D: Possessive Pronouns

Arabic uses pronoun suffixes as another way to indicate possession. In English we say “my house,” “his house,” etc., to indicate that something belongs to someone. In Arabic the same thing is done but the possessive pronouns are suffixed to the noun instead of written as independent words before the noun. Below is a chart of the possessive pronoun suffixes along with their corresponding independent pronouns.

Independent Pronoun

Possessive Pronoun

أنا

ي

أنتَ

كَ

أنتِ

كِ

هو

هُ

هي

ها

نَحْنُ

نا

أنْتُم

كُم

أنْتُنَّ

كُنَّ

هُم

هُم

هُنَّ

هُنَّ

When we attach pronoun suffixes to nouns, we are indicating who possesses the nouns and we are also making the nouns definite. For example, “his book” in Arabic is a combination of كتابٌ and the suffix هُ When we combine them we get كتابُهُ Notice that the case ending of the noun is now without nunation. That is because the word is now definite. When a word has a pronoun suffix attached to it, it will show its case but it will not have nunation. Thus “your book” (masc.) is كتابُكَ and “their book” (masc.) is كتابُهُم

All of these suffixes begin with a consonant except the suffix for انا which consists of the letter ي acting as a vowel. So if we wish to say “my book” we add ي to كتابٌ and get كتابي (pronounced “kitaabi”). This word will not be inflected for case because the ي is acting here as a vowel and we cannot have a vowel following the vowel of a case ending. If we did we would have كتابُي pronounced “kitaabui” which sounds funny and we do not wish to sound funny when we speak Arabic. So know that any noun to which the pronoun suffix ي is attached will not ever be inflected for case. Do not confuse the pronoun suffix ي with the nisba suffix يّ. The nisba suffix will always be inflected for case.

When we add a pronoun suffix to a word which ends in a ة, the ة is written and pronounced as a regular ت. For example “your article” is مقالتكَ and is pronounced “magaalatuka”. The case ending is written between the ت and the suffix. Of course, “my article” مقالتي (“maqaalati) will not be inflected for case for the reasons outlined in the above paragraph.

Since words with possessive pronouns are definite, any adjectives which modify them must have a definite article. For example, “your new teacher” is مدرسُكَ الجديدُ

The suffixes هُ, هُم and هُنَّ undergo a vowel change whenever they are preceded by a ي or by a kasra.

For example, “in his office” is في مكتبهِ The dhamma of the suffix هُ has been changed to a kasra due to the kasra on the ب (The kasra on the ب is there since مكتب is genitive because of في). In fact, as you will learn later, we can attach في itself to هُ and that yields فيهِ.

The same thing happens to هُنّ َ and هُم . For example في مكتبِهِم and في مكتبِهِن

You have now seen the three ways in which a word in Arabic is made definite. The first is the definite article. The second is by being in a definite idaafa. The third is by attaching a pronoun suffix.
Any adjectives modifying a definite noun must be definite and are made definite with, and only with, the definite article.

In Part C of the last chapter, I mentioned that Arab grammarians consider the possessive pronouns to be in an idaafa relationship with the noun to which they are attached. For example مكتبُهُم is an idaafa. The first term is مكتب and the second term of the idaafa is the pronoun suffix هم. Because the possessive pronouns are considered definite, they define the noun to which they are attached. It is quite common for an idaafa with two, three, four or more terms to end with a pronoun suffix. The entire idaafa will be definite. For example مكتبُ مديرِ شركتِكم “the office of the director of your company”. The word شركة is definite because of the suffix كم. Since شركة is definite, the entire idaafa is definite – just as if the word شركة , had been defined by having the definite article attached مكتبُ مديرِ الشركةِ – “the office of the director of your company”.

C: The Nisba Adjective

The nisba adjective is the “relative” adjective in Arabic. It is often used with place names. For example, a man from Baghdad can be referred to as بغدادي What we have done is we have added the suffix يّ ( the letter ي with a shadda) to the name of the city. Thus a male from دِمَشْق is a دمشقيّ. We do the same thing for countries. So a man from مصر is مصريّ – and one from Tunis is تونسيّ This is pretty difficult isn’t it?

