Arabic grammar
Arabic grammar or Arabic language Sciences is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with the grammar of other Semitic languages.
The article focuses both on the grammar of Literary Arabic and of the colloquial spoken varieties of Arabic. The grammar of the two types is largely similar in its particulars. Generally, the grammar of Classical Arabic is described first, followed by the areas in which the colloquial variants tend to differ.
The largest differences between the classical/standard and the colloquial Arabic are the loss of morphological markings of grammatical case; changes in word order, an overall shift towards a more analytic morphosyntax, the loss of the previous system of grammatical mood, along with the evolution of a new system; the loss of the inflected passive voice, except in a few relic varieties; restriction in the use of the dual number and the loss of the feminine plural. Many Arabic dialects, Maghrebi Arabic in particular also have significant vowel shifts and unusual consonant clusters. Unlike other dialects, in Maghrebi Arabic first person singular verbs begin with a n-.
History
The identity of the oldest Arabic grammarian is disputed; some sources state that it was Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali, who established diacritical marks and vowels for Arabic in the mid-600s, Others have said that the earliest grammarian would have been Ibn Abi Ishaq.The schools of Basra and Kufa further developed grammatical rules in the late 8th century with the rapid rise of Islam. From the school of Basra, generally regarded as being founded by Abu Amr ibn al-Ala, two representatives laid important foundations for the field: Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi authored the first Arabic dictionary and book of Arabic prosody, and his student Sibawayh authored the first book on theories of Arabic grammar. From the school of Kufa, Al-Ru'asi is universally acknowledged as the founder, though his own writings are considered lost, with most of the school's development undertaken by later authors. The efforts of al-Farahidi and Sibawayh consolidated Basra's reputation as the analytic school of grammar, while the Kufan school was regarded as the guardian of Arabic poetry and Arab culture. The differences were polarizing in some cases, with early Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn `Isa at-Tirmidhi favoring the Kufan school due to its concern with poetry as a primary source.
Early Arabic grammars were more or less lists of rules, without the detailed explanations which would be added in later centuries. The earliest schools were different not only in some of their views on grammatical disputes, but also their emphasis. The school of Kufa excelled in Arabic poetry and exegesis of the Qur'an, in addition to Islamic law and Arab genealogy. The more rationalist school of Basra, on the other hand, focused more on the formal study of grammar.
Division
For classical Arabic grammarians, the grammatical sciences are divided into five branches:- al-lughah اَللُّغَة concerned with collecting and explaining vocabulary.
- at-taṣrīf اَلتَّصْرِيف determining the form of the individual words.
- an-naḥw اَلنَّحْو primarily concerned with inflection.
- al-ishtiqāq اَلاشْتِقَاق examining the origin of the words.
- al-balāghah اَلْبَلَاغَة which elucidates stylistic quality, or eloquence.
Phonology
Classical Arabic has 28 consonantal phonemes, including two semi-vowels, which constitute the Arabic alphabet.It also has six vowel phonemes. These appear as various allophones, depending on the preceding consonant. Short vowels are not usually represented in the written language, although they may be indicated with diacritics.
Word stress varies from one Arabic dialect to another. A rough rule for word-stress in Classical Arabic is that it falls on the penultimate syllable of a word if that syllable is closed, and otherwise on the antepenultimate.
Hamzat al-waṣl, elidable hamza, is a phonetic object prefixed to the beginning of a word for ease of pronunciation, since Literary Arabic doesn't allow consonant clusters at the beginning of a word. Elidable hamza drops out as a vowel, if a word is preceding it. This word will then produce an ending vowel, "helping vowel" to facilitate pronunciation. This short vowel may be, depending on the preceding vowel, a fatḥah, pronounced as ; a kasrah, pronounced as ; or a ḍammah, pronounced as. If the preceding word ends in a sukūn, meaning that it is not followed by a short vowel, the hamzat al-waṣl assumes a kasrah. The symbol ـّ indicates gemination or consonant doubling. See more in Tashkīl.
