ʾIʿrab

is an Arabic term for the declension system of nominal, adjectival, or verbal suffixes of Classical Arabic to mark grammatical case. These suffixes are written in fully vocalized Arabic texts, notably the Qur'an| or texts written for children or Arabic learners, and they are articulated when a text is formally read aloud, but they do not survive in any spoken dialect of Arabic. Even in Literary Arabic, these suffixes are often not pronounced in pausa ; i.e. when the word occurs at the end of the sentence, in accordance with certain rules of Arabic pronunciation. Depending on the knowledge of, some Arabic speakers may omit case endings when reading aloud in Modern Standard Arabic, thus making it similar to spoken dialects. Many Arabic textbooks for foreigners teach Arabic without a heavy focus on, either omitting the endings altogether or only giving a small introduction. Arabic without case endings may require a different and fixed word order, similar to spoken Arabic dialects.

Etymology

The term literally means 'making Arabic'. It is the stem IV masdar of the root ‘-r-b, meaning "to be fluent", so means "making a thing expressed, disclosed or eloquent". The term is cognate to the word Arab itself.

Grammatical cases

Case is not shown in standard orthography, with the exception of indefinite accusative nouns ending in any letter but ة| or ا| followed by ء|, where the "sits" on the letter before an alif added at the end of the word. Cases, however, are marked in the Qur'an, children's books, and to remove ambiguous situations. If marked, it is shown at the end of the noun. Further information on the types of declensions is discussed in the following section, along with examples. Grammatical case endings are not pronounced in pausa and in less formal forms of Arabic. In vocalised Arabic, the case endings may be written even if they are not pronounced. Some Arabic textbooks or children's books skip case endings in vocalised Arabic, thus allowing both types of pronunciation.

Nominative case

The nominative is used in several situations:

For the subject of a verbal sentence.
For the subject and predicate of a non-verbal sentence, with some notable exceptions.
For certain adverbs.
For the citation form of words.

For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a usually unwritten ضَمَّة ' for the definite or ' + nunation for the indefinite. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding ـَانِ -an and ـُونَ respectively. The regular feminine plural is formed by adding ـَاتُ in the definite and ـَاتٌ in the indefinite.

Accusative case

The accusative has several uses:

The subject of an equational sentence, if it is initiated with إن inna, or one of its sisters. The particles are subordinating conjunctions which require that the subject of the subordinate clause be in the accusative case.
The predicate of كَانَ / يَكُونُ ' "be" and its sisters. Hence, ٱلْبِنْتُ جَمِيلَةٌ ' 'the girl is beautiful' but ٱلْبِنْتُ كَانَتْ جَمِيلَةً ' 'the girl was beautiful'.
Both the subject and the predicate of ظَنَ ' and its sisters in an equational clause.
As the complement of verbs of "seeming".
The object of a transitive verb
Most adverbs.
Semi-prepositions.
Internal object/cognate accusative structure
The accusative of specification.
The accusative of purpose.
The circumstantial accusative.
Objects of 'how much/how many'.
Cardinal and ordinal numbers from 11, and 13-19
Counted nouns of numbers 11–99
Exclamation of astonishment. i.e.:, !مَا أَجْمَلَهَا 'Oh, how beautiful she is!'
Vocative first term of construct. يَا عبدَ اللهِ "Oh, Abdallah!"
Nouns following exceptive particles in non-negative sentences.
The noun following the absolute, or categorical, negation لَا ' "No".

For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a usually unwritten فَتْحَة ' for the definite or ' + nunation for the indefinite. For the indefinite accusative, the ' + nunation is added to an ا ', e.g. ـًا, which is added to the ending of all nouns not ending with a ' followed by ' or a '. This is the only case, which affects the unvocalised written Arabic. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding ـَيْنِ and ـِينَ respectively . The regular feminine plural is formed by adding ـَاتِ in the definite and in the indefinite. Some forms of indefinite accusative are mandatory even for spoken and pausal forms of Arabic, sometimes is changed to a simple in pausa or spoken Arabic.
Diptotes never take an alif ending in the written Arabic and are never pronounced with the ending.

Genitive case

The genitive case

Objects of prepositions.
Construct case: the second, third, fourth, etc. term of an '.
The object of a locative adverb.
Elative adjectives behave similarly: أَطْوَلُ وَلَدٍ ' 'tallest boy'.

For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a usually unwritten كَسْرَة ' for the definite or ' + nunation for the indefinite. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding ـَيْنِ ' and ـِيْنَ ' respectively . The regular feminine plural is formed by adding ـَاتِ ' in the definite and ـَاتٍ ' in the indefinite.

Types of declension

Fully declined nouns (triptotes)

For fully declined nouns, known as "triptote", that is, having three separate case endings, the suffixes are ', ', ' for nominative, accusative, and genitive case respectively, with the addition of a final to produce ', ', and ' when the word is indefinite.
This system applies to most singular nouns in Arabic. It also applies to feminine nouns ending in ة ' and ء hamzah, but for these, ا alif is not written in the accusative case. It also applies to many "broken plurals". When words end in ' the ' is pronounced when the case ending is added; thus رِسَالَة is pronounced ' in pausal form, but in Classical Arabic it becomes رِسَالَةٌ ', رِسَالَةً ', and رِسَالَةٍ when case endings are added.
The final is dropped when the noun is preceded by the definite article al-|). The is also dropped when the noun is used in iḍāfa|, that is, when it is followed by a genitive. Thus:
Nominative :
Accusative ;
literally, 'erected'):
Genitive :
The final is also dropped in classical poetry at the end of a couplet, and the vowel of the ending is pronounced long.

Diptotes

A few singular nouns, and certain types of "broken plural", are known as meaning that they only have two case endings.
When the noun is indefinite, the endings are ' for the nominative and ' for the genitive and accusative with no nunation. The genitive reverts to the normal when the diptotic noun becomes definite ).
Diptotes never take an alif in the accusative case in written Arabic.

Sound masculine plurals

In the case of sound masculine plurals , mostly denoting male human beings, the suffixes are respectively ـُونَ -ūna and ـِينَ '. These stay the same whether ال ' precedes or not. The final -a is usually dropped in speech. In less formal Arabic only ' is used for all cases and the final ' is dropped in pausa and in less formal Arabic.
The ن ' is dropped when the noun is in '. Thus:
Nominative:
Accusative and genitive:
Note: ending ـِينَ -īna is spelled identically to ـَيْنِ -ayni.

Sound feminine plurals

In the case of sound feminine plurals, the suffixes are respectively ـَاتٌ, ـَاتُ -ātu, ـَاتٍ, ـَاتِ -āti and ـَاتٍ, ـَاتِ -āti. The n is only there when the noun is indefinite. Again the final vowel is dropped in speech and pausa, leaving only ـَات -, making all cases pronounced identically.
The final "n" is dropped when the noun is in .
Nominative:
Accusative and genitive:

Other declensional paradigms

The Dual - These nouns denote two of something. They decline very similarly to the sound masculine plurals because they are not marked for definiteness and look the same in both the accusative and genitive cases. For the nominative, the marking is -āni and for the accusative/genitive, -ayni. An example is "parents," which is wālidāni and wālidayni respectively.
ٱسْمُ ٱلْمَنْقُوصِ - These nouns behave differently due to the instability of the final vowel. When indefinite, these nouns take a final -in in the nominative/genitive, and -iyan in the accusative. When definite, they take a long -ī in the nominative/genitive, and -iya in the accusative. These nouns were reckoned by the grammarians to have originally taken the triptotic endings, but through morpho-phonotactic processes, the latter resulted. An example is "judge," which is qāḍin, qāḍiyan, versus, and al-qāḍiya respectively. Also, a noun can be both ' and diptotal: for example, layālin 'nights', is a broken plural with a final unstable vowel. With case endings this noun becomes layālin, layāliya, and ', al-layāliya.
ٱسْمُ ٱلْمَقْصُورِ - These nouns, like their close relative ', also behave differently due to the instability of a final vowel. These nouns are marked only for definiteness, as morpho-phonotactic processes have resulted in the complete loss of the case distinctions. When indefinite, they take -an, which rests on an alif maqṣūrah or occasionally '. When definite, they are not marked, and they simply retain their long ' or '. An example is "hospital," which is mustashfan and ' respectively. If a noun is both ' and diptotic, then it is completely invariable for case.
Invariable nouns - Invariable nouns are usually those foreign names that end in alif or nouns that end in an additional ' or '. Also, nouns that are both and diptotic fall into this category. Additionally, there are rare invariable nouns which have other endings, like any name ending with "-ayhi," like Sībawayhi, meaning 'the most eloquent '. Another example is 'world'.