Basic Introduction

to

Nahw
Prepared
by
Amienoellah Abderoef


What is the theory of

Basically, the theory of

involves;

an effect / change
at the end of a word
produced by another word preceding it.

Thus, in the following sentences:

the effect / change is the

(The teacher came)

(I asked the teacher)
(I greeted the teacher)

, the
and the
at the end of ""

produced by "

" in the first sentence, "
" in the second sentence and "
" in the
third sentence respectively.
The effect / change in Arabic is called "
", the word at whose end the effect / change
is produced is called the "
"and the word which produces the effect / change is
called the "
".
Remark (Optional Reading): The reason for these changes or effects produced at the
end of "
"is to distinguish the different grammatical roles or functions that a word
like "
"acquires when placed in a sentence. Prior to its existence in the sentence, "

"had no other meaning apart from the teacher. However, when it was placed
after the verb "

" it acquired the grammatical role of being the one performing the
action indicated by that verb i.e. the one doing the coming. Likewise, when it was placed
after the verb "
" it acquired the grammatical role of being the direct object of the
action indicated by that verb i.e. the one to whom asking is done directly. Also, when it
was placed after the preposition " "it acquired the grammatical role of being the
indirect object of the action of the verb "

" since the verb is connected indirectly to
the object i.e. via the particle (or more specifically the preposition) "
".
Thus, every action necessarily has a doer And optionally an object to which the verb is
either directly or indirectly connected.
Doer
Action

Direct
Object

Indirect

As these grammatical roles are all abstract meanings existing only in the mind of the
speaker, the classical Arabs devised a system of phonetically and diacritically marking the
ending of a word in order to make these grammatical roles known to the listener. Thus,
the grammatical role of the doer of the action in the sentence became known by means of
a

at the end of the word. The grammatical role of the direct object of the action
became known by means of a
at the end of the word. The grammatical role of the
indirect object of the action became known by means of a

at the end of the word.

Therefore, "
":

being the doer of the verb "

" in the first sentence is marked with a
at its end,
being the direct object of the verb "

" in the second sentence, is marked with a

, and finally

being the indirect object of the verb "

" in the third sentence (in that the action is
transferred onto the object via the preposition "
" ), is marked with a
.
Doer

Direct

Action

Object
Indirect

In Arabic grammar the verb is referred to as the , the doer as the

, the direct
object as the

and the indirect object as the

In Arabic sentences comprising the , the

and the
no matter what the word-order the noun marked with the

combination

is always going to be

the
( whether grammatically or semantically) and the noun marked with the
is always going to be the

as illustrated in the following sentences:

[Zaid hit Khalid (with normal emphasis)]

VSO

[Zaid hit Khalid (with different emphasis)]

VOS

[Zaid hit Khalid (with different emphasis)]

OVS

[Zaid hit Khalid (with different emphasis)]

SVO

Compare this with the English:

Zaid hit Khalid
Khalid hit Zaid
In the examples:

(The teacher came)

(I asked the teacher)
(I greeted the teacher)

we indicated the
, the and the




in separate
sentences. However, it is possible for them to occur all in one sentence, e.g.
"


issue)

" (The student asked the teacher about the problem /

Here, "

"is the
,
"
"the

, and
"

"the

We mentioned earlier that Arabic has a flexible word-order and that in sentences
comprising the , the
, the and the





combination: the
, the and the




are
determined by how their endings are marked. Thus, the following are some of the wordorders.
"

"
"

"
"

"
"

"
"

"

(V O S PP)
(V PP S O)
(V O PP S)
(O V S PP)
(PP V S O)

Verb

Subject

Object

PP

Prepositional Phrase

" , and

,
" the

" In all of the above sentences:

" is the
"
.

" the

Is the application of the theory of

confined to the
?
The previous examples illustrate the application of the theory of
to an
( noun),
namely: "
". However, its application is not confined to the
only but extends
to the ( verb) as well as illustrated in the following set of examples:

(I write / will write)

(I will not write)
(I did not write)

Here the
is the
, the
and the
at the end of the verb " ",
which makes " "the
. While the in the second and third sentence viz. "

"and " " , is a clearly expressible word namely "

"and " "respectively,
the
in the first sentence is not a clearly expressible word but rather an abstract
idea. This idea is the fact that "
"is divested of " ", "
"or any other word that
performs the same function. It is this idea (i.e. the absence of " ", "
"and their likes)
that produces the

at the end of "

". If we did not assume the to be this
idea we would have been left with a situation of an effect (in the form of a

) without
a cause, which is unacceptable in the theory of
. The in the form of an
abstract idea is called "

" (abstract governor) as opposed to the in the
form of a concrete word which is called "

" (concrete governor).

