1.1.3   ISM-­‐  INTRODUCTION   TO  S TATUS    

  -­‐  Learn  the  4  properties  of  Isms  
Learning
  -­‐  Be  able  to  tell  the  status  of  any  Ism:  Rafa’,  Nasb,  or  Jarr  
Objectives
 
 
Lesson Review
 

Every  Ism  has  4  properties:    

1. Status  
2. Number  
3. Gender  
4. Type  

In  this  lesson,  we  will  focus  on  the  first  property  of  Isms:  Status.  Every  Ism  plays  a  role  in  a  
sentence,  and  the  status  of  that  Ism  tells  us  what  role  it  plays.    
(Note  that  in  any  sentence,  the  action  taking  place  is  always  represented  by  the  ‫ﻓﻌﻞ‬,  which  we  
will  cover  later.  Because  we  are  only  focusing  on  the  status  of  the  ‫ﺍاﺳﻢ‬,  we  will  simply  highlight  
the  ‫ ﻓﻌﻞ‬ of  every  example  gray  so  we  know  not  to  worry  about  it.  For  now,  we  will  focus  on  how  
to  identify  the  person/thing  doing  the  ‫ ﻓﻌﻞ‬ and  the  details  related  to  the  ‫ﻓﻌﻞ‬.)  
 
Every  sentence  has  a  doer  (the  person  or  thing  doing  an  action).  The  doer  will  always  be  in  the  
‫ ﺭرﻓﻊ‬ (Raf’a)  status.  To  keep  things  simple  for  now,  we  will  call  the  doer  “‫ ”ﺭرﻓﻊ‬ in  Arabic.  Let’s  look  
at  the  following  examples:  
1. Zainab  ate  ice  cream.  
2. Ahmed  became  jealous.  
3. The  sky  is  blue.  

In  the  first  sentence,  who  is  eating  the  ice  cream?  Zainab  is,  so  she  is  the  doer.  In  the  second  
sentence,  who  became  jealous?  Ahmed  did,  so  he  is  the  doer.  In  the  third  sentence,  what  is  
blue?  The  sky  is,  so  the  sky  is  the  doer.    

So  Zainab,  Ahmed,  and  the  sky  are  all  doers  and  are  all  called  ‫ ﺭرﻓﻊ‬ (Raf’a).  
 

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Anything  that  gives  extra  information  about  the  ‫ ﻓﻌﻞ‬ is  called  a  detail,  and  it  will  be  in  the  ‫ ﻧﺼﺐ‬ 
(Nasb)  status.  To  keep  things  simple  for  now,  we  will  call  any  detail  “‫ ”ﻧﺼﺐ‬ in  Arabic.  When  
dealing  with  an  ‫ ﺍاﺳﻢ‬ that  can  be  a  detail,  you  have  to  turn  it  into  a  question  about  the  ‫ﻓﻌﻞ‬.  For  
example,  let’s  see  the  questions  we  can  ask  about  the  sentence,  “He  drank  juice  outside  
yesterday  quickly.”  
A. What  did  he  drink?  
a. juice  (detail)  
B. Where  did  he  drink  juice?    
a. outside  (detail)  
C. When  did  he  drink  juice?    
a. yesterday  (detail)  
D. How  did  he  drink  juice?    
a. quickly  (detail)  

Note  that  every  question  we  asked  included  ‘drink,’  the  ‫ﻓﻌﻞ‬.  
Now  that  we  understand  this,  let’s  study  the  older  examples  looking  out  for  ‫’ﺍاﺳﻢ‬s  that  can  be  
‫ ﻧﺼﺐ‬ (Nasb).  
1. Zainab  ate  ice  cream.  
2. Ahmed  became  jealous.  
3. The  sky  is  blue.  

