PARTS OF SPEECH

أقسام الكلمة

PARTS OF SPEECH

A meaningful word in Arabic is called Kalimah (كلمة). It has only three parts. In other words there are only three parts of speech in Arabic. These are :

1الإسم (Noun, literally ‘name’) :

It is that word which does not need the help of another word to explain its meaning. It is the name of a person, a place or a thing, and the term Ism includes the adjective nouns (الصفة) as well, e.g. محمد "Muhammad", أحمد "Ahmad", وِلْيَم "William", جُرْج "George", زينب ‘Zenab’, عائشة ‘Aishah’, مريم ‘Maryam’, باكستان ‘Pakistan’, لندن ‘London’, فَرَنْسَا ‘France’, البَيْت ‘the house’, المَسْجِد ‘the Mosque’, قَلَم ‘a pen’, الكِتَاب ‘the book’, البُسْتَان ‘the garden’, الكَعْبَة ‘Kaba’, الوَرَق ‘the paper/ leaf’, طعَام ‘food’, ّظِل ‘a shade’, الجِسْم ‘the body’, يَد ‘a hand’, قَمِيْص ‘a shirt’, الغار ‘the cave’, الكُرْسِي ‘the chair’, رِجْل ‘a foot’, البِنْت ‘the girl’, اِبْن ‘a boy’, طَالِب ‘a student’,

2. الفعل (Verb) :

It is that word by which we understand some work or action being done. It is of three kinds/ tenses:

a. The perfect tense, the Madi (الماضي) is used for an action which is completed, e.g. َفَعَل ‘he did’, َكَتَب ‘he wrote’, دَخَلَ ‘he entered’.

b. The imperfect tenses the Mudhari (المضارع) used when an action is not completed, e.g. يَفْعَلُ ‘he does or he is doing or he will do’, يَكْتُبُ ‘he writes/is writing/ will write’, يَدْخُلُ ‘he enters/is entering/will enter’.

c. The imperative tense or the Amr (الأمر) which signifies command, request or supplication, e.g. اِفْعَلْ ‘do’, اْكْتُبْ ‘write’, اُدْخُلْ ‘enter’.

3. الحرف (Harf) :

The particle, preposition and conjunction are called harf. It is that word which is used with noun or verb to complete the meaning of the sentence; its meaning will depend on the word with which it is used, e.g. عَلَى ‘on’, ْفِي ‘in’, ْعَن ‘regarding’, نَعَمْ ‘yes’, لاَ ‘no’, مَا ‘that/ what’,etc.

Further explanation and information about the Ism, the Fail and the Harf will follow in the subsequent lessons.

4. الحركات Vowels (Harkaat) :

The vowels used in Arabic are called الحَرَكَات which are explained below:

- فَتْحَة (Fathah): Signed as ﹷ on top of a letter and pronounced as ‘a’ in ‘above’.

- كَسْرَة (Kasrah): Signed as ﹻ _ under a letter and pronounced as ‘i' in ‘if’.

- ضَمَّة (Dammah): Signed as ﹹ on top of a letter and pronounced as ‘u’ in “put”.

- سُكُوْن (Sukun): Signed as ﹿ on top of a letter as ‘stop’ or ‘stress’; it indicates that the consonant is vowelless, e.g, كُنْ (Kun)

- تَنْوِيْن (‘N’ sound): Signed as double vowel _ﹱ, –, –ٌ as indicated is called tanwin,_ e.g. كِتَابًا (kitaban), كِتَابٍ (kitabin), كِتَابٌ (kitabun). Remember that a word with tanwin is always a noun (الإسم), also a word having (al) اَلْ in the beginning is an indication of its being a noun, however, it does not necessarily mean that a word without ‘al’ or tanwin will not be a noun الإسم. This is evident from the examples of nouns mentioned above where certain words have neither tanwin nor ‘al’, yet they are nouns. It should be noted that the tanwin and ‘al’ never come together on a noun. If ‘al’ comes in the beginning of a noun then its case-ending will be single vowel, not tanwin, e.g.. it may be كِتَاب (a book) or الكِتَاب (the book). It is incorrect to say الكتاب.

