اسْمٌ-Noun

Note: one of the most difficult parts of learning classical Arabic is Nahw (basically Grammar eg. using the proper pronouns etc, applies mainly to sentence construction, using the correct word and sentence ) and Sarf (knowing the correct system of creating new words, applies to word construction).

Note: There are four skills required to learn any language namely:

1) Listening with comprehension and 2) reading with comprehension (involves Data input)

 3) Speaking properly and 4) writing properly ( involves Data output)

A noun is the name of a person, place (China, Mosque), thing (yoyo, book, chair, car ), idea (Islam, education, hadith, sports, theory, science, drinking, tolerance, to eat, to cry, sleeping, i love eating, i love ice cream), adjective (descriptions like lovely, blue), adverb (words that end in ly, all the Lee’s except Bruce and love eg nicely, quickly, lovingly) and more

Nouns are words that 1) start with ال or 2) end with dammatani or 3) the first part of a compound and will end with a single dammah and not have ال

Nouns have 4 properties: 1) Status (Raff, Nasb or Jarr) 2) Number (Singular, Dual or Plural) 3) Gender (Masculine or Feminine) 4) Type (Common/indefinite or Proper/Definite)

1) Status (There are three forms of status)

a) Raf (R) مَرْفُوْعٌ / رَفْعلٌ – Raf ending does many things ( about 8 jobs) including being:

i) the ‘doer’ in a nominal sentence

ii) an ism in its original (default) state

b) Nasb (N) مَنْصُوْبٌ / نَصْبٌ – Nasb ending does many things ( about 16 jobs) including being:

i) the ‘done to (and / or other details of an action / fi’l)’

ii) the ism of a harf of nasb

c) Jarr (J) مَجْرُوْرٌ / جَرٌّ – Jarr ending does 2 jobs namely:

i) making a noun following the word ‘of’ jarr

ii) making an ism followong a mudaaf jarr

How to tell the status of a noun? first look for combination endings (appearing in the dual, masculine plural and feminine plural groups), thereafter sound endings (appearing in the singular masculine, singular feminine and broken plural groups) of nouns

How to tell status?

1) Forms:

i) Raff is doer

ii) Nasb is details

iii) Jarr is after ‘of’

2) How to tell status:

i) by ending sounds  ُ or  ٌ for Raff,  َ or  ً for Nasb and  ِ or  ٍ for Jarr

ii) by ending combinations – 3 types dual (aani-2r or ayni-2nj), masculine plural (oona-3r or eena-3nj) and feminine plural (aatun-3fr or aatin-3fnj)

3) Light vs heavy

i) Default status of an ism is heavy (2 kinds of nun, one that comes from a tanween which when removed makes an ism light and the second nun is the one that comes from a combination, so you can make an ending sound light and you can make an ending combination light by removing the nun.

ii) there are 4 reasons that make an ism light

iii) You cannot make a word with الْ light

4) Flexibility

i) Fully flexible isms have three versions 

ii) Partly flexible isms have two versions

a) Names of places such as Makkah, Dallas, London cannot take a tanween and cannot take kasrah, so they have to be light (مَكَّةُ Raff, مَكَّةَ Nasb, مَكَّةَ Jarr)

b) Non Arab names such as Arthur, Suleiman, Ibrahim cannot take a tanween and cannot take kasrah, so they have to be light (إِبْرَاهِيْمُ Raff, إِبْرَاهِيْمَ Nasb, إِبْرَاهِيْمَ Jarr). Most names in the Quran are non Arab like يُوْسُفُ and يَعْقُوْبُ . Only four names of prophets in the Quran are Arab هُوْدٌ and صَالِحٌ and شُعَيْبٌ and مُحَمَّدٌ

iii) Non flexible isms have only one version

a) Words that do not change such as هَذَا and مُوْسَى and and 

Light vs Heavy

The normal state of a noun is heavy, like the above chart.

A noun is made light by removing the double accent (tanween) from the singular and broken plurals and removing the extra ن at the end of the pair/dual and plurals.

Note: When a word contains the definite article الْ the question of light or heavy becomes invalid. A noun with ال is not considered light or heavy.

Non Arab names cannot take tanween (cannot be heavy), they are always light.