These words are made feminine by adding the ة. So a woman from Tunis is  تونسيَّة  (pronounced “tunisiyya”).

Now as you know, some Arabic place names come with the definite article as part of their names.

For example الأردن , العراق and السودان. If we wish to convert these into indefinite relative adjectives we must drop the definite article and then add the nisba. If we want to say, for example, that King Hussein is Jordanian, we say that he is أُردُنيّ. What we have done is we have taken off the أل and then formed the indefinite adjective. If we want to say someone is “the Jordanian” we would reattach the definite article and say that he is الأُردُنيّ. If we want to say that a male is Sudanese, we drop the definite article and are left with سودانيّ. If we want to say “the Sudanese (sing.)” we say السّودانيّ.

Some words end in an alif, امريكا is an example. When this happens, just drop the alif and then add the nisba امريكيّ for example.

The nisba can be applied to a wide variety of nouns in addition to place names. For example مرْكز means “center” and مركزيّ is “central”. وطن means “nation” or “homeland”. Something which is national or a person who is a nationalist is called وطنيّ

Many nouns to which the nisba is applied are feminine. To apply the nisba to a feminine word, the ة must first be dropped and then the nisba is added to it. For example, جامعة, “university” is feminine. If you want to say a “university student” (masc.) you would drop the ة and add the يّ to جامعة – to get جامعيّ “University student” would then be rendered طالب جامعيّ . If the student is feminine, the ‘ة is then added to the nisba ending and you طالبة جامعيّة ّ

The country of Syria in Arabic can be spelled one of two ways سورية or سوريا To form the nisba for this country drop the ة or the ا, as the case may be, and then get rid of the ي . Then add the nisba’s ending. Thus “a Syrian” (masc.) is سوريّ .

القاهرة is Cairo. How would you say that someone is Cairene? First you drop the definite article and then you drop the ة. Then you add the nisba ending to get قاهريّ. So هو قاهريّ is “He is a Cairene.”

“She is a Cairene” is هي قاهريةّ You add the o to the masculine قاهريّ .

That does it for the nisba for now. For plurals of the nisba, see Chapter Four.

B: The Pronoun of Separation

You have so far dealt with sentences such as هذا كتابٌ جديدٌ “This is a new book”, and هذا الكتابُ جديدٌ

“This book is new.” How would you say “This is the new book”? The answer is هذا هو الكتابُ الجديُد.

What has happened is that the pronoun هو has been inserted between هذا and ‘الكتاب. As I indicated before هذا and هذه when followed by a definite noun form one unit with that noun. Thus هذا الكتاب means “this book”. The only way to say “This is the book” is to break up the unit. The pronoun هو in the example above is placed between هذا and كتاب to break that unit. It is called the “pronoun of separation” (ضميرُ الفصْل in Arabic).

A phrase such as هذه المديرة , “this director (f),” is broken up with the feminine pronouns هي to get هذه هي المديرة, “This is the director (f).”

If the phrase is plural, then plural pronouns are used. You will see examples of this later on in Part One. Note also that the pronoun of separation does not affect the case of the word following it.

Sometimes the pronoun of separation is optional. When the demonstratives (and sometimes other words) are followed by an idaafa instead of a noun with a definite article, the pronoun of separation does not need to be added, although often it is used for emphasis. For example:

1. This is the new professor’s article.

١. هذه مقالةُ الاستاذِ الجديدِ.
2. This is the new professor’s article.

٢. هذه هي مقالةُ الاستاذِ الجديدِ.
3. What is the importance of this article?

٣. ما أهمية هذه المقالةِ؟
4. What is the importance of this article?

٤. ما هي أهميةُ هذه المقالةِ؟

 

 

 

A: The Noun-Adjective Phrase

Up until now we have worked with sentences such as:

هذا كتابٌ.

هذا الكتابُ جديدٌ.

كتابُ المدرسِ جديدٌ.

