Elementary Arabic Morphology 1

The Division of Nouns Into Declinable And Indeclinable

85. What is understood by a declinable noun?

86. How many cases does a noun have?

87. What is the sign of the nominative case?

88. What is the sign of the accusative case?

89. What is the sign of the genitive case?

90. A declinable noun is a noun whose last syllable changes when placed into different parts of a sentence.

91. A noun has three cases: nominative, accusative and genitive.

92. The main sign for the nominative case is a dummah. But, sometimes it is represented by:

• Alif in the dual forms.

• Wāw in the masculine sound plurals and the five nouns which are:

(possessor, mouth, father-in-law, brother, father)

88. The main sign for the accusative case if the fathah. But, sometimes it is represented by:

• Alif in the five nouns.

• Kasrah in the feminine sound plurals.

• Yā' in the dual forms and the masculine sound plurals.

89. The main sign of the genitive case is the kasrah. But, sometimes it is represented by:
    • Yā' in the dual forms, masculine sound plurals and the five nouns.

• Fathah in the unnonated nouns.