Below chart shows the nouns in light form (remove the extra ن from the heavy chart)

There are only four reasons for a noun to be light:

a) When it is possessive (مُضَافٌ – has to be light and have no الْ )

b) The one being called

c) Partly flexible nouns

d) لَا الْنَّاهِيَةُ لِلْجِنْسِ such as لَا إِلَاهَ and لَا إِكْرَاهَ and لَا رَيْبَ which differs from the negative la such as لَا بَيْعٌ and لَا خُلَّةٌ and لَا شَفَاعَةٌ

Flexibility

There are three categories of flexibility (The way the noun shows it’s status):

a) Fully flexible – Most nouns are fully flexible i.e they are able to show their status by means of their endings eg. Raf (مُسْلِمٌ), nasb (مُسْلِمًا) or Jarr (مُسْلِمٍ)

and they can be heavy (مُسْلِمٌ) or light (مُسْلِمُ)

b) Non flexible (only have one form) – Some nouns are unable to show their status by means of their endings eg. Raf (مُوْسَى), nasb (مُوْسَى) or Jarr (مُوْسَى), thus they look the same in all statuses for example:

* words ending in alif like مُوْسَى and عِيْسَى and دُنْيَا and هُدًى and so on

* Singular and plural relative pronouns like الَّذِيْ and الَّذِيْنَ and الَّتِيْ and so on, note: the dual are partly flexible

* Singular and plural pointing words like أُوْلَآئِكَ and تِلْكَ and هَذَا and so on, note the dual are partly flexible

c) Partly flexible nouns are of 7 categories (cannot be heavy i.e they will always be light and cannot take a kasrah) – these nouns have two forms, one for Raff and one for nasb and Jarr for example:

i) Proper names of places (except names spelled with 3 letters) , whether Arab or not

ii) Non-Arab proper names such as يُوْسُفُ and آدَمُ and إِبْرِاهِيْمُ and إِسْمَاعِيْلُ and يَعْقُوْبُ and مَرْيَمُ (except names spelled with 3 letters) such as نُوْحٌ and لُوْطٌ

based on hadith there are four Arab Prophets namely مُحِمَّدٌ and صَالِحٌ and هُوْدٌ and شُعَيْبٌ, the rest are non-Arabs

iii) to vii) Other categories to follow soon

2) Number

Numbers in Arabic consist of singular (Muslim chart), dual (Muslim chart) and  plural (Muslim chart)

* Plurals are of 5 kinds, namely:

a) Normal masculine plural (Muslim chart) …human beings or Angels or Jinn (intelligent beings)…includes male and female

b) Human feminine plural (Muslim chart)…includes human…exclusively female

c) Non human feminine plural (muslim chart)…treated like a ‘she’ grammatically (singular and feminine) however they will always remain plural in meaning.

d) Human broken plural – represent intelligent beings such as عُلَمَآءُ and رُسُلٌ and مَلَآئِكَةُ – in meaning they are always treated as plural however, in grammar they may be treated as ‘she’ (Singular and Feminine) or what they really are ‘they’ (plural and masculine or feminine / reality)

(Broken plurals have sound endings, they can only be identified through vocabulary, otherwise they look singular)

e) Non-human broken plural – represent non intelligent beings such as كُتُبٌ and مَسَاجِدُ and كِلَابٌ – All non human plurals, broken or not, are grammatically treated as a ‘she’ , however they will always remain plural in meaning.

(Broken plurals have sound endings, they can only be identified through vocabulary, otherwise they look singular)

f) Ism Jamma, the Arabic rule ‘because the Arabs said so’, where grammar and meaning contradict, although plural by meaning (Collective nouns) eg. people (نَاسٌ), generation (قَرْنٌ), nation or group (قَوْمٌ) are treated as singular and feminine in Arabic Grammar.

The team is playing tomorrow or the team are playing tomorrow / can be used in the singular or plural

3) Gender

Masculine – Masculine is the default gender so an Arabic noun will be assumed to be masculine unless proven Feminine such as

a) Real Feminine words (biological female) such as أُمٌّ (mother) and بَقَرَةٌ (cow) and sister etc

b) Fake feminine meaning a word is Grammatically feminine applying to words that dont actually have a biological gender like book, table, sun, moon etc.

You can tell gender by:

i) Certain letter endings such as ة / ى / (in the case of colors and sicknesses) آء (white بَيْضآءُ yellow صَفْرَآءُ mute بَكْمَآءُ deaf صَمَّآءُ) رَحْمَةٌ love and care, سَمَآءٌ sky, الْحُسْنَى the most beautiful

ii) Feminine because the Arabs said so حَرْبٌ War, سَمَآءٌ sky, شَمْسٌ sun, نَفْسٌ person, نَارٌ fire, دَلْوٌ bucket, سَبِيْلٌ path, طَرِيْقٌ path, أَرْضٌ land, رِيْحٌ wind, بِئْرٌ well, دَارٌ house or place, كَأْسٌ cup or glass, خَمْرٌ wine, جَهَنَّمُ hell, السَّعِيْرُ hell, عَصَا staff.

