Parts of Speech (أَنْوَاعُ الكَلَامِ)

Learning Arabic usually starts with learning about parts of speech (أنْوَاعُ الكَلَامِ). It's a short and easy topic

Arabic has three types of words

Let's take a closer look at each of the three parts of speech:

The noun (الاِسْمُ)

The noun is the most basic part of speech in Arabic. It refers to people, places, things, and ideas. Nouns can be singular or plural, and they can be masculine or feminine.

Here are some examples of nouns in Arabic:

كِـتَابٌ Book
قَلَمٌ pen
مَكْتَبٌ Desk
حَامِدٌ Hamid (male name)
الـجَمِيلُ Beautiful
الـمَاسُ Diamond
قِطٌّ Cat
  1. Nouns have three states: nominative (الرَفْعُ), accusative (النَصْبُ), and genitive (الـجَرُّ).
  2. By default, a noun is in the nominative (الرَفْعُ) state.

Arabic nouns and verbs can change their form depending on their role in a sentence. This is called grammatical state. There are four grammatical states in Arabic:

  1. Nominative (الرَفْعُ)
  2. Accusative (النَصْبُ)
  3. Genitive (الـجَرُّ)
  4. Jussive (الجَزْمُ)
Step by step, we will learn more about each of these states and see how they affect nouns and verbs. In this lesson, remember that if nothing affects the verb or noun, then it (by default) is in the nominative state (الرفع).

The verb (الفِعْلُ)

The verb is the second most important part of speech in Arabic. The verb is a word that indicates an action. It can be in the past tense, present tense, or imperative mood (command).

قَرَأَ Read
كَتَبَ Wrote
  1. Arabic verbs have three states: nominative (الرَّفْعُ), accusative (النَّصْبُ), jussive (الجَزْمُ)
  2. By default, a verb is in the nominative (الرَفْعُ) state.

The particle (الـحَرْفُ)

The الحَرْف is the smallest part of speech in Arabic. It is a word that does not have a meaning of its own, but it helps to connect words and phrases or add different meanings to them. It (الحَرْف) can be prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, or modal particles

Here are some examples of particles in Arabic:

مِـنْ From
عَـلَـى On
فِـي In
إِلى To

Take note!

It's crucial to understand that Arabic doesn't have direct equivalents for terms like "noun", "verb", "particle", "preposition", "conjunction", and "interjection" and so. Instead, it categorizes words into three main parts of speech:

  1. اِسْمٌ
  2. فِعْلٌ
  3. حَرْفٌ

Approach Arabic grammar from an Arabic perspective, not an English one.

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