Lesson 25 – الدَّرْسُ الْخَامِسُ وَالْعِشْرُونَ

The Declinable and the non-Declinable – الْمُعْرَبُ وَالْمَبْنِيُّ  

Introduction - مُقَدِّمَةٌ

  • This is lesson twenty five of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In this lesson we will learn the difference between the Arabic declinable and the Arabic non-declinable words, In-Shaa’-Allaah (God willing).
  • We will study how the vowel endings in the declinable nouns are changeable according to the grammatical case and according to the position in the sentence. I.e. you can see a noun like /kitābun/ كِتَاب signed with /đammah/ on its end in a certain situation كِتَابٌ, and signed with /fatħah/ in another situation كِتَابًا, and signed with /kasrah/ in a third situation كِتَابٍ. This change in the ending of the word (according to its position in the sentence) means that the word is declinable. Consider the declension of the noun /kitābun/ in the following examples (please read from right to left):

Explanation

Declension

Sentence

Case

Sign

English

Arabic

The word /kitābun/ is a predicate, so it is in the nominative case signed with đammah on its end

Nominative

đammah

This is a book.

هَذَا كِتَابٌ.

The word /kitāban/ is a direct object, so it is in the accusative case signed with fatħah on its end

Accusative

Fatħah

I took a book.

أَخَذْتُ كِتَابًا.

The word /al kitābi/ is Muđâf ilaihi, so it is in the genitive case signed with kasrah on its end

Genitive

Kasrah

The color of the book is beautiful.

لَوْنُ الْكِتَابِ جَمِيلٌ.

  • We will also learn the indeclinable words, i.e. the words which do not change according to their position in the sentence. The indeclinable words have constant endings whatever their position in the sentence is. Consider the ending of the demonstrative noun /dhālika/ ذَلِكَ in the following three sentences:

Explanation

Indeclension

Sentence

Place of (case)

Sign

English

Arabic

Although the word /dhālika/ is a subject in the nominative case, but it is signed with fatħah as a constant ending.

Nominative

 

Fatħah

(always indeclinable on the fatħah)

That’s right.

ذَلِكَ صَحِيحٌ.

The word /dhālika/ is a direct object in the accusative case; it is signed with fatħah as a constant ending.

Accusative

I know that.

أَعْلَمُ ذَلِكَ.

Although the word /dhālika/ is a Maĵrur noun in the genitive case, but it is signed with fatħah as a fixed ending.

Genitive

I doubt about that.

أَشُكُّ فِي ذَلِكَ.

  • We will also learn the types of indeclinable words (verbs, nouns, and articles) and the different signs of indeclensoin for each.