ʾIʿrāb (إِعْرَاب,IPA:[ʔiʕraːb]) is anArabic term for thedeclension system of nominal, adjectival, or verbalsuffixes ofClassical Arabic to markgrammatical case. These suffixes are written in fullyvocalized Arabic texts, notably theQur’ān or texts written for children or Arabic learners, and they are articulated when a text is formally read aloud, but they do not survive in any spokendialect of Arabic. Even inLiterary Arabic, these suffixes are often not pronouncedinpausa (ٱلْوَقْفal-waqf); i.e. when the word occurs at the end of the sentence, in accordance with certain rules of Arabic pronunciation. (That is, thenunation suffix-n is generally dropped at the end of a sentence or line of poetry, with the notable exception of thenuniyya; the vowel suffix may or may not be, depending on the requirements of metre.) Depending on the knowledge ofʾiʿrāb, some Arabic speakers may omit case endings when reading out inModern Standard Arabic, thus making it similar to spoken dialects. Many Arabic textbooks for foreigners teach Arabic without a heavy focus onʾiʿrāb, either omitting the endings altogether or only giving a small introduction. Arabic without case endings may require a different and fixedword order, similar to spoken Arabic dialects.

The term literally means 'making [the word] Arabic'. It is thestem IVmasdar of the root ‘-r-b (ع-ر-ب), meaning "to be fluent", soʾiʿrāb means "making a thing expressed, disclosed or eloquent". The term is cognate to thewordArab itself.

Case is not shown in standard orthography, with the exception of indefinite accusative nouns ending in any letter buttā’ marbūṭah (ة) oralif followed byhamzah (ء), where the-a(n) "sits" on the letter before an alif added at the end of the word (the alif shows up even in unvowelled texts). Cases, however, are marked in the Qur'an, children's books, and to remove ambiguous situations. If marked, it is shown at the end of the noun. Further information on the types of declensions is discussed in the following section, along with examples. Grammatical case endings are not pronounced inpausa and in less formal forms of Arabic. Invocalised Arabic (where vowel points are written), the case endings may be written even if they are not pronounced. Some Arabic textbooks or children's books skip case endings in vocalised Arabic, thus allowing both types of pronunciation.

The nominative (al-marfū‘ٱلْمَرْفُوعُ) is used in several situations:

• For the subject of a verbal sentence.
• For the subject and predicate of a non-verbal (equational) sentence, with some notable exceptions.
• For certain adverbs.
• For the citation form of words.

For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as ausually unwrittenضَمَّةḍammah (-u) for the definite orḍammah + nunation (-un) for the indefinite. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by addingـَانِ -an(i) andـُونَ-ūn(a) respectively (justـَا -ā andـُو -ū in theconstruct state). The regular feminine plural is formed by addingـَاتُ-āt(u) in the definite andـَاتٌ-āt(un) in the indefinite (same spelling).

The accusative (al-manṣūbٱلْمَنْصُوب) has several uses:

• The subject of an equational (non-verbal) sentence, if it is initiated withإنinna, or one of its sisters. The particles are subordinating conjunctions which require that the subject of the subordinate (complement) clause be in the accusative case.
• The predicate ofكَانَ /يَكُونُkāna/yakūnu "be" and its sisters (there are 13 of these verbs).^[1] Hence,ٱلْبِنْتُ جَمِيلَةٌal-bintu jamīlatun 'the girl is beautiful' butٱلْبِنْتُ كَانَتْ جَمِيلَةًal-bintu kānat jamīlatan 'the girl was beautiful' ("beautiful" is spelled the same way in both cases).
• Both the subject and the predicate ofظَنَẓanna and its sisters in an equational clause.
• As the complement of verbs of "seeming".
• The object of a transitive verb
• Most adverbs.
• Semi-prepositions.
• Internal object/cognate accusative structure
• The accusative of specification (al-tamyīz,ٱلتَّمْيِيزُ).
• The accusative of purpose (al-maf‘ūl li-ajlihi,ٱلْمَفْعُولُ لِأَجْلِهِ).
• The circumstantial accusative (al-ḥāl,ٱلْحَال).
• Objects of (kam,كَمْ) 'how much/how many'.
• Cardinal and ordinal numbers from 11, and 13-19
• Counted nouns of numbers 11–99
• Exclamation of astonishment. i.e.:mā ajmalahā!,!مَا أَجْمَلَهَا 'Oh, how beautiful she is!'
• Vocative first term of construct.يَا عبدَ اللهِyā ‘abd-a-llah! "Oh, Abdallah!"
• Nouns following exceptive particles in non-negative sentences.
• The noun following the absolute, or categorical, negationلَاlā "No".

