COURSE DESCRIPTION

What is Arabic Grammar?

The sub-science of classical Arabic known as نحو – generally translated as Arabic grammar – is a set of principles through which the roles of nouns and verbs are distinguished by assigning them specific endings. This process is called grammatical inflection / إعراب

Arabic grammar is centered around this single topic; grammatical inflection. Anything studied in the language is studied only because it relates to this issue. It is a feat of staggering genius on the part of medieval grammarians that almost all aspects of the language are covered just by concentrating on the issue of grammatical inflection. We start with this topic, and it branches out to cover the entire language.

How we Study Arabic Grammar

The following is a breakdown of how we approach and study Arabic grammar here at Learn Arabic Online. This approach allows us to cover all the core issues.

1. some basics
2. Arabic words – a look at the different types of words in the language and how they’re divided and categorized
3. Arabic phrases – a close look at some of the more common phrasal structures, serving to introduce some key concepts and terminology
4. Arabic sentences – a look at the different types of sentences as preparation for more advanced topics
5. grammatical inflection – the study of what grammatical inflection is, how it works, and the different grammatical states
6. inflection in Arabic words – a deep look at those words in the language that inflect and those that do not
7. reflection and diptotes – the study of how grammatical states are represented on different types of words that do inflect
8. the grammatical states – the study of each grammatical state and when it is used
9. nominal sentences – this topic covers about 30% of the grammatical states
10. verbal sentences and Arabic adverbs – this topic covers about 20% of the grammatical states
11. other verbal associates (circumstantial adverb, exclusion, disambiguation) – this topic covers about 10% of the grammatical states
12. the genitival states – this topic covers about 5% of the grammatical states
13. grammatical states of verbs – this topic covers about 30% of the grammatical states
14. grammatical extension – this topic concludes the discussion on grammatical states
15. side topics and advanced topics
16. definiteness
17. gender in Arabic
18. plurality in Arabic
19. Arabic numbers

The rest of this tutorial gives some introductory data dealing with the different types of words, phrases, and sentences in the language. This paves the way for the study of further topics and helps put further tutorials into perspective. But one must realize that an essential part of learning the grammar of any language is practicing through reading. In order to learn Arabic grammar correctly, theory must be supplemented by reading texts with and without vowels in front of a teacher. This can only be achieved through Arabic courses such as the Shariah Program.