 

The sentences you have learned to deal with have grown a little in complexity. However, you have not yet studied how to modify a noun with an adjective. In this section of this lesson you will learn how to do so.

Contemplate the following sentences.

 

١.هذا كتابٌ جديدٌ.

٢. هذا الكتابُ الجديدُ عن التاريخ.

٣. كتابُ المدرسِ الجديدُ في المكتب.

٤. كتابُ المدرسِ الجديدِ في المكتب.

The first sentence means “This is a new book.” Here جديدٌ modifies كتابٌ. Note that both كتابٌ and جديدٌ are masculine, singular, indefinite, and are both in the nominative with nunation.

The second sentence means “This new book is about history.” In this sentence : الجديدُ modifies الكتابُ. Note that here the noun and the adjective are both masculine, singular, definite, and are both in the nominative case with no nunation. There is a message here somewhere. Now, we will replace كتاب in the two sentences with مقالة which means “article” as in a newspaper or academic article. The first two sentences will now become:

هذه مقالةٌ جديدةٌ.

, هذه المقالةُ الجديدةُ عن التاريخ.

In both sentences, هذا as been changed to هذه. I hope I do not have to explain this. Now, in both sentences you see that the adjective is now feminine and that all else remains the same with respect to agreement between the noun and the adjective. The message should be sinking in about now. Just in case, here are the rules of agreement between nouns and adjectives.

1. Agreement in gender.

2. Agreement in number (more will be said about this one in chapter 5.)

3. Agreement in definiteness or indefiniteness.

4. Agreement in case.

Never forget that a definite noun must be modified by an adjective which is also definite. Thus الكتابُ الجديدُ is a phrase “the new book” but الكتابُ جديدٌ is a sentence “The book is new.”

In our third model sentence above we have a definite idaafa followed by an adjective. Most of the time only one term of an idaafa will be modified by an adjective. Usually the term modified will be the last term, but not always. In our model sentence we know that الجديدُ modifies the first term of the idaafa because both words are in the nominative case. The sentence should be translated as “The teacher’s new book is in the office.”

If we changed the case of the adjective to the genitive we would be modifying the second term of the idaafa. This is what has happened in model sentence four. It should be translated as “The new teacher’s book (the book of the new teacher) is in the office.” However, since the case endings are not usually written, when you are reading a text you will have to decide which word is being modified on the basis of context. Usually, you will find that only the last term of an idaafa is modified. But this is not always the case. Sometimes number and gender can be clues. For example: مقالة المدرس الجديدة. Here we know that the first term of the idaafa is being modified because it and the adjective are feminine

On occasion you will even find that more than one term is modified. Look at the examples below

1. The new president of the American company

١. رئيسُ الشركةِ الامريكيةِ الجديدُ
2. The new student of the American university

٢. طالبُ الجامعةِ الامريكيةِ الجديدُ
3. The new student (f) of the American university

٣. طالبةُ الجامعةِ الامريكيةِ الجديدةُ
4. The student (f) of the new American university

٤. طالبةُ الجامعةِ الامريكيةِ الجديدةِ

 

 

When more than one term is modified, the last term is modified first and the first term is modified last. The idaafas in the examples above all have just two terms. The second term is modified in each case by the word الامريكية Then in examples one through three, جديد or جديدة modifies the first term. In idaafas one and two, we really don’t need the case endings because the gender tells us what is being modified. In idaafas three and four, the case determines what is modifying what. Again, these case endings are almost never written, so you’ll sometimes have to rely on context and common sense.

C: The Idaafa

The idaafa is an extremely important construction in Arabic. It is very easy, basic, and ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for any student of the language who wants ever to be able to do anything at all in Arabic. I am upset about the number of students who have had several years of Arabic and do not know the difference between an idaafa and a noun-adjective phrase. In fact, many students do not seem to know the difference between an idaafa and a French horn. The noun-adjective phrase will be taught in the next chapter. The French horn will not.

The word idaafa means “addition” or even “annexation”. The idaafa is used to indicate possession in Arabic. In English we say “John’s book”. In Arabic we say “the book (of) John”. Below are some examples of idaafas, their translations into English, and an explanation.