For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a usually unwrittenفَتْحَةfatḥah (-a) for the definite orfatḥah + nunation (-an) for the indefinite. For the indefinite accusative, thefatḥah + nunation is added to anاalif, e.g.ـًا, which is added to the ending of all nouns not ending with aalif followed byhamzah or atā’ marbūṭah. This is the only case (when alif is written), which affects the unvocalisedwritten Arabic (e.g.بَيْتاًbayt-an). The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by addingـَيْنِ-ayn(i) andـِينَ-īn(a) respectively (spelled identically!) (ـَيْ-ay andـِي-ī in the construct state, again, spelled identically). The regular feminine plural is formed by addingـَاتِ-āt(i) in the definite and-āt(in) in the indefinite (spelled identically). Some forms of indefinite accusative are mandatory even for spoken and pausal forms of Arabic, sometimes-an is changed to a simple-a in pausa or spoken Arabic.

Diptotes never take an alif ending in the written Arabic and are never pronounced with the ending-an.

The genitive case (al-majrūr,ٱلْمَجْرُورُ)

• Objects of prepositions.
• The second, third, fourth, etc. term of aniḍāfah (إِضَافَةٌ genitive construction).
• The object of a locative adverb.
• Elative (comparative/superlative) adjectives behave similarly:أَطْوَلُ وَلَدٍaṭwalu waladin 'tallest boy'.

For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a usually unwrittenكَسْرَةkasrah (-i) for the definite orkasrah + nunation (-in) for the indefinite. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by addingـَيْنِ-ayn(i) andـِيْنَ-īn(a) respectively (spelled identically) (ـَيْ-ay andـِي-ī in the construct state, again, spelled identically). The regular feminine plural is formed by addingـَاتِ-āt(i) in the definite andـَاتٍ-āt(in) in the indefinite (spelled identically in Arabic).

Note: diptotic nouns receive afatḥah (-a) in the genitive and are never nunated.

Note: there is no dative case. Instead, the prepositionلـِli- is used.

For fully declined nouns, known as "triptote" (‏مُنْصَرِفٌ‎munṣarif), that is, having three separate case endings, the suffixes are-u,-a,-i fornominative,accusative, andgenitive case respectively, with the addition of a final/n/ (nunation, ortanwīn) to produce-un,-an, and-in when the word is indefinite.

This system applies to most singular nouns in Arabic. It also applies to feminine nouns ending inة-a/-at (tā’ marbūṭah) andءhamzah, but for these,ا alif is not written in the accusative case. It also applies to many "broken plurals". When words end in-a/-at (tā’ marbūṭah) thet is pronounced when the case ending is added; thusرِسَالَة ("message") is pronouncedrisāla in pausal form, but in Classical Arabic it becomesرِسَالَةٌrisālatun,رِسَالَةًrisālatan, andرِسَالَةٍrisālatin when case endings are added (all usually spelledرسالة when written without thevowel points).

The final/n/ is dropped when the noun is preceded by the definite articleal-). The/n/ is also dropped when the noun is used iniḍāfah (construct state), that is, when it is followed by a genitive. Thus:

Nominative (مَرْفُوعٌmarfū‘; literally, "raised"):

baytunبَيْتٌ : a house

al-baytuٱلْبَيْتُ : the house

baytu r-rajuliبَيْتُ ٱلرَّجُلِ : the house of the man.

