الفيل Al-Fil

root

The bare consonants a family of words is built from, carrying their shared sense: it cannot be pronounced by itself, and it is what a classical dictionary files an entry under.

derived form

A dictionary headword built on a root by a pattern of vowels, prefixes and doubling. Each is a different word with its own meaning, not a grammatical inflection.

noun

A word naming a person, place, thing or idea.

proper noun

The name of a particular person or place.

adjective

A word describing a quality of a noun.

imperative verbal noun

A noun used with the force of a command.

personal pronoun

A word standing in for a person or thing: he, she, they.

attached pronoun

A pronoun written onto the end of the word it belongs to, as an object or a possessor: his, them, you.

demonstrative pronoun

A pointing word: this, that, these.

relative pronoun

A word opening a clause that describes: who, which.

time adverb

A word placing the action in time: when, then.

location adverb

A word placing the action somewhere: where, wherever.

verb

A word of action or state, carrying person, tense and mood.

preposition

A small word relating what follows it to the sentence: in, by, with, from.

determiner

The prefixed al-, Arabic's definite article: the.

emphatic prefix lām

A prefixed lam lending emphasis: surely, indeed.

emphatic suffix nūn

A nun of emphasis fixed to the end of a verb.

prefixed imperative particle lām

A prefixed lam forming a command: let him...

prefixed particle of purpose lām

A prefixed lam expressing purpose: in order to.

coordinating conjunction

A word joining equals: and, or.

subordinating conjunction

A word opening a dependent clause: that.

accusative particle

A particle that puts the noun after it into the accusative, as inna and its sisters do.

one of inna's sisters

One of the particles led by inna, which put the noun after them in the accusative and its predicate in the nominative.

one of kana's sisters

One of the verbs led by kana, which put the subject after them in the nominative and its predicate in the accusative.

one of kada's sisters

One of the verbs of approach led by kada, saying that something came near to happening.

amendment particle

A particle correcting course: but, however.

answer particle

A particle of reply: yes, indeed.

aversion particle

A particle of rebuke and refusal: nay, by no means.

particle of cause

A particle marking what follows as the reason.

particle of certainty

A particle asserting what follows: verily.

circumstantial particle

A particle opening a clause of attendant circumstance: while, as.

comitative particle

The waw of accompaniment: together with.

conditional particle

A particle opening a condition: if, whoever.

conditional noun

A word opening a condition and carrying gender and number: whoever, whichever.

equalization particle

A particle marking alternatives as equal: whether ... or.

exhortation particle

A particle urging: why do you not...?

explanation particle

A particle introducing a detailing: as for.

exceptive particle

A particle of exception: except, save.

future particle

A particle placing the verb in the future: will.

inceptive particle

A particle opening a fresh sentence.

particle of interpretation

A particle introducing an explanation: that is, namely.

interrogative noun

A word asking a question: how? what? which?

Qur'anic initials

The disconnected letters that open certain surahs, recited letter by letter.

negative particle

A particle of denial: not, no.

preventive particle mā

The ma that stops a particle governing what follows it.

prohibition particle

The la of forbidding: do not.

resumption particle

A wa or fa resuming the discourse: then, so.

restriction particle

A particle of only and none but.

retraction particle

A particle stepping back from what was said: rather, nay.

result particle

The fa opening the answer to a condition: then.

supplemental particle

A wa or fa loosely adding to what came before.

surprise particle

A particle of sudden turn: behold, thereupon.

vocative suffix

A suffix of address attached to the word.

perfect

The completed-action form of the verb, usually past: he did.

imperfect

The uncompleted form, usually present or future: he does.

imperative

The command form: do.

passive

The subject undergoes the action rather than performing it.

participle

A noun shaped from a verb, naming the one doing the action or the one it is done to.

active participle

The doer-noun shaped from the verb: one who does.

passive participle

The done-to noun shaped from the verb: done, made.

verbal noun

The action itself as a noun: the doing.

indicative

The ordinary mood of the unfinished verb, marfu, stating that something is or will be the case. Arabic leaves it unmarked, which is why the corpus writes a mood only when it is one of the two below.

subjunctive

The mood of the verb after particles of purpose and expectation.

jussive

The clipped mood of the verb after lam of negation, conditions and commands.

nominative

The case of the subject: marfu, typically ending in -u.

accusative

The case of the object and of much else: mansub, typically ending in -a.

genitive

The case after prepositions and in possession: majrur, typically ending in -i.

indefinite

Without the definite article: a thing rather than the thing.

emphatic nun

The nun of emphasis attached to a verb: surely, certainly.

masculine

Grammatically masculine.

feminine

Grammatically feminine.

singular

One.

dual

Exactly two, a number Arabic marks on the word itself.

plural

Three or more.

form I

The fa'ala pattern, the base of the verb, from which the derived forms are built.

form II

The fa''ala pattern, built by doubling the middle radical; such verbs often intensify the base sense or make it causative.

form III

The faa'ala pattern, built with a long first vowel; often directs the action toward someone.

form IV

The af'ala pattern, built with a prefixed a-; often causative: to make happen.

form V

The tafa''ala pattern, the reflexive of form II; often to take on or undergo the action for oneself.

form VI

The tafaa'ala pattern, the reflexive of form III; often mutual: to do to one another.

form VII

The infa'ala pattern, built with a prefixed n-; often passive or reflexive in sense.

form VIII

The ifta'ala pattern, built with an infixed t-; often reflexive or middle in sense.

form IX

The if'alla pattern, rare, used mostly for colours and defects.

form X

The istaf'ala pattern, built with a prefixed st-; such verbs often carry a sense of seeking or asking for the base meaning.

form XI

The if'aalla pattern, rare and lengthened, used like form IX for colours and defects.

form XII

The if'aw'ala pattern, rare, of intensification.

masculine singular

Agreement: masculine, singular.

masculine dual

Agreement: masculine, dual.

masculine plural

Agreement: masculine, plural.

feminine singular

Agreement: feminine, singular.

feminine dual

Agreement: feminine, dual.

feminine plural

Agreement: feminine, plural.

first person singular

Agreement: first person, singular.

first person dual

Agreement: first person, dual.

first person plural

Agreement: first person, plural.

first person masculine singular

Agreement: first person, masculine, singular.

first person masculine dual

Agreement: first person, masculine, dual.

first person masculine plural

Agreement: first person, masculine, plural.

first person feminine singular

Agreement: first person, feminine, singular.

first person feminine dual

Agreement: first person, feminine, dual.

first person feminine plural

Agreement: first person, feminine, plural.

second person singular

Agreement: second person, singular.

second person dual

Agreement: second person, dual.

second person plural

Agreement: second person, plural.

second person masculine singular

Agreement: second person, masculine, singular.

second person masculine dual

Agreement: second person, masculine, dual.

second person masculine plural

Agreement: second person, masculine, plural.

second person feminine singular

Agreement: second person, feminine, singular.

second person feminine dual

Agreement: second person, feminine, dual.

second person feminine plural

Agreement: second person, feminine, plural.

third person singular

Agreement: third person, singular.

third person dual

Agreement: third person, dual.

third person plural

Agreement: third person, plural.

third person masculine singular

Agreement: third person, masculine, singular.

third person masculine dual

Agreement: third person, masculine, dual.

third person masculine plural

Agreement: third person, masculine, plural.

third person feminine singular

Agreement: third person, feminine, singular.

third person feminine dual

Agreement: third person, feminine, dual.

third person feminine plural

Agreement: third person, feminine, plural.

Derived-form descriptions follow W. Wright, "A Grammar of the Arabic Language".