Nouns and adjectives
In Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic, nouns and adjectives are declined, according to case, state, gender and number. In colloquial or spoken Arabic, there are a number of simplifications such as the loss of certain final vowels and the loss of case. A number of derivational processes exist for forming new nouns and adjectives. Adverbs can be formed from adjectives.Pronouns
Personal pronouns
In Arabic, personal pronouns have 12 forms. In singular and plural, the 2nd and 3rd persons have separate masculine and feminine forms, while the 1st person does not. In the dual, there is no 1st person, and only a single form for each 2nd and 3rd person. Traditionally, the pronouns are listed in the order 3rd, 2nd, 1st.Informal Arabic tends to avoid the dual forms antumā أَنْتُمَا and humā هُمَا. The feminine plural forms antunna أَنْتُنَّ and hunna هُنَّ are likewise avoided, except by speakers of conservative colloquial varieties that still possess separate feminine plural pronouns.
Enclitic pronouns
forms of personal pronouns are affixed to various parts of speech, with varying meanings:- To the construct state of nouns, where they have the meaning of possessive demonstratives, e.g. "my, your, his"
- To verbs, where they have the meaning of direct object pronouns, e.g. "me, you, him"
- To prepositions, where they have the meaning of objects of the prepositions, e.g. "to me, to you, to him"
- To conjunctions and particles like أَنَّ anna "that...", لِأَنَّ li-anna "because...", وَ)لٰكِنَّ)) lākinna "but...", إِنَّ inna, where they have the meaning of subject pronouns, e.g. "because I...", "because you...", "because he...".
- If the personal pronoun -ī is added to a word ending in a vowel, an extra -n- is added between the word and the enclitic form to avoid a hiatus between the two vowels.
Variant forms
For all but the first person singular, the same forms are used regardless of the part of speech of the word attached to. In the third person masculine singular, -hu occurs after the vowels u or a, while -hi occurs after i or y. The same alternation occurs in the third person dual and plural.In the first person singular, however, the situation is more complicated. Specifically, -nī "me" is attached to verbs, but -ī/-ya "my" is attached to nouns. In the latter case, -ya is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a long vowel or diphthong, while -ī is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a short vowel, in which case that vowel is elided. Furthermore, -ū of the masculine sound plural is assimilated to -ī before -ya. Examples:
- From kitāb "book", pl. كُتُب kutub:كتابي kitāb-ī "my book", كتبي kutub-ī "my books", كتاباي kitābā-ya "my two books ", كتابي kitābay-ya "my two books "
- From kalimah "word", pl. كَلِمَات kalimāt: كَلِمَتِي kalimat-ī "my word", كَلِمَاتِي kalimāt-ī "my words"
- From dunyā "world", pl. دُنْيَيَات dunyayāt: دُنْيَايَ dunyā-ya "my world", دُنْيَيَاتِي dunyayāt-ī "my worlds"
- From qāḍin "judge", pl. قُضَاة quḍāh: قَاضِيَّ qāḍiy-ya "my judge", قُضَاتِي quḍāt-ī "my judges"
- From mu‘allim "teacher", pl. مُعَلِّمُون mu‘allimūn: مُعَلِّمِي mu‘allim-ī "my teacher", مُعَلِّمِيَّ mu‘allimī-ya "my teachers"
- From ab "father": أَبُويَ abū-ya "my father", أَبَايَ abā-ya "my father", أَبِيَّ abī-ya "my father"
The second-person masculine plural past tense verb ending -tum changes to the variant form -tumū before enclitic pronouns, e.g. كَتَبْتُمُوهُ katab-tumū-hu "you wrote it ".