   1. A university professor (a professor of a university)

١. أستاذُ جامعةٍ
   2. The office director (the director of the office)

٢.  مدير المكتبِ
   3. A teacher’s house (a house of a teacher)

٣. بيتُ مدرسٍ
   4. The teacher’s house (the house of the teacher)

٤. بيتُ المدرسِ
   5. An office director’s car (a car of a director of an office)

٥. سيارةُ مديرِ مكتبٍ
   6. The office director’s car (the car of the director of the office).

٦. سيارةُ مديرِ المكتبِ

 

The translations in parentheses are literal translations; the others are what would most likely actually be used.

Now let’s study the idaafas above. In sentence one we have a standard two-term idaafa. The first term is the thing possessed. It can be in any case depending on its use in the sentence. But, the first term of an idaafa never has nunation. The second term of this idaafa is in the genitive. IN AN IDAAFA, THE SECOND TERM AND ANY FOLLOWING TERMS ARE ALWAYS GENITIVE. Since the second term in this particular idaafa جامعة is indefinite, it will take nunation. Because the second term is indefinite the entire idaafa is indefinite. Thus we have “a professor of a university”.

Now look at the second idaafa. The first term is مديرُ. It does not have nunation because the first term of an idaafa NEVER has nunation. The second term of this idaafa المكتبِ is in the genitive case because the second term of every idaafa in the entire length and breadth of the history of this great language is always genitive.

But we have a difference between this second idaafa and the first idaafa. The second term of the second idaafa المكتبِ is definite. Because it is definite, it will not have nunation. But there is something even more important. Because the second term is definite, THE ENTIRE IDAAFA IS DEFINITE.

Thus, this idaafa means, literally, “the director of the office”. This means that the first term of this idaafa is definite even though it does not itself have the definite article. Now hear this: THE FIRST TERM OF AN IDAAFA NEVER HAS THE DEFINITE ARTICLE. This means that the first term of an idaafa never has the definite article.

The third idaafa is indefinite because the second term of that idaafa is indefinite. The fourth idaafa is a definite version of the third.

The fifth idaafa has three terms; the last two terms themselves being an idaafa. The first term is nominative because I put it in the nominative. As you know, the first term of the idaafa will be in the case that the sentence requires. The second term of this idaafa is genitive, because the second term of all idaafas is always genitive. However, the second term of this idaafa does not have nunation because it is followed by yet another term. The last term of the idaafa,  مكتبِ is, of course, genitive. Since it is  indefinite it has nunation. THE LAST TERM OF AN IDAAFA IS THE ONLY TERM OF AN IDAAFA THAT CAN HAVE NUNATION. An idaafa can have an unlimited number of terms,  although you will rarely see one with more than four.

The first term of the fifth example is سيارة which is feminine. When speaking, the ة of any term except the last term of an idaafa must be pronounced. That is, you would say “sayyaaratu mudiiri maktabin”. Often American students forget to do this.

The sixth idaafa is a definite form of the fifth. This entire idaafa is definite BECAUSE THE LAST TERM OF THE IDAAFA IS DEFINITE. Since the last term is definite there is no nunation in this idaafa. THE LAST TERM OF AN IDAAFA IS THE ONLY TERM THAT CAN EVER HAVE THE DEFINITE ARTICLE.

Here are the important rules about an idaafa which you must remember:

1.  An idaafa consists of two or more nouns.

2.  If the last term of the idaafa is definite, the entire idaafa is definite.

3.  If the last term of the idaafa is indefinite, then the entire idaafa is indefinite.

4.  The first term of the idaafa can be in any case required by the use of that word in the sentence.

5.  All terms other than the first term MUST be in the genitive case.

6.  The only term in an idaafa that can have nunation is the last term of the idaafa. It will only have nunation if it is indefinite.

7.  If you like to memorize lists of things as a means to demonstrating knowledge of a subject, I recommend you study Buddhism.