Accusative (مَنْصُوبٌmanṣūb);literally, 'erected'):

baytanبَيْتًا : a house

al-baytaٱلْبَيْتَ : the house

bayta r-rajuliبَيْتَ ٱلرَّجُلِ : the house of the man.

Genitive (مَجْرُورٌmajrūr; literally, 'dragged'):

baytinبَيْتٍ : a house

al-baytiٱلبَيْتِ : the house

bayti r-rajuliبَيْتِ ٱلرَّجُلِ : the house of the man.

The final/n/ is also dropped in classical poetry at the end of a couplet, and the vowel of the ending is pronounced long.

A few singular nouns (including many proper names and names of places), and certain types of "broken plural", are known asdiptotes (ٱلْمَمْنُوعُ مِنْ ٱلصَّرْفِal-mamnū‘ min aṣ-ṣarf, literally 'forbidden from inflecting') meaning that they only have two case endings.

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 byal- or is in the construct state)).

Diptotes never take an alif in the accusative case in written Arabic.

In the case of sound masculine plurals (جَمْعُ ٱلْمُذَكَّرُ ٱلسَّالِمُ-jam‘ al-mudhakkar as-sālim), mostly denoting male human beings, the suffixes are respectivelyـُونَ-ūna andـِينَ-īna. These stay the same whetherالal- precedes or not. The final-a is usually dropped in speech. In less formal Arabic only-īna is used for all cases and the final-a is dropped inpausa and in less formal Arabic.

Theن-na is dropped when the noun is iniḍāfah (construct state). Thus:

Nominative:

وَالِدُونَwālidūna: parents (more than two)

ٱلْوَالِدُونَal-wālidūna: the parents

وَالِدُو ٱلرِّجَالِwālidū r-rijāli: the parents of the men

Accusative and genitive:

وَالِدِينَwālidīna: parents

ٱلْوَالِدِينَal-wālidīna: the parents

وَالِدِي ٱلرِّجَالِwālidī r-rijāli: the parents of the men

Note: endingـِينَ-īna is spelled identically toـَيْنِ-ayni (see above).

In the case of sound feminine plurals (جَمْعُ ٱلْمُؤَنَّثُ ٱلسَّالِمُjam‘ al-mu’annath as-sālim), the suffixes are respectivelyـَاتٌ, ـَاتُ-ātu(n),ـَاتٍ, ـَاتِ-āti(n) andـَاتٍ, ـَاتِ-āti(n) (identical spelling). Then is only there when the noun is indefinite (not preceded byal-). Again the final vowel is dropped in speech andpausa, leaving onlyـَات-āt, making all cases pronounced identically.

The final "n" is dropped when the noun is iniḍāfah (construct state).

Nominative:

مُدَرِّسَاتٌmudarrisātun: (female) teachers

ٱلْمُدَرِّسَاتُal-mudarrisātu: the teachers

مُدَرِّسَاتُ ٱلْأَوْلَادِmudarrisātu l-awlādi: the teachers of the children

Accusative and genitive:

مُدَرِّسَاتٍmudarrisātin: (female) teachers

ٱلْمُدَرِّسَاتِal-mudarrisāti: the teachers

مُدَرِّسَاتِ ٱلْأَوْلَادِmudarrisāti l-awlādi: the teachers of the children

The Dual - These nouns denote two of something. They decline very similarly to the sound masculine plurals because they are not marked for definiteness and look the same in both the accusative and genitive cases. For the nominative, the marking is-āni and for the accusative/genitive,-ayni. An example is "parents," which iswālidāni andwālidayni respectively.

ٱسْمُ ٱلْمَنْقُوصِism al-manqūṣ (deficient nouns ending withyā’ ) - These nouns behave differently due to the instability of the final vowel. When indefinite, these nouns take a final-in in the nominative/genitive, and-iyan in the accusative. When definite, they take a long-ī in the nominative/genitive, and-iya in the accusative. These nouns were reckoned by the grammarians to have originally taken the triptotic endings, but through morpho-phonotactic processes, the latter resulted. An example is "judge," which isqāḍin,qāḍiyan, versusal-qāḍī, andal-qāḍiya respectively. Also, a noun can be bothism al-manqūṣ and diptotal: for example,layālin 'nights', is a broken plural with a final unstable vowel. With case endings this noun becomeslayālin,layāliya, andal-layālī,al-layāliya.

