 94,863 years"
• اِثْنَا عَشَرَ أَلْفًا وَمِئَتانِ وَٱثْنَتانِ وَعِشْرُونَ سَنةًiṯnā ‘ašara alfan wa-mi’atāni wa-thnatāni wa-‘ishrūna sanatan "12,222 years"
• بَعْدَ ٱثْنَيْ عَشَرَ أَلْفًا وَمِئَتَيْنِ وَٱثْنَتَيْنِ وَعِشْرينَ سَنةًba‘da thnay ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atayni wa-thnatayni wa-‘ishrīna sanatan "after 12,222 years"
• اِثْنَا عَشَرَ أَلْفًا وَمِئَتانِ وَسَنَتانِithnā ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atāni wa-sanatāni "12,202 years"
• بَعْدَ ٱثْنَيْ عَشَرَ أَلْفًا وَمِئَتَيْنِ وَسَنَتَيْنِba‘da thnay ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atayni wa-sanatayni "after 12,202 years"

Note also the special construction when the final number is 1 or 2:

• alfu laylatin wa-laylatun "1,001 nights"
  أَلْفُ لَيْلةٍ وَلَيْلةٌٌ
• mi’atu kitābin wa-kitābāni "102 books"
  مِائةُ كِتابٍ وَكِتابانِ

Fractions of a whole smaller than "half" are expressed by the structurefu‘l (فُعْل) in the singular,af‘āl (أَفْعَال) in the plural.

• halfniṣfun (‏نِصْفٌ‎)
• one-thirdthulthun (‏ثُلُثٌ‎)
• two-thirdsthulthāni (‏ثُلُثَانِ‎)
• one-quarterrub‘un (‏رُبُعٌ‎)
• three-quartersthalāthatu arbā‘in (ثَلَاثَةُ أَرْبَاعٍ)
• etc.

Ordinal numerals (الأعداد الترتيبيةal-a‘dād al-tartībīyah) higher than "second" are formed using the structurefā‘ilun,fā‘ilatun, the same as active participles of Form I verbs:

• m.أَوَّلُawwalu, f.أُولَىūlá "first"
• m.ثَانٍthānin (definite form:اَلثَّانِيُal-thānī), f.ثَانِيَةٌthāniyatun "second"
• m.ثالِثٌthālithun, f.ثالِثةٌthālithatun "third"
• m.رابِعٌrābi‘un, f.رابِعةٌrābi‘atun "fourth"
• m.خامِسٌkhāmisun, f.خامِسةٌkhāmisatun "fifth"
• m.سادِسٌsādisun, f.سادِسةٌsādisatun "sixth"
• m.سَابِعٌsābi‘un, f.سابِعةٌsābi‘atun "seventh"
• m.ثامِنٌthāminun, f.ثامِنةٌthāminatun "eighth"
• m.تاسِعٌtāsi‘un, f.تاسِعةٌtāsi‘atun "ninth"
• m.عاشِرٌ‘āshirun, f.عاشِرةٌ‘āshiratun "tenth"

They are adjectives, hence there is agreement in gender with the noun, not polarity as with the cardinal numbers. Note that "sixth" uses a different, older root than the number six.

Verbs in Arabic (فعلfi‘l) are based on a root made up of three or four consonants (called a triliteral or quadriliteral root, respectively). The set of consonants communicates the basic meaning of a verb, e.g.k-t-b 'write', q-r-’ 'read', ’-k-l 'eat'. Changes to the vowels in between the consonants, along with prefixes or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as tense, person and number, in addition to changes in the meaning of the verb that embody grammatical concepts such as mood (e.g. indicative, subjunctive, imperative), voice (active or passive), andfunctions such as causative, intensive, or reflexive.

Since Arabic lacks a verb meaning "to have", constructions usingli-,‘inda, andma‘a with the pronominal suffixes are used to describe possession. For example:عنده بيت (ʿindahu bayt) – literally: At him (is) a house. → He has a house.

For the negation of Arabic verbs, seeNegation in Arabic.