What are the specific types of

and
called?

Moreover, the
by means of the
( which applies to both the
and the

) is called
. The by means of the
( which applies to both the

and the ) is called

. The by means of the
( which applies to the

only ) is called

or
. The by means of the
( which applies

to the only ) is called

. From this it becomes apparent that:

is synonymous with
( declension)

or
is not applicable to the , and
is not applicable to the

The word at whose end

is produced is called " ", the word at whose end

is produced is called "

", the word at whose end

or
is

produced is called "

"or "
"and the word at whose end
is produced is
called "

".
The word (or idea) producing
is called " "or "

" , the word producing

is called "
"or "


" , the word producing
or
is called "

" or "

" or "
" or


" and finally the word producing
is
called "

" or "

".
Hence, in the sentences "

" and "

":

is the
at the end of "
"and "
",

the
of " "is the verb "
" and the of "
"is the
absence of a
( like "
) "and a
(like " ) "and

the
is " "and "
".

In the sentences "

" and "

":

is the
at the end of "
"and "
",

the
of "
"is the verb "
" and the

particle "
"and

the

is "
"and "
".

In the sentence "

of "
"is the

":

or
is the
at the end of "
",
the

or
of "
"is the preposition "
" and
the

or
is "
".

In the sentence "

":
7

is the
at the end of "
",
the

of "
"is the particle ""and
the

is " ".

Is
always explicit i.e. clearly expressible?
The
in all of the previous examples has been explicit and clearly expressible, that

for , a clearly expressible

for
, a clearly
expressible

for
or
and a clearly expressible
for
.
However, it is also possible for the
to be implicit and not clearly expressible like the
noun "
"when it is annexed to the pronominal suffix "
" (meaning my) in the
construct "

( "my teacher) as shown in the following examples:
is, a clearly expressible

(My teacher came)

(I asked my teacher)
(I greeted my teacher)

Note that the

of " ", in all three sentences, instead of being vowelled with a

for , a
for
and a
for
or
it is vowelled with a

instead. This
is the result of the to which the word " "is annexed.
This necessitates a

( its corresponding vowel) on the letter before it. This

prevents the
of , the
of
and the
of
or

from becoming explicit. However, the fact that the is not explicit does not
mean that there is no
at all. In fact, we believe that there is ( in the form of the

,
and
) except that this is implicit and what prevents it from
becoming explicit is fact that the final letter has been vowelled with the

that
corresponds to the and this makes it impossible for any other vowel to take its
place. The
at the end of "
"is said to be
or ( implicit, assumed)
I.e. there is a change or effect at the end of "
"produced by the preceding but
which for some reason or the other cannot become

(apparent, explicit).
Other cases in which the
is also
or are when the word ends in one of
the three weak letters i.e. the final letter is either:
(a) a
preceded by a - )
), which applies to verbs only e.g. "
( "called /
invited)
(b) a preceded by a - )

), which applies to both verbs and nouns only e.g. "

( "threw / cast), "

( "the judge), and
(c) an preceded by a
[ either written as (- )or (- ] ), and also applies to both
verbs and nouns e.g. "
( "forgot), "
( "the stick), "( "the young lad).
In the case of the words ending being (a) or (b) only the

) as for the

on them is explicit (

and the

they are too heavy (though not impossible) to be

pronounced on (a) and (b) and are therefore implicit or assumed (

)only, e.g.