ٱسْمُ ٱلْمَقْصُورِism al-maqṣūr (deficient nouns ending withalif oralif maqṣūrah) - These nouns, like their close relativeism al-manqūṣ, also behave differently due to the instability of a final vowel. These nouns are markedonly for definiteness, as morpho-phonotactic processes have resulted in the complete loss of the case distinctions. When indefinite, they take-an, which rests on analif maqṣūrah or occasionallyalif. When definite, they are not marked, and they simply retain their longalif oralif maqṣūrah. An example is "hospital," which ismustashfan andal-mustashfā respectively. If a noun is bothism al-maqṣūr and diptotic, then it is completely invariable for case.

Invariable nouns - Invariable nouns are usually those foreign names that end inalif or nouns that end in an additionalalif oralif maqṣūrah (when thatalif oralif maqṣūrah is not part of the root). Also, nouns that are bothism al-maqṣūr and diptotic fall into this category. Additionally, there are rare invariable nouns which have other endings, like any name ending with "-ayhi," like Sībawayhi (colloquially pronounced, for example, in Egypt:[sebæˈweː]. An example of a common invariable noun isfuṣḥá (al-fuṣḥá), meaning 'the most eloquent [Arabic]'. Another example isdunyā (al-dunyā) 'world'.

A noun's case depends on the role that the noun plays in the sentence. There are multiple sentence structures in Arabic, each of which demands different case endings for the roles in the sentence. "Subject" does not always correspond to "nominative", nor does "object" always correspond to "accusative". Sentences in Arabic are divided into two branches, of which are the incomplete phrases (jumla inshaiya) and the complete phrases (jumla khabariya). Jumla inshaiya is composed of the descriptive phrase and possessive phrase, while the jumla khabariya is made up of the verbal sentence (jumla fi'lya khabariya) and the nominal sentence (jumla ismiya khabariya). The incomplete phrase cannot be a sentence in itself, and is usually used in the complete phrases.

In a verbal sentence (ٱلْجُمْلَةُ ٱلْفِعْلِيَّةُal-jumlah al-fi‘līyah), there isverb–subject–object word order. This is the preferred word order of Classical Arabic.

In a verbal sentence, the subject takes nominative case and the object takes accusative case. Such a sentence ("This writer wrote the written") would be formed as follows (read from right to left):

In a nominal sentence (ٱلْجُمْلَةُ ٱلْاِسْمِيَّةُal-jumlah al-ismīyah), there issubject–verb–object word order.

If the verb would be "is" (that is, the predicate merely attributes something to the subject—seePredicative (adjectival or nominal)), then there is no verb used. Both the subject and the predicate take nominative case when there is no overt verb. Such a sentence ("This writer is famous") is formed as follows (read from right to left):

If there is an overt verb, the subject takes nominative and the predicate takes accusative. Such a sentence ("This writer wrote the book") is formed as follows (read from right to left):

There is a class of words in Arabic called the "sisters ofinna" (أَخَوَاتُ إِنَّakhawāt inna) that share characteristics ofإِنَّ. Among them are:

• إِنَّ –inna (particle for emphasis, close to "it is the case that")
• أَنَّ –anna ('that')
• لٰكِنَّ – lākinna (but)
• لِأَنَّ –li-anna ('because')
• كَأَنَّ –ka-anna ('as if', 'as though')

If one of the sisters ofإِنَّ begins a clause, then the subject takes accusative case instead of nominative.

Such a sentence using the particleإِنَّ ("Verily, this writer wrote the book") would be formed as follows (read from right to left):

Although there was an overt verb in the above example, a nominal sentence without an overt verb will also have its subject take accusative case because of the introduction of one ofinna's sisters. (The predicate of an equation is unaffected and will remain in the nominative.)

Consider the following example ("Verily, this writer is famous"):

The verbkāna (كَانَ) and its sisters (أَخَوَاتُ كَانَakhawāt kāna) form a class of 13 verbs that mark the time/duration of actions, states, and events.