Pronouns with prepositions
Some very common prepositions — including the proclitic preposition li- "to" — have irregular or unpredictable combining forms when the enclitic pronouns are added to them:| Meaning | Independent form | With "... me" | With "... you" | With "... him" |
| "to", indirect object | لِـ li- | لِي lī | لَكَ laka | لَهُ lahu |
| "in", "with", "by" | بِـ bi- | بِي bī | بِكَ bika | بِهِ bihi |
| "in" | فِي fī | فِيَّ fīya | فِيكَ fīka | فِيهِ fīhi |
| "to" | إِلَى ilá | إِلَيَّ ilayya | إِلَيْكَ ilayka | إِلَيْهِ ilayhi |
| "on" | عَلَى ‘alá | عَلَيَّ ‘alayya | عَلَيْكَ ‘alayka | عَلَيْهِ ‘alayhi |
| "with" | مَعَ ma‘a | مَعِي ma‘ī | مَعَكَ ma‘aka | مَعَهُ ma‘ahu |
| "from" | مِنْ min | مِنِّي minnī | مِنْكَ minka | مِنْهُ minhu |
| "on", "about" | عَنْ ‘an | عَنِّي ‘annī | عَنْكَ ‘anka | عَنْهُ ‘anhu |
In the above cases, when there are two combining forms, one is used with "... me" and the other with all other person/number/gender combinations.
Note in particular:
- إِلَى ilá "to" and عَلَى ‘alá "on" have irregular combining forms إِلَيْـ ilay-, عَلَيْـ ‘alay-; but other pronouns with the same base form are regular, e.g. مَعَ ma‘a "with".
- لِـ li- "to" has an irregular combining form la-, but بِـ bi- "in, with, by" is regular.
- مِنْ min "from" and عَنْ ‘an "on" double the final n before -ī.
Less formal pronominal forms
Demonstratives
There are two demonstratives, near-deictic and far-deictic :The dual forms are only used in very formal Arabic.
Some of the demonstratives should be pronounced with a long ā, although the unvocalised script is not written with alif. Instead of an alif, they have the diacritic ـٰ, which doesn't exist on Arabic keyboards and is seldom written, even in vocalised Arabic.
Qur'anic Arabic has another demonstrative, normally followed by a noun in a genitive construct and meaning 'owner of':
Note that the demonstrative and relative pronouns were originally built on this word. hādhā, for example, was originally composed from the prefix hā- 'this' and the masculine accusative singular dhā; similarly, dhālika was composed from dhā, an infixed syllable -li-, and the clitic suffix -ka 'you'. These combinations had not yet become completely fixed in Qur'anic Arabic and other combinations sometimes occurred, e.g. dhāka, dhālikum. Similarly, the relative pronoun alladhī was originally composed based on the genitive singular dhī, and the old Arabic grammarians noted the existence of a separate nominative plural form alladhūna in the speech of the Hudhayl tribe in Qur'anic times.
This word also shows up in Hebrew, e.g. masculine zeh, feminine zot, plural eleh.
Relative pronoun
The relative pronoun is declined as follows:Note that the relative pronoun agrees in gender, number and case, with the noun it modifies—as opposed to the situation in other inflected languages such as Latin and German, where the gender and number agreement is with the modified noun, but the case marking follows the usage of the relative pronoun in the embedded clause.
When the relative pronoun serves a function other than the subject of the embedded clause, a resumptive pronoun is required: اَلَّرَجُلُ ٱلَّذِي تَكَلَّمْتُ مَعَهُ al-rajul lladhī takallamtu ma‘a-hu, literally "the man who I spoke with him".
The relative pronoun is normally omitted entirely when an indefinite noun is modified by a relative clause: رَجُلٌ تَكَلَّمْتُ مَعَهُ rajul takallamtu ma‘a-h "a man that I spoke with", literally "a man I spoke with him".
Colloquial varieties
The above system is mostly unchanged in the colloquial varieties, other than the loss of the dual forms and of the feminine plural. Some of the more notable changes:- The third-person -hi, -him variants disappear. On the other hand, the first person -nī/-ī/-ya variation is preserved exactly, and new variants appear for many forms. For example, in Egyptian Arabic, the second person feminine singular appears either as -ik or -ki depending on various factors ; likewise, the third person masculine singular appears variously as -u, -hu, or -.
- In many varieties, the indirect object forms, which appear in Classical Arabic as separate words, become fused onto the verb, following a direct object. These same varieties generally develop a circumfix for negation. This can lead to complicated agglutinative constructs, such as Egyptian Arabic 'he didn't write it to me'.