(The judge came)

(I asked the judge)
(I greeted the judge)

Observe that in "

" , the

that is meant to be on the of "

"is

not pronounced but dropped instead (and replaced by a

instead), thus becoming

(implicit and assumed) due to being heavy on the ( i.e.

or simply
) . Likewise in the sentence "




" , the
that is meant
to be on the of "

"is not pronounced but dropped instead (and replaced by a

instead), thus becoming ( implicit and assumed) due to being heavy on the

(i.e.


or simply ) .
However, in the second sentence "

" , the

on the of "

"

and

remaining

(explicit and apparent) (i.e.


or simply

proves easy to pronounced and is therefore not dropped like the

, thus
).

preceded by a
, all three
vowel-markings (i.e. the

, the
and the
) are all implied or assumed (
)on the ( whether written as as (- )or (- ] )due to the impossibility of an
being vowelled (i.e.


or simply ) because it always carries
an unwritten

which does not allow for the to be vowelled e.g.
In the case of the words ending being (c) i.e. an

(The young lad came)

(I asked the young lad)
(I greeted the young lad)

Observe in all three sentences the

, the
and the
that are meant to
be on the
of " "are not pronounced, thus becoming ( implicit and
assumed) due to the fact that the
is always unvowelled, i.e. it carries a
that

(explicit and apparent),

due to the impossibility of an being vowelled (i.e.


or simply
) because it always carries an unwritten

which does not allow for the to be
prevents each of the three vowel-markings from becoming

vowelled.
The aforementioned examples are those of nouns. The same can also be said for verbs
when their endings are (a), (b) or (c) except that verb endings are not vowelled with the

which is therefore not applicable in their case. However, verbs, unlike, nouns can
end in a
, and thus, a verb ending can be any of the three weak letters.

10

Thus, in the case of (a) and (b) the

is
and the
is
, e.g.

(I call / will call or invite)

(I will not call)

and

(I throw / will throw)

(I will not throw)

Observe that in "

"and "
", the

that the
and is meant to take

is
due to it being heavy to pronounce on the and the . On the other
hand, the
at the end of "
"and "
"in "

because it is easy to pronounce on them.

"and "

"is

As for when the verb ending is (c) i.e. an , both the

and
are due
to the
always being unvowlled, e.g.

(I forget / will forget)

(I will not forget)

Observe that in both instances, the

or explicit.

and
are , not becoming apparent

As for when these verbs have to take the

( in the case of
) , produced by ""
, for example, the weak letter is dropped (since the weak letter already carries a

and there is no

)
)

for " "to drop) as will be seen later, e.g.

)
)
)

(I did not call)

(I did not throw)
(I did not forget)

in place of
the normal
. This, however, is not a case of the being and, therefore,
In all three instances the weak ending has been dropped in the case of

does not concern us here. The reason for mentioning it, though, is merely to see how the
weak-ending verbs are declined in all three cases.

11

Do all Arabic words take the effect of the

whether explicitly or implicitly?
Not all Arabic words when preceded by an

necessarily change or take an effect

at their endings whether explicitly like in the case of "

", or implicitly like in the
case of "

"as seen in the previous examples. In fact, some words do not change at
all but remain fixed and stable at their endings despite the action of different

on

them, like "

"in the following sentences:

(These / they came)

(I asked these / them)
(I greeted these / them)

Note that "

"does not change at its ending but instead remains fixed and stable with
a

at its ending. This is despite the fact that " "occupies the same position as "

"and "

"previously. This does not mean, however, that no
is been
exercised by the
but rather that this gets distributed over the place that "
"occupies such that this place is charged with the action or power of the .
However, "
"itself is indifferent and impervious to the action of the and is said
to be firmly based or built on the
that it terminates in (


).
Another example of a word that remains unchanged at its ending despite being governed
by an

is "
( "You f. p. write / will write):

Observe in these sentences that verb "
"remains unchanged at its ending despite the
fact that it occupies the same position occupied by " "previously. Again, as was the
case with "
", the of the gets distributed over the place that "
"
occupies rather than affecting "
"in any way. Because the gets distributed over
the place as a whole instead of causing the ending to change we refer to it as

(i.e.
that is place-related rather than end-related).

Words like "

"and "
"are called
( indeclinable, literally built) because they
are firmly built on the sign in which they end in never changing from it.
On the other hand, words like "
"and " "which do change at their endings on
account of the action of the

, are called
( declinable).

12

Is the

The

declension the only possible declension in the

?

declension that we have observed in "

"is one of

six possible declensions in the

and it is referred to as the declension of the

( fully-declinable) and applies to both the singular ( )and the broken plural
(


), e.g.

(The teacher came)

(The students came)

(I asked the teacher)

(I greeted the teacher)

(I asked the students)

(I greeted the students)

The other five declensions are:

/


(semi-declinable) which
has the combination:


, and applies also to the singular ()
and the broken plural (


), e.g.
(a) the declension of the

(Ahmad came)

(Scholars came)

(I asked Ahmad)
(I greeted Ahmad)

(I asked scholars)
(I greeted scholars)

(b) the declension of the sound feminine plural (

combination:

) , which has the

, e.g.

