Comprehensive Arabic Morphology, Grammar, and Orthography Lecture Notes

Practice vocabulary flashcards defining key Arabic grammar (Nahw), morphology (Sarf), and orthography concepts covered across the handwritten lecture notebook.

Al-Mīzān al-Sarfī (الميزان الصرفي)

The morphological balance in Arabic grammar used to identify the root letters of words and any changes or augmentations affecting them, constructed around the base radical form fa'ala (فعل: Fa, Ayn, and Lam).

Ahruf al-Ziyādah (أحرف الزيادة)

The letters of morphological augmentation added to bare roots, gathered in the mnemonic phrase "سألتمونيها" (sa'altumūnīhā).

Al-Qalb al-Makānī (القلب المكاني)

Morphological metathesis, which consists of altering or swapping the sequential order of original root letters within a word (such as jāha - جاه on the scale of 'afala - عَفَلَ, derived from wajh - وجه).

Intransitive Verb (الفعل اللازم)

A complete verb whose meaning is entirely satisfied by its subject (fā'il) alone without requiring a direct object, such as najaḥa (نجح) and istayqaza (استيقظ).

Transitive Verb (الفعل المتعدي)

A verb that requires one or more direct objects (maf'ūl bihi) in addition to its subject to complete its intended meaning, such as akala (أكل), bā'a (باع), and ista'mala (استعمل).

Ditransitive Verbs (أفعال تتعدى إلى مفعولين)

Verbs that require two direct objects to complete their meaning, such as a'ṭā (أعطى), manaḥa (منح), akhbara (أخبر), and wahaba (وهب).

Al-Fi'l al-Mujarrad (الفعل المجرد)

A bare or unaugmented verb consisting entirely of original root letters without any extra augmentative letters; it is divided into bare triliteral (مجرد ثلاثي) and bare quadriliteral (مجرد رباعي).

Al-Fi'l al-Mazīd (الفعل المزيد)

An augmented verb in which one, two, or three letters have been added to its original root radicals, either through radical doubling (tadh'īf) or standard letters of augmentation.

Al-Fi'l al-Jāmid (الفعل الجامد)

A rigid, non-inflected verb that is fixed in a single invariable morphological form, existing either only in the past tense (e.g., ni'ma, bi'sa, laysa, 'asā, ḥabbadhā) or only in the imperative (e.g., hab, ta'āla).

Al-Fi'l al-Mutasarrif (الفعل المتصرف)

A fully or partially inflecting verb; fully inflecting verbs (تام التصرف) yield past, present, and imperative forms, whereas partially inflecting verbs (ناقص التصرف) yield only two forms.

Al-Fi'l al-Sālim (الفعل السالم)

A sound triliteral verb whose root radicals are entirely free from weak letters (wāw, alif, yā'), hamza, or letter gemination/doubling, keeping its root letters unchanged across tenses (e.g., masaḥa, daraba, rafa'a).

Al-Fi'l al-Mahmūz (الفعل المهموز)

A sound verb that contains an original hamza among its root letters (e.g., akhadha, sa'ala, bada'a); when initial, the hamza is omitted in the imperative form (e.g., kul, khudh).

Al-Fi'l al-Muda''af (الفعل المضعف)

A geminated verb whose second and third radical letters are identical (e.g., 'adda), requiring its assimilation to be unraveled (فك الإدغام) under specific subject pronoun conjugations.

Al-Fi'l al-Mithāl (الفعل المثال)

An assimilated weak verb whose initial root radical is a weak letter (wāw or yā'), such as waqafa (وقف) or yayisa (يئس).

Al-Fi'l al-Ajwaf (الفعل الأجوف)

A hollow weak verb whose medial root radical (the 'ayn in the scale) is a weak letter, such as qāma (قام) and 'āda (عاد).

Al-Fi'l al-Nāqis (الفعل الناقص)

A defective weak verb whose final root radical (the lām in the scale) is a weak letter, such as da'ā (دعا) and ramā (رمى).

Al-Fi'l al-Lafeef (الفعل اللفيف)

A weak verb containing two weak radical letters; categorized as separated (mafrūq) when a sound letter separates the two weak letters (e.g., waqā, wafā), or conjunct (maqrūn) when the weak letters are adjacent (e.g., nawā, ṭawā).

Passive Voice (الفعل المبني للمجهول)

A verb form constructed when the grammatical subject is omitted and superseded by the deputy subject (nā'ib al-fā'il); formed in the past by prefixing a damma and placing a kasra on the penultimate letter, and in the present by a damma on the prefix and a fatha on the penultimate letter.

The Five Verbs (الأفعال الخمسة)

Present tense verbs connected to the dual alif (ألف الاثنين), the plural wāw (واو الجماعة), or the second-person feminine singular yā' (ياء المخاطبة); they take the nominative case via the suffixation of nūn, and the accusative and jussive via its omission.

