Arabic Terminologies and the Meaning in English

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Below is the video transcription.

Video  transcription.

1. Assalamu'alaikum brother and sister.
Learning with abi and ummi present you Arabic terminology and the meaning in English.

2. I will focus on the terminologies that are used relating to nahwu (نحو) and sarf (صرف).

3. Let's start with the first terminology.

نحو (nahwu) in English is called grammar.

Nahwu discusses the change of the vowel sign (حركة) or harakah of the last letter of the Arabic word.

4. اعراب (i'rab) is a topic which is discussed in Arabic grammar (nahwu).

I'rab is the grammatical inflection analysis of the last letter on a word.

5. صرف (sarf) is a study of how words are derived from the root verb or morphology.

We can also name it as tasrif (تصريف) which means changing the root forms of the words.

6. اسم (ismun, or we can say ism for short) is name or common noun includes nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverb of place, adverb of time,etc.

7. فعل (fi'lun or we can say fi'l for short) is verb includes past, present/future, and imperative.

8. حرف (harfun or we can say harf for short) is particles includes prepositions, conjunctions, interrogative particles, etc.

9. مذكّر (mudhakkar) is masculine.

Examples : a boy, waladun or we can say walad for short, a house baitun (بيت).

10. مؤنّث (mu-annath) is feminine, examples: a girl (بنت), a bag (حقيبة).

11. فاعل (fa'il) is subject or doer of the action.

12. مفعول (maf'ul) is object or upon whom/what the action was done.

13. مفرد (mufrad) is singular, example : a book (كتاب).

14. مثنّى (muthanna) is dual, example : two books (كتابان).

15. جمع (jam'un or we can say jam' for short) is plural. Example : books (كتب)

16. معرفة (ma'rifah) is a noun that is definite (definite noun).

Example : the book (الكتاب)

17. نكرة (nakirah) is indefinite noun.

Example: a book (كتاب).

18. مرفوع (marfu') is word with dammah on the last letter.

Example : a pen (قَلَمٌ) or qalamun.

19. منصوب (mansub) is word with a fat-hah on the last letter.

Example: قَلَمًا (qalaman).

20. مجرور (majrur)  is word with a kasrah on the last letter.

Example: قَلَمٍ (qalamin).

21. For more explanation and examples, read them on learnarabicstepbystep.blogspot.com.

Thank you for watching. Wassalamu'alaikum.

Detail explanation and examples of each point

Below are the explanation of Arabic terms/glossary which have been discussed in the video:

1. Nahwu is Arabic grammar.

Nahwu discusses the change of the vowel sign (حركة) or harakah of the last letter of the Arabic word.

You can see in the following examples how the vowel sign of the last letter of the word zaid (زيد) changes.

The first example the vowel sign is dammah "u" (zaidun/زَيْدٌ).

The second is fat-hah "a" (زَيْدًا/zaidan).

The last is kasrah "i" (زَيْدٍ/zaidin).


Examples:

جَلَسَ زَيْدٌ = Zaid sat.

- جَلَسَ = fi'l madi.

- زَيْدٌ  = the vowel sign (harakah) of the last letter is dammah.


ضَرَبَ بَكْرٌ زَيْدًا = Bakr hit Zaid.

- ضَرَبَ = fi'l madi.

- بَكْرٌ = the harakah of the last letter is dammah "u".

- زَيْدًا = the harakah of the last letter is fat-hah "a".


مَرَرْتُ بِزَيْدٍ  = I passed through zaid.

مَرَرْتُ  = مَرَّ + تُ

- مَرَّ = fi'l madi.

- ت = fa'il or doer.

- ب = harf jar

- زَيْدٍ = majrur, the vowel sign (harakah) of the last letter is kasrah "i".

2. I'rab is the grammatical inflection analysis of the last letter on a word.

Observe point number 1 carefully.

With i'rab, you can analyze why zaidun not zaidan or zaidin.

Let's analyze the first example:

جَلَسَ زَيْدٌ

- زَيْدٌ is فاعل (fa'il).

Fa'il is marfuu'aat. It means fa'il is marfu'.

Marfu' is a word with dammah sign on the last letter.


Then the second one:

 ضَرَبَ بَكْرٌ زَيْدًا

- bakr (بَكْرٌ ) is fa'il, marfu'. The indication of the rafa' is dammah "u".

- zaid (زَيْدًا) is maf'ul or object, mansub. The indication of the nasab is fat-hah "a"


The last one:

مَرَرْتُ بِزَيْدٍ

- ب (al-ba') = harf jar. It means this harf make the word after it  becomes majrur.

- زَيْدٍ = ism majrur. The indication of the jar is kasrah "i"


 

3. Sarf (صرف)

Sarf is changing a word into different forms in order to express different meanings.

Example :

ذَهَبَ = He went.

ذَهَبْتُ = I went.

The next example : كَتَبَ = wrote

كَاتِبٌ = writer.



4. اسم (ismun or ism for short).

ism includes name, common noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb of place, adverb of time, etc.

Examples:

proper noun, such as person's name:  زَيْدٌ (zaid)

common noun: بَيْتٌ (a house)

pronoun: هُوَ (he)

adjective: مجْتَهِدٌ (diligent)

adverb of place: مَلْعَبٌ (playground)

You can observe 4 qualities of Arabic noun in the following picture.

Re-read the lessons which are related to noun:

Noun cases in Arabic

Noun gender in Arabic

Definite and indefinite noun in Arabic 

Singular, dual, plural noun in Arabic

5. فعل (verb).

Examples:

ذَهَبَ = went (past)

يَذْهَبُ = go (present/future)

اِذْهَبْ = go! (imperative)



6. حَرْفْ = particle.

Examples:

فِيْ => فِي البَيْتِ  = in the house

مِنْ => مِنَ المَسْجِدِ  = from the mosque


 

7. Sentence examples :

قَرَأَ أَحْمَدُ الكِتَابَ فِي الفَصْلِ = Ahmad read the book in the class.

- أَحْمَدُ = fa'il/فاعل or the doer.

أَحْمَدُ  is marfu'/مرفوع , the indication of the rafa' is dammah "u" on the last letter.

- الكِتَابَ = maf'ul/مفعول.

 الكِتَابَ is mansub/منصوب , the indication of the nasb is fat-hah "a" on the last letter.

- الفَصْلِ = ism majrur/ مجرور  because it is preceded by harf jar فِي . The indication of the jar is kasrah "i" on the last letter.