Lesson 2

In the name of Allah, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful.

Assalamu'alaikum and greetings to all.


LESSON 2 NOMINALS : GENERAL

1. There are three short vowels in the Arabic language. Unlike vowels in English, they are indicated by strokes :
1. Fathah, َ `
2. Dhommah ُ ,
3. Kasrah ِ ,
2. As mentioned earlier, indefinite nominals ends with nunation, تَنْوِيْنٌ ( tanwin) i.e either with
1. ً   ( double Fathah ) or with
2. ٌ   ( double Dhommah ) or with
3. ٍ   ( double Kasrah ).
3. There are three consonants ا,و,ي which are described by the Arabic Grammarians as حروف العلة( huruf al-‘ilah ), weak or irregular letters.
1. They are used for lengthening the vowels. When they are used as lengtheners, they do not admit any vowel sign.
2. These three letters are often interchanged or dropped under the influence of other letters.
4. In Arabic orthography, there is no distinction between a proper noun and a noun, whereas in English proper nouns are written with the first letter capitalized. Proper nouns in Arabic are known by convention.
5. Most of the Arabic words in the Al-Quran ( about 95% ), called indeclinable , مَبْنِيٌّ )mabniyyun ), remain static or stationary in their original form under all the varied conditions. These include the following :
1. Personal pronouns
2. Possessive pronouns
3. Demonstrative pronouns
4. Relative pronouns
6. However, some words ( about 5% ) are declinable, مُعْرَبٌ ( mu’rabun). The Arabic nominals changes its original form or the case ending under different grammatical conditions ( which are explained later ) :
1. It can either be in the nominative case, مرفوع ( marfu’ ), the accusative case , منصوب ( mansub ) or the genitive case, مجرور ( majrur ) . Kindly see Table 2 below.

TABLE 2

NO	CASE ENDING	EXAMPLE	TRANSLITERATION	MEANING
a)	nominative case, مرفوع ( marfu’ )	هُوَ وَلَدٌ	huwa waladun	He is a boy.
b)	accusative case , منصوب ( mansub )	مَدَحَ وَلَدًا	madaha waladan	He praised a boy.
c)	genitive case,مجرور ( majrur )	خَرَجَ مَعَ وَلَدٍ	kharaja ma’a waladin	He went out with a boy.



2. The literal meaning of the words remains the same in all the different conditions, however, their function in a sentence changes according to the different grammatical considerations.

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