vocatives: someone or something you call out to.

By default, you use yaa (“o”) followed by the

person or thing, but it should be marfuu’ and should not have the n sound.

o Khalid!
yaa Kaalidu
‫يا خالد‬

o Jacob!
yaa yaʻquwbu
‫يا يعقوب‬

However, if the vocative is a possessed noun, then it is one of the mansuwbs. And of course there
is no n to remove from a possessed noun.

‫َع ْبد‬
ʻabd
a male slave; servant, worshipper

‫هللا‬
ʼallaah
Allah

‫عبد هللا‬
ʻabdu l-laahi (why did we make ‫ عبد‬marfuwʻ? Because we had to put something there, and the
Arabs chose u)

My brother’s name is Abdullah.

ʼismu ʼaKii ʻabdu l-laahi.
‫إسم أخي عبد هللا‬

Where do you live, o Abdullah?

ʼayna taskunu yaa ʻabda l-laahii
‫أين تسكن يا عبد هللا؟‬

‫عاَلم‬
ʻaalam (not to be confused with ʻaalim)
world

faʻlat > fuʻal (plural)

dawlat > duwal

fuʻlat > fuʻal (plural)

ʼummat > ʼumam

There are many states in the world.

America is in the world.
Many states are in the world.

If the mubtada’ is indefinite, put it at the end of the sentence.

duwalun katiyratun fi l-ʻaalami > fi l-ʻaalami duwalun katiyratun

faʻul > fiʻaal (plural)

rajul > rijaal

‫َر ُجل ج ِر جال‬

rajul p rijaal
man

There are men in the house.

fi l-bayti rijaalun
‫في البيت رجال‬

They (referring to the men) ate.

ʼakaluw
‫َأَك ُلوا‬

They (referring to the states) failed.

faşilat (3fs)
‫َفِش َلت‬

Remember that the plural of an inanimate noun, be it masculine or feminine, is always treated as
feminine singular. That’s why we had “faşilat (3fs)” rather than “faşilna (3fp)” above.

‫إَّن‬
ʼinna
indeed

ʼinna is placed at the beginning of a sentence and is used to lend emphasis to an “X is Y”-type
construction, i.e. a mubtada’-Kabar construction. However, the erstwhile mubtada’ is now called
ʼinna’s ʼism, and the esrtwshile Kabar is now called ʼinna’s Kabar. ʼinna’s Kabar is a sister of the
doer. That means it’s a marfuwʻ. The ʼism of ʼinna, on the other hand, is a sister of the direct
object, i.e. it’s a manSuwb.

So, grammatically, ʼinna does the exact opposite of kaana. kaan’s ʼism is marfuwʻ while its Kabar is
manSuwb. ʼinna’s ʼism is manSuwb while its Kabar is marfuwʻ.

Abdullah is my paternal uncle.

ʻabdu l-laahi ʻamm-iy
‫عبد هللا عمي‬

Why would you want to emphasize a sentence? Well, somebody might have asserted its contrary.
For instance, someone might say, “Abdullah is not your paternal uncle.” and you might want to tell
him or her in no uncertain terms that he is indeed your paternal uncle.

Indeed, Abdullah is my paternal uncle.

ʼinna ʻabda l-laahi ʻamm-iy
‫إن عبد هللا عمي‬
Indeed, the nations are good.
ʼinna l-ʼumama jayyidatun

‫ِقْس م ج َأْق سام‬

qism p ʼaqsaam
department (as in a university)

fiʻl > ʼafʻaal (plural)

qism > ʼaqsaam

‫ِفْع ل ج َأْف عال‬

fiʻl > ʼafʻaal
action; verb

‫َعَم ل ج َأْع مال‬

ʻamal p ʼaʻmaal
work

faʻal > ʼafʻaal (plural)

‫َخ َب ر ج َأْخ بار‬

Kabar p ʼaKbaar
a piece of news

‫َج َب ل ج ِجبال‬
jabal p jibaal
mountain

faʻal > fiʻaal (plural) (You were probably expecting ʼafʻaal. Well, there are always exceptions!)
jabal > jibaal

‫َأُر ّز‬
ʼaruzz
rice

‫َلِذْيذ‬
ladiyd
delicious

Indeed, the rice is delicious.

ʼinna l-ʼaruzza ladiydun
‫إن األرز لذيذ‬

‫ِجًّد ا‬
jiddan
very (used to modify an adjective and comes after it)

Why is it manSuwb? Why is it not ‫ ِجٌّد‬jiddun or ‫ ِجٍّد‬jiddin? We can’t get into that right now.
The food is not very old.
laysa T-Taʻaamu qadiyman jiddan
‫ليس الطعام قديما جدا‬

Indeed, their (mp) president is very strange.

ʼinna raʼiysahum Gariybun jiddan
‫إن رئيسهم غريب جًد ا‬

‫َغ ِر ْيب‬
Gariyb
strange

My brother, Hassan, is tall.

ʼaK-iy Hasanun Tawiylun
‫أخي حسن طويل‬

Here, the word “brother” refers to the same person as “Hasan”. Similarly, in “President Bush”,
“President” and “Bush” refer to the same person. The same goes for “Mr. Smith”: “Mr.” and
“Smith” refer to the same person. Or you could say “Our book, the Qur’an, has x no. of pages.”
Obviously, “book” and “the Qur’an” refer to the same object. In English, we say the second noun is
in apposition to the first. In Arabic, we call the second noun ‫ َب َد ل‬badal. It is a type of follower. And
remember that ALL followers agree with the followed in case. That’s why “Hasan” in the sentence
above is marfuwʻ: it’s following ʼaK, which is marfuwʻ because it’s the mubtada’ of the sentence.

‫ُمْم تاز‬
mumtaaz
excellent

This man is not excellent.

laysa haada r-rajulu mumtaazan
‫ليس هذا الرجل ممتاًز ا‬

In this sentence, ‫ هذا‬is marfuwʻ (although you can’t see it because it’s mabniyy) because it’s laysa’s
ʼism. Why is ‫ الرجل‬marfuwʻ though? Because it’s a badal (and all badals are followers) because it
refers to the same thing as ‫هذا‬.

This is a man.
haadaa rajulun
‫هذا رجل‬

But how would you say “This is the man.”? If you said haada r-rajul, it could be taken to mean “this
man”, because the second word would seem to be a badal rather than a Kabar. How do we show
that it’s a Kabar (and haadaa is a mubtada’)? The Arabs insert a dummy marfuwʻ pronoun
between the mubtada’ and Kabar. The pronoun corresponds in gender and number with the
mubtada’.

This is the man.

haadaa huwa r-rajulu
 ‫هذا هو الرجل‬

That is the girl/daughter.

tilka hiya l-bintu
‫تلك هي البنت‬

If we remove the dummy pronoun, the meaning is ambiguous, and most Arabs will take it to mean
“This man”, “That girl”, etc.

‫َم ْر َح ًبا‬
marHaban
Welcome! (But also can be used to mean “Hello!”)
We cannot discuss why it is manSuwb right now.

In Qur’anic Arabic, when you pause on a word that ends with ً‫ا‬, you pronounce it َ‫ا‬, i.e. with a long
a. In non-Quranic Arabic, the pausal form is the same as the non-pausal form, i.e. an.

‫والدتك جميلة‬
waalidatuki jamiylatun
Your mother is beautiful.

waalidatuki jamiylatu (her name; hence, the lack of n)

Your mother is Jameelah.