Lesson 57 – الدَّرْسُ السَّابِعُ وَالْخَمْسُونَ

The six nouns - الأَسْمَاءُ السِّتَّة

The declension of the six nouns – إِعْراب الأَسْمَاءِ السِّتَّةِ

  • Let's Continue to learn Arabic through our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course contains Arabic grammar, Arabic syntax, Arabic morphology and more.
  • We now clearly understand what the Arabic six nouns are, and what the meaning of their name is. Now we will try to learn the irregular rules of declension in which the six nouns agree.
  • The six nouns are declinable nouns. The declinable nouns are the nouns which have different endings according to the grammatical case, i.e. according to their position in the sentence.
  • So the six nouns have different endings in the three grammatical cases affecting the declinable nouns.
  • The following table shows, with examples, the three grammatical cases of the regular noun, with the original three signs (i.e. the example below is a regular noun, we will then compare with the ‘six nouns’ further below):

Picture

Sign

Declension

Noun

Sentence

English

Arabic

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

/đammah/

Nominative

الأُمُّ

/al ummu/

The mother  takes care of her children

الأُمُّ  تَعْتَني بِأطْفالِها

/al ummu  taξtanī bi ‘ŧfālihā/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

/fatħah /

 

Accusative

أُمَّكَ

/ummak/

Do you help your mother

هَلْ تُسَاعِدُ أُمَّكَ ؟

/hal tusāξid ummak/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

/kasrah/

Genitive

الأُمِّ

/al ummi/

The happiness realizes by the satisfaction of the mother

تَتَحَقّقُ السَّعَادَةُ بِرِضَا الأُمِّ

/tataħaqqaqu as- saξādatu bi riđâ al ummi/

  • You may notice from the above mentioned table that the word (أم) is not one of the six nouns, and that it is a normal (regular) noun, so the vowel on last letter of that noun changes according to the declension case. In the first sentence it is in the nominative case, so it has /đammah/ on the last letter (أُمُّ/ummu/). In the second sentence it is in the accusative case, so it is ended with /fatħah/ on the last letter (أُمَّك /ummak/). In the third sentence it is in the genitive case, so it is signed with /kasrah/ on its last letter (الأُمِّ).
  • The six nouns are also able to take the grammatical cases mentioned above; the nominative, the accusative, and the genitive case, but they have different sign (endings) in each of these cases. The following table shows the difference between the declension signs of the normal noun, and the declension signs of the five nouns.

Six nouns

Normal noun

Case

Sign

Example

Sign

Example

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

/wāw/

الواو

Your father

أَبُوكَ

/đammah/

Mother

أُمٌّ

Nominative

/alif/

الأَلِف

Your father

أَبَاكَ

/fatħah/

Mother

أُمًّا

Accusative

/yā’/

اليَاء

Your father

أَبِيكَ

/kasrah/

Mother

أُمٍّ

Genitive

  • We mentioned in the previous lesson that the sound masculine plural is irregularly declinable with /alif/ in nominative case, and /yā’/ in accusative or genitive case. The declension of the six nouns is different, because they are ended with /wāw/ in the nominative case, /alif/  in the accusative case, and  /yā’/ in the genitive case. Here are some examples of this declension:

Picture

Sign

Case

Noun

Sentence

 

English

Arabic

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

/wāw/

(و)

Nominative

ذُو

Muhammad has good morals

مُحَمَّدٌ ذُو خُلُقٍ كَرِيمٍ

/muħammadun dhū khuluqin karīmin/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

/wāw/

(و)

Nominative

أَبُو

The father of mankind is Adam

أَبُو البَشَرِ هُوَ آدَمُ

/abū al bashari huwa ādamu/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

/wāw/

(و)

Nominative

أَخُوكَ

Is this man you brother?

هَلْ هَذَا الرَّجُلُ أَخُوكَ ؟

/hal hādhā ar-raĵulu akhūka/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

/alif/

(ا)

Accusative

فَاكَ

Wash your mouth after eating

اِغْسِلْ فَاكَ بَعْد الأَكْلِ .

/ighsil fāka baξda al akli/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

/wāw/

(و)

Nominative

حَمُوكَ

Your wife’s father is kind

حَمُوكَ رَجُلٌ طَيِّبٌ .

/ħamūka raĵulun ŧayyibun/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

/wāw/

(و)

Nominative

هَنُوكَ

Your thing must to be hidden

هَنُوكَ يَلْزَمُ سَتْرُه

/hanūka yalzamu satruhu/