A Hundred and One Rules! A Short Reference for Arabic Syntactic

A Hundred and One Rules !
A Short Reference for Arabic Syntactic, Morphological &
Phonological Rules for Novice & Intermediate Levels of Proﬁciency
Mohammed Jiyad
Spring 2006

CONTENTS