- 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".