- Other varieties instead use a separate Classical pseudo-pronoun īyā- for direct objects.
- Affixation of dual and sound plural nouns has largely vanished. Instead, all varieties possess a separate preposition with the meaning of "of", which replaces certain uses of the construct genitive. In Moroccan Arabic, the word is dyal, e.g. l-kitab dyal-i "my book", since the construct-state genitive is mostly unproductive. Egyptian Arabic has bitā‘ , which agrees in gender and number with the preceding noun. In Egyptian Arabic, the construct-state genitive is still productive, hence either kitāb-i or il-kitāb bitā‘-i can be used for "my book", but only il-mu‘allimūn bitū‘-i "my teachers".
- The declined relative pronoun has vanished. In its place is an indeclinable particle, usually illi or similar.
- Various forms of the demonstrative pronouns occur, usually shorter than the Classical forms. For example, Moroccan Arabic uses ha l- "this", dak l-/dik l-/duk l- "that". Egyptian Arabic is unusual in that the demonstrative follows the noun, e.g. il-kitāb da "this book", il-binti di "this girl".
- Some of the independent pronouns have slightly different forms compared with their Classical forms. For example, usually forms similar to inta, inti "you " occur in place of anta, anti, and iḥna "we" occurs in place of naḥnu.
Numerals
Cardinal numerals
Numbers behave in a quite complicated fashion. wāḥid- "one" and ithnān- "two" are adjectives, following the noun and agreeing with it. thalāthat- "three" through ‘asharat- "ten" require a following noun in the genitive plural, but disagree with the noun in gender, while taking the case required by the surrounding syntax. aḥada ‘asharah "eleven" through tis‘ata ‘asharah "nineteen" require a following noun in the accusative singular, agree with the noun in gender, and are invariable for case, except for ithnā ‘asharah/ithnay ‘ashara "twelve".The formal system of cardinal numerals, as used in Classical Arabic, is extremely complex. The system of rules is presented below. In reality, however, this system is never used: Large numbers are always written as numerals rather than spelled out, and are pronounced using a simplified system, even in formal contexts.
Example:
Cardinal numerals from 0-10. Zero is ṣifr, from which the words "cipher" and "zero" are ultimately derived.
- 0 ٠ ṣifr
- 1 ١ wāḥid
- 2 ٢ ithnān
- 3 ٣ thalātha
- 4 ٤ arba‘a
- 5 ٥ khamsa
- 6 ٦ sitta
- 7 ٧ sab‘a
- 8 ٨ thamāniya
- 9 ٩ tis‘a
- 10 ١٠ ‘ashara
اِثْنَانِ ithnān is changed to اِثْنَيْنِ ithnayn in oblique cases. This form is also commonly used in a less formal Arabic in the nominative case.
The numerals 1 and 2 are adjectives. Thus they follow the noun and agree with gender.
Numerals 3–10 have a peculiar rule of agreement known as polarity: A feminine referrer agrees with a numeral in masculine gender and vice versa, e.g. thalāthu fatayātin "three girls". The noun counted takes indefinite genitive plural.
Numerals 11 and 13–19 are indeclinable for case, perpetually in the accusative. Numbers 11 and 12 show gender agreement in the ones, and 13-19 show polarity in the ones. Number 12 also shows case agreement, reminiscent of the dual. The gender of عَشَر in numbers 11-19 agrees with the counted noun. The counted noun takes indefinite accusative singular.
Unitary numbers from 20 on behave entirely as nouns, showing the case required by the surrounding syntax, no gender agreement, and a following noun in a fixed case. 20 through 90 require their noun to be in the accusative singular; 100 and up require the genitive singular. The unitary numbers themselves decline in various fashions:
- ‘ishrūna "20" through tis‘ūna "90" decline as masculine plural nouns
- mi’at- "100" declines as a feminine singular noun
- alf- "1,000" declines as a masculine singular noun
- 20 ‘ishrūna
- 21 wāḥidun wa-‘ishrūna
- 22 ithnāni wa-‘ishrūna
- 23 thalāthatu wa-‘ishrūna
- 30 thalāthūna
- 40 arba‘ūna
In compound numbers, the number formed with the last two digits dictates the declension of the associated noun, e.g. 212, 312, and 54,312 would all behave like 12.
