Lesson 57 – الدَّرْسُ السَّابِعُ وَالْخَمْسُونَ

The six nouns - الأَسْمَاءُ السِّتَّة

Conditions of the six nouns – شُرُوط الأَسْمَاء السِّتَّة

• We are still in lesson fifty seven of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
• In the beginning of this lesson we learnt that the Arabic six nouns are like all Arabic nouns in the matter that they can be in one of the three cases (nominative, accusative, or genitive), but they differ from all normal Arabic nouns in that they have irregular declension signs. The following table summarizes that difference of declension signs between the normal nouns and the six nouns:

• We now clearly understand that the six nouns are ended with /wāw/ if they are in the nominative case, and ended with /alif/ if they are in the accusative case, and with /yā’/ if they are in the genitive case.
• There are some conditions under which the six nouns are declinable as shown above with letters (/alif/, /wāw/, and /yā’/). However, if one or more of these conditions is not found in one of the six nouns, it will be declinable on the regular signs (/fatħah/, /đammah/, or/kasrah/) on the last letter.
• Now we will study the condition under which six nouns are signed (declinable) irregularly with letters (long vowels) In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing):

1-    The first condition is that the six nouns have to be in singular form in order to be declinable with the signs of letters (long vowels) as the following examples:

If the noun is not singular it will not be signed (ended) with letters (long vowels), it will have a normal signs on its last letters (/fatħah/, /đammah/, or/kasrah/) as follows:

In the above mentioned table we notice that the word (آباء /ābā’/) is the plural of (أب /ab/), and the word (إخْوَان /ikhwān/) is the plural of (أَخ /akh) and the word (ذَوِي /dhawī/) is the plural of (ذُو /dhū/). These all plural words are signed regularly with short vowels (/fatħah/, /đammah/, or/kasrah/) on their last letters, this is unlike the six nouns; because they are not in the singular form.

2-    The second condition under which the six nouns are declinable with the long vowels ending, is in the case of annexing nouns (مُضاف /muđâf/) followed by an annexed noun or pronoun. You can notice this condition in all the above mentioned sentences, and the following examples clarify it:

If any of the six nouns is not an annexing noun (اسم مُضاف) it will not be declinable with long vowels, it will be, instead, signed with one of the original signs on the last letter (/fatħah/, /đammah/, or/kasrah/)

However, there is an important exception in this condition of annexation: that is the noun has to be annexing to any noun or pronoun except the pronoun of the first person singular, i.e. the /yā’/ of the speaker (ياء المُتَكَلِّم /yā’ al mutakallim/). If one of the six nouns is annexing to this pronoun it will neither be declinable with long vowels (/wāw/, /alif/ or /yā’/) nor be signed with short vowel (/fatħah/, /đammah/, or/kasrah/)on its last letter. The following table shows us how the six nouns are declinable and signed when annexing to the possessive pronoun of the first person singular (ياء المُتَكَلِّم /yā’ al mutakallim/):

In the above mentioned table, the word (أب /ab/) of the six nouns when annexing to the /yā’/ of the speaker (ياء المُتَكَلِّم /yā’ al mutakallim/) is declinable with virtual vowels (/đammah/, /fatħah/, or/kasrah/) on its last letter, in the three cases (nominative, accusative and genitive).

The virtual vowel (sign) means that it is assumed to be there, but it is not written or pronounced, because the following /yā’/ of the speaker make the preceding letter signed always with /kasrah/, (أبي – كتابي), and it is not possible to put any declension signs because of the existence of that /kasrah/.

3-    The third condition under which the six nouns are declinable with the long vowels ending, is a special condition related only to the noun (فُو /fū/). meaning a mouth.

In Arabic this word has another form ending with the letter (م /m/). This form is (فَمٌ /fam/). So the condition under which this noun is declinable with the long vowels ending is that it mustn’t be ended with the letter (م /m/). If it is ended with that (م /m/) it will be declinable regularly with short vowels (/fatħah/, /đammah/, or/kasrah/) on its last letter. The following table shows the difference between the declension of the two forms: (فُو /fū/) and (فَمٌ /fam/).