Sentences that use these verbs are considered to be a type of nominal sentence according to Arabic grammar, not a type of verbal sentence. Although the word order may seem to beverb–subject–object when there is no other verb in the sentence, it is possible to have a sentence in which the order issubject–verb–object. Such a non-equation sentence clearly showssubject–verb–object word order.

Among the sisters of kāna are:

• كَانَ –kāna ('was')
• لَيْسَ –laysa ('not')
• مَا زَالَ –mā zāla ('still'; literally, 'has not ceased to be')
• أَصْبَحَ –aṣbaḥa ('reached a state, became')
• ظَلَّ –ẓalla ('remained')

If one of the sisters ofكَانَ begins a clause, then the subject takes nominative case and the object takes accusative case. (Because of this, Arabic contrasts[The man]_NOM is [a doctor]_NOM in the present tense with[The man]_NOM was [a doctor]_ACC in the past tense.)

Such a sentence using the verbكَانَ ("This writer was famous") would be formed as follows (read from right to left):

In a sentence with an explicit verb, the sister of kāna marks aspect for the actual verb. A sentence likeكَانَ ٱلْكَاتِبُ يَكْتُبُ ٱلْكِتَابَ (was the.writer he.writes the.book, 'the writer was writing the book'), for instance, has both a main verb (يَكْتُبُ) and a sister of kāna that indicates the non-completed aspect of the main verb.

The imperfective tense of the verb also has suffixed vowels, which determine the mood of the verb, There are six moods in theClassical Arabic, Thus:

• yaktubu, indicative (‏مَرْفُوعٌ‎marfū‘ ), means 'he writes' andsayaktubu means "he will write";
• yaktuba, subjunctive (‏مَنْصُوبٌ‎manṣūb), is used in phrases such as "so that he should write";
• yaktub, jussive (مَجْزُومٌmajzūm, literally meaning 'clipped off'), means 'let him write'. This can becomeyaktubi when required for euphony, e.g. when followed by two consonants.
• uktub, Imperative, means "write!";
• yaktuban, short energetic; its meaning is dependent upon the prefix that is attached to it, but it often means "he (should) write";
• yaktubanna, long energetic; its meaning is dependent upon the prefix that is attached to it, but it often means "he (must) write".

All the first three forms are spelledيكتب in unvocalised Arabic, and the final vowel is not pronounced in pausa and in informal Arabic, leaving just one pronunciation:yaktub.

Traditional Arab grammarians equated the indicative with the nominative of nouns, the subjunctive with the accusative, and the jussive with the genitive, as indicated by their names (the only pair that is not borne out in the name is the jussive-genitive pair, probably because the-i vowel is usually dropped). It is not known whether there is a genuine historical connection or whether the resemblance is mere coincidence, caused by the fact that these are the only three short vowels available.

• Arabic grammar
• Inflection
• Tashkīl
• Arabic diacritics
• Mater lectionis
• Mimation

• Brustad, Kristen; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Al-Tonsi, Abbas (1997).A Textbook for Arabic: Part Two. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.ISBN 0-87840-350-7.
• Haywood, John Alfred; Nahmad, Hayim Musa (1965).A new Arabic grammar of the written language (2nd ed.). London: Lund Humphries.ISBN 0-85331-585-X.
• Jalajel, David Solomon (2011).Expressing I'rab: The Presentation of Arabic Grammatical Analysis. Bellville: University of the Western Cape.ISBN 978-1-86808-716-7.
• Levin, Aryeh (1995). "The Fundamental Principles of the Arab Grammarians' Theory of'amal".Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam.19:214–232.
• Mace, John (2002).Arabic Grammar: A Reference Guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.ISBN 0-7486-1079-0.
• Ryding, Karin C. (2011).A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 9780521771511.

• Classical Arabic Blog
• Irab and syntactic analysis, andgrammatical checking

• Arabic grammar
• Linguistic morphology

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Arabic-language text
• Pages with Arabic IPA
• Pages with Egyptian Arabic IPA