I know that this explanation may seem repetitive. But you must know these things. If you do not understand what an idaafa is, or do not understand the relationship of the words in an idaafa to each other, you will never understand Arabic above the level of a two year old, or of an American journalist.

One question that I am often asked is: How does a student spot an idaafa? What I tell them is this:  whenever you see two nouns or more in a row, and the first noun does not have a definite article (or a pronoun suffix) then assume that you have an idaafa. Pronoun suffixes are discussed briefly below and in detail in the next chapter. Remember also that an adjective will never be the second term of an idaafa. (See note A below).

Another thing that a student should be aware of is that nothing can come between two terms of an idaafa except the demonstratives تلك , ذلك ,هذه ,هذا the dual forms of these words, and their plurals. (The dual and plural forms will be discussed later on in Part One.) If anything else appears between two words that you think are in an idaafa relationship with each other, then you do not have an idaafa – ever.

Also be aware, while you are reading an idaafa, that as soon as you come to a word with the definite article or a pronoun suffix, you have reached the end of the idaafa.

Here are some examples of these things that you should be aware of.

   1.  The director of this office is a moron

١. مديرُ هذا المكتب بليدٌ
   2.  The study of Arabic grammar is enjoyable

٢. دراسةُ قواعد اللغةِ العربية ممتعةٌ
   3.  Her office is a large office.

٣. مكتبُها مكتبٌ كبيرٌ

 

The first sentence has an idaafa as its subject مديرُ هذا المكتب. The word هذا does not interfere with the idaafa relationship of the noun before it and after it since هذا forms one unit with the noun which follows it. The noun after هذا is in the genitive case as it is the second term of the idaafa. The last word in that sentence is in the nominative since it is the predicate of the equational sentence.

The second sentence has as its subject a three-term definite idaafa. The last word in the idaafa is اللغةِ.  You know it is the last word in the idaafa because it is the last of the nouns and it has the definite article. Even if you did not know the meaning of العربية, which comes after اللغةِ, you would know that  العربية  could not possibly be part of the idaafa since it comes after a word which has a definite article on it. If you know that العربية  is an adjective, that would also tell you that it cannot be part of the idaafa.

The third sentence has مكتبُها as its subject. You may recall that ها is a possessive pronoun suffix for the third person feminine singular (it corresponds to هي).Since it comes between two nouns, those nouns cannot be in an idaafa with one another.  (In fact, Arab grammarians would understand the suffix ها to be the second term of the idaafa “مكتبُها“)  Since possessive pronouns are grammatically definite, they will always end an idaafa and define it, whenever they are used. Possessive pronouns will be discussed in Part D of the next chapter. Do not worry about them for now.

Note A: There is an exception to this rule. Sometimes an adjective can stand in place of a noun. For example, محمد  may be known as الكريم “the generous” or “the noble.” This title can stand in place of the name محمد Thus بيتُ الكريمِ “the house of the generous (Muhamad),” is an idaafa with an adjective as its final term.

Now do Drill 4 Parts 1-3.

B: Prepositions

Prepositions are words like في ,ب , ل , الى , عن and من In addition, there are large number of words, which, while they are not technically prepositions as understood by Arab grammarians, function as prepositions. These are words such as قبْلَ,بَعْدَ and أثْناءَ . Whenever you see any of these words you will always put the following noun or adjective into the genitive. Always. Every time.

Enter all case endings in the sentences below.

 

1. The student is in the house

١. الطالب في البيت.
2. You are the director in this office.

٢. انت المدير في هذا المكتب.

3. The library is near the university

٣. المكتبة قريبة من الجامعة.

 

Here are the same Arabic sentences with the case endings. An explanation follows …

 

الطالب في البيت.

انت المدير في هذا المكتب.

المكتبة قريبة من الجامعة.

 

The first sentence has الطالبُ as its subject. Hence that word is in the nominative and has no nunation since it is definite. The predicate of the sentence is في البيتِ which is a prepositional phrase. The noun البيتِ follows the preposition في so it must, must, must, be in the genitive case. Since البيتِ is definite it cannot and must not have nunation, so it takes only one kasra.