There are two types of prepositions, based on whether they arise from thetriconsonantal roots system or not. The 'true prepositions' (حُرُوف اَلْجَرّḥurūf al-jarr) do not stem from the triconsonantal roots. These true prepositions cannot have prepositions preceding them, in contrast to the derived triliteral prepositions. True prepositions can also be used with certain verbs to convey a particular meaning. For example,بَحَثَbaḥatha means "to discuss" as a transitive verb, but can mean "to search for" when followed by the prepositionعَنْ‘an, and "to do research about" when followed byفِيfī.

The prepositions arising from the triliteral root system are called "adverbs of place and time" in the native tradition (ظُرُوف مَكان وَظُرُوف زَمانẓurūf makān wa-ẓurūf zamān) and work very much in the same way as the 'true' prepositions.^[17]

A noun following a preposition takes thegenitive case.^[18] However, prepositions can take whole clauses as their object too if succeeded by the conjunctionsأَنْ’an orأَنَّ’anna, in which case the subject of the clause is in the nominative or the accusative respectively.

A noun may be defined more precisely by adding another noun immediately afterwards. In Arabic grammar, this is calledإضافةiḍāfah ("annexation, addition") and in English is known as the "genitive construct", "construct phrase", or "annexation structure". The first noun must be in theconstruct form while, when cases are used, the subsequent noun must be in the genitive case. The construction is typically equivalent to the English construction "(noun) of (noun)". This is a very widespread way of forming possessive constructions in Arabic,^[19] and is typical of a Semitic language.^[20]

Simple examples include:

• بِنْتُ حَسَنٍbintu Ḥasan "the daughter of Hasan/Hasan's daughter".
• دارُ السَلامِdāru‿s-salām "the house of peace".
• كِيلُو مَوْزٍkīlū mawz "a kilo of bananas".
• بَيْتُ رَجُلٍbaytu‿rajul "the house of a man/a man's house".
• بَيْتُ الرَجُلِbaytu‿r-rajul "the house of the man/the man's house".

The range of relationships between the first and second elements of theidafah construction is very varied, though it usually consists of some relationship of possession or belonging.^[21] In the case of words for containers, theidāfah may express what is contained:فِنْجانُ قَهْوةٍfinjānu qahwatin "a cup of coffee". Theidāfah may indicate the material something is made of:خاتَمُ خَشَبٍkhātamu khashabin "a wooden ring, ring made of wood". In many cases the two members become a fixed coined phrase, theidafah being used as the equivalent of acompound noun used in some Indo-European languages such as English. Thusبَيْتُ الطَلَبةِbaytu al-ṭalabati can mean "house of the (certain, known) students", but is also the normal term for "the student hostel".

Classical Arabic tends to prefer the word orderVSO (verb before subject before object), but uses the particleʼinna andSVO (subject before verb) to emphasize the subject. Verb-initialword orders like in Classical Arabic are relatively rare across the world's languages, occurring only in a few language families includingCeltic,Austronesian, andMayan. The different Arabic word orders have an agreement asymmetry: the verb shows person, number, and gender agreement with the subject in SVO constructions but only gender (and possibly person) agreement in VSO, to the exclusion of number.^[22]

Modern Standard Arabic tends to use SVO withoutʼinna.

Full agreement: SVO order^[23]

المُعَلِّمُونَ قَرَؤُوا الكِتابَ al-mu‘allimūna the-teachers-M.PL.NOM qara’u read.PAST-3.M.PL l-kitāb the-book-ACC al-mu‘allimūna qara’u l-kitāb the-teachers-M.PL.NOM read.PAST-3.M.PL the-book-ACC 'The (male) teachers read the book.'

المُعَلِّماتُ قَرَأْنَ الكِتابَ al-mu‘allimātu the-teachers-F.PL-NOM qara’na read.PAST-3.F.PL l-kitāb the-book-ACC al-mu‘allimātu qara’na l-kitāb the-teachers-F.PL-NOM read.PAST-3.F.PL the-book-ACC 'The (female) teachers read the book.'

Partial agreement: VSO order

قَرَأَ المُعَلِّمُونَ الكِتابَ qara’a read.PAST-3M.SG l-mu‘allimūna the-teacher-M.PL.NOM l-kitāb the-book-ACC qara’a l-mu‘allimūna l-kitāb read.PAST-3M.SG the-teacher-M.PL.NOM the-book-ACC 'The (male) teachers read the book.'

