Elementary Arabic Morphology 2

The Status of Nouns

  1. What are states?

  2. How many types of states are there for nouns?

  3. What are the signs of the different states of nouns?

  4. Are there exceptions to this rule?

  5. What are the signs of the nominative state for nouns that are exceptions to the principle rule?

  6. What are the signs of the accusative state for these nouns?

  7. What are the signs of the genitive state for these nouns?

  8. States are the changes of the end of nouns and verbs due to the different places of a sentence that they are put into. For example: قَدِمَ الغائِبُ (the absent person came), رأیتُ الغائِبَ (I saw the absent person), and سلَّمتُ علی الغائِبِ (I greeted the absent person).

  9. There are three states for nouns: nominative, accusative and genitive.

  10. The signs of the states are as follows:

• The nominative state: a dummah.

• The accusative state: a fathah.

• The genitive state: a kasrah.

  1. Yes, there are exceptions to this rule, for example: dual forms, masculine sound plurals, feminine sound plurals, the five nouns and the words that are unnonated.

  2. The signs of the nominative state in the words that are exceptions to the general rule:

• Dual form: alif, for example: الکاتبان مفیدانِ (two useful authors).

• Sound masculine plurals: wāw, for example: جاء المحامونَ (The lawyers came).

• The five nouns: wāw, for example: أبوک عالمٌ (Your father is a scholar).

  1. The signs of the accusative state in these words:

• Dual form: yā' that has a fathah before it, for example: اشتریتُ کتابَین (I bought two books).

• Masculine sound plurals: yā', for example: رأیتُ المحامین (I saw the lawyers).

• The five nouns: alif, for example: کرَّمتُ أباک (I was generous to your father).

• Feminine sound plulars: kasrah, for example: اشتریت ساعاتٍ جمیلةً (I bought a beautiful watch).

  1. The sings of the genitive state in these words:

• Dual form: yā' that has a fathah before it, for example: بَحَثتُ في کتابَین (I researched two books).

• Masculine plurals: yā', for example: مع المحامین (with lawyers).

• The five nouns: yā', for example: سلَّمتُ علی أبیک (I greeted your father).

• Unnonated nouns: fathah, for example: ذهَبتُ إلی بیروتَ (I went to Beirut).