(The female teachers came)

(I asked the female teachers)
(I greeted the female teachers)

(c) the declension of the dual (

)whether masculine or female, which has the
combination:

, e.g.

13

(The two male teachers came)

(I asked the two male teachers)
(I greeted the two male teachers)

(The two female teachers came)

(I asked the two female teachers)
(I greeted the two female teachers)

(d) the declension of the sound masculine plural (

combination:

, e.g.

(The male teachers came)

(I asked the male teachers)
(I greeted the male teachers)

(e) the declension of the five nouns (

), which has the combination:

, e.g.

(Your father came)

(I asked your father)
(I greeted your father)

The following table sums up the six declensions in the

Type of

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

) , which has the

14

Is the


The

declension the only possible declension in the

?

declension is one of three possible declensions in the

and applies to the sound-ending

suffixes:
the
( Alif denoting the dual),

when it is free from the following

the

( Waw denoting masculine plural),

the


( Ya denoting 2nd person feminine singular),
the

( Nun denoting feminine plural) and

the

( Nun of Intensification suffixed directly to the verb):

e.g.

(I write / will write)

(I will not write)
(I did not write)

This category can also be called the sound-ending four verbs referring to the

, , " ]

nothing-else):
,
,
and
.
when it has only one of the four letters of "

and ] prefixed to it (and

The other two declensions are:

when it is free from the

abovementioned suffixes, which has the combination:

(a)

the declension of the weak-ending

(dropping of the weak-ending) e.g.

I forget / will)

I throw / will)

(forget
I will not)

(throw

(throw

(throw

I will not)

(forget
I did not)

I call / will)

I did not)

(forget

(call
I will not)

(call

I did not)

(call

This category can also be called the weak-ending four verbs referring to the


when it has only one of the four letters of "
nothing-else):

,
,

, , " ]

and

15

and ] prefixed to it (and

 and

and

,
,

,
,

( the declension of the five verbs

) , that is, the

when it has the
, the

and

suffixed to it:
,

,
,
and
, and has the combination:

(dropping of the Nun) e.g.

)You d write / will

(write

(write

)You m.p. will not

(write

)You d did not

(write

)You f.s. write / will

(write

)You m.p. write / will

(write
)You d will not

)(b

)You f.s. will not

(write
)You m.p. will not

(write

)You f.s. did not

(write

: The following table sums up the three declensions in the

/
)

(

)(

16

Type of

1.
2.
3.

Is the
the only place in which the

is made
, the

which it is made

?

only place in which it is made

and the

the only place in

The
is not the only place in which the
is made , nor the

the only place in
which it is made

. There is a total of six places in which the
is made
and are referred to as the
, a total of eleven places in which it is made

and are referred to as the

and a total of two places in which it is made

and are referred to as the

. Besides these nineteen places there are also four
secondary places called the
( followers) in that they merely follow the preceding

in its specific declension or

. In other words, they have no declension of
their own and are dependent on the declension of the preceding
for their
the only place in which it is made

the

nor the

declension.
The following is a general treatment of the
, the
and the

which focuses on a basic definition and illustration of

each of the nineteen places of

and the four :

as well as the

17

The

1. The
is an
that is preceded by a
the one doing the action indicated by that verb, e.g.

(active verb) and denotes

(The student read the book)

2. The

is an
that is preceded by a

(passive verb) and

takes the place of the

after the latter has been dropped, e.g.

(The book was read)

3. The
( subject of nominal sentence) is an
that normally occurs at the
beginning of the sentence and denotes that about which information is given by what
follows it (i.e. by the
) , e.g.

(The student is present)

4. The
( predicate) is that which normally follows the and gives
information about the
, e.g.

(The student is present)

5. The "

( "or the
of one of its sisters) is the after it and its

have been acted upon by "
( "or one of its sisters) which causes the to be
and the
to be , e.g.

(The student was present)

6. The "

" (or the

of one its sisters) is the
after it and its
have been acted upon by "
( "or one of its sisters) which causes the to be

and the
to be , e.g.

(Indeed, the student is present)

18

The

1. The
( direct object) is an
on which the action of the occurs or
to which it is applied, e.g.

(The student read the book)

2. The

( adverbial object) is an

the action of the occurs, e.g.

