Syntax Level 1 Summary

Asalaamu ‘alaykum!

So for the past week I’ve been trying to summarise the fundamentals I’ve learnt from my النَحُو class into a chart to aid comprehension of concepts but retention also by having an overall outlook. The diagram may seem small on this page so either double-click or ask for document. If you can digest and memorise this chart then you’re going the right way! I purposely wrote all of it in Arabic so you’re more likely to think in the language. It may look daunting at first, however, once you go through it you’ll realise it’s just a table of lists which all links together to allow you to read and from phrases and sentences in Arabic. Below is a commentary of the chart in English to help you understand each box. Some components will be described briefly and then gone into depth on a separate post. Feel free to refer to previous posts also for help.

In Arabic there are utterances اللَّفْظ which have no meaning المُهْمَل and which do have meaning المَوْضُع. Meaningful utterances are broken down into two further distinctions: singular مُفْرَد and more than two words المُرَكَّب.

Singular utterances are of three types: nouns الاسْم, verbs الفِعْل and particles الحَرْف. Nouns are of three types defective الجامِد, verbal المَصْدَر and derivational المَشْتَق. Verbs are three or four types (difference of opinion): past tense الماضي, present/future tense المُضارِع, command الامَر and prohibition النَّهِي. Particles are of two types: governing عامِل and non governing غَيْرُ عامِل.

Each of these singular utterances also have ‘signs’ علامات which can be used to identify them in a phrase or sentence. The signs of nouns are as follows: the definite article ال, the indefinite articles ً ٌ ٍ,  duality التَّثْنِيَّة, plurality الجَمْعُ, femininity ة, the vocative المُناد, the noun in the genitive state المَجْرُور, possessed noun in the genitive construction الةُضاف, the noun being described المَوصُوْف, the subject in any sentence المُسْنَد الَيه, the diminutive المُصَغَّر, the related noun المَنْسُوْب.

There are 9 signs of a verb: it is prefixed with one of the following particles قَد سَ سَوْفَ, it is prefixed with a particle of Jazm :,اِن, لَم,ْ لَمَّا, لامُ الامَر, لامُ النَّهِي, it has a doer suffixed to it, it has a تْ suffixed to it, it has a ن suffixed to it for emphasis, it is a command or prohibition, the verb is always the predicate in a sentence and verbs can always inflect. The sign that a word is a particle is if there are no signs that it is a noun or verb.

If you remember from the last post pronouns are a type of nouns which are مَبْنِي. This is the next category on the chart. It is broken into two types: apparent البارِز and hidden المَسْتَتِر. The apparent pronouns are ones that can be seen and written and not embedded inside a word (المَسْتَتِر). The apparent is split into two categories attached المَتَّصِل and detached المَنْفَصِل. The former can be attached to other words and changes cases depending on the governing elements and the latter is مَبْنِي and always in الرَّفْع case.

The purple boxes are signs of masculinity & femininity and definiteness. There are only two signs of masculinity that it is intrinsically masculine for example الوَلَدُ (a boy) or it has no signs of femininity. So what are the signs of femininity? (that’s what’s written in Arabic in purple in the middle of the arrow). Well there are five key signs of femininity in a noun: it is feminine by gender الحَقِيقي, it ends with a ة or ىor اءor it is conventionally feminine السَّماعِي i.e. countries, body parts in pairs, elements of nature. The way to write colours in a particular gender is to use the root words in the form أفْعَلُ for masculine and فَعْلاَءُ for feminine. The first set of purple boxes lists signs of a noun being definite: لامُ التَّعْرِيْف (ال), proper noun العَلَمُ, pronouns الضَّمِيْر, demonstrative pronouns اسم الاشارة, relative pronouns اسم مَوْصُوْل (الَّذي), the vocative المُعَرَّفُ بِالنِّدَاء (adding يا before noun) and definite possessor مُضاف الى المَعْرِفَة.

We then have the second branch of meaningful utterances which consists of 2 or more words مُرَكَّب. These utterances can be further fit into two categories: phrases (incomplete sentences) النَّاقِص and full sentences التَّام. Starting with the former, there are 5 types of النَّاقِص however three main types which are used most commonly and they are: the adjectival phrase التَّوْصِيفِي, the genitive construction الاضافَةand finally the demonstrative phrase الاشارَة.

The adjectival phrase is made up of two components: the described noun مَوْصُوْف and the adjectives الصِّفَة – and it comes in that exact order and to function correctly they need to agree in definiteness, gender, number and case ending (see week 5 on the adjective phrase for a better understanding).

The genitive construction consists of two components also: the possessed مُضاف and possessor مُضاف اليه. There are three grammatical rules which need to be adhered to and that is: that the مُضاف cannot take a ال or ًٌٍ, that the definiteness is dependent on the مُضاف اليه because only it can take the ال ًٌٍ and finally the مُضاف اليه has to be مَجْرُوْر (see week 6 on the genitive construction for a better understanding).

Then we have the demonstrative phrase which also consists of two components the الاشارة and بَدَل (substitute) – usually a noun that is definite. Both need to be definite to form a phrase, if the noun is indefinite then we have formed a sentence because a definite plus indefinite noun constitutes to a sentence (see week 7 on the demonstrative noun for a better understanding).

This brings us to the second type of combined utterances: التَّام. A full sentence in Arabic can be of two types one where truth or falsehood can be applied الخَبَرِيَّة and one where it cannot الانْشائِيَّة. The informative sentence الخَبَرِيَّة  where truth or falsehood can be applied is split into two types: verbal and nominal (noun) sentences. Verbal sentences الجُمْلة الفِعْلِيَّة consists of two key components the verb فِعْل and the doer فاعِل and then you can add on an object مَفْعُوْلٌ بِهِ and/or a prepositional phrase. A noun sentence الجَمْلة الاسْمِيَّة consists of two main components: المُبْتَدَ and الخَبَرُ– both are in the case of الرَّفْع and need to match in number and gender but not definiteness otherwise it would turn into an adjectival phrase. The table below this consists of different cases endings you need to attach to a noun and the table on the right list the different types of demonstrative pronouns.