قَرَأَتِ الْمُعَلِّماتُ الكِتابَ qara’at read.PAST-3.F.SG al-mu‘allimātu the-teacher-F.PL-NOM l-kitāb the-book-ACC qara’at al-mu‘allimātu l-kitāb read.PAST-3.F.SG the-teacher-F.PL-NOM the-book-ACC 'The (female) teachers read the book.'

Despite the fact that the subject in the latter two above examples is plural, the verb lacks plural marking and instead surfaces as if it were in the singular form.

Though early accounts of Arabic word order variation argued for a flat,non-configurational grammatical structure,^[24][25] more recent work^[23] has shown that there is evidence for a VP constituent in Arabic, that is, a closer relationship between verb and object than verb and subject. This suggests a hierarchical grammatical structure, not a flat one. An analysis such as this one can also explain the agreement asymmetries between subjects and verbs in SVO versus VSO sentences, and can provide insight into the syntactic position of pre- and post-verbal subjects, as well as the surface syntactic position of the verb.

In the present tense, there is no overtcopula in Arabic. In such clauses, the subject tends to precede the predicate, unless there is a clear demarcating pause between the two, suggesting a marked information structure.^[23] It is a matter of debate in Arabic literature whether there is a null present tense copula which syntactically precedes the subject inverbless sentences, or whether there is simply no verb, only a subject and predicate.^{[26][27][28][29][30][31]}

Subject pronouns are normally omitted except for emphasis or when using a participle as a verb (participles are not marked for person). Because the verb agrees with the subject in person, number, and gender, no information is lost when pronouns are omitted. Auxiliary verbs precede main verbs, prepositions precede their objects, and nouns precede their relative clauses.

Adjectives follow the noun they are modifying, and agree with the noun in case, gender, number, and state: For example,فَتَاةٌ جَمِيلَةٌfatātun jamīlatun 'a beautiful girl' butالفَتاةُ ٱلْجَمِيلةُal-fatātu al-jamīlatu 'the beautiful girl'. (Compareالفَتاةُ جَمِيلةٌal-fatātu jamīlatun 'the girl is beautiful'.)Elative adjectives, however, usually do not agree with the noun they modify, and sometimes even precede their noun while requiring it to be in the genitive case.

Colloquial spoken Arabic may employ different word order than Classical Arabic or Modern Standard Arabic.^[32]

Regarding subject-verb order, Owens et al. (2009), examined three dialects of the Arabian peninsula from a discourse informational and a morpholexical perspective.^[33] They show that subject-verb or verb-subject word order is correlated with the lexical class (i.e. pronoun, pronominal, noun), definiteness, and the discourse-defined lexical specificity of a noun.^[33] Owens et al. (2009) argue that verb-subject order usually presents events, while subject-verb indicates available referentiality.^[33]

In Modern Standard Arabic, the VSO and SVO word orders results in an agreement asymmetry between the verb and the subject: the verb shows person, number, and gender agreement with the subject in SVO constructions, but only gender (and possibly person) agreement in VS, to the exclusion of number.^[22] In Lebanese Arabic and Moroccan Arabic, there is agreement between verb and subject in number under both the SV and the VS orders.^[34]

El-Yasin (1985) examined colloquial Jordanian Arabic, and concluded that it exhibits a SVO order.^[35] This, according to El-Yasin, provides evidence of a language changing from a VSO (CA) into a SVO language (Jordanian Arabic).^[35] On the other hand, Mohammad, M. A. (2000) showed that MSA allows all six possible word orders (VSO, SVO, VOS, SOV, OSV, OVS) while Palastinian Arabic (PA) allows only three word orders, namely: VSO, VOS, and SVO.^[36]

In her bookSpoken Arabic, Brustad, K. (2000) notes that in the dialects she studied (Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, and Kuwaiti) verb initial (VSO) and subject initial (SVO) word orders are present.^[37] In the case of verb initial word order, it is common that the subject is marked on the verb and is not expressed as an independent verb.^[37]

Brustad, K. (2000) points out that if both VSO and SVO are basic typologies in spoken Arabic, then functional typology investigating the semantic and pragmatic roles can shed light on the different contexts where these word orders appear.^[37] Despite the analysis that both VS and SV typologies are found in spoken Arabic dialects (Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, and Kuwaiti), Brustad, K. (2000) notes that sentence typologies found in spoken Arabic are not limited to these two word orders.^[37] She adds that almost any basic constituent may begin an Arabic sentence. She argues that sentences other than VS and SV are marked forms of topic-prominent or subject-prominent sentences.^[37]

The subject of a sentence can be topicalized and emphasized by moving it to the beginning of the sentence and preceding it with the wordإِنَّinna 'indeed' (or 'verily' in older translations). An example would beإِنَّ ٱلسَّمَاءَ زَرْقَاءُinna s-samā’a zarqā’(u) 'The sky is blue indeed'.

