Lesson 5 – الدَّرْسُ الْخَامِسُ

The Indeclinable Words الْكَلِمَاتُ الْمَبْنِيَّةُ

  • We are still in lesson five of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In this part of lesson, we will learn a new concept of Arabic Grammar In-Shā’-Allâh (God-Willing). You have already learned that in Arabic language the words take different cases i.e., nominative (đammah/đammatain), accusative (fatħah/fatħatain) or genitive (kasrah/kasratain) on their last letter. A word takes single case when it appears with the definite article /al/ and double case when it is without the definite article /al/.
  • There are certain words however which have to indicate their function therefore they do not change their case and maintain their vowel ending. The words which do not change their vowel endings in order to indicate their function are called indeclinable words and have to remain unchanged. 
  • The following are few examples of the indeclinable words (we will study this in detail in later lessons so this is only an introduction):

Rule

Translation

الْكَلِمَاتُ الْمَبْنِيَّةُ

(The Indeclinable Words)

The interrogative articles are indeclinable

1. Who

۱. مَنْ

2. Where

۲. أَيْنَ

3. What

٣. مَاذَا

The directing words are mostly indeclinable

1. This (masculine)

۱. هَـٰذَا

2. That (masculine)

۲. ذَلِكَ

3. This (feminine)

٣. هَـٰذِهِ

The prepositions are indeclinable

1. On

۱. عَلَىٰ

2. In

۲. فِي

3. To

٣. إِلَىٰ

The pronouns are always indeclinable

1. He

۱. هُوَ

2. She

۲. هِيَ

3. You

٣. أَنْتَ

  • The indeclinable words do not take different cases for different causes and do not take /tanwīn/ as well.

Picture:

Translation:

Arabic:

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This is a man

هَـٰذَا رَجُلٌ.

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Who are you?

مَنْ أَنْتَ؟

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Whose bag is this?

حَقِيْبَةُ مَنْ هَذِهِ؟

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This is a duck

هَذِهِ بَطَّةٌ.

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Where is the lion?

أَيْنَ الأَسَدُ؟

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What is on the desk

مَاذَا عَلَىٰ الْمَكْتَبِ؟

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The teacher is in front of students

الْمُدَرِّسُ أَمَامَ طُلابٍ

  • Read the following sentences carefully while taking particular care of the vowel endings
  • Please note that we will introduce sentences related to Islam occasionally within this course for the benefit of Muslims studying this course.   Those students who are not Muslim may find it beneficial to learn about Islamic belief which is the main religion in the Arab world and indeed many other parts of the world.:

English:

Arabic:

Where is the teacher's house?

It is far away

أَيْنَ بَيْتُ الْمُدَرِّسِ؟

هُوَ بَعِيدٌ.

The Quraan is the book of Allah (God)

الْقُرْآنُ كِتَابُ اللهِ.

The Ka'ba is Allah's (God’s) house

الْكَعْبَةُ بَيْتُ اللهِ.

The teacher went out of the principal's room

خَرَجَ الْمُدَرِّسُ مِنْ غُرْفَةِ الْمُدِيرِ.

Abbas's car is in the street

سَيَّارَةُ عَبَّاسٍ فِي الشَّارِعِ.

The door of the mosque is opened

بَابُ الْمَسْجِدِ مَفْتُوحٌ.

Where is the dog?

It is under the car

أَيْنَ الْكَلْبُ؟

هُوَ تَحْتَ السَّيَّارَةِ.

This is the house of Hamid

and that is the house of Khalid

هَـٰذَا بَيْتُ حَامِدٍ

وذَلِكَ بَيْتُ خَالِدٍ.