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Arabic Notes

Warning

These notes are very rough currently. They haven't been checked much, and they are still very much a work in progress.

Introduction

﷽

These are notes I’ve made whilst on an Arabic course. The aim of the course is to be able to get an understanding of the Quran and be able to converse at a basic level. It’s more of an intro course than a course that will get you fully versed in Arabic (there’s a lot in the language to learn).

There is one main assumption: you know how to read and recite Arabic already (with punctuation).

Things required for the course are (I suggest buying physical copies):

An optional resource is:

(note that these links may not be the correct/up-to-date versions)

The idea is that we’ll first cover some initial Arabic, then start reading Al-Qira’atur-rashidah, learning more Arabic as it comes up in the book.

Note that it's probably best not to read ahead too much. Don't rush it, take things steady, making sure to keep yourself going. Arabic has a lot of rules. There are ways of learning Arabic that involve memorising a lot of rules up-front; this course is not like that. Above all, don't get discouraged, keep going, keep making progress. Once we start reading Al-Qira'atur-rashidah a bit, you should start feeling like you're making decent progress.

Also, note that I’m not including punctuation everywhere. I’ll try and include it the first time I use a word though, but note that, except in some places e.g. the Quran, punctuation isn’t used in Arabic normally.

During the course we were given some inspirational things/miracles of the Quran. I forgot most of these, but will try and include the ones I remembered. Here’s the first one.

Ayatul Kursi

You can find Ayatul Kursi here. Here’s a translation of it, split onto separate lines in a particular way:

Quote

Allah! There is no god ˹worthy of worship˺ except Him, the Ever-Living, All-Sustaining.
Neither drowsiness nor sleep overtakes Him.
To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth.
Who could possibly intercede with Him without His permission?
He ˹fully˺ knows what is ahead of them and what is behind them,
but no one can grasp any of His knowledge—except what He wills ˹to reveal˺.
His Seat encompasses the heavens and the earth,
and the preservation of both does not tire Him.
For He is the Most High, the Greatest.

Look at the first and last line, note the similarities in terms of what is being mentioned. Then the second and penultimate line, note their similarities. And so on, till you get to the middle line, which ties it all together. This structure is known as a ring couplet.

اسم, فعل, حرف

There are 3 types of words in Arabic:

  • اِسْمٌ - noun/name
  • فِعْلٌ - verb
  • حَرْفٌ - connector/particle

Let’s look at an اسم first.

اسم - part one

Signs of an اسم

There are various ways of identifying an اسم. Let’s cover 2 main ways:

  1. It ends with a Tanween. e.g. رَجُلٌ, "a man"; كِتَابٌ, "a book".
    • Note that the meaning is always "a something" when an اسم ends with a Tanween.
    • Also note that لً لٍ لٌ are all called a Tanween (i.e. ignore the ل, that's just a random letter to show the Tanween).
    • Also note that there’s a few proper nouns (ie a name) that may just have a Tanween as part of the name (sorry, there’s going to be a few confusing/complicated rules we’ll encounter, and rules with exceptions).
  2. It starts with ال. e.g. اَلْكِتَابُ, "the book"; اَلْرِجَاَلُ, "the man".

A noun like "the man" is called a definite noun (مَعْرِفَة) and a noun like "a man" is called an indefinite noun (نَكِرَة).

Tip

الرجال is pronounced "ar-rijaal", not "al-rijaal". Basically, all the letters in the Arabic alphabet are divided into 2 types; sun and moon letters. Sun letters, when preceded by a ل, mean the ل doesn’t get pronounced (note I may not be saying this rule 100% correctly). This doesn’t apply to moon letters. This is better explained on Wikipedia, which also shows which letters are sun and moon letters.

These 2 ways of identifying an اسم (we’ll see more later) are mutually exclusive. i.e. you’ll only ever see one of them on an اسم, not both.

Warning

There are some words that break this rule. e.g. some plural words don't have a tanween or start with ال .

Finding the root letters

When looking up an اسم in the dictionary, you’ll need to first identify it’s root letters. This isn’t an exact thing to do, but the procedure to follow is to remove letters in سالتمونيه (aside: this literally means "you asked me regarding it/her") from the اسم.

e.g. the root letters of رَجُلَيْنِ are رجل, which means "a man".

A small exercise

Here's some words for you to try and find the root letters of:

  • فَاعِلٌ
  • مُدَرِّسٌ
  • مَسْجِدٌ
  • اَلْكِتَابُ
  • نَصَرَتَا
  • يَضْرِبُ

Also, for these words, identify which are are اسم's and which aren't.

Some اسم's to learn

Here’s some اسم’s to learn:

Arabic English
اِنْسَانٌ man
بَيْتٌ house
تَمْرٌ dates
ثَمَرٌ fruit
جَاهِلٌ ignorant
عَالِمٌ learned
حَسَنٌ good, beautiful
خُبْزٌ bread
دَرْسٌ lesson
ذَنْبٌ sin
رَسُوْلٌ messenger
زَكَاةٌ zakah
سَهْلٌ easy
شَيْيٌ thing
صَلَاةٌ prayer
ضَوْءٌ light
طَيِّبٌ good, clean
ظَالِمٌ oppressor
عَادِلٌ just
غَفُوْرٌ one who forgives
فَاسِقٌ transgressor
قَبِيْحٌ ugly
كَرِيْمٌ noble, generous
لَبَنٌ milk
مَاءٌ water
نَهَارٌ day
وَلَدٌ boy
هِرٌ cat
يَوْمٌ day
وَ and
اَوْ or

Some more on اسم’s

Nouns can be specific or general, as we’ve seen. They’re also not always physical e.g. they could be an idea. And there’s some nouns that indicate a time/place, we’ll see these later.