In  the  first  sentence,  Zainab  ate  ice  cream,  so  ice  cream  is  the  detail.  Note  that  it  answers  the  
question,  “what  did  Zainab  eat?”    In  the  second  sentence,  Ahmed  became  jealous,  so  jealous  
will  be  the  detail  and  it  answers  the  question,  “what  did  Ahmed  become?”  In  the  third  sentence,  
what  is  the  sky?  The  sky  is  blue,  so  blue  is  the  detail.    
So  ice  cream,  jealous,  and  blue  are  all  details  and  are  all  called  ‫ﻧﺼﺐ‬.  
(Note:  Most  sentences  will  usually  have  one  ‫ ﺭرﻓﻊ‬ and  one  ‫ ﻓﻌﻞ‬ but  can  have  many  ‫’ﻧﺼﺐ‬s.)  
 
Let’s  take  a  look  at  some  additional  sentences:  
1. I  threw  the  basketball.  
a. I:  ‫ ﺭرﻓﻊ‬ (doer)  
b. threw:  ‫ ﻓﻌﻞ‬ (action)  
c. the  basketball:  ‫ ﻧﺼﺐ‬ (detail  answering  what  I  threw)  
2. Salman  eats  mangoes  secretly  every  day.  
a. Salman:  ‫ ﺭرﻓﻊ‬ (doer)  
b. eats:  ‫ ﻓﻌﻞ‬ (action)  

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c. mangoes:  ‫ ﻧﺼﺐ‬ (detail  answering  what  Salman  eats)  

d. secretly:  ‫ ﻧﺼﺐ‬ (detail  answering  how  Salman  eats)  
e. every  day:  ‫ ﻧﺼﺐ‬ (detail  answering  when/how  often  Salman  eats)  

 
Now  that  we  have  covered  ‫ ﺭرﻓﻊ‬ and  ‫ﻧﺼﺐ‬,  we  come  to  the  third  and  final  status,  ‫ ﺟﺮ‬ (Jarr).  The  
easy  way  to  remember  ‫ ﺟﺮ‬ (Jarr)  is  that  it  is  the  word  after  ‘of’.  To  keep  things  simple  for  now,  
we  will  call  the  word  after  ‘of’  “‫ ”ﺟﺮ‬ in  Arabic.  Sometimes,  the  word  ‘of’  is  clear,  but  other  times  
we  have  to  look  closely  to  figure  out  where  ‘of’  is.  
In  the  examples  below,  try  to  figure  out  the  ‫ ﺟﺮ‬ words:  
1. Car  of  Yaseen  
2. Faheem’s  house  
3. My  pen  

In  the  first  sentence,  the  word  ‘Yaseen’  came  after  ‘of,’  so  Yaseen  would  be  ‫ﺟﺮ‬.  In  the  second  
sentence,  another  way  of  rewriting  this  is:  “House  of  Faheem.”  In  this  case,  the  word  after  ‘of’  
is  ‘Faheem,’  so  Faheem  will  be  ‫ﺟﺮ‬.  In  the  third  sentence,  we  can  rewrite  this  as  “Pen  of  
my/mine.”  Although  it  sounds  odd  in  English,  it  helps  us  rewrite  the  sentence  to  include  the  
word  ‘of.’  Thus,  in  the  third  sentence,  My  will  be  ‫ﺟﺮ‬.    
So  Yaseen,  Faheem,  and  My  are  all  ‫ﺟﺮ‬.    
 
Let’s  do  one  final  example  to  include  everything  we  learned  so  far  (remember  not  to  worry  
about  the  ‫)ﻓﻌﻞ‬:  
1. The  balloon  of  Abdallah  popped  loudly.  
a. The  balloon:  ‫ ﺭرﻓﻊ‬ (doer;  it  is  the  thing  that  popped)  
b. Abdallah:  ‫ ﺟﺮ‬ (the  word  after  ‘of’)  
c. popped:  ‫ ﻓﻌﻞ‬ (action)  
d. loudly:  ‫ ﻧﺼﺐ‬ (detail  answering  how  the  balloon  popped)

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