Large compound numbers can have, e.g.:
- أَلْفٌ وَتِسْعُ مِئَةٍ وَتِسْعُ سِنِينَ alfun wa-tis‘u mi’atin wa-tis‘u sinīna "1,909 years"
- بَعْدَ أَلْفٍ وَتِسْعِ مِئَةٍ وَتِسْعِ سِنِينَ ba‘da alfin wa-tis‘i mi’atin wa-tis‘i sinīna "after 1,909 years"
- أَرْبَعَةٌ وَتِسْعُونَ أَلْفًا وَثَمَانِي مِئَةٍ وَثَلَاثٌ وَسِتُّونَ سَنَةً arba‘atun wa-tis‘ūna alfan wa-thamānī mi’atin wa-thalāthun wa-sittūna sanatan "94,863 years"
- بَعْدَ أَرْبَعَةٍ وَتِسْعِينَ أَلْفًا وَثَمَانِي مِئَةٍ وَثَلَاثٍ وَسِتِّينَ سَنَةً ba‘da arba‘atin wa-tis‘īna alfan wa-thamānī mi’atin wa-thalāthin wa-sittīna sanatan "after 94,863 years"
- اِثْنَا عَشَرَ أَلْفًا وَمِئَتَانِ وَٱثْنَتَانِ وَعِشْرُونَ سَنَةً iṯnā ‘ašara alfan wa-mi’atāni wa-thnatāni wa-‘ishrūna sanatan "12,222 years"
- بَعْدَ ٱثْنَيْ عَشَرَ أَلْفًا وَمِئَتَيْنِ وَٱثْنَتَيْنِ وَعِشْرينَ سَنَةً ba‘da thnay ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atayni wa-thnatayni wa-‘ishrīna sanatan "after 12,222 years"
- اِثْنَا عَشَرَ أَلْفًا وَمِئَتَانِ وَسَنَتَانِ ithnā ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atāni wa-sanatāni "12,202 years"
- بَعْدَ ٱثْنَيْ عَشَرَ أَلْفًا وَمِئَتَيْنِ وَسَنَتَيْنِ ba‘da thnay ‘ashara alfan wa-mi’atayni wa-sanatayni "after 12,202 years"
- alfu laylatin wa-laylatun "1,001 nights"
- mi’atu kitabin wa-kitābāni "102 books"
Fractions
Fractions of a whole smaller than "half" are expressed by the structure fi‘l in the singular, af‘āl in the plural.- half niṣfun
- one-third thulthun
- two-thirds thulthāni
- one-fourth rub‘un
- three-fourths thalāthatu arbā‘in
- etc.
Ordinal numerals
- m. أَوَّلُ awwalu, f. أُولَى ūlá "first"
- m. ثَانٍ thānin, f. ثَانِيَةٌ thāniyatun "second"
- m. ثَالِثٌ thālithun, f. ثَالِثَةٌ thālithatun "third"
- m. رَابِعٌ rābi‘un, f. رَابِعَةٌ rābi‘atun "fourth"
- m. خَامِسٌ khāmisun, f. خَامِسَةٌ khāmisatun "fifth"
- m. سَادِسٌ sādisun, f. سَادِسَةٌ sādisatun "sixth"
- m. سَابِعٌ sābi‘un, f. سَابِعَةٌ sābi‘atun "seventh"
- m. ثَامِنٌ thāminun, f. ثَامِنَةٌ thāminatun "eighth"
- m. تَاسِعٌ tāsi‘un, f. تَاسِعَةٌ tāsi‘atun "ninth"
- m. عَاشِرٌ ‘āshirun, f. عَاشِرَةٌ ‘āshiratun "tenth"
Verbs
Arabic verbs, like the verbs in other Semitic languages, are extremely complex. Verbs in Arabic are based on a root made up of three or four consonants. The set of consonants communicates the basic meaning of a verb, e.g. k-t-b 'write', q-r-’ 'read', ’-k-l 'eat'. Changes to the vowels in between the consonants, along with prefixes or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as tense, person and number, in addition to changes in the meaning of the verb that embody grammatical concepts such as mood, voice, and functions such as causative, intensive, or reflexive.Since Arabic lacks an auxiliary verb "to have", constructions using li-, ‘inda, and ma‘a with the pronominal suffixes are used to describe possession. For example: عنده بيت - literally: At him a house. → He has a house.