Nouns also don’t have a tense (unlike verbs which we’ll see soon).

Here’s a list of the different types of definite nouns (note most of these you won’t know yet):

types of definite nouns
Types of definite nouns, from Arabic Tutor part 1

And here’s a list of all the signs of an اسم (again, most of these you won’t know yet):

signs of an اسم
Signs of an اسم, from Tasheel Al-Nahw

Note that for number 5, to make an اسم a dual, just add a ان at the end (note this is a simplification, it's more complex than this). For number 6, plurals have to be looked up in a dictionary (we'll cover duals and plurals in more detail later).

فِعْلٌ - part one

فِعْلٌ, or verbs, have a number of different forms, or conjugations. You'll get some root letters, then a whole bunch of words based on those root letters that all mean similar-ish things.

For instance, take نَصَرَ, or "he helped". Some different forms are:

  • يَنْصُرُ - "he helps/will help"
  • اَنْصُرُ - "I help/will help"
  • نَاصِرُ - "the one who helps", or "the helper" (this one is actually an اسم, but it's still derived from نصر)

These are only a few examples, there's many more.

For now, we'll cover ثُلَاثِيْ مُجَرَّد, regular فعل with 3 root letters (most فعل have 3 root letters, some have 4).

An example of such a فعل is نصر. We give names to each of the letters by matching them up to فَعَلَ as follows:

  • ن is the ف kalima
  • ص is the ع kalima
  • ر is the ل kalima

So e.g. in ضَرَبَ, the ل kalima is ب.

The حَرَكَة (i.e. the punctuation and how you say the words) fall into 6 patterns, or 6 بَاب (i.e. these فعل fall into 6 groups). And for those 6 باب, each of them have:

  • المَاضِيْ perfect (i.e. past) tense
  • المُضَارِع imperfect (i.e. present/future) tense
  • الاَمْر a command (we'll do this later)

(I know this sounds confusing, the examples should make it clearer). The 6 باب are:

  • نَصَرَ / يَنْصُرُ
  • ضَرَبَ / يَضْرِبُ
  • فَتَحَ / يَفْتَحُ
  • سَمِعَ / يَسْمَعُ
  • كَرُمَ / يَكْرُمُ
  • حَسِبَ / يَحِسِبُ

Note that some of these are used more than others.

Let's take a look at نَصَرَ first. نصر is the Arabic verb for "he helped". Here is it's conjugation for the past tense:

Arabic English
نَصَرَ He helped
نَصَرَا They (2 male) helped
نَصَرُو They (3+ male) helped
نَصَرَتْ She helped
نَصَرَتَا They (2 female) helped
نَصَرْنَ They (3+ female) helped
نَصَرْتَ You (male) helped
نَصَرْتُمَا You (2 male) helped
نَصَرْتُمْ You (3+ male) helped
نَصَرْتِ You (female) helped
نَصَرْتُمَا You (2 female) helped
نَصَرْتُنَّ You (3+ female) helped
نَصَرْتُ I helped
نَصَرْنَا We helped

And here is it's conjugation for the present/future tense:

Arabic English
يَنْصُرُ He is helping/will help
يَنْصُرَانِ They (2 male) are helping/will help
يَنْصُرُوْنَ They (3+ male) are helping/will help
تَنْصُرُ She is helping/will help
تَنْصُرَانِ They (2 female) are helping/will help
يَنْصُرْنَ They (3+ female) are helping/will help
تَنْصُرُ You (male) are helping/will help
تَنْصُرَانِ You (2 male) are helping/will help
تَنْصُرُوْنَ You (3+ male) are helping/will help
تَنْصُرِيْنَ You (female) are helping/will help
تَنْصُرَانِ You (2 female) are helping/will help
تَنْصُرْنَ You (3+ female) are helping/will help
اَنْصُرُ I am helping/will help
نَنْصُرُ We are helping/will help

Just go through these 2 tables, go through the Arabic columns, and memorise the words in that order. Practice this repeatedly over a few days, until you can say all the Arabic words in order very quickly, without mistakes. As you do this, you'll notice patterns and some words that have multiple meanings, that's just how فعل are in Arabic.

Learning the remaining conjugations

You've seen how to do the conjugation for one of the 6 باب . Try and do the conjugations for the other 5 باب . It's exactly the same, the only difference is the حركة . Just follow the same patterns.

If you want to check your conjugations, or want to skip the exercise, you can find example conjugations for all 6 باب in the appendix, in thulaathee mujarrad.

If you want some more فعل to practice conjugating, here's some to try:

  • رَجَعَ/يَرْجِعُ
  • بَكَرَ/يَبْكُرُ
  • حَدِبَ/يَحْدَبُ

TODO-identifying fels vs isms vs others

TODO-khalaqa vs ja’a’la at beginning of a Sura near beginning-ish

TODO-Egypt city name bani israel

فعل with ا, و and ي

So far, the فعل we've seen are called sahih, because they cn be conjugated properly. There are a number of فعل that don't properly follow the regular rules that we've just done. These فعل all have one of ا, و or ي in them somewhere (these letters are called حُرُوْف اَلْعْلَّة, or "sick letters"). There's 3 different types:

  • اَجْوَف - where the letter is in the ع position of فعل
  • نَاقِص - where the letter is in the ل position of فعل
  • مِثَال - where the letter is in the ف position of فعل

There's something like ~43 rules that cover these. To cover all these now would take time and you'd get tired pretty quickly. So instead, we'll go through a few examples, and you can kind of see what can happen.