5. The Verbal Noun المَصْدَر :

The verbal noun or noun of action may also be used as اسم, e.g. نَصْرٌ ‘help’ (literally helping), ضَرْبٌ ‘a blow’ (literally striking), عِبَادَة ‘prayer’ (literally praying), أَمْرٌ ‘order’ (literally ordering).

The Arabic definite article ‘اَل’ (al) corresponds to the English definite article ‘the’. The Arabic indefinite article tanwin is dropped when the definite article ‘al’ is prefixed to a noun, e.g. بَيْتٌ (baitun) ‘a house’ becomes البَيْت (al-baitu) ‘the house’.

Arabic has 28 alphabets or letters; of these, 14 are called the Sun Letters (الحُرُوْف الشَمْسِيَّة) and the other 14 are called the Moon Letters (الحُرُوْف القَمَرِيَّة). In the moon letters the lam ل of al is pronounced, e.g. القمر (al-qamaru’). While in the sun letters the lam of al is assimilated to the first letter of the noun, e.g. الشمس (ash-shamsu). The assimilation is indicated by شدة (shadda, –ّ) on the first letter of the noun. A table showing the moon letters and the sun letters is given below.

Lunar Letters - الحروف القمرية

The mother = al-ummu = الأم = أ

The door = al-baabu = الباب = ب

The garden = al-Jannatu = الجنة = ج

The donkey = al-himaru = الحمار = ح

The bread = al-khubzu = الخبز = خ

The eye = al-ainu = العين = ع

The lunch = al-ghada-u = الغَدّاءُ = غ

The mouth = al-famu = الفم = ف

The moon = al-qamar = القمر = ق

The dog = al-kalbu = الكلب = ك

The water = al-maa-u = الماَءُ = م

The boy = al-waladu = الولد = و

The air = al-hawa-u = الهواء = ه

The hand = al-yadu = اليد = ي

Solar Letters - الحروف الشمسية

The trader _ at-taajiru = التاجر = ت

The clothing _ ath-thoubu = الطالب = ط

The house _ ad-daaru = الدار = د

The gold _ adz-dzahabu = الذهب = ذ

The man _ ar-rajulu = الرجل = ر

The flower _ az-zahratu = الزهرة = ز

The fish as-samaku= السمك = س

The sun ash-shamsu = الشمس = ش

The chest _ as-sadru = الصدر = ص

The guest _ ad-daifu = الضيف = ض

The student _ at-talibu = الضالب =ط

The injustice _ az-zulmu = الظلم = ظ

The meat _ al-lahm = اللحم = ل

The star _ an-najmu = النجم =ن

THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE

المُرَكَّبُ الوَصْفِيُّ

THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE 

So far we have learnt the characteristics of a single word/ noun, called مفرد. We now come to the compounds المركبات i.e. the phrases/ sentences. If two or more words are joined together, it constitutes a phrase or a sentence (الجُمْلَة), e.g. الطَالِبُ and المُجْتَهِدُ are two mufrad مُفْرَد words. But if they are joined as الطَالِبُ المُجْتَهِدُ ‘the hard working student’ or الطَالِبُ مُجْتَهِدٌ ‘the student is hardworking’, then they became a phrase/sentence. The murakkabat are of two kinds :

1. مُرَكَّبٌ نَاقِصٌ – Phrase or incomplete sentence.

2. مُرَكَّبٌ تَامٌّ  – Sentence (جُمْلَة) which conveys complete sense.

The murakkabun naqis ( مُرَكَّبٌ نَاقِصٌ ) is further divided into the following four types :

A. المُرَكَّبُ الوَصْفِيّ – the adjective phrase.

B.  المُرَكَّبُ الإِضَافِيّ – the relative phrase.

C.  المُرَكَّبُ الإِشَارِيّ – the demonstrative phrase.

D. المُرَكَّبُ الجَارِيّ – the genitive phrase.

It is very important to clearly grasp the above mentioned four phrases, which would go a long way in the construction and understanding of sentences جُمْلَة. In this lesson we shall learn about the Adjective Phrase, while the remaining three Phrases and the subject of sentences will be studied in the subsequent four lessons.