’Inna, along with its related terms (or ‏أَخَوَات‎’akhawāt "sister" terms in the native tradition) ‏أَنَّ‎anna 'that' (as in "I think that ..."),inna 'that' (after ‏قَالَ‎qāla 'say'), ‏وَلٰكِنَّ‎(wa-)lākin(na) 'but' and ‏كَأَنَّ‎ka-anna 'as if' introduce subjects while requiring that they be immediately followed by a noun in the accusative case, or an attached pronominal suffix.

As aparticle,al- does not inflect forgender,number,person, orgrammatical case. The sound of the final -l consonant, however, can vary; when followed by asun letter such as t, d, r, s, n and a few others, it is replaced by the sound of the initial consonant of the following noun, thus doubling it. For example: for "the Nile", one does not sayal-Nīl, butan-Nīl. When followed by amoon letter, like m-, no replacement occurs, as inal-masjid ("the mosque"). This affects only the pronunciation and not the spelling of the article.

The absolute object (المفعول المطلقal-maf'ūl al-muṭlaq) is an emphaticcognate object construction in which averbal noun derived from the main verb appears in the accusative (منصوبmanṣūb) case.^[38]

Theobject of purpose [ar] (المفعول لأجلهal-maf'ūl li-'ajlihi) is an adverbial structure used to indicate purpose, motive, or reason for an action.^[39] It consists of a verbal noun derived from the main verb that appears in the accusative (منصوبmanṣūb) case.^[39]

Some people, especially in the region ofArabia, when they are descended from a famous ancestor, start their last name withآلāl/ʔaːl/, anoun meaning "family" or "clan", like the dynastyAl Saud (family of Saud) orAl ash-Sheikh (family of the Sheikh).آلāl/ʔaːl/ is distinct from the definite articleالal-/al/.

Object pronouns areclitics and are attached to the verb; e.g.,أَرَاهَاarā-hā 'I see her'. Possessive pronouns are likewise attached to the noun they modify; e.g.,كِتَابُهُkitābu-hu 'his book'. The definite articleاَلـal- is a clitic, as are the prepositionsلِـli- 'to' andبِـbi- 'in, with' and the conjunctionsكَـka- 'as' andفَـfa- 'then, so'.

An overhaul of the native systematic categorization of Arabic grammar was first suggested by the medieval philosopheral-Jāḥiẓ, though it was not until two hundred years later whenIbn Maḍāʾ wrote hisRefutation of the Grammarians that concrete suggestions regarding word order andlinguistic governance were made.^[40] In the modern era, Egyptian litterateurShawqi Daif renewed the call for a reform of the commonly used description of Arabic grammar, suggesting to follow trends in Western linguistics instead.^[41]

• Arabic language
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• Arabic conjugation 24000 Verbs
• Wright's Arabic Grammar
• Arabic Grammar: Paradigms, Literature, Exercises and Glossary By Albert Socin
• A Practical Arabic Grammar, Part 1
• Einleitung in das studium der arabischen grammatiker: Die Ajrūmiyyah des Muh'ammad bin Daūd By Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Ibn Ājurrūm
• Alexis Neme and Eric Laporte (2013) Pattern-and-root inflectional morphology: the Arabic broken plural |year=2013
• Alexis Neme (2011), A lexicon of Arabic verbs constructed on the basis of Semitic taxonomy and using finite-state transducers
• Alexis Neme and Eric Laporte (2015), Do computer scientists deeply understand Arabic morphology? –هل يفهم المهندسون الحاسوبيّون علم الصرف فهمًا عميقًا؟, available also in Arabic, Indonesian, French

• Arabic grammar

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