First, we'll just cover اجوف.

اجوف

There are 2 types of اجوف:

  • الاجوف الواوي (Ajwaf waawi) - when the verb has a و in the ع kalima of the ماضي
  • الاجوف اليائ (Ajwaf yaayi) - when the verb has a ي in the ع kalima of the ماضي

Some example conjugations of this are listed in Ajwaf. Go over these and memorise them. Whilst doing so, look and see what kinds of patterns/similarities there are between the conjugations. e.g. here's one rule (don't worry about memorising this):

If the ع kalima is a و with a fatha and the letter before has a fatha, then the و changes to an ا.

Note

When looking for فعل like قال in the dictionary, then look for قال, قول and قيل (ie change the حروف العلة to the 3 possibilities). You should be able to find one of them in the dictionary. Using the dictionary to find words takes practice, you'll need to keep trying to look up words to get good at doing so.

If you want a bit more detail:

  • Ajwaf waawi only comes on baabs نصر and ضرب and سمع as قَالَ and بَاعَ and خَافَ respectively.
  • Ajwaf yaayi only comes on baabs نصر and ضرب (as باع) and سمع and فتح
Looking at how the rules work

To try and give a bit more understanding, let's go through how come قال is قال.

If you look in a dictionary for the different possible root letters, you'll find the dictionary entry as ق و ل . So those are the root letters. And to get from قَوَلَ to قَال , there's a rule (ie the one previously mentioned) that says the و changes to an ا.

Likewise, for the مضارع of قال, we start with يَقْوُلُ , and there's a rule that says the harakah get changed so this becomes يَقُوْلُ .

Some other examples:

  • مَيَلَ -> مَالَ
  • يَمْيِلُ -> يَمِيْلُ

Negation

  • To make a past tense verb be negative, prefix it with مَا
  • To make a present/future tense verb be negative, prefix it with لَا
  • And if there's both a past & present tense in a sentence, then لا is used for both.

Negation example

  • ما ضرب زيد means "he didn't hit Zayd"
  • لا يضرب زيد means "he isn't hitting/won't hit Zayd"

Note

The rules for negation have been simplified here, there's more we'll cover later.

TODO-https://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/arabic-verb-forms-negation/

Passive tense

So far, we've been seeing the active tense, مَعْرُوْف , e.g. "he is doing". There's also مُجْهُوْل , the passive tense e.g. "it is being done". There's also pronouns, ضَمِيْر , which we'll see in the next section Pronouns.

Recapping this as bulletpoints:

  • مَعْرُوْف - active tense e.g. "he is doing".
  • مُجْهُوْل - passive tense e.g. "it is being done"
  • ضَمِيْر - pronouns e.g. "he"

To make a verb be in the passive tense, just change it like e.g. from فَعَلَ <- فُعِلَ , or from سَمِعَ <- سُمِعَ . i.e. it always goes to بُبِبَ for the harakah, for all 6 باب.

For the present/future tense, the rule is يَضْرِبُ <- يُضْرَبُ and again, always applies (note of course both these rules are for thulaathee mujarrad).

To recap, فَعَلَ would change to:

  • فُعِلَ - "it was done"
  • يُفْعَلُ - "it is/will be done"

For example, you might say ضُرِبَ اَلْرَجُلُ , "the man was hit".

Pronouns

TODO-a bit about pronouns, some of them not changing mostly 28/3/21 TODO-word pronouns TODO-pronouns at the end of اسم's. eg هو, leading into:

The doer and the done to

TODO-فَاعِلٌ - the one who does - in nouns part two section. And مفعول - the one to whom it is done TODO-fa’il and maf’ool for ajwaf waawi & yaayi

Arabic English
فَاعِلٌ 1 male
فَاعِلَانِ 2 males
فَاعِلُوْنَ 3+ males
فَاعِلَةٌ 1 female
فَاعِلَتَانِ 2 females
فَاعِلَاتٌ 3+ females
Arabic English
مَفْعُوْلٌ 1 male
مَفْعُوْلَانِ 2 males
مَفْعُوْلُوْنَ 3+ males
مَفْعُوْلَةٌ 1 female
مَفْعُوْلَةَانِ 2 females
مَفْعُوْلَاتٌ 3+ females

TODO-Also mention ُ and َ generally indicating doer and done to

fel naaqis

TODO-fel part two. fel naaqis. And doer/done to of the action for naaqis.

باب استفعال

TODO-to seek the root letters eg لستغفر. And doer/done to of the action. And metion that it’s not always to seek the root letters, look for X in dictionary.

A small point on اسم's

TODO-some isms accept change, other's don't.

TODO-maybe mention time/place fatha rule here

مضاف / مضاف اليه (Moodhaaf-Moodhaaf-ilay)

مُضَافٌ / مُضَاف اِلَيْه is a construct in Arabic for saying things like "the book of Zayd" (equivalently, "Zayd's book") or "the sin of the Muslim". It's 2 اسم's joined together in a particular way. Here's some examples of it (memorise these to remember quickly how the rules work):

  • كِتَابُ زَيْدٍ - "the book of Zayd, aka Zayd's book"
  • ذَنْبُ المُسْلِمِ - "the sin of the Muslim"
  • ذَنْبُ مُسْلِمٍ - "the sin of a Muslim"

The first اسم is the possession (called the مُضَاف) and the second اسم is the possessor (called the مُضَاف اِلَيْه).

To join the 2 اسم's, the first اسم, e.g. كِتَابٌ becomes كِتَابُ. And the second اسم, e.g. ذَيْدٌ becomes ذَيْدٍ (or just one kasra if the second اسم started with ال).

