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Arabic
Grammar
Revision
Booklet

Asalamualikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

All praise is due to Allah who blessed me with the ability to publish
this free resource. I send salutations on our beloved Prophet
Muhammad, peace and blessings on him.
Welcome to the Arabic Grammar Revision Booklet designed to be
used with the Al Barakah School Advanced Quranic Arabic
curriculum.
It is my hope that this revision booklet will also be useful to those
teaching or learning Quranic Arabic.
Jazakallah kheiran!

Hiba Mohamad

www.arabicadventures.com

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Definite Article

Definite Nouns: add

English:
Indefinte nouns: a book

the beginning of the

indefinite noun. E.g.

Definite nouns: the book/ Book

the

the book

Arabic:
Indefinite nouns: carries
tanween e.g.

to

Golden rule! When al comes

the tanween goes.

Possessive Pronouns

Detached Pronouns

English

He

She

They

You (m)

You (f)

You all

We

Rule: Possessive Pronouns are added to

the end of a noun.
(my house)

= +

3 questions to find the correct demonstrative to

use:
1. Is the noun masculine or feminine?

2. Is the noun plural or singular?

3. Is the noun near or far?

This book

This is a book

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Arabic Verb Roots

All Arabic verbs are created from 3 base
roots. The basic pattern is:

Notes:

- The basic pattern above can be replaced with 3

Arabic letters to create a root.
- The order of the letters will always remain the same.
- Each root sequence is connected to a meaning.

Example: Using the root sequence

(to prostrate),

we can make nouns such as:

(Mosque)

(prostration)

Sound Plurals of nouns and Adjectives

There are 2 types of sound plurals: Masculine and
Feminine.
Masculine Sound Plurals: Add
singular noun. E.g.

/ to the end of a

/ = /

+ (muslim)

Prepositions

Below

In

with

from

Behind

Above

with

to

On

Past Tense
For each subject pronoun we add specific letters to the end of verb roots

She did

You (f)
did
You (m)
did
You all did

They did
Verb Root =
He did

I did
We did

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Negating the Past tense

One way to negate

the Past tense is:

Past tense verb

Past tense

+
Emphasis

Particles
noun/ verb

Tamyeez
Emphasising a point by placing
verbs and nouns together in a
certain way.

They love the dunya with an intense kind of love

(Verb)
(Noun)
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Present Tense
For each subject pronoun we add specific letters to the
beginning and end of verb roots.

You (f)
do/ you
are
doing
You (m)
do/ you
are
doing

She
does/
she is
doing

Verb Root =
He does/ He is
doing

You all
do/ you
all are
doing
Note:
Arabic sentences begin with
verbs most of the times. When
a verb starts a sentence, it will
always be in the singular form.
If it comes after the subject,
it will be in plural form.

They
do/they
are
doing

I do/I am
doing
We
do/we
are doing

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Prepositions
The grammar rule for
prepositions is:

The grammatical
case endings
(damma/ dammatain)
(fatha/fathatain) of
nouns and adjectives
change after
prepositional words
to (kasra/
kasratain).

Example:

Notice: after the prepositions:

and

The noun carries kasra.

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Negating non-verbal sentences using

To negate a nonverbal sentence we

use:

What do we mean by
non-verbal sentence?
Simply, a sentence which
does not begin with a
verb.

Use the correct form of the unusual verb

depending on the subject pronoun:

(she/it is not)
(they are not)
(you (m) are not)
(you (f) are not)
(you all are not)

(we are not)

(I am not)

(he/it is not)

Example:

We have used because the sentence

begins with

which is not a verb.

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Superlatives
What is a
superlative?

What pattern does a

Superlative take?

It is a noun that refers

to the highest degree
of a quality
e.g. fastest, bravest.

( noble) into a
form)?

How do I turn the adjective

superlative noun (

Using the root letters that was used to make

the adjective

( noble)

The root letters are:

in the form
=

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 and its sisters

At this stage, you just need

to remember that when

and its sister appear,

a)
b)

they:
emphasise a point
the case endings of
the subject of the
sentence change from
dammatain/damma to
fathatain/fatha

Uses of ( inna):
1. Follows to mean "to say that"

Negation of Present Tense

indeed
that
but
because
as if
perhaps

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Negation of Past tense

Present tense

Example:

Future Tense

Present tense

/-

Example:
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Conditional Sentences

= IF

There are many conditional

particles in Arabic. If you place
them in front of a sentence, it
would put the sentence into a If
this, then this formula.

The conditional particle you

need to know for now!

Verbs 101
The derived forms (forms that are created from the 3 root letters by adding
additional letters) are referred to by Arabists as Form 1/Form 2.
It is important to remember that although letters are added to the base 3 letters
to create new forms, the prefixes and endings which show the subject of the verb
remains the same.
One way to think about these derived forms is by considering them as different
phases of the moon. The 3 root letters are the moon itself and always appear in
that order, but that they (the moon) appear in different forms (phases).

Verb Forms Phases of the moon

Arabic words are created using Verb forms. The 3 letters are the full moon.
As the moon changes you see different phases. It is the same with Arabic
verbs.
As letters are added to the 3 base letters, you see the same verbs in
different forms.

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Each form gives a different but related meaning.
At this stage, you need to know that there are 10 verb forms that are used regularly
form 9 is used for very specific things.

Arabic words follow the patterns of one of these forms and so it is easy to predict
what nouns and adjectives will look like.

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Passive
The student wrote the lesson (ACTIVE Voice)

The lesson was written (PASSIVE Voice)

Imperative

The Imperative
is the command
form of the
verb.

To create direct commands (you) you

need to follow these 3 steps

Step 1: Conjugate the verb in its 2nd person present tense form.

Step 2: Remove the

from the beginning =

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Step 2 (contd.): Add Hamzatul Wasl at the front. If the 2nd root
letter of the verb carries:
Fatha/kasra then the Hamza ( )will carry a kasra
Damma then the Hamza ( )will also carry a damma.
Step 3: Add a sukoon to the end. If the new word ends in
then it will be dropped for the imperative command.

End Result:

End result:

All praise and thanks are due to Allah alone, the One who,
by His blessing and favour, good works are accomplished.

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