Ism Jāmid (الاسم الجامد)

A primary non-derived noun not taken from an antecedent verbal root; divided into concrete entity nouns perceived by the physical senses (اسم ذات) and abstract conceptual nouns perceived by the intellect (اسم معنى).

Ism Mushtaqq (الاسم المشتق)

A derived noun taken from a verbal root that expresses a descriptive attribute or state, including active and passive participles, adjectives, elatives, and nouns of time, place, and instrument.

Ism al-Fā'il (اسم الفاعل)

The active participle; a derived noun indicating the agent performing the action, formed on the pattern fā'il (فَاعِل) for triliterals and with a prefixed mu- with kasra before the end for non-triliterals.

Ism al-Maf'ūl (اسم المفعول)

The passive participle; a derived noun indicating the entity upon which an action is performed, formed on the pattern maf'ūl (مَفْعُول) for triliterals and with a prefixed mu- with fatha before the end for non-triliterals.

Ismā al-Zamān wa al-Makān (اسما الزمان والمكان)

Derived nouns designating the time or location of an action's occurrence, formed on the triliteral scales of maf'al (مَفْعَل) or maf'il (مَفْعِل), and following the passive participle pattern for non-triliteral verbs.

Al-Sifah al-Mushabbahah (الصفة المشبهة)

An assimilated adjective derived strictly from an intransitive triliteral verb denoting an inherent, enduring, and permanent quality resembling the active participle.

Sighat al-Mubālaghah (صيغ المبالغة)

Intensive active participle patterns derived from triliteral verbs to denote repetition, abundance, or hyperbole in an action, summarized in the mnemonic sentence: "هو مقوال كذاب وأنت حذر والله غفور رحيم".

Ism al-Tafdīl (اسم التفضيل)

The elative or comparative/superlative noun, derived on the masculine pattern af'al (أفعل) and feminine fu'lā (فُعْلَى) to denote that two entities share a quality while one surpasses the other in that characteristic.

Ism al-Ālah (اسم الآلة)

The noun of instrument; a derived noun formed predominantly from a transitive bare triliteral verb to designate the tool used to perform an action (e.g., mif'al, mif'āl, mif'alah), or a non-derived rigid noun established by convention (e.g., fa's, qalam).

Al-Ism al-Maqsūr (الاسم المقصور)

An inflected noun ending in an invariable long alif, whether upright (e.g., 'asā) or dotless yā'-shaped (e.g., fatā), whose case endings are entirely implicit due to physical impossibility (ta'adh-dhur).

Al-Ism al-Manqūs (الاسم المنقوص)

An inflected noun ending in an invariable, unvowelled, non-doubled yā' preceded by a kasrah (e.g., al-qādī); its yā' is omitted when indefinite in the nominative and genitive cases and retained in the accusative.

Al-Ism al-Mamdūd (الاسم الممدود)

An inflected noun terminating in a final hamza preceded by an augmentative alif, where the hamza may be original, converted from a weak root letter, or a feminine marker (e.g., sahrā', samā', inshā').

Sīghat Muntahā al-Jumū' (صيغة منتهى الجموع)

The ultimate plural pattern; any broken plural wherein the augmentative plural alif is followed by either two consonants or three consonants with a quiescent middle letter (e.g., masājid, maṣāni', 'asāfeer).

Jumū' al-Qillah (جموع القلة)

Plurals of paucity designating quantities between three and ten items, characterized by four specific morphological patterns: af'āl (أَفْعَال), af'ul (أَفْعُل), af'ilah (أَفْعِلَة), and fi'lah (فِعْلَة).

Al-Masdar al-Mīmī (المصدر الميمي)

A verbal noun prefixed with an extra non-radical mim (م) that conveys the exact meaning of an original verbal noun (masdar sarīh), formed on maf'al or maf'il from triliterals.

Ism al-Marrah (اسم المرة)

The noun of instance; a verbal noun constructed to indicate that a specific action occurred exactly one single time, formed from triliterals on the scale fa'lah (فَعْلَة) and from non-triliterals by appending tā' marbūṭah to the regular verbal noun.

Ism al-Hay'ah (اسم الهيئة)

The noun of manner; a verbal noun denoting the specific state, appearance, or manner in which an action takes place, constructed from triliteral verbs on the scale fi'lah (فِعْلَة).

Al-Masdar al-Sinā'ī (المصدر الصناعي)

An artificial or abstract noun formed by appending an intensified doubled yā' followed by a tā' marbūṭah (-iyyah) to a base noun to express an abstract concept, provided it does not function syntactically as an adjective (na't).

Al-Tasghīr (التصغير)

Morphological diminution; altering a noun's structure to express smallness, endearment, or reduction by applying a damma to the first radical, a fatha to the second, and inserting a quiescent diminutive yā' (yā' al-tasghīr).