A few points:

  • you always get the مضاف first, followed by the مضاف اليه
  • the مضاف i.e. possession never gets a tanween
  • the مضاف اليه i.e. possessor always has a kasrah
    • actually, the rule is the possessor is always مَجْرُوْر i.e. in the state of جَرّ; so if the possessor is plural, it won't end in a kasrah (this will make sense once you've gone through the section Rafa, Nasab & Jarr)
  • normally the مضاف اليه starts with ال (but not always)
  • the مضاف never starts with ال (but it's still considered a definite noun)
  • the translation is generally "the x of the/a y"
  • it's not always strictly possession, it can be some other "of" sort-of relation
  • the مضاف doesn't always have to end with a dhamma. e.g. you can have this sentence كَتَبَ كِتَابَ ذَيْدٍ - "He wrote Zayd's book" - where the مضاف has ended with a fatha as it's the maf'ool.
  • مضاف / مضاف اليه doesn't form a complete sentence on it's own

TODO-2 of's

موصوف/صفة (Mawsoof-siffah)

مَوْصُوْفٌ/صِفَّةٌ is a construct in Arabic to say things like "the tall man" or "a tall man" (i.e. a noun with an adjective). Here's some examples of it (again, memorise these to remember quickly how the rules work):

  • رَجُلٌ طَوِيْلٌ - "a tall man"
  • اَلْرَجُلُ اَلْطَوِيْلُ - "the tall man"

A few points:

  • the adjective comes after the noun
  • both parts need to match in
    • marifa ("the")/nakirah ("a")
      • i.e. the second word should start with ال only if the first word starts with ال
    • gender
      • i.e. both words should be feminine, or both words should be masculine
    • number
      • i.e. singular/dual/plural
    • I'raab
      • i.e. whether the last letter of the words is a fatha, dhamma, kasra etc. Again, this will make sense once you've gone through the section Rafa, Nasab & Jarr.
  • موصوف/صفة doesn't form a complete sentence on it's own
  • If the موصوف is a plural and is ghayr-aqil (i.e. it doesn't possess a mind; so it's neither Jinn, Insaan or Mala'aikah), then the صفة will be in single feminine form
    • (I know, this rule seems a bit specific, but just memorise it, so you know why plurals will often behave differently)

Rafa, Nasab & Jarr

So far, we've been saying that nouns will have a fatha, dhamma or kasra on the last letter, depending on e.g. if it's a maf'ool or a مضاف اليه etc. The actual names for these are رفع, نصب and جرّ - these are the 3 different cases of nouns.

To explain this in more detail, let's pick as an example noun the word مُسْلِمٌ. This noun works as per this table:

number رفع نصب جرّ
singular مُسْلِمٌ مُسْلِمً مُسْلِمٍ
dual مُسْلِمَانِ مُسْلِمَيْنِ مُسْلِمَيْنِ
plural مُسْلِمُوْنَ مُسْلِمِيْنَ مُسْلِمِيْنَ

Other nouns work in the same way e.g. مُعَلِّمٌ:

number رفع نصب جرّ
singular مُعَلِّمٌ مُعَلِّمً مُعَلِّمٍ
dual مُعَلِّمَانِ مُعَلِّمَيْنِ مُعَلِّمَيْنِ
plural مُعَلِّمُوْنَ مُعَلِّمِيْنَ مُعَلِّمِيْنَ

Feminine nouns work similarly, but slightly differently (just the plurals are different) e.g. مُسْلِمَةٌ:

number رفع نصب جرّ
singular مُسْلِمَةٌ مُسْلِمَةً مُسْلِمَةٍ
dual مُسْلِمَتَانِ مُسْلِمَتَيْنِ مُسْلِمَتَيْنِ
plural مُسْلِمَاتٌ مُسْلِمَاتٍ مُسْلِمَاتٍ

Also, the above tables apply to regular plurals (and also show you how to make nouns be dual and plural). However, there's a bunch of plurals which are "broken plurals" - they don't follow the same rules. For example, let's look at how the word مَسْجِدٌ works:

number رفع نصب جرّ
singular مَسْجِدٌ مَسْجِدً مَسْجِدٍ
dual مَسْجِدَانِ مَسْجِدَيْنِ مَسْجِدَيْنِ
plural مَسَاجِدٌ مَسَاجِدً مَسَاجِدٍ

TODO-check whether ٍ or ِ for plural

There isn't an exact rule for broken plurals, you basically just have to memorise them. Arabic Tutor Volume 1 Lesson 9 shows many examples of words that have broken plurals, and how some of them form broken plurals in similar forms; but you still just have to memorise them. That said, this table shows the rule that broken plurals behave like the singular form in how they work for رفع, نصب and جرّ.

TODO-other more complex ones in Arabic Tutor Vol 1

Verbal nouns

TODO-verbal nouns

مبتدا خبر (Mubtada khabar)

In موصوف/صفة (Mawsoof-siffah), one of the examples was اَلْرَجُلُ اَلْطَوِيْلُ ("the tall man"). موصوف/صفة like this can be turned into a complete sentence by changing this to اَلْرَجُلُ طَوِيْلٌ, which means "the man is tall" (it's just the second word that's been changed to nakirah).

Note

There is no word for "is" in Arabic. But when translating into English, sometimes we need to add "is".

Here's another example: قَمْرٌ عَظِيْمٌ ("a mighty castle"). We can turn this into اَلْقَمْرُ عَظِيْمٌ ("the castle is mighty").