The Adjective Phrase مركب توصيفي/وصفي has two nouns in it where one noun describes the quality of another noun. The noun that describes the quality is called the adjective الصِفَة (sifah) and the noun qualified is called المَوْصُوْف (al-mausuf), e.g. الكِتَابُ المُنِيْرُ “the illuminating Book” [13/184]. Here  الكِتَابُ ‘the Book’ is the noun qualified المَوْصُوْف, and المُنِيْرُ ‘the illuminating’ is its adjective (الصِفَة).

مَلَكٌ كَرِيْمٌ “a noble Angel” [12/31], here  مَلَكٌ ‘Angel’ is المَوْصُوْف and  كَرِيْمٌ ‘noble’ is its adjective الصِفَة. Unlike English المَوْصُوْف comes before الصِفَة (the adjective). 

The important point to remember about مركب توصيفي/وصفي (adjective phrase) is that the adjective الصِفَة is to correspond to the noun being qualified المَوْصُوْف in all the four aspects of a noun, i.e. العَدَد ‘number’, الجِنْس ‘the gender’, الوُسْعَة ‘the capacity – definite/indefinite’ and الإِعْرَاب ‘the case-ending’. These are explained below :

1 The number العَدَد of the adjective الصِفَة is to be in coordination with المَوْصُوْف , i.e. if المَوْصُوْف is singular  then الصِفَة is to be singular, if المَوْصُوْف is dual، then الصِفَة is to be dual, and if المَوْصُوْف is plural، then الصِفَة is to be plural, e.g. وَلَدْ ًصَالِحٌ(a pious boy), وَلَدَانِ صَالِحَانِ (two pious boys), أَوْلاَدٌ صَالِحُوْنَ (three or more pious boys).

2 The gender  الجِنْس of adjective الصِفَة is also to correspond to المَوْصُوْف i.e., if المَوْصُوْف is male مُذَكَّرٌ then  adjective الصِفَة is to bemale مُذَكَّرٌ ; if المَوْصُوْف is female مُؤَنَّثٌ then adjective الصِفَة is to be female مُؤَنَّثٌ too, e.g. بِنْتٌ صَالِحَةٌ (pious girl), بِنْتَانِ صَالِحَتَانِ (two pious girls), بَنَاتٌ صَالِحَاتٌ (pious girls, more than two).

3 The Capacity of  الصِفَة  is also to correspond to that of المَوْصُوْف i.e., if المَوْصُوْف is definite مَعْرِفَة, than الصِفَة  will be definite مَعْرِفَة, and if المَوْصُوْف is indefinite نَكِرَة, than الصِفَة  will be indefinite  نَكِرَة, e.g.

-  وَلَدْ ًصَالِحٌ(a pious boy) >> الوَلَدْ ًالصَالِحٌ

-  وَلَدَانِ صَالِحَانِ (two pious boys) >> الوَلَدَانِ صَالِحَانِ

-  أَوْلاَدٌ صَالِحُوْنَ (three or more pious boys) >>  الأَوْلَادْ صَالِحُوْنَ

4 The Irab / case-ending of الصِفَة are to be in coordination with that of the المَوْصُوْف i.e. if المَوْصُوْف is in nominative case حَالَة الرَفْع than الصِفَة  is to be in nominative case حَالَة الرَفْع , if المَوْصُوْف is in the accusative case حَالَة النَصْبِ then الصِفَة  too is in accusative case حَالَة النَصْبِ, if المَوْصُوْف is in the genitive case حَالَة الجَرِّ then الصِفَة  is to be in genitive حَالَة الجَرِّ , e.g. 