For the negation of Arabic verbs, see Negation in Arabic.
Prepositions
| Arabic | English | |
| True prepositions | bi- | with, in, at |
| True prepositions | ta- | only used in the expression تٱللهِ tallāhi 'I swear to God' |
| True prepositions | la- | certainly |
| True prepositions | li- | to, for |
| True prepositions | ka- | like, as |
| True prepositions | fa- | then |
| True prepositions | ’ilá | to, towards |
| True prepositions | ḥattá | until, up to |
| True prepositions | ‘alá | on, over; against |
| True prepositions | ‘an | from, about |
| True prepositions | fī | in, at |
| True prepositions | min | from; than |
| True prepositions | mundhu | since |
| True prepositions | mudh | since |
| Semi-prepositions | ’amāma | in front of |
| Semi-prepositions | bayna | between, among |
| Semi-prepositions | taḥta | under, below |
| Semi-prepositions | ḥawla | around |
| Semi-prepositions | khārija | outside |
| Semi-prepositions | khilāla | during |
| Semi-prepositions | dākhila | inside |
| Semi-prepositions | dūna | without |
| Semi-prepositions | ḍidda | against |
| Semi-prepositions | ‘inda | on the part of; at; at the house of; in the possession of |
| Semi-prepositions | fawqa | above |
| Semi-prepositions | ma‘a | with |
| Semi-prepositions | mithla | like |
| Semi-prepositions | warā’a | behind |
There are two types of prepositions, based on whether they arise from the triconsonantal roots system or not. There are ten 'true prepositions' that do not stem from the triconsonantal roots. These true prepositions cannot have prepositions preceding them, in contrast to the derived triliteral prepositions. True prepositions can also be used with certain verbs to convey a particular meaning. For example, بَحَثَ baḥatha means "to discuss" as a transitive verb, but can mean "to search for" when followed by the preposition عَنْ ‘an, and "to do research about" when followed by فِي fī.
The prepositions arising from the triliteral root system are called "adverbs of place and time" in the native tradition and work very much in the same way as the 'true' prepositions.
A noun following a preposition takes the genitive case. However, prepositions can take whole clauses as their object too if succeeded by the conjunctions أَنْ ’an or أَنَّ ’anna, in which case the subject of the clause is in the nominative or the accusative respectively.
The word - preposition () or noun ()?
This is a question that does not have a clear answer: A حَرْف is by definition مَبْنِيّ, which means that it always stays the same; e.g., the word فِي.There is a debate going on but most grammarians think that مَعَ 'with' is an اِسْم because the word مَعَ can sometimes have nunation. For example, in the expression They came together: جاؤوا مَعًا. That is why مَعَ is occasionally listed under "semi-prepositions," as مَعَ treated as an اِسْم is grammatically speaking a ظَرْف مَكَان or زَمَان, so called: اِسْمٌ لِمَكَانِ الاِصْطِحَابِ أَوْ وَقْتِهِ.
Syntax
Genitive construction ()
A noun may be defined more precisely by adding another noun immediately afterwards. In Arabic grammar, this is called إِضَافَة iḍāfah and in English is known as the "genitive construct", "construct phrase", or "annexation structure". The first noun must be in the construct form while, when cases are used, the subsequent noun must be in the genitive case. The construction is typically equivalent to the English construction " of ". This is a very widespread way of forming possessive constructions in Arabic, and is typical of a Semitic language.Simple examples include:
- بِنْتُ حَسَنٍ bintu Ḥasan "the daughter of Hasan/Hasan's daughter".