A couple of points:

  • In the example اَلْرَجُلُ طَوِيْلٌ, the word اَلْرَجُلُ is called the مٌبْتَدَا (mubtada), or the subject.
  • In the example اَلْرَجُلُ طَوِيْلٌ, the word طَوِيْلٌ is called the خَبَر (khabar), or the predicate.
  • The mubtada and khabar only correspond (i.e. match) in gender and number
  • The mubtada is marifah
  • The khabar is nakirah ~90% of the time
    • TODO-when isn't it?
  • The mutada and khabar are generally in the state of rafa
  • Mubtada khabar is a jumla ismiyyah, or a sentence that starts with an اسم.

اِنَّ وَاَخَوَاتِهَا

The following words can be prepended to a mubtada khabar:

  • اِنَّ - "indeed"
  • اَنَّ - "that"
  • لٰكِنَّ - "however/but"
  • لَيْتَ - "if only/I wish"
  • كَأَنَّ - "as if"
  • لّعَّلَ - "perhaps"

Note

These words are known as اِنَّ وَاَخَوَاتِهَا ("اِنَّ and it's sisters") or الحُرٌوْفُ المٌشَّبَهَةُ بِالفِعْلِ ("particles that are given resemblance to a verb")

When these words are prepended to a mubtada khabar, the mubtada gets a fatha at the end (i.e. the mubtada becomes nasab).

For example, we could change اَلْرَجُلُ طَوِيْلٌ to اِنَّ اَلْرَجُلَ طَوِيْلٌ ("indeed the man is tall")

Note

In this example, if we wanted to add even more emphasis, we could say اِنَّ اَلْرَجُلَ لَطَوِيْلٌ (where a ل has been added) "most certainly the man is tall".

كَانَ وَاَخَوَاتِهَا

The following words can also be prepended to a mubtada khabar:

TODO

  • كَانَ - "was"
  • صَارَ - "became"
  • اَصْبَحَ - "happen in the morning / became"
  • اَمْسٰى - "happen in the evening / became"
  • اَضْحٰى - "happen at midmorning / became"
  • ظَلَّ - "happen during the day / became"
  • بَاتَ - "happen during the night / became"
  • مَا دَامَ - "as long as"
  • مَا زَالَ - "always/continuously"
  • مَا بَرِحَ - "always/continuously"
  • مَا فَتِئَ - "always/continuously"
  • مَا اَنْفَكَّ - "always/continuously"
  • لَيْسَ - "no/not"

Note

These words are known as كَانَ وَاَخَوَاتِهَا ("كَانَ and it's sisters") or اَلفعال الناقصة ("incomplete verbs")

When these words are prepended to a mubtada khabar, the khabar becomes nasab.

For example, we could change اَلْرَجُلُ طَوِيْلٌ to كَانَ اَلْرَجُلُ طَوِيْلً ("the man was tall")

TODO - كان الرجل طويل (I think)

TODO - and other rules/things (like switching of order)

اَمْر

امر ("amr") is a third kind of فعل used for commands i.e. when you tell someone to do something. e.g. اِضْرِبْ "Hit!" .

For ثلاثي مجرَّد (i.e. normal 3-letter verbs), you can work out the امر from the present/future tense version of the verb.

For example, to work out the امر for نَصَرَ, we look at the present/future tense, يَنْصُرُ . Then we do the following:

  1. Remove the alamaatul mudaari i.e. remove the letters that identify the verb as being mudaari. So in this case, we'd now have نْصُرُ .
  2. Add an ا at the beginning. So we'd now have انْصُرُ .
  3. If the ع kalima of the فعل has a dhamma, then put a dhamma on the ا . Otherwise, put a kasra on the ا . So in this case, we'd now have اُنْصُرُ .
  4. Finally, put a saakin on the last letter. So we now get اُنْصُرْ .

As another example, the amr for فَعَلَ would be اِفْعَلْ .

The main tricky part to remember initially is what i'raab to put on the ا . The way I remember this is with these animations (click on the image to play/pause the animation):

Conjugations

Here's the conjugations for امر, along with a suggested order to memorise them.

Arabic English Order of memorisation
لِيَفْعَلْ He (1M) should do 7
لِيَفْعَلَا They (2M) should do 8
لِيَفْعَلُوْ They (3+M) should do 9
لِتَفْعَلْ She (1F) should do 10
لِتَفْعَلَا They (2F) should do 11
لِيَفْعَلْنَ They (3+F) should do 12
اِفْعَلْ You (1M) do! 1
اِفْعَلَا You (2M) do! 2
اِفْعَاُوْ You (3+M) do! 3
اِفْعَلِيْ You (1F) do! 4
اِفْعَلَا You (2F) do! 5
اِفْعَلْنَ You (3+F) do! 6
لِاَفْعَلْ I should do 13
لِنَفْعَلْ We should do 14

Note

Most of these aren't used frequently, such as many of the ones that are "x should do".