 

An exception to this rule is that the adjective to the broken plural of inanimate objects is almost always feminine singular, e.g. ﴾ فِيْهَا سُرُرٌ مَرْفُوْعَةٌ، وَأَكْوَابٌ مَوْضُوْعَةٌ ﴿ “  in it there will be couches raised on high, and goblets placed ready ” [88/13-14]. Here مَرْفُوْعَةٌ ‘raised on high’ is الصِفَة of سُرُرٌ ‘couches’ which is a broken plural of سَرِيْرٌ ‘couch’ and an inanimate object.

THE IRAB OF NOUN

إِعْرَابُ الأَسْمَاء

THE IRAB OF NOUN

The Irab of words is a peculiar characteristic of Arabic language, which does not have an equivalent in English. Therefore, it requires particular attention to grasp the subject. The Arabic noun changes its original form or the case ending under different grammatical conditions, e.g.

للهُ being the original form in nominative case, called حَالَة الرَفْع, may change to اللهَ, the accusative case, called حَالَة النَصْب or اللهِ, the genitive case, called حَالَة الجَرّ.

in the Shahadah (الشهادة) ‘declaration of faith’ the first part is لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللهُ where اللهُ is the original form in nominative case and the second part is مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُوْلُ اللهِ where اللهِ is in the genitive case, while in the verse إِنَّ اللهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْئٍ قَدِيْرٌ, the noun اللهَ is in the accusative.

Similarly, we use الكِتَابُ، الكِتَابَ، الكِتَابِ  as also we read in the Holy Quran : المُسْلِمُوْنَ، المُسْلِمِيْنَ، المُسْلِمَاتُ، المُسْلِمَاتِ.  These changes in the case-endings of the noun are called إِعْرَابُ الأَسْمَاءِ (Irab of noun).

It is important to remember that the literal meaning of the words/nouns remain the same in all the different conditions; however, their function in a sentence changes according to the different grammatical considerations, which are explained later in the book.

This change/declension in Irab is effected in two ways as explained below :

1. الإِعْرَابُ بِالحَرَكَاتِ :

Case-ending with vowel marks, e.g. رَجُلٌ ‘a man’ is the original form in nominative حَالَة الرَفْعِ and with the change of vowels it may become رَجُلاٌ in accusative حَالَة النَصْبِ or رَجُلٍ in genitive case حَالَة الجَرِّ, and from ُالنِسَاء ‘the women’ >> النِسَاءَ، النِسَاءِ; from مُسْلِمَاتٌ >> مسْلِماَتٍ (only one change is used in this case which represents both the accusative as well as genitive form). In all these cases the vowel of the last consonant is changed.

Note that the original form of a noun in all such cases is always indicated with dammah (  ُ  ) or tanwin ( ٌ  ), and is called حَالَة الرَفْعِ (halatur-rafha), i.e. nominative case. And the declined form of  إعراب بالحركة  (Irab bil harkah) is fathha ( َ ) i.e. single short vowel or tanwin ( ً  ) above the last consonant, which is called حَالَة النَصْبِ  (halatul nasb) i.e. accusative case, and kasrah ( ِ  ) or tanwin ( ٍ  ) below the last consonant, which is called حَالَة الجَرِّ (halatul-Jarr).

The declension by Irab bil hakah is effected in the following three categories of noun.

A. All singular nouns, both masculine and feminine, e.g.

المسلمُ، المسلمَ، المسلمِ or مسلمٌ، مسلماَ، مسلمٍ

المسلمةُ، المسلمةَ، المسلمةِ or مسلمةٌ، مسلمةً، مسلمةٍ

B. All broken plural nouns, both masculine and feminine, e.g. 

رجالٌ، رجالاً، رجالٍ ‘men’ or الرجالُ، الرجالَ، الرجالِ

نساءٌ، نساءً، نساءٍ ‘women’ or النساءُ، النساءَ، النساءِ

C. All feminine sound plural nouns, e.g.

مسلماتٌ، مسلماتٍ ‘Muslim women’ or المسلماتُ، المسلماتِ (There is only one change in this which represents both the accusative genitive case.)