3. The

denoting the time or place in which

(The student read this morning in front of the teacher)

(object of purpose / reason / motive) is an

( usually a

mental action) that denotes the purpose or motive for doing the action of the ,
e.g.

4. The

(The student read out of desire for knowledge)

(object of accompaniment) is an
that occurs after the

having the meaning of "

"to denote that in whose company (or presence) or with
which the action of the is done, e.g.

(The student read with Khalid or in his company)

5. The

( absolute / unrestricted object) is an

( more specifically the
infinitive or
of the verb) that is mentioned after a sharing in the same root
or stem to either reinforce the meaning of the action that is performed or to clarify the
manner in which or number of times the action is performed, e.g.

( The student really read)

( The student read fast)

( The student read two readings)
6. The
( state or condition) is an
that denotes the state or condition of the

or
at the time the action takes place, e.g.

( The student read sitting or while sitting)


( the student read the book raised in front of him)
7. The
( specification or specifier) is an
that specifies what is actually
meant or intended by a preceding vague
, e.g.

19

(The student read twenty pages)

8. The
"

( "excepted / excluded by means of " ) "is an

mentioned
after "
"to denote that is excluded from what is mentioned before " ", e.g.

(The student read the book except one page)

9. The
( vocative / addressee) is an
mentioned after " "or one of the
other particles used for addressing to denote that the bearer of that name or reference
or title is being addressed, e.g.

10. The "

(O Principal / Headmaster of the school)

" (or the

of one of its sisters) is the is the

after it and its

have been acted upon by "

( "or one of its sisters) which causes the
to be
and the
to be
, e.g.

(The student was present)

11. The "

( "or the
of one of its sisters) is the after it and its

have been acted upon by "
( "or one of its sisters) which causes the to be

and the
to be , e.g.

(Indeed, the student is present)

20

The
1. The

is an

seventeen

, e.g.

that is governed by one of approximately

(The student read in the classroom)

( the noun annexed to) is an
to which a preceding

called the
is annexed such that the former is always in a state of
and
at the same time the
gains specificity from the
if the latter is
2. The

indefinite or definiteness if the latter is definite, e.g.

( A director of a school / a school director)

( The director of the school / the school director)

21

The

All
( followers) follow the preceding word called the

(the word that is

followed) in its declension or place of declension, and are four in number: the

(descriptive / qualifying adjective), the ( substitute), the

( corroborative)

and the

1. The

(conjoined by means of conjunction)

is a ( follower) in the form of a descriptive noun which

describes a quality in the noun which it follows (called the

or
) , and
apart from following it in declension it also follows it in gender, number and
definiteness and indefiniteness, e.g.

2. The is a that replaces the

( called the
either being the whole of the

of it, etc. e.g.

) in meaning by

, or a part of it, or a quality in it, or rectification

(The student, Zaid, came)




(I asked the student, Zaid)





(I greeted the student, Zaid)


(The student, his hand, was hit i.e. the students hand was hit))




(I hit the student, his hand i.e. I hit the hand of the student)



( I saw the student, his hand i.e. I saw the students hand)

(The student increased, his knowledge i.e. the students knowledge

increased)

( I love the student, his knowledge i.e. I love the students knowledge)

( I was amazed at the student, his knowledge i.e. I was amazed at
the students knowledge)

[Khalid (I mean) Zaid, came]


[I asked Khalid (I mean) Zaid]



[I greeted Khalid (I mean) Zaid]

22

3. The
is a that corroborates and reinforces the ( called the
) by eliminating any forgetfulness or metaphorical meaning on the part of the speaker,
e.g.

(The principal, the principal came)

(I asked the principal, the principal)


(I greeted the principal, the principal)

(The principal himself came)

(I asked the principal himself)

(I greeted the principal himself)

(All the students came)



(I asked all the students)




(I greeted all the students)
4. The

(or

) is a that follows the ( called the

) via one of the nine particles of

( referred to as conjunctions),

e.g.

(Zaid and Khalid came)

(Zaid, then Khalid came immediately thereafter)

(Zaid, then Khalid came a while thereafter)

(Zaid or Khalid came)

( Did Zaid or Khalid come?)

(The students came, even Khalid)

( Zaid did not come but Khalid did)

( Zaid did not come but Khalid came instead)

(Zaid not Khalid came)

23