Al-Nisbah (النسبة)

The relational attribution; affixing a doubled yā' preceded by a kasrah to the end of a noun to ascribe origin, belonging, or descriptive affiliation.

Alfādh al-'Uqūd (ألفاظ العقود)

Decade numerals from 20 to 90; they maintain an invariable gender form regardless of whether the counted noun is masculine or feminine, taking the nominative with wāw and the accusative/genitive with yā'.

Shibh al-Jumlah (شبه الجملة)

A quasi-sentence or prepositional/adverbial phrase; composed either of a preposition and its governed genitive noun (jārr wa-majrūr) or an adverb of time or place combined with its governed genitive (zarf).

Al-Ta'adh-dhur (التعذر)

Phonetic impossibility; the linguistic condition preventing vocalization marks from appearing on words terminating in an alif, making the declension vowel completely impossible to utter.

Al-Istithqāl (الاستثقال)

Phonetic heaviness; the linguistic cause of implicit declension on words terminating in wāw or yā', where pronouncing the damma or kasra is theoretically possible but deemed too burdensome for natural speech.

Al-Maf'ūl al-Mutlaq (المفعول المطلق)

The absolute object or cognate accusative; an accusative verbal noun derived from the same root as the preceding verb, employed to emphasize the action, specify its type, or indicate its numerical count.

Al-Maf'ūl li-Ajlihi (المفعول لأجله)

The causal object or object of reason; an accusative verbal noun mentioned to explain the underlying cause, motivation, or purpose behind the occurrence of the preceding verb.

Al-Hāl (الحال)

The circumstantial qualifier; an indefinite, extra accusative noun or clause that clarifies the physical condition or state of a definite entity (sāhib al-hāl) during the action, answering the question "How?".

Al-Tamyīz (التمييز)

The accusative specification or clarification; an indefinite noun used to eliminate vagueness from a preceding ambiguous word (such as weights, measures, or numbers) or an entire obscure clause.

Al-Badal (البدل)

Apposition; an appositive noun that follows a preceding noun (mubdal minhu) to clarify or substitute for it without an intervening conjunction, categorized into total apposition (mutābiq), part-of-whole (ba'd min kull), and comprehensive (ishtimāl).

Incomplete Verbs / Sisters of Kāna (النواسخ الفعلية / أخوات كان)

Auxiliary verbs (kāna, asbaḥa, mazaala, ṣāra, laysa, etc.) that enter nominal sentences, keeping the subject nominative (ism kāna) and converting the predicate into the accusative case (khabar kāna).

Sisters of Inna (النواسخ الحرفية / أخوات إن)

Subordinating particles (inna, anna, ka'anna, lākinna, layta, la'alla) that enter nominal sentences, governing the subject in the accusative case (ism inna) and the predicate in the nominative case (khabar inna).

Hamzat al-Qat' (همزة القطع)

The phonemic cut hamza; written and articulated both at the start of speech and in mid-sentence (أ / إ / آ), found in all original nouns, particles (except 'al-'), and the past and masdar forms of quadriliteral verbs.

Hamzat al-Wasl (همزة الوصل)

The connecting hamza; pronounced only when beginning speech and dropped in connected speech, occurring in the definite article 'al-', imperatives of triliteral verbs, quinqueliteral/sextiliteral verbs, and a specific list of traditional nouns (ism, ibn, imru', etc.).

Al-Alif al-Fāriqah (الألف الفارقة)

The silent distinguishing alif appended after the plural wāw (wāw al-jamā'ah) in past, imperative, and subjunctive/jussive verbs to visually distinguish the plural pronoun from root radicals or construct plurals.

Al-Alif al-Layyinah (الألف اللينة)

The terminal weak alif; spelled as an extended upright alif (ا) if converted from a wāw radical, and as a dotless yā' / maqsūrah (ى) if converted from an original yā' radical.

Uslūb al-Ikhtisās (أسلوب الاختصاص)

A syntactic structure where a first-person (or second-person) pronoun is followed by a definite noun (al-ism al-mukhtass) in the accusative case governed by an omitted verb meaning "I specify" (akhussu or a'nī).

Uslūb al-Qasam (أسلوب القسم)

The oath construction; consisting of an oath instrument (adāt al-qasam, such as particles, verbs, or nouns), the sworn-by object (al-muqsam bihi), and the complementary oath clause (jawāb al-qasam).

Uslūb al-Istighāthah (أسلوب الاستغاثة)

A specialized vocative appeal construction used to call upon someone to provide rescue from severe distress or avert impending danger, strictly using the vocative particle "yā" (يا).

Uslūb al-Nudbah (أسلوب الندبة)

The mourning or lamentation construction; a vocative style employing the particle "wā" (وا) to express deep grief or pain over a deceased individual or disaster, frequently ending in an augmentative alif and hā' al-sakt (e.g., wā-Muḥammadāh).