Pointing Nouns (اَسْماءُ الإِشَارَةِ)

There's 2 types of pointing nouns (aka indicative pronouns e.g. "this", "that" etc): for things nearby and things farther away:

Table 1: Masculine pointing nouns for nearby things
number/tense singular dual plural
رفع هٰذَا هٰذَانِ هٰؤُلَاءِ
نصب هٰذَا هٰذَيْنِ هٰؤُلَاءِ
جرّ هٰذَا هٰذَيْنِ هٰؤُلَاءِ
Table 2: Feminine pointing nouns for nearby things
number/tense singular dual plural
رفع هٰذِهِ هٰتَانِ هٰؤُلَاءِ
نصب هٰذِهِ هٰتَيْنِ هٰؤُلَاءِ
جرّ هٰذِهِ هٰتَيْنِ هٰؤُلَاءِ
Table 3: Masculine pointing nouns for far away things
number/tense singular dual plural
رفع ذَاكَ أَو ذٰلِكَ ذَانِكَ أُلَائِك
نصب ذَاكَ أَو ذٰلِكَ ذَيْنِكَ أُلَائِك
جرّ ذَاكَ أَو ذٰلِكَ ذَيْنِكَ أُلَائِك
Table 4: Feminine pointing nouns for far away things
number/tense singular dual plural
رفع تَاكَ أَو تِلْكَ تَانِكَ أُلَائِك
نصب تَاكَ أَو تِلْكَ تَيْنِكَ أُلَائِك
جرّ تَاكَ أَو تِلْكَ تَيْنِكَ أُلَائِك

Aside

ذَاكَ is found in classical texts, not modern texts.

Also, originally the indicative pronouns (in the first table) were ذَا, ذَانِ etc (i.e. without the هّا). But you don't see this nowadays either.

Note

In the Quran, you'll sometimes see words like ذٰلِكُمَا, ذٰلِكُمْ etc. This is fine, it doesn't affect the meaning. And the pronoun at the end is based on the following word e.g. ذٰلِكُمَا رَبُّكُمَا - "that is the Lord of you two".

اسم الإِشَارة / مُشَارٌ إِاَيْهِ

You can make part of a sentence like e.g. "this book" or "this book of mine". There's 2 parts that make these up:

  1. اسم الإِشَارة - this is the noun of pointing e.g. "this", "that"
  2. مُشَارٌ إِاَيْهِ - this is the object being pointed to

You say "this book" by saying هٰذَا الْكِتَابُ (the 2 words must be in that order):

Type of part of compound مُشَارٌ إِاَيْهِ اسم الإِشَارة
الْكِتَاب هٰذَا

You say "this book of mine" by saying كِتَابُكُمْ هٰذَا:

Type of part of compound اسم الإِشَارة مُشَارٌ إِاَيْهِ
هٰذَا كِتَابُكُمْ

Note

Here, the اسم الإِشَارة must come after, not before the مُشَارٌ إِاَيْهِ . The moodhaaf/moodhaaf-ilay compound has such a strong link that the اسم الإِشَارة has to come after.

Impact of a harf-jarr

When a word that's a harf-jarr comes before a اسم الإِشَارة / مُشَارٌ إِاَيْهِ compound, then both the اسم الإِشَارة and the مُشَارٌ إِاَيْهِ go into the state of جرّ . An example (from Arabic Tutor) is تَلْكَ اَلْبُيًوْتً لِذَيْنِكَ اَلْرَّجُلَيْنِ - "those houses are for those 2 men", where "for those 2 men" is an example of this rule.

Making sentences

You can make sentences with pointing nouns like e.g. "This is a book" or "This is the book" or "This is the book of Zayd". These are all mubtada-khabar.

You say "This is a book" by saying هٰذَا كِتَابٌ :

Type of part of sentence خبر مبتدا
كِتَابٌ هٰذَا

You say "This is the book" by saying هٰذَا هُوَ اَلْكِتَابُ :

Type of part of sentence خبر مبتدا
هُوَ اَلْكِتَابُ هٰذَا

Aside

In these sentences, the مُشَارٌ إِاَيْهِ is essentially implied (aka مُقَدَّرٌ). You could say these 2 sentences with explicit مُشَارٌ إِاَيْهِ by saying "هٰذَا الشَّيْئُ كِتَابٌ" and "هٰذَا الشَّيْئُ هُوَ الكِتَابٌ". But you wouldn't normally talk like that.

You say "This is the book of Zayd" by saying هٰذَا كِتَبُ زَيْدٍ :

Type of part of sentence خبر مبتدا
كِتَابُ زَيْدٍ هٰذَا

You can add emphasis to this sentence by adding a pronoun. e.g. to say "This is the book of Zayd", you'd say هٰذَا هُوَ كِتَبُ زَيْدٍ .

Some more words to learn

Also, here's some more words to remember the meaning of (they just get used in sentences with no particular rules on their usage):

  • كَذَالِك - "similarly"
  • هٰكَذَا - "in this way"
  • هٰهُنَا - "here"
  • هُنَا - "here"
  • هُنَاكَ - "there"

TODO-add section for huroof jazimat

Appendix

Conjugations

thulaathee mujarrad

Here we have an example conjugation of a فعل for each of the 6 باب.

Table: نَصَرَ - he helped. It’s بَاب is نَصَرَ/يَنْصُرُ.

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past نَصَرَ نَصَرَا نَصَرُو نَصَرَتْ نَصَرَتَا نَصَرْنَ نَصَرْتَ نَصَرْتُمَا نَصَرْتُمْ نَصَرْتِ نَصَرْتُمَا نَصَرْتُنَّ نَصَرْتُ نَصَرْنَا
Present/future يَنْصُرُ يَنْصُرَانِ يَنْصُرُوْنَ تَنْصُرُ تَنْصُرَانِ يَنْصُرْنَ تَنْصُرُ تَنْصُرَانِ تَنْصُرُوْنَ تَنْصُرِيْنَ تَنْصُرَانِ تَنْصُرْنَ اَنْصُرُ نَنْصُرُ

Table: سَرَقَ - he stole. It’s بَاب is ضَرَبَ/يَضْرِبُ.

