Lesson 53 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّالِثُ وَالْخَمْسُونَ

The Maqŝūr Noun  الاسـْمُ المَقْصُورُ

Declension of the Maqŝūr noun - إِعْرابُ الاسْمِ المَقْصُورِ

  • We are still in lesson fifty thee of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • Given the Maqŝūr noun ending with a long alif, none of the three declension short vowels (đammah"ــُ " /-u/, fatħah "ــَ " /-a/, and Kasrah "ــِ " /-i/) can appear or be pronounced with the long alif.
  • That is why the three declension signs or vowels are implied on the long alif, i.e. they are supposed to be present on the case-ending but they cannot be pronounced. Consider the following examples:

Translation

Example

This is a clean hospital

هَذَا مُسْتَشْفَى نَظِيفٌ

Ahmed saw a clean hospital

رَأَى أَحْمَدُ مُسْتَشْفَى نَظِيفاً

Khalid went to a clean hospital

ذَهَبَ خَالِدٌ إلى مُسْتَشْفَى نَظِيفٍ

This is a clean house

هَذَا بَيْتٌ نَظِيفٌ

Ahmed saw a clean house

رَأَى أَحْمَدُ بَيْتاً نَظِيفاً

Khalid went to a clean house

ذَهَبَ خَالِدٌ إلى بَيْتٍ نَظِيفٍ

  • Note:
    1-the word
    مُسْتَشْفَى  /mustashfā/ (hospital) is in the nominative case with the đammah "ـُ" as its sign, but there is no đammah at case-ending. This is because it is impossible to put a đammah on a long alif, such as the Maqŝūr noun. The long alif cannot accept any vowel.
  • Whereas the đammah appears on the fourth example word بَيْتٌ /baytun/ (house) and other words in the above examples. So we can say that no vowel – đammah, fatħah or Kasrah – is attached to the case-ending of the Maqŝūr noun.
    2-When the Maqŝūr noun is indefinite, it will be ended with
    tanwīn. It will not be possible, in the Arabic phonetics, to pronounce the tanwīn together with the alif maqŝūrah, so the alif maqŝūrah will be dropped from pronunciation (not from the writing) e.g. هُدًى /hudan/, مُسْتَشْفًى /mustashfan/.