Also body parts in pairs such as يَدٌ hand, عَيْنٌ or بَصَرٌ eye, قَدَمٌ or رِجْلٌ feet, عَقِبٌ or كَعَبٌ ankle, أَذُنٌ ear, مِرْفَقٌ elbow, شَفَةٌ lip, عَقِبٌ heel, خَدٌّ cheek, مَنْكِبٌ shoulder,

iii) Broken plurals

* Proper names of places

4) Type (Common vs Proper)

Common – is the default type

Proper (7 kinds)

a) Words with ال signified in Arabic by the statement مُعَرَّفٌ بِالْلَامِ

b) Proper nouns مُعَرَّفٌ بِعَلَمِيَّةٌ

c) The one being called

d) Pronouns

e) Pointer words

f) Relative pronouns

g) The word before, if the word after “of ” in a compound is definite (proper)

I, We,  He, She, You study = I is Raf

He teaches me, us, him, her, you = me is Nasb

My, our, his, her, your path is long = My is Jarr

*Attached pronouns have 4 situations

i) when attached to an ism, they are jarr (mudaf ilaih)

ii) when attached to harf of jarr, they are jarr (jaar majroor)

iii) when attached to a harf of nasb, they are nasb ()

iv) when attached to a fi’l, they are nasb

10 Fragments/compounds

1) Mudaf and Mudaf Ilaih = Idafah Basic kinds i) ‘of’ translation ii) Pronoun attached to an ism iii) special mudhafs like (تَحْتَ) Under the earth

a) The مُضَافٌ (word before ‘of’) should be light and not have an Alif and Laam الْ

b) The مُضَاف إِلَيْهِ (word after ‘of’) should be in جَرٌّ Jarr status

c) No long-distance relationship

d) The last property (type) of the مُضَافٌ , is dictated by the مُضَافٌ إِلَيْهِ

e) Both the مُضَافٌ and the مُضَافٌ إِلَيْهِ should be isms

Special Mudhafs below can be in Raf or Nasb or Jarr status

*Special mudhafs below are Nasb in status by default

*99.9% of the time appear as mudhaf

*Do not require ‘of’ when translating

* x not in quran

2) Jaar Majroor 

a) No long-distance relationship

3. Harf of Nasb and its ism

a) can have a long distance relationship

4. Noun – مَوْصُوْفٌ – Mowsoof – First / Adjective – صِفَةٌ – sifah – second

a) can have a long distance relationship

b) One noun can have multiple adjectives

c) 4 properties of noun must match 4 properties of adjective, so qawm, nas, qarn can have plural adjectives while broken plurals may have singular, feminine adjectives

5. Pointers – اسْمُ الإِشَارَةِ – Ismul Isharah – هَذَا / Proper nouns with (Al) – الْمَسْجِدُ – Mushar ilaih (Al)

a) cannot have a long distance relationship

Pointer words below may be used to make sentences and phrases like This is a masjid (هَذَا مَسْجِدٌ) / This masjid (هَذَا الْمَسْجِدُ) / This is the masjid (هَذَا هُوَ الْمَسْجِدُ) / This messenger of Allah (SWT) (رَسُوْلُ اللهِ هَذَا) / This is your book (هَذَا كِتَابُكَ) / This book of yours (كِتَابُكَ هَذَا)

a) if ism of pointing (اسْمُ الْإِشَارَةِ / the one pointing) like هَذَا etc are followed by a noun containing  الْ (the one pointed at / مُشَارٌ إِلَيْهِ), it is a phrase

b) the one pointing and the one pointed at must in all 4 properties

c) This is a masjid (هَذَا مَسْجِدٌ) / This masjid (هَذَا الْمَسْجِدُ) / This is the masjid (هَذَا هُوَ الْمَسْجِدُ) / This messenger of Allah (SWT) (رَسُوْلُ اللهِ هَذَا) / This is your book (هَذَا كِتَابُكَ) / This book of yours (كِتَابُكَ هَذَا)

Finding the invisisble ‘is’ in an Arabic sentence: There is an ‘is’

i) After an independent pronoun like هُوَ and هُمَا and هُمْ etc (works almost all the time)

ii) After harf nasb like إِنَّ and أَنَّ and كَأَنَّ etc and its ism (works almost all the time)

iii) between proper nouns followed by common nouns

iv) between pointer like هَذَا and هَذَانِ and هَأُلَآءِ etc and common nouns

v) between fragments/phrases and nouns – when there is a break in the chain

الْاِسْمُ إِمَّا مُعْرَبٌ وَإِمَّا مَبْنِيٌّ