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past سَرَقَ سَرَقَا سَرَقُوْ سَرَقَتْ سَرَقَتَا سَرَقْنَ سَرَقْتَ سَرَقْتُمَا سَرَقْتُمْ سَرَقْتِ سَرَقْتُمَا سَرَقْتُنَّ سَرَقْتُ سَرَقْنَا
Present/future يَسْرِقُ يَسْرِقَانِ يَسْرِقُوْنَ تَسْرِقُ تَسْرِقَانِ يَسْرِقْنَ تَسْرِقُ تَسْرِقَانِ تَسْرِقُوْنَ تَسْرِقِيْنَ تَسْرِقَانِ تَسْرِقْنَ اَسْرِقُ نَسْرِقُ

Table: فَعَلَ - he did. It's بَاب is فَتَحَ/يَفْتَحُ.

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past فَعَلَ فَعَلَا فَعَلُوْ فَعَلَتْ فَعَلَتَا فَعَلْنَ فَعَلْتَ فَعَلْتُمَا فَعَلْتُمْ فَعَلْتِ فَعَلْتُمَا فَعَلْتُنَّ فَعَلْتُ فَعَلْنَا
Present/future يَفْعَلُ يَفْعَلَانِ يَفْعَلُوْنَ تَفْعَلُ تَفْعَلَانِ يَفْعَلْنَ تَفْعَلُ تَفْعَلَانِ تَفْعَلُوْنَ تَفْعَلِيْنَ تَفْعَلَانِ تَفْعَلْنَ اَفْعَلُ نَفْعَلُ

Table: حَمِدَ - he praised. It’s بَاب is سَمِعَ/يَسْمَعُ.

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past حَمِدَ حَمِدَا حَمِدُوْ حَمِدَتْ حَمِدَتَا حَمِدْنَ حَمِدْتَ حَمِدْتُمَا حَمِدْتُمْ حَمِدْتِ حَمِدْتُمَا حَمِدْتُنَّ حَمِدْتُ حَمِدْنَا
Present/future يَحْمَدُ يَحْمَدَانِ يَحْمَدُوْنَ تَحْمَدُ تَحْمَدَانِ يَحْمَدْنَ تَحْمَدُ تَحْمَدَانِ تَحْمَدُوْنَ تَحْمَدِيْنَ تَحْمَدَانِ تَحْمَدْنَ اَحْمَدُ نَحْمَدُ

Table: كَرُمَ - he was noble/generous. It’s بَاب is كَرُمَ/يَكْرُمُ.

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past كَرُمَ كَرُمَا كَرُمُوْ كَرُمَتْ كَرُمَتَا كَرُمْنَ كَرُمْتَ كَرُمْتُمَا كَرُمْتُمْ كَرُمْتِ كَرُمْتُمَا كَرُمْتُْنَّ كَرُمْتُ كَرُمْنَا
Present/future يَكْرُمُ يَكْرُمَانِ يَكْرُمُوْنَ تَكْرُمُ تَكْرُمَانِ يَكْرُمْنَ تَكْرُمُ تَكْرُمَانِ تَكْرُمُوْنَ تَكْرُمِيْنَ تَكْرُمَانِ تَكْرُمْنَ اَكْرُمُ نَكْرُمُ

Table: حَسِبَ - he regarded/assumed/thought. It’s بَاب is حَسِبَ/يَحْسِبُ.

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past حَسِبَ حَسِبَا حَسِبُوْ حَسِبَتْ حَسِبَتَا حَسِبْنَ حَسِبْتَ حَسِبْتُمَا حَسِبْتُمْ حَسِبْتِ حَسِبْتُمَا حَسِبْتُنَّ حَسِبْتُ حَسِبْنَا
Present/future يَحْسِبُ يَحْسِبَانِ يَحْسِبُوْنَ تَحْسِبُ تَحْسِبَانِ يَحْسِبْنَ تَحْسِبُ تَحْسِبَانِ تَحْسِبُوْنَ تَحْسِبِيْنَ تَحْسِبَانِ تَحْسِبْنَ اَحْسِبُ نَحْسِبُ

فعل with ا, و or ي

Here we have example conjugations of a فعل for different kinds of فعل with ا, و or ي in them.

Ajwaf

Table: Fe'l Ajwaf wawi on baab nasara/yansuru - to speak/say

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past قَالَ قَالَا قَالُوا قَالَتْ قَالَتَا قُلْنَ قُلْتَ قُلْتُمَا قُلْتُمْ قُلْتِ قُلْتُمَا قُلْتُنَّ قُلْتُ قُلْنَا
Present/future يَقُولُ يَقُولَانِ يَقُولُونَ تَقُولُ تَقُولَانِ يَقُلْنَ تَقُولُ تَقُولَانِ تَقُولُونَ تَقُولِينَ تَقُولَانِ تَقُلْنَ أَقُولُ نَقُولُ

Table: Fe'l Ajwaf wawi on baab samia/yasmaoo - to be frightened/scared

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past خَافَ خَافَا خَافُوا خَافَتْ خَافَتَا خِفْنَ خِفْتَ خِفْتُمَا خِفْتُمْ خِفْتِ خِفْتُمَا خِفْتُنَّ خِفْتُ خِفْنَا
Present/future يَخَافُ يَخَافَانِ يَخَافُونَ تَخَافُ تَخَافَانِ يَخَفْنَ تَخَافُ تَخَافَانِ تَخَافُونَ تَخَافِينَ تَخَافَانِ تَخَفْنَ أَخَافُ نَخَافُ