- دَارُ السَّلاَمِ dāru‿s-salām "the house of peace".
- كِيلُو مَوْزٍ kīlū mawz "a kilo of bananas".
- بَيْتُ رَجُلٍ baytu‿rajul "the house of a man/a man's house".
- بَيْتُ ٱلرَّجُلِ baytu‿r-rajul "the house of the man/the man's house".
Word order
Classical Arabic tends to prefer the word order VSO rather than SVO. Verb initial word orders like in Classical Arabic are relatively rare across the world's languages, occurring only in a few language families including Celtic, Austronesian, and Mayan. The alternation between VSO and SVO word orders in Arabic results in an agreement asymmetry: the verb shows person, number, and gender agreement with the subject in SVO constructions but only gender agreement in VSO, to the exclusion of number.Despite the fact that the subject in the latter two above examples is plural, the verb lacks plural marking and instead surfaces as if it was in the singular form.
Though early accounts of Arabic word order variation argued for a flat, non-configurational grammatical structure, more recent work has shown that there is evidence for a VP constituent in Arabic, that is, a closer relationship between verb and object than verb and subject. This suggests a hierarchical grammatical structure, not a flat one. An analysis such as this one can also explain the agreement asymmetries between subjects and verbs in SVO versus VSO sentences, and can provide insight into the syntactic position of pre- and post-verbal subjects, as well as the surface syntactic position of the verb.
In the present tense, there is no overt copula in Arabic. In such clauses, the subject tends to precede the predicate, unless there is a clear demarcating pause between the two, suggesting a marked information structure. It is a matter of debate in Arabic literature whether there is a null present tense copula which syntactically precedes the subject in verbless sentences, or whether there is simply no verb, only a subject and predicate.
Subject pronouns are normally omitted except for emphasis or when using a participle as a verb. Because the verb agrees with the subject in person, number, and gender, no information is lost when pronouns are omitted. Auxiliary verbs precede main verbs, prepositions precede their objects, and nouns precede their relative clauses.
Adjectives follow the noun they are modifying, and agree with the noun in case, gender, number, and state: For example, بِنْتٌ جَمِيلَةٌ bintun jamīlatun 'a beautiful girl' but اَلْبِنُتُ ٱلْجَمِيلَةُ al-bintu al-jamīlatu 'the beautiful girl'. Elative adjectives, however, usually don't agree with the noun they modify, and sometimes even precede their noun while requiring it to be in the genitive case.
''’inna''
The subject of a sentence can be topicalized and emphasized by moving it to the beginning of the sentence and preceding it with the word إِنَّ inna 'indeed'. An example would be إِنَّ ٱلسَّمَاءَ زَرْقَاءُ inna s-samā’a zarqā’ 'The sky is blue indeed'.’Inna, along with its related terms anna 'that', inna 'that', lākin 'but' and ka-anna 'as if' introduce subjects while requiring that they be immediately followed by a noun in the accusative case, or an attached pronominal suffix.
Definite article
As a particle, al- does not inflect for gender, number, person, or grammatical case. The sound of the final -l consonant, however, can vary; when followed by a sun letter such as t, d, r, s, n and a few others, it is replaced by the sound of the initial consonant of the following noun, thus doubling it. For example: for "the Nile", one does not say al-Nīl, but an-Nīl. When followed by a moon letter, like m-, no replacement occurs, as in al-masjid. This affects only the pronunciation and not the spelling of the article.Dynasty or family
Some people, especially in the region of Arabia, when they are descended from a famous ancestor, start their last name with آل, a noun meaning "family" or "clan", like the dynasty Al Saud or Al ash-Sheikh. آل is distinct from the definite article ال.| Arabic | meaning | transcription | example |
| ال | the | al- | Maytham al-Tammar |
| آل | family/clan of | Al, Aal | Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud |
| أهل | tribe/people of | Ahl | Ahl al-Bayt |