Teacher License – Arabic 1 Complete Review Guide 2026–2027

4. Primary markers: damma for nominative, fatḥa for accusative, kasra for genitive, sukūn for jussive. Secondary markers: alif, wāw, yāʾ and nūn; kasra in place of fatḥa for the sound feminine plural; fatḥa in place of kasra for diptotes (6.36.1, indicator 5).
5. The seven definite nouns: pronoun, proper name, demonstrative, relative, noun with al-, noun annexed to a definite noun, specified vocative. Everything else is indefinite (6.36.1, indicators 6 and 7).
6. Subject and predicate are nominative: by damma in the singular, alif in the dual, wāw in the sound masculine plural. The five nouns take wāw (abūka, akhūka) when annexed to anything but the first-person yāʾ (6.36.2, indicator 1).
7. Kāna and its sisters keep the subject nominative as their noun and put the predicate in the accusative; inna and its sisters put the subject in the accusative and keep the predicate nominative (6.36.2, indicator 2).
8. The doer is a nominative noun after an active verb. If the verb is made passive, the doer is dropped and the object takes its place as the deputy doer, in the nominative (6.36.2, indicator 3).
9. The absolute object is an accusative verbal noun from the verb's own root, of three kinds: emphasising (ḍarabtuhu ḍarban), specifying the manner (taʿallaqtu taʿalluqan shadīdan), specifying the number (ḍarabtuhu ḍarbatayn). The object of purpose is an accusative verbal noun of feeling giving the reason (6.36.3, indicators 2 and 3).
10. Adverbs of time (ṣabāḥan, yawman) and place (amāma, fawqa, ʿinda) are accusative and carry the sense of «in». Ḥāl is an accusative indefinite noun giving the state of its owner; tamyīz is an accusative indefinite noun removing vagueness in a number or measure (6.36.3, indicators 4 and 5).
11. A genitive noun is governed by a preposition or by a first term. Meanings: min for starting point, ilā for end point, fī for containment, ʿalā for being upon, bi- for attachment or instrument, li- for ownership, ka- for likeness, wa- for an oath (6.36.4, indicators 1 and 2).
12. The imperfect is nominative when free of both kinds of particle; accusative after an, lan, kay and idhan; jussive after lam, lammā, prohibitive lā, the lām of command and jussive conditionals. The five verbs are nominative with the nūn kept and accusative or jussive with it dropped (6.36.5, indicators 1 to 3).
13. Common conjunctions: wa (mere joining), fa (sequence with immediacy), thumma (sequence with delay), aw and am (choice or doubt), bal, lākin and lā (turning away, correction, negation). The conjoined word follows the earlier word's case (6.36.6, indicators 1 and 2).
14. The adjective follows the described noun in case, definiteness, number and gender (for the real adjective). Verbal emphasis repeats the word; semantic emphasis uses words such as nafs, ʿayn, kull, jamīʿ, kilā and kiltā (6.36.6, indicators 3 and 4).
15. The comparative pattern afʿal is formed from a full triliteral active verb that is not negated and does not denote a colour or defect. Otherwise use ashadd or akthar plus the verbal noun. The two regular exclamation patterns are mā afʿalahu! and afʿil bihi! (6.36.7, indicators 6 and 10).
16. Numbers 3 to 10 take the opposite gender of the counted noun, which is a genitive plural (thalāthatu rijālin, thalāthu nisāʾin); numbers 11 to 99 take a singular accusative counted noun (aḥada ʿashara rajulan). Numbers 1 and 2 agree with the counted noun (6.36.7, indicator 7).
17. A sound verb has no weak letter (w, ā, y) in its root; this includes hamzated (saʾala) and doubled (madda). Weak verbs: assimilated (waʿada), hollow (qāla), defective (ramā), doubly weak (ṭawā). The morphological scale is faʿala, and extra letters stay in the pattern (6.36.8, indicators 2 and 6).
18. A maqṣūr noun ends in a fixed alif (fatā, ʿaṣā); a manqūṣ in a fixed yāʾ preceded by kasra (al-qāḍī); a mamdūd in a hamza after an extra alif (ṣaḥrāʾ). The relative adjective adds a doubled yāʾ with kasra before it; diminutive patterns: fuʿayl, fuʿayʿil, fuʿayʿīl (6.36.8, indicators 8 and 9).

Common mistakes in this chapter

• ✕ The silent feminine tāʾ (qāmat) is not the vowelled tāʾ at the end of a noun (muʿallima): the first marks a past verb, the second belongs to a noun. Do not treat every tāʾ as a verb mark.
• ✕ The past verb is always indeclinable (mabnī); the imperfect is declinable except when the feminine plural nūn or the direct emphatic nūn attaches. Reject both «every verb is mabnī» and «every verb is muʿrab».
• ✕ In a construct phrase the first term takes neither al- nor tanwīn, so we say muʿallimū al-madrasa with the nūn dropped, and al- stays on the second term only.
• ✕ The absolute object is a verbal noun from the verb's own root (taʿallaqtu taʿalluqan shadīdan); the object of purpose is a verbal noun of feeling that gives the reason and answers «why?». A bare accusative verbal noun is not automatically an object of purpose.
• ✕ Ḥāl is an indefinite descriptor of the state of its owner and answers «how?»; tamyīz is an indefinite noun that removes vagueness in a number, measure or kind. Ḥāl can be a clause or a prepositional phrase; tamyīz cannot.
• ✕ The negating lā does not jussive; the prohibitive lā does. Negation reports and prohibition requests that something be left. Check the verb's ending and the meaning before deciding which lā you have.
• ✕ Idhā and law are non-jussive conditionals, while in, man, mā, mahmā, matā, aynamā and ḥaythumā jussive two verbs. Lammā jussives one verb and is not a jussive conditional.
• ✕ Numbers 3 to 10 take the opposite gender of the counted noun and annex to a genitive plural; numbers 11 to 99 take a singular accusative counted noun. Mixing these two rules is the commonest error in number questions.