Lesson 82 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّاني والثَّمانون

The vocative - الـنِّــدَاءُ

The rules of calling some nouns – حُكْمُ نِدَاءِ بَعْضَ الأَسْمَاءِ

  • Calling the pronouns (نِدَاءُ الضَّمائِر):
  • Let's Continue to learn Arabic through our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course contains Arabic grammar, Arabic syntax, Arabic morphology and more.
  • Generally, it is not allowed to call the Arabic pronouns of the first person (the speaker) or the third person (the absent).
  • Therefore it is wrong to say any of the following examples:

يا أنا

 

 

 

 

Wrong

يا إيَّايَ

يا نَحْنُ

يا إِيَّانَا

يا هُوَ

يا هِيَ

يا هُما

  • But it is possible to call the pronouns of the second person (the spoken to الْمُخاطَب), because the call is originally addressed to the second person in order to warn him to listen what we want to say.
  • To call the pronoun of the second person, we either use the separate nominative pronouns or the separate accusative pronouns as follows:

Separate nominative pronouns

يا أَنْتُنَّ

يا أَنْتُم

يا أَنْتُما

يا أَنْتِ

يا أَنْتَ

 

Separate accusative pronouns

يا إياكُنَّ

يا إياكُم

يا إياكُما

يا إِياكِ

يا إياكَ

  • It is also possible to call the demonstrative noun of the second person, but the call in this case will have the meaning of contempt or insult, as in the following examples:

English

Arabic

Oh this, what do you say?

ماذا تَقُولُ يا هَذَا ؟

Oh this, go far from me!

يا هَذَا اِبْتَعِدْ عَنْ اِبْنِي

  • If the called noun is a pronoun, it will be indeclinable as we learnt in lesson 44 (all pronouns are indeclinable, i.e. their endings do not change according to the position in the sentence).
  • Calling nouns prefixed with(ال) (نداء ما فيه"ال"):
  • The nouns prefixed with (ال) are two types:

A- Proper nouns prefixed with (ال): These nouns were not indefinite before being prefixed with (ال), but they are names of persons, places, animals etc. prefixed arbitrarily (randomly) with (ال). Consider the following examples:

Proper names of persons

الْخَطَّاب

الحَكَم

العَبَّاس

 

Proper nouns of places

الصِّين

الْمَغْرِب

الْعِراق

  • When we call these nouns we drop the prefix (ال), and add the call article, then the called noun is supposed to be indeclinable on the nominative sign (as we learnt earlier in the indeclension of the definite proper nouns). Consider the following examples:

العَبَّاس

العِرَاقُ

الْخَطَّاب

Noun before calling

يا عَبَّاسُ

يا عِرَاقُ

يا خَطَّابُ

Noun after calling

B-   Definite by (ال)): this type was indefinite before being prefixed with (ال). Therefore (ال) here is a definition article, as in the following examples:

بَقَّال

لاعِب

نائِم

طالب

Indefinite

Grocery

Player

Sleeping

Student

الْبَقَّال

اللاَّعِب

النَّائِم

الطَّالِبُ

Definite

The grocery

The player

The sleeper

The student

  • When we call this noun we cannot remove the definition article, because this might change the meaning of the sentence. Instead, we put another word that is used for calling the noun prefixed with the definition article. This word is (أَيُّها) for the masculine noun, and (أَيَّتُها) for the feminine noun. This word is to be inserted between the calling particle and the called noun.
  • Consider the following examples:

Picture

English

Arabic

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Oh manager (oh what a manager), reward the hardworking

يا أَيُّها المُدِيرُ كافِئْ الْمُجْتَهِدَ

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Oh employee, perfect (do right) your work

يا أَيُّها الْمُوَظَّفُ أَتْقِنْ عَمَلَكَ

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Oh school, have mercy for children

يا أَيَّتُها المُدَرِّسَةُ اِرْحَمِي الأَطْفالَ

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Oh girl, lower your voice

يا أَيَّتُها الفَتَاةُ اِخْفِضِي صَوْتَكِ

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Oh people, help each other

يا أَيُّها النَّاسُ ساعِدُوا بَعْضَكُم

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Oh the two players, cooperate in order to win

يا أَيُّها اللاعِبُونَ تَعاوَنُوا مِنْ أَجْلِ الفَوْزِ

  • You may notice from the above mentioned examples that (أيها - أيتها) are used for masculine and feminine whatever the number is (singular, dual, or plural).
  • You may also notice that each of (أيها - أيتها) is compound of two words:

A-   The first is (أيُّ) for the masculine and (أَيَّةُ) for the feminine. These two nouns are always indeclinable on đammah. They are considered the called nouns in the structures mentioned above, while the noun after them is considered (facultatively) substitute or adjective in the nominative case (because it is a follower, see lesson 78).

B-   The particle (ها) of premonition (alert). This particle is indeclinable without any grammatical place (function).

  • The noun suffixed with the yā’ of the singular speaker (الاسم المُضاف إلى ياء المتكلم):
  • We studied the annexation structure (الإضافة) in lesson 5, and we studied the genitive attached pronouns in lesson 47. We learnt that the genitive attached pronoun can occupy the position of the annexed noun of the Iđâfah (as a possessive suffix).
  • In this lesson we learnt how to call the annexation structure (the first noun which is the annexing noun will be in the accusative case, while the second noun which is the annexed noun is originally in the genitive case, because of Iđâfah.
  • Consider the following examples (for revision purpose):

English

Arabic

Oh mother of Khalid

يا أُمَّ خالِدٍ

Oh god of all kinds

يا رَبَّ الْعالَمِينَ

  • At this point we study how to call the same annexation structure when the annexed noun (المُضاف إليه) is a pronoun, as (يا أمي - يا ربنا).
  • The rules that we learnt for the annexation structure is applicable here with all attached pronouns except for the following two changes:

A-   The annexed here is a pronoun, so it will not be declinable in the genitive case, rather it will be indeclinable on the normal sign of its last letter.

B-   When attached to the yā’ of the singular speaker (ياء المتكلم) The first noun will not be accusative with an evident fatħah, rather it will be accusative with a virtual fatħah. This is because the noun when attached to the yā’ of the singular speaker (ياء المتكلم) it has to be signed with kasrah to keep the pronunciation of the yā’ as a long vowel. E.g. in the noun (كِتابِي) the final bā’ of the (كِتاب) is signed with kasrah whether it is in the nominative, accusative or genitive case.

  • In the vocative structure (النِّداء), the annexing noun (المُضاف) is in the accusative case and is signed originally with fatħah on its last letter, but when attached to (ياء المتكلم) it will be signed with kasrah, and will be declinable on virtual fatħah.
  • Consider the following examples:

Picture

English

Arabic

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Oh my wife, help me

يا زَوْجَتِي ساعِديِنِي

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Oh my son, do not raise your voice to your mother

يَابُنَيَّ لاتَرْفَعْ صَوتَكَ على أُمِّكَ

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Oh my friends, how are you?

كَيْفَ حالُكُم يا أَصْدِقائِي؟

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Oh brothers, will you go with me?

هَلْ سَتَذْهَبُونَ مَعِي يا إِخْوانِي؟