2. الإِعْرَابُ بالحُرُوْفِ :

Change of Irab with letter. The change of Irab with letter is effected in the following two categories of nouns:

A. All dual (مُثَنَّى ), both masculine and feminine are changed with letter, e.g. مسلمَانِ ‘two Muslim men’, which is the original/nominative case, is changed to مسلمَيْنِ, representing both the accusative and the genitive forms. In this case انِ (aani) is changed to يْنِ (aini).

In case of feminine gender, the dual of  مسلمةٌ ‘a Muslim woman’ is مسلمتَانِ ‘two Muslin women’, which is the original/nominative case, can be changed to مسلمتَيْنِ, representing both the accusative and genitive forms. Here تَانِ is changed to تَيْنِ

B. All sound masculine plural nouns جَمْعُ مُذَكَّرٍ السَالمُ are also changed with letter, e.g. مسلمُوْنَ (Muslin men) is the nominative/original form, and it is changed to مسلمِيْنَ , representing both the conditions of accusative and genitive forms. Here وْنَ (u’-na) is changed to يْنَ (i’-na).

Note that نِ (ni) (nu’n at the end with kasra) is indicative of a dual noun while نَ (na) (nun with fatha) is indicative of a sound plural noun. The different conditions of Irab are summed up in Table :

Notes:

(1) * — In serial (1, 4, 6, 7) the declension of Irab is effected by the vowel marks الإِعْرَابُ بِالحَرَكَات

(2) — In serial (2, 3, 5) the declension of Irab is effected by the letters الإِعْرَابُ بِالحُرُوْفِ.

(3) — In serial (2, 3, 5, 6) the Changed Form I & II are the same.

(4) — The accusative ending with tanwin (e.g. مسلمًا، كِتَابًا) contains an alif. Exception to this rule being the ًة and ىً, i.e. alif maqsurah ( ألِفٌ مَقْصُوْرَةٌ ).

According to Irab the noun is of two kinds; Declinable (مُعْرَبٌ) and Indeclinable (مَبْنِيٌّ) Nouns.

1. Declinable معرب :

It is further divided into two kinds;

A. مُنْصَرِفٌ - First declension or triptote: The Irab at its ends change under all the different conditions as shown in Table 5 above.

B. غَيْرُ مُنْصَرِفٍ - Second declension or diptote: In this category the noun does not accept tanwin ( ً  ٍ  ٌ  ) and in the genitive case-ending, it does not accept كَسْرَة ( ِ  ) i.e. it has only two case-endings namely, nominative/ original form (represented with Dhammah (ضمة/ ُ  ) and accusative (represented with fathah (فتحة/ َ  ), which is also representative of genitive case. Diptotes (غَيْرُ مُنْصَرِفٍ ) include the following categories :

– Names of women, e.g. عائِشَة، مَرْيَمُ etc.

– Names of Prophets and Angels (peace be upon them), جِبْرِيْلُ، إِبْرَاهِيْمُ, etc.

– Nouns on أَفْعَلُ pattern, e.g. أَسْوَدُ ‘black’, أكْبَرُ Most Great, etc.

– The broken plurals nouns on مَفَاعِلُ ، فَعَالِيْلُ ، فَوَاعِلُ ، مَفَاعِيْلُ patterns, e.g.مَضَاجِعُ ‘bed’, فَوَائِدُ avail, etc.

– Names of men on the pattern of فَعْلاَنُ ، فُعْلاَنُ, e.g.سَلْمَانُ، عُثْمَانُ, etc.

– Names of men ending with ة (closed ta), e.g. أُسَامةُ، حُذَيْفَةُ, etc.

– Names of most of the countries and cities, e.g. مِصْرُ egypth مَكَّةُ Mekkah, etc.

– Nouns ending with ا/ى (short Alif), e.g. الدُنْيأ ‘world’, أَدْنى ‘near’, كُبْرى Great, etc.

– Nouns ending with اء، ‘prolonged vowel’, e.g. رُحَمَاءُ ‘merciful’, فُقَرَاءُ ‘nobles’, بَيْضَاءُ ‘white ♀’.