The second sentence أنت as its subject. That word is a pronoun, so it will not take a case ending. المديرُ is a predicate and so must be in the nominative case. In fact, أنتَ المديرُ is itself an equational sentence. However following أنتَ المديرُ in the sentence above is a prepositional phrase في هذا المكتبِ You should know that هذا المكتبِ is one unit (this was discussed in Chapter One). هذا is not a word that takes case but المكتبِ is a regular noun and it will always have a case. Since هذا المكتبِ is one unit, المكتبِ is put into the genitive because of the preposition في

The third sentence is very similar to the second. The first two words المكتبةُ قريبةٌ can themselves form an equational sentence. The first word is the subject, the second is the predicate. مِن الجامعةِ is prepositional phrase so الجامعةِ must be genitive. Since الجامعةِ is definite it gets only one kasra. I hope that you did not confuse the preposition مِنْ with the interrogative مَنْ

Before you do any drills at the end of this chapter, read the next section on The Idaafa.

A: The Genitive Case

The genitive case occurs in Arabic in two situations. Both of these situations occur very often in the language. First, a noun or adjective following a preposition will always be in the genitive. The only other time the genitive occurs is if a word is the second or later term of an idaafa. (The idaafa is discussed below.)

 

The genitive case marker is one kasra if a word is definite and two kasras if the word is indefinite. The second kasra is pronounced as a ن, just like the second dhamma in the nominative case.كتابٍ is an example of the indefinite genitive (pronounced “kitaabin”). الكتابِ is an example of the definite genitive (pronounced “alkitaabi”).

Final Note

You have now covered quite a number of basics which are essential to learning this language properly. If you have had Arabic before, the above explanations should prove helpful and should be very easy to absorb. If you have not had Arabic for a very long time, it may take you a little time to absorb them. That will be normal. But you should be able to see that nothing here is intellectually difficult. Take the time to learn all of these things. Start with the drills which begin on the next page (Drill 1, Drill 2 and Drill 3) and then go to the key at the end of this text. If you still have problems understanding what is going on, reread this chapter and also look at lessons 1 and 2 of EMSA, which cover essentially the same grammar. Regardless of whether or not you have studied Arabic before, you must know the material in this chapter. The evening newscaster may never understand why, but you will.

I: Pausal Form

The case endings on the last word in a sentence are usually not pronounced. Nor are they pronounced before any other natural pause. Thus in this sentence هذا طالبٌ جديدٌ  the last word will usually be pronounced “jadiid” without the case ending. If the word is feminine, we will not pronounce the ة or its case ending when we use the pausal form. We will do just as I have outlined in the paragraph above this one. There will be a little more on this later when we deal with the accusative case.

H: Gender

Like Spanish, Arabic has two genders, masculine and feminine. Most nouns not referring to people are arbitrarily assigned a gender, again, just like Spanish. For example, كتاب is masculine, but سيارة is feminine.

You can usually spot a feminine word, because, just as in Spanish, it has a feminine suffix attached to it. The suffix is a ة (called a “taa marbuuta”). Theo is always preceded by a fatha. Since the ة will often not be pronounced, you will hear only the fatha which precedes it when someone says a word which is feminine – it will sound just like a Spanish feminine word.

With words referring to human beings such as طالب, we add the feminine ending in order to indicate that we are talking of the feminine variety of such creatures. Thus a female student is طالبة. This is just like Spanish as well.

Of course, just as in Spanish, every word that looks feminine will not necessarily be feminine. خليفة “Caliph” is an example. These words are few and far between. Additionally, some words which do not end with ة are feminine; حرب “war” is one example. (“Peace” سلام is masculine – interesting.) Spanish does the same thing.

When a word ends in a ة we will pronounce the ة only if we wish or need to pronounce the case ending on the word. For example, “a student” is written طالبة. If we wish or need to pronounce the entire thing, we will say “taalibatun”, pronouncing the ة as a regular ت. But, if we wish to read the word without the case ending, we do not pronounce the ة at all; we only pronounce the fatha which precedes the ة. Thus the word can also be pronounced “taaliba”.