Table: Fe'l Ajwaf yayi on baab daraba/yadribu - to be good/pleasant/agreeable

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past طَابَ طَابَا طَابُوْ طَابَتْ طَابَتَا طِبْنَ طِبْتَ طِبْتُمَا طِبْتُمْ طِبْتِ طِبْتُمَا طِبْتُنَّ طِبْتُ طِبْنَا
Present/future يَطِيْبُ يَطِيْبَانِ يَطِيْبُوْنَ تَطِيْبُ تَطِيْبَانِ يَطِبْنَ تَطِيْبُ تَطِيْبَانِ تَطِيْبُوْنَ تَطِيْبِيْنَ تَطِيْبَانِ تَطِبْنَ اَطِيْبُ نَطِيْبُ

Table: Fe'l Ajwaf yayi on baab daraba/yadribu - to sell

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past بَاعَ بَاعَا بَاعُوا بَاعَتْ بَاعَتَا بِعْنَ بِعْتَ بِعْتُمَا بِعْتُمْ بِعْتِ بِعْتُمَا بِعْتُنَّ بِعْتُ بِعْنَا
Present/future يَبِيعُ يَبِيعَانِ يَبِيعُونَ تَبِيعُ تَبِيعَانِ يَبِعْنَ تَبِيعُ تَبِيعَانِ تَبِيعُونَ تَبِيعِينَ تَبِيعَانِ تَبِعْنَ أَبِيعُ نَبِيعُ

Table: Fe'l Ajwaf yayi on baab samia/yasmaoo - to receive

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past نَالَ نَالَا نَالُوا نَالَتْ نَالَتَا نِلْنَ نِلْتَ نِلْتُمَا نِلْتُمْ نِلْتِ نِلْتُمَا نِلْتُنَّ نِلْتُ نِلْنَا
Present/future يَنَالُ يَنَالَانِ يَنَالُونَ تَنَالُ تَنَالَانِ يَنَلْنَ تَنَالُ تَنَالَانِ تَنَالُونَ تَنَالِينَ تَنَالَانِ تَنَلْنَ أَنَالُ نَنَالُ
Naaqis

TODO-فَعَلَ where ل is و or ي TODO-there's a few for these Last one we haven't done one yet

Form X

Table: Fe'l in form X - root letters يَقِظَ - form X is "to wake up"

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past اِسْتَيْقَظَ اِسْتَيْقَظَا اِسْتَيْقَظُو اِسْتَيْقَظَتْ اِسْتَيْقَظَتَا اِسْتَيْقَظْنَ اِسْتَيْقَظْتَ اِسْتَيْقَظْتُمَا اِسْتَيْقَظْتُمْ اِسْتَيْقَظْتِ اِسْتَيْقَظْتُمَا اِسْتَيْقَظْتُنَّ اِسْتَيْقَظْتُ اِسْتَيْقَظْنَا
Present/future يَسْتَيْقِظُ يَسْتَيْقِظَانِ يَسْتَيْقِظُونَ تَسْتَيْقِظُ تَسْتَيْقِظَانِ يَسْتَيْقِظْنَ تَسْتَيْقِظُ تَسْتَيْقِظَانِ تَسْتَيْقِظُوْنَ تَسْتَيْقِظِيْنَ تَسْتَيْقِظَانِ تَسْتَيْقِظْنَ اَسْتَيْقِظُ نَسْتَيْقِظُ

Table: .Fe'l in form X - root letters عدد - form X is "to get ready"

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past اِسْتَعَدَّ اِسْتَعَدَّا اِسْتَعَدُّوا اِسْتَعَدَّتْ اِسْتَعَدَّتَا اِسْتَعْدَدْنَ اِسْتَعْدَدْتَ اِسْتَعْدَدْتُمَا اِسْتَعْدَدْتُمْ اِسْتَعْدَدْتِ اِسْتَعْدَدْتُمَا اِسْتَعْدَدْتُنَّ اِسْتَعْدَدْتُ اِسْتَعْدَدْنَا
Present/future يَسْتَعِدُّ يَسْتَعِدَّانِ يَسْتَعِدُّونَ تَسْتَعِدُّ تَسْتَعِدَّانِ يَسْتَعْدِدْنَ تَسْتَعِدُّ تَسْتَعِدَّانِ تَسْتَعِدُّونَ تَسْتَعِدِّينَ تَسْتَعِدَّانِ تَسْتَعْدِدْنَ أَسْتَعِدُّ نَسْتَعِدُّ

Form II

فَعَّلَ يُفَعِّلُ

Table: Fe'l in form II - root letters ضَرَّبَ - form II is "to beat violently/repeatedly"

Tense NP 1M NP 2M NP 3+M NP 1F NP 2F NP 3+F P 1M P 2M P 3+M P1F P 2F P 3+F Me We
Past ضَرَّبَ ضَرَّبَا ضَرَّبُوْا ضَرَّبَتْ ضَرَّبَتَا ضَرَّبْنَ ضَرَّبْتَ ضَرَّبْتُمَا ضَرَّبْتُمْ ضَرَّبْتِ ضَرَّبْتُمَا ضَرَّبْتُنَّ ضَرَّبْتُ ضَرَّبْنَا
Present/future يُضَرِّبُ يُضَرِّبَانِ يُضَرِّبُوْنَ تُضَرِّبُ تُضَرِّبَانِ يُضَرِّبْنَ تُضَرِّبُ تُضَرِّبَانِ تُضَرِّبُوْنَ تُضَرِّبِيْنَ تُضَرِّبَانِ تُضَرِّبْنَ اُضَرِّبُ نُضَرِّبُ
  • The اسم فاعل is: مُضَرِّبٌ
  • The اسم مفعول is: مُضَرَّبٌ

TODO-other baabs, create sections for them and add example conjugations for them

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