Brief Grammar Summary

This is not meant to be a comprehensive grammar lesson, but before the lessons on hamzah al-wasl
( )a brief overview of the essential make up of Arabic parts of speech needs to be understood.  Complete understanding of the lesson cannot be achieved without the reader at least comprehending some basic grammar. 

Words in Arabic are divided into one of three categories. 

1.        Verbs , which in single form is a verb or

2.        Nouns  This is a much more general concept than in English and encompasses more than just nouns.  It includes objects of prepositions and adjunctions among other English grammar terms.  The single form of noun in Arabic is .

3.         There is no catch all term in English for this category of grammar in Arabic.  It includes prepositions and particles.  The singular form of this in Arabic is  .  This happens to be the same word in Arabic as “letter” but they are not one and the same.  In grammar  refers to prepositions and particles, in word make up,  refers to a letter.

 Verbs

There are only three verb tenses in Arabic:

1.        The past tense

2.        The present tense

3.        The command tense

There are four essential make up of verbs

1.        Three letter essential make up

2.        Four letter essential make up  

3.        Five letter essential make up  

4.        Six letter essential make up  

The Past Tense 

Past tense verbs are built  on the fat-h or , meaning the basic make up of the vowel ( ) of a past tense verb is a .  The three letter past singular male form of a verb is the root for all other forms of the same word. 

Arabic grammar takes the verb “to do” or as it is in the past tense singular male form, , “he did”, to demonstrate the changes that take place from the root to other forms.  Every example for each essential make up with be a derivative of the root .  The following chart has the different past tense forms of the verb . 

 

 Next tidbit lesson, insha’ Allah will go on to the present tense verbs and their changes