Grammatical Analysis

الإِعْرَابُ

As you approach the end of Book 2, it's time to learn how Arabic scholars analyze sentences. This process of identifying a word's role and its resulting case ending is called I'raab (إعْرَاب). Let's build your analytical dashboard.

1. The Three Grammatical States

Every noun in a sentence sits in one of three states based on the job it is doing.

Marfoo' (مَرْفُوعٌ)

The Default State

ـُ / ـٌ

Ends in Damma

Used For:

Mubtada' (Subject)
Khabar (Predicate)

Mansoob (مَنْصُوبٌ)

The Action State

ـَ / ـً

Ends in Fatha

Used For:

Dharf (Adverb of Place)

Majroor (مَجْرُورٌ)

The Pulled State

ـِ / ـٍ

Ends in Kasra

Used For:

Noun after Preposition (حَرْفُ جَرٍّ)
Mudhaf Ilayh (The Possessor/Owner)

2. The Tear-Down Lab

Let's analyze a complete Nominal Sentence (Jumla Ismiyya) word by word!

"The tall teacher's car is in front of the new mosque."

سَيَّارَةُ الْمُدَرِّسِ الطَّوِيلِ أَمَامَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْجَدِيدِ

Word (الكَلِمَةُ)	Grammatical Role (المَوْقِعُ)	State (الحَالَةُ)
سَيَّارَةُ	Mubtada' (Subject) It is the topic of the sentence. It is also the Mudhaf (Possessed item).	Marfoo' (ـُ)
الْمُدَرِّسِ	Mudhaf Ilayhi (Possessor) It owns the car, creating an Idafa relationship.	Majroor (ـِ)
الطَّوِيلِ	Na't / Sifa (Adjective) It describes the teacher. Adjectives must match the state of the noun they describe!	Majroor (ـِ)
أَمَامَ	Dharf Makaan (Adverb of Place) / Khabar It tells us WHERE the car is (Predicate Type 3). It acts as a Mudhaf.	Mansoob (ـَ)
الْمَسْجِدِ	Mudhaf Ilayhi (Possessor of the Dharf) Nouns following adverbs of location are forced into the Majroor state.	Majroor (ـِ)
الْجَدِيدِ	Na't / Sifa (Adjective) It describes the mosque. It matches the mosque's state.	Majroor (ـِ)