– Some additional nouns, e.g. جَهَنَّمُ ‘hell’, إِبْلِيْسُ ‘Devil’, فِرْعَوْنُ ‘Pharaoh’, etc.

Note 1 :

With the definite article ‘لא’ or with annexed noun (مُضَاف) the diptote غَيْرُ مُنْصَرِفٍ accepts كَسْرَة kasrah ( ِ  ) in genitive case-ending, e.g. بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَحْمَنِ ‘In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious’, عَنْ المَضَاجِعِ ‘from the beds’, مِنْ شَعَائِرِ اللهِ ‘among the Signs of Allah’, فِيْ أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيْمٍ ‘in the best stature/mould’.

Note 2 :

The occasions as to when and why a noun changes its form from nominative to accusative or genitive case will be studied later.

2. Indeclinable مَبْنِيّ :

Most of the Arabic nouns (about 90%) are declinable مُعْرَبٌ . However, some nouns/_ pronouns called indeclinable مبني, remain static or stationary on their original form under all the varied conditions. These include the following:

– Personal pronouns, e.g. هو، هما، هم، أنت، أنتما، أنتم، أنأ نحن, etc.

– Demonstrative pronouns, e.g. هَذَا، تِلْكَ، أُولَئِك، هَؤُلاَءِ, etc. except the dual e.g. هَذَانِ، هَذَيْنِ

– Relative pronouns اسْمُ المَوْصُوْل, e.g. الذي، التي, etc. except the dual e.g. الذَانِ، الذَيْنِ (♀), اللتَانِ، اللتَيْنِ (♂).

– Interrogative pronouns, e.g. كَيْفَ، مَا، مَنْ، أَيْنَ, etc.

– Possessive pronouns, e.g. إِيَّاهْ, etc.

– Nouns with personal pronouns, e.g. كِتَابِيْ My Book, etc.

– Cardinal numbers from eleven to nineteen, e.g. أَحَدَ عَشَرَ، ثَلاَثَةَ عَشَرَ  etc.

Important Note:

The learners should not get discouraged if he or she does not understand this lesson fully at this stage. He or she should continue with the subsequent lessons, which would definitely help in better understanding of the subject of Irab, Insha Allah.

THE PRONOUNS

الضَمَائِرُ

THE PRONOUNS

The pronoun is a word used in place of a noun, e.g. هُوَ ‘he’, هُمْ ‘they’, هِيَ ‘she’, أَنتَ ‘you’, نَحْنُ ‘we’, هُ ‘his’, هَا ‘her’, كَ ‘your’, etc. They are of two kinds; the Detached Pronouns, called ضَمَائِرُ مُنْفَصِلَة, e.g. هُوَ ‘he’ هُوَ طَالِبٌ ‘he is a student’ and the Attached Pronouns, called ضَمَائِرُ مَتَّصِلَة, e.g. هُ ‘his’ كِتَابُهُ ‘his book’, etc.

For detailed conjugation of the detached pronouns see Table 1&2. The attached pronouns are either attached to a noun or a verb, as shown in tables 3 & 4.

Table 1 & 2

Detached Personal Pronouns

 

Note:

Concentrate on the underlined forms only in the beginning, and skip over the remaining forms as these are not frequently used in the Holy Quran.

Table 3

Pronouns attached to a noun with (الإِضَافَةُ) Possessive Relations

Note:

Concentrate on the underlined forms only in the beginning, and skip over the remaining forms as these are not frequently used in the Holy Quran.

1. Pronouns Attached to a Verb:

Pronouns attached to a verb become its Direct Object, e.g. ضَرَبَ means ‘he struck’, ‘he’ is a subject and ‘struck’ is a verb; with the addition of an attached pronoun هُ ‘him’ would become the object of the verb ضَرَبَ. For usage of Attached Pronouns to a verb see Table 4.

Table 4

Pronouns Attached to a Verb as its Direct Object.

Note:

Concentrate on the underlined forms only in the beginning, and skip over the remaining forms as these are not frequently used in the Holy Quran.

Some other examples of frequently used Attached pronouns are given below:

– يَدِيْ ‘my hand’, e.g. الكِتَابُ فِي يَدِيْ ‘the book is in my hand’.

– يَدَايَ ‘my two hands’, e.g. يَدَايَ عَلَى المَكْتَبِ ‘my two hands are on the table’.

– بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ literally ‘between my hands’ i.e. ‘in front of me’, e.g. الشَجَرُ بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ ‘the tree is in front of me’.

– عَلَيَّ ‘on me or my responsibility’, e.g. حِسَابُهُ عَلَيَّ ‘his account is on me’.

– لَدَيْهِمْ ‘with  them/by  them’,  e.g. الكُتُبُ لَدَيْهِمْ  ‘the books are with them’.

– لِيْ ‘to me or for me’, e.g. لِيْ عَمَلِيْ ‘my action is for me’ i.e. I am responsible for my action.

– لَكَ ‘to you or for your’, e.g. وَلَكَ عَمَلُكَ ‘and youraction is for you’ i.e. you are responsible for your action.

– لَهُ ‘to him, for him’, e.g. لَهُ المُلْكُ وَلَهُ الحَمْدُ ‘to Him (Allah) belongs the universe and for Him is all the Praise’, لَهُالحَقُّ ‘he is right or he has the right’.

– عِنْدَ ‘with’, e.g. عِنْدِيْكُتُبٌ ‘we have books’.

Note that in Tables 1, 2، 3 &4 the second persons ♂&♀ dual and the third persons ♂&♀ dual are identical.

Important Note:

Concentrate in the beginning only on the 3rd Person masculine singular & plural forms, the 2nd Person masculine singular & plural forms, and both the 1st person forms, and skip over the verbal forms and pronouns of the feminine gender (except the singular forms) and the dual forms as these are not frequently used in the Holy Quran.

2. Possessive Pronouns:

The word إِيَّا is prefixed to the Attached Pronouns. The word إِيَّا confines the meaning to ‘only/alone’, e.g. إِيَاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِيْنُ “You (Alone) we worship, and You (Alone) we ask for help”[1/4]. For usage of Possessive Pronouns with إِيَّا see Table 5.

Table 5

Possessive Pronouns

Note:

Concentrate on the underlined forms only in the beginning, and skip over the remaining forms as these are not frequently used in the Holy Quran.

3. Demonstrative Pronouns اِسْمُ الإِشَارَة :

The demonstrative pronouns are listed below:

Note:

Concentrate on the underlined forms.

4. The Relative Pronouns الإِسْمُ المَوْصُوْل :

The relative pronouns الَّذِيْ، الَّذِيْنَ, etc. are used as conjunction, meaning ‘that, which, who, whom’. They serve the purpose of joining nouns/pronouns or verbs to other nouns or verbs. They have a definite form as given below:

Note:

Concentrate on the underlined forms.

Examples:

– الولد الذي خرج من المسجد طالب ‘The boy who went out of the Mosque is a student’.

– الرجال الذين خرجوا من المكتب مدرسون ‘The men who left the office are teachers’.

– البنت التي خرجت من البيت طالبة ‘The  girl  who left  the house is a student’.

– هو الله الذي لا إله الا هو “He is Allah, beside Whom la Ilaha illa Howa (none has the right to be worshipped but He)”. [59/293]

– قد أفلح المؤمنون الذين هم في صلاتهم خاشعون “Successful indeed are the believers, those who offer their  Salah  (prayers)  with  all  solemnity  and  full  of submission”. [23/182]

5. Interrogative Pronouns  أَسْمَاءُ الاِسْتِفْهَام :

These are given below:

مَنْ ‘who’ مَا ‘what’ أَيْنَ ‘where’كَيْفَ ‘how’ jK_)_ ‘when’ كَمْ ‘how much, how many’,أَنَّى ‘which, from where’ لِمَ ‘why’,  لِمَاذَا ‘for what’ مَاذَا ‘what’.