Iḍāfah

Iḍāfah is the Arabic grammatical construct case, mostly used to indicate possession.
Iḍāfah basically entails putting one noun after another: the second noun specifies more precisely the nature of the first noun. In forms of Arabic which mark grammatical case, this second noun must be in the genitive case. The construction is typically equivalent to the English construction " of ". It is a very widespread way of forming possessive constructions in Arabic, and is typical of a Semitic language. Simple examples include:

دارُ السَلامِ "the house of peace".
كِيلُو مَوْزٍ "a kilo of bananas".
بِنْتُ حَسَنٍ "the daughter of Hasan/Hasan's daughter".
بَيْتُ رَجُلٍ "the house of a man/a man's house".
بَيْتُ الرَجُلِ "the house of the man/the man's house".
Terminology

The Arabic grammatical terminology for this construction derives from the verb أضاف ʼaḍāfa "he added, attached", verb form IV from the hollow root ض ي ف ḍ y f.

The whole phrase consisting of a noun and a genitive is known in Arabic as إضافة and in English as the "genitive construct", "construct phrase", or "annexation structure".
The first term in the pair is called المُضاف ' "the thing annexed".
The first term governs the second term, referred to as المُضاف إلَيْهِ ' "the thing added to".
Kinds of relationship expressed

The range of relationships between the first and second elements of the idafah construction is very varied, though usually consists of some relationship of possession or belonging. In the case of words for containers, the iḍāfah may express what is contained: فِنْجانُ قَهْوةٍ ' "a cup of coffee". The iḍāfah may indicate the material something is made of: خاتَمُ خَشَبٍ ' "a wooden ring, ring made of wood". In many cases the two members become a fixed coined phrase, the idafah being used as the equivalent of a compound noun used in some Indo-European languages such as English. Thus بَيْتُ الطَلَبةِ can mean "house of the students", but is also the normal term for "the student hostel".

Forming ''iḍāfah'' constructions

First term

The first term in iḍāfah has the following characteristics:

It must be in the construct state: that is, it does not have the definite article or any nunation, or any possessive pronoun suffix.
* When using a pronunciation that generally omits cases, the ة of any term in the construct state must always be pronounced with a ' when spoken, e.g. خالة أَحْمَد ' "Ahmad's aunt".
It can be in any case: this is determined by the grammatical role of the first term in the sentence where it occurs.
Second term

The second term in iḍāfah has the following characteristics when it is a noun:

It must be in the genitive case.
It is marked as definite or indefinite, and can take a possessive pronoun suffix. The definiteness or indefiniteness of the second term determines the definiteness of the entire iḍāfah phrase.
Three or more terms

iḍāfah constructions of multiple terms are possible, and in such cases, all but the final term are in the construct state, and all but the first member are in the genitive case. For example: سَرْقةُ جَوازِ سَفَرِ أِحَدِ اللاعِبِينَ "the theft of the passport of one of the athletes".

Indicating definiteness in ''iḍāfah'' constructions

The iḍāfah construction as a whole is a noun phrase. It can be considered indefinite or definite only as a whole. An idafah construction is definite if the second noun is definite, by having the article or being the proper name of a place or person. The construction is indefinite if it the second noun is indefinite. Thus idafah can express senses equivalent to:

'the house of the director'
'a house of a director'

But it cannot express a sense equivalent to 'the house of a director': this sense has to be expressed with a prepositional phrase, using a preposition such as لـِـ '. For example:

ٍِالبَيْتُ لِمُدِير '.
بَيْتُ مُحَمَّدٍ الكَبِيرُ ' "Muhammad's big house, the big house of Muhammad"
*بَيْتٌ كَبِيرٌ لِمُحَمَّدٍ ' "a big house of Muhammad's"
Nominal sentences, noun-adjective phrases, and ''iḍāfah''

Iḍāfah constructions can typically be distinguished from nominal sentences and from noun-adjective phrases by the case ending of the as well as the definiteness of the nouns.

Iḍāfah	Nominal sentence	Noun-adjective phrase
بِنْتُ جَمِيْلَةٍ	البِنْتُ جَمِيْلَةٌ	بِنْتٌ جَمِيْلَةٌ
bintu jamilatin	al-bintu jamilatun	bintun jamilatun
the daughter of Jamila	The girl is beautiful.	a beautiful girl

Adjectives and other modifiers in ''iḍāfah''

Nothing can appear between the two nouns in iḍāfah. If an adjective modifies the first noun, it appears at the end of the iḍāfah.

Modifying the first term

An adjective modifying the first noun appears at the end of the iḍāfah and agrees with the noun it describes in number, gender, case, and definiteness.

first word: gender, case, number	state	Arabic script	transliteration	translation
feminine nominative singular	indefinite	فُرْشاةُ أَسْنانٍ	'	a toothbrush
feminine nominative singular	indefinite	فُرْشاةُ أَسْنانٍ كَبِيرةٌ	'	a big toothbrush
feminine nominative singular	definite	فُرْشاةُ الأَسْنانِ	'	the toothbrush
feminine nominative singular	definite	فُرْشاةُ الأَسْنانِ الكَبِيرةُ	'	the big toothbrush
masculine nominative singular	indefinite	طَبِيبُ أَسْنانٍ		a dentist
masculine nominative singular	indefinite	طَبِيبُ أَسْنانٍ كَبِيرٌ		a big dentist
masculine nominative singular	definite	طَبِيبُ الأَسْنانٍ		the dentist
masculine nominative singular	definite	ٌطَبِيبُ الأَسْنانٍ الكَبِيرُ		the big dentist
feminine nominative singular	proper noun	مَدِينةُ شِيكاغُو	'	city of Chicago, the city of Chicago
feminine nominative singular	proper noun	مَدِينَةُ شِيكَاغُو الكَبِيرةُ	'	the big city of Chicago
masculine nominative singular	proper noun	اِبنُ أَحْمَدَ	'	son of Ahmad, the son of Ahmad
masculine nominative singular	proper noun	اِبنُ أَحْمَدَ الكَبِيرُ	'	the old son of Ahmad, Ahmad's old son

Modifying the last term

An adjective modifying the last term appears at the end of the iḍāfah and agrees with the noun it describes in number, gender, definiteness, and case.

second word : gender, number	state	Arabic script	transliteration	translation
feminine singular	indefinite	نَهْرُ مَدِينةٍ	nahr-u madīnat-in	a river of a town
feminine singular	indefinite	نَهْرُ مَدِينةٍ جَمِيلةٍ	nahr-u madīnat-in jamīlat-in	a river of a beautiful town
feminine singular	definite	نَهْرُ المَدِينةِ	nahr-u l-madīnat-i	the river of the town
feminine singular	definite	نَهْرُ المَدِينةِ الجَمِيلةِ	nahr-u l-madīnat-i 'l-jamīlat-i	the river of the beautiful town
masculine singular	indefinite	نَهْرُ بَلَدٍ	nahr-u balad-in	a river of a country
masculine singular	indefinite	نَهْرُ بَلَدٍ جَمِيلٍ	nahr-u balad-in jamīl-in	a river of a beautiful country
masculine singular	definite	نَهْرُ البَلَدِ	nahr-u l-balad-i	the river of the country
masculine singular	definite	نَهْرُ البَلَدِ الجَمِيلِ	nahr-u l'-balad-i 'l-jamīl-i'	the river of the beautiful country

Modifying both terms

If both terms in the iḍāfah are modified, the adjective modifying the last term is set closest to the iḍāfah, and the adjective modifying the first term is set further away. For example:

''Iḍāfah'' constructions using pronouns

The possessive suffix can also take the place of the second noun of an construction, in which case it is considered definite. Indefinite possessed nouns are also expressed via a preposition.

Variant forms

For all but the first person singular, the same forms are used regardless of the part of speech of the word attached to. In the third person masculine singular, ' occurs after the vowels u or a, while ' occurs after i or y. The same alternation occurs in the third person dual and plural.
In the first person singular, however, the situation is more complicated; ' "my" is attached to nouns. In the latter case, ' is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a long vowel or diphthong, while ' is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a short vowel, in which case that vowel is elided. Furthermore, ' of the masculine sound plural is assimilated to ' before '. Examples:

From ' "book", pl '.

Person	Singular	Plural
Nominative	كِتابِي '	كُتُبِي '
Accusative	كِتابِي '	كُتُبِي '
Genitive	كِتابِي '	كُتُبِي '

From ' "word", pl or.

Person	Singular	Plural
Nominative	كَلِمَتِي '	كَلِمَاتِي ' كَلِمِي '
Accusative	كَلِمَتِي '	كَلِمَاتِي ' كَلِمِي '
Genitive	كَلِمَتِي '	كَلِمَاتِي ' كَلِمِي '

From ' "world"; ' "hospital".
Person Singular Singular
Nominative دُنْيَايَ ' مُسْتَشْفَايَ '
Accusative دُنْيَايَ ' مُسْتَشْفَايَ '
Genitive دُنْيَايَ ' مُسْتَشْفَايَ '

From nom. dual ' "teachers", acc./gen. dual مُعَلِّمَينَ '
Person Dual
Nominative مُعَلِّمايَ '
Accusative مُعَلِّمَيَّ '
Genitive مُعَلِّمَيَّ '

From nom. pl. مُعَلِّمُونَ ' "teachers", acc./gen. pl. مُعَلِّمِينَ '

Person	Plural
Nominative	مُعَلِّمِيَّ '
Accusative	مُعَلِّمِيَّ '
Genitive	مُعَلِّمِيَّ '

From pl. ' "chosen"
Person Plural
Nominative مُصْطَفَيَّ '
Accusative مُصْطَفَيَّ '
Genitive مُصْطَفَيَّ '

From ' "judge"
Person Singular
Nominative قاضِيَّ '
Accusative قاضِيَّ '
Genitive قاضِيَّ '

From ' "father", long construct form أَبُو '
Person Singluar
Nominative أَبِيّ '
Accusative أَبايَ '
Genitive أَبِيّ '

From any nouns ending on ـُو ', ـَو ' or ـِي '.
Person Singluar
Nominative ـِيَّ '
Accusative ـِيَّ '
Genitive ـِيَّ '

From any nouns ending on ـَي '.
Person Singluar
Nominative ـَيَّ '
Accusative ـَيَّ '
Genitive ـَيَّ

Person	Dual
Nominative	مُعَلِّمايَ '
Accusative	مُعَلِّمَيَّ '
Genitive	مُعَلِّمَيَّ '

Person	Singluar
Nominative	أَبِيّ '
Accusative	أَبايَ '
Genitive	أَبِيّ '

Iḍāfah

Terminology

Kinds of relationship expressed