Grammar lessons

The chapters of iʿrāb

Each lesson takes one chapter of Arabic grammar and works it through properly: the rule and what governs it, worked examples parsed in the full classical wording, evidence from the Quran, and the mistakes English speakers actually make.

  • 40 lessons
  • 10 chapters
  • Worked examples with full iʿrāb
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Start here Lesson 1 of 40 The sentence and its pillars The nominal sentence Its two pillars, their cases, and the shapes of the predicate Read the lesson

The sentence and its pillars

The nominal and the verbal sentence, and the nominatives that hold them up.

5 lessons
  1. 01 The nominal sentence Its two pillars, their cases, and the shapes of the predicate
  2. 02 Subject and predicate Their kinds, and when each is nominative
  3. 03 The verbal sentence Verb, doer, object, and their order
  4. 04 The doer (fāʿil) Its four rulings and the forms it takes
  5. 05 The deputy doer The passive and its rulings

The objects

Four accusatives: what the verb falls on, its verbal noun, its reason, its time and place.

4 lessons
  1. 06 The direct object Its accusative markers, fronting and postponing
  2. 07 The absolute object Its three kinds and what stands in for it
  3. 08 The object of purpose The conditions for its accusative
  4. 09 The adverbial object Adverbs of time and of place

The markers of iʿrāb

The vowels and letters that carry case, and which stand in for which.

4 lessons
  1. 10 The markers of iʿrāb Original and substitute markers, and what replaces what
  2. 11 The five verbs Keeping and dropping the nūn
  3. 12 The five nouns The conditions for letter-marked case
  4. 13 Diptotes Why they occur and their fatḥa in the genitive

The abrogators

Verbs and particles that enter on a subject and predicate and change the case of one or both.

5 lessons
  1. 14 Kāna and its sisters How they govern, their noun and predicate
  2. 15 Inna and its sisters Their governance, and hamza kasra vs fatḥa
  3. 16 The lā of absolute negation Its governance, conditions, and lā ilāha illā Llāh
  4. 17 Kāda and its sisters Verbs of approach, hope and beginning
  5. 18 Ẓanna and its sisters Verbs taking two objects

Accusatives and styles

The ḥāl, the specifier, exception and the vocative, and annexation.

5 lessons
  1. 19 The circumstantial accusative Its conditions, its holder, and the sentence-ḥāl
  2. 20 The specifier Specifying a single word or a whole sentence
  3. 21 Exception Illā and its sisters, complete and incomplete
  4. 22 The vocative Its five kinds and when it is built
  5. 23 Annexation (iḍāfa) Its rulings and the genitive of the second term

The followers

Words that take the case of the word before them.

4 lessons
  1. 24 The adjective Agreement in four respects, real and causal
  2. 25 Coordination The particles and what follows in case
  3. 26 Substitution Its kinds and the ruling of the substitute
  4. 27 Emphasis Verbal and semantic emphasis

The genitive and the imperfect

Prepositions, the subjunctive and the jussive, conditionals and numbers.

5 lessons
  1. 28 Prepositions Their meanings and what they attach to
  2. 29 The subjunctive The particles that put the imperfect in the accusative
  3. 30 The jussive Apocopating one verb and two
  4. 31 Conditional sentences The protasis, the apodosis, and the linking fāʾ
  5. 32 Numbers Agreement, the counted noun, and its case

The indeclinables

Pronouns, demonstratives and relatives: built forms and their positions.

3 lessons
  1. 33 Pronouns Detached, attached and implied
  2. 34 Demonstratives Their forms and their position in iʿrāb
  3. 35 Relative nouns The relative clause and its returning pronoun

The noun and its divisions

Definite and indefinite nouns, and the nouns named for their final letter.

2 lessons
  1. 36 Indefinite and definite The kinds of definiteness
  2. 37 Shortened, defective, extended Estimated case marking

Performative styles

Questions, wonder, praise and blame: their particles and their parsing.

3 lessons
  1. 38 Questions The particles and their positions in iʿrāb
  2. 39 Wonder Mā afʿalahu and afʿil bihi
  3. 40 Praise and blame Niʿma, biʾsa, ḥabbadhā and the specified

Theory is half the road.

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