Arabic This new edition of Arabic: An Essential Grammar is an up-to-date and practical reference guide to the most important aspects of the language. Suitable for beginners, as well as intermediate students, the book offers a strong foundation for learning the fundamental grammar and structure of Arabic. The complexities of the language are set out in short, readable sections, while exercises and examples are provided throughout. Features of this new edition include: (cid:129) coverage of the Arabic script and alphabet (cid:129) a chapter on Arabic handwriting (cid:129) a guide to pronunciation (cid:129) full examples throughout. Ideal for independent learners and for classroom study, Arabic: An Essential Grammar is the complete reference guide to the most important aspects of modern literary Arabic. Faruk Abu-Chacra is Senior Lecturer Emeritus in Arabic at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Routledge Essential Grammars Essential Grammars are available for the following languages: Arabic Catalan Chinese Czech Danish Dutch English Finnish German Greek Hindi Hungarian Korean Latvian Modern Hebrew North Sámi Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Serbian Spanish Swedish Thai Turkish Urdu Arabic An Essential Grammar 2nd edition Faruk Abu-Chacra Second edition published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Faruk Abu-Chacra The right of Faruk Abu-Chacra to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe. First edition published by Hodder Education 2005 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Abu-Chacra, Faruk, author. Title: Arabic : an essential grammar / Faruk Abu-Chacra. Description: Second edition. | Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2018. | Series: Routledge essential grammars | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifi ers: LCCN 2016015431 | ISBN 9781138659582 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138659605 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315620091 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Arabic language—Grammar. | Arabic language—Textbooks for foreign speakers—English. Classifi cation: LCC PJ6307 .A356 2016 | DDC 492.7/82421—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016015431 ISBN: 978-1-138-65958-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-65960-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-62009-1 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC Visit the eResource: www.routledge.com/9781138659605 Contents Preface viii Acknowledgements ix Important notes x List of abbreviations xi Chapter 1 Arabic script, transliteration and alphabet table 1 Chapter 2 Pronunciation of consonants 6 Chapter 3 Punctuation and handwriting 12 Chapter 4 Vowels 17 Chapter 5 Suku¯n, šaddah, noun cases and nunation as the indefi nite form 23 Chapter 6 Long vowels, ʾalif maqs.u¯rah, dagger or miniature ʾalif, word stress and syllable structure 28 Chapter 7 Hamzah (hamzatu l-qat.ʿi) and the maddah sign 34 ـﻟْ ﺃَ Chapter 8 Definite article .. ᵓal.., nominal sentences, verbal sentences, word order and adjectives 39 Chapter 9 Sun letters, moon letters, and hamzatu l-wasli (waslah) 49 . . v Chapter 10 Gender 58 Contents Chapter 11 Conjunctions, prepositions and the particle ﻰﺘﱠ ﺣَ h.atta¯ 66 Chapter 12 ʾ Ida¯fah construction (genitive attribute) . and the fi ve nouns 80 Chapter 13 Numbers: dual and plural 93 Chapter 14 Perfect tense verbs, root and radicals, triliteral verbs and word order 106 Chapter 15 Separate personal pronouns and suffi x pronouns 118 Chapter 16 Demonstrative, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns (ﺾٌ ﻌْ ﺑَ baҁd.un) 135 Chapter 17 Imperfect tense verbs in the indicative and word order 146 Chapter 18 Derived verb forms, roots (stems) and radicals, transitive and intransitive verbs 157 Chapter 19 Passive verbs 174 Chapter 20 Rules for writing the hamzah (hamzatu l-qat.ʿi) 182 Chapter 21 Broken (internal) plurals and collective nouns 195 Chapter 22 Triptotes and diptotes 205 Chapter 23 Participles, verbal nouns (masdar), . nouns of place, time and instrument 217 Chapter 24 Interrogative particles, pronouns and vocative particles 229 Chapter 25 Adjectival patterns, relative adjectives vi (nisbah), comparatives, superlatives and diminutives 247 Chapter 26 ᵓInna ﻥﱠ ﺇِ , ka¯na ﻥَ ﺎـﻛَ and their Contents sister-words 264 Chapter 27 Relative pronouns and relative clauses 275 Chapter 28 Moods: subjunctive, jussive and imperative 286 Chapter 29 Doubled verbs (mediae geminatae) and quadriliteral verbs 298 Chapter 30 Verbs with hamzah 306 Chapter 31 Verbs with a weak initial radical 315 Chapter 32 Verbs with a weak middle radical 323 Chapter 33 V erbs with a weak fi nal radical, doubly weak verbs and weak verbs with hamzah 335 Chapter 34 Cardinal numbers 348 Chapter 35 Ordinal numbers, fractions, expressions of time and calendars 367 Chapter 36 Exception 386 Chapter 37 E xpressions of wonder, the copula ﺲَ ـﻴْ ــﻟَ laysa, and special usages of the ـﺑِ preposition bi.. 396 Chapter 38 Adverbs, absolute or inner object, h.a¯l - (circumstantial clause) and tamyız (accusative of specifi cation) 411 Chapter 39 Conditional sentences 425 Appendix 1 Tables of the ten verb forms 439 Appendix 2 Verb conjugation paradigms 448 vii Index 471 Preface This book describes the fundamental grammar and structure of modern literary Arabic. It is complete with exercises and offers a strong foundation for reading and writing the Arabic of newspapers, books, broadcasts, and formal speech, as well as providing the student with a course for self-study. The exercises and examples contain modern vocabulary and expressions taken from everyday use. I am confi dent that this book will prove to be of great help to those who have begun or will begin the study of Arabic, and that teachers will fi nd it to be a useful aid. viii Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my former colleagues of the Uni- versity of Helsinki Department of World Cultures (Middle East Studies), especially Professor Tapani Harviainen and Dr Bertil Tikkanen, as well as Professor Daniel Newman of the University of Durham (England) – they made numerous valuable comments and suggestions for this book’s improvement – and fi nally, Geoffrey White for his editing of the English. In addition, I should also like to thank the anonymous reviewers appointed by Routledge for their constructive criticism and advice. I also acknowledge the generous fi nancial support by the Suomen tietokirjailijat ry (The Finn- ish Association of Non-Fiction Writers). Faruk Abu-Chacra Helsinki, Finland, 2017 Faruk Abu-Chacra was born in Lebanon. He held the position of Senior Lecturer in Arabic at the University of Helsinki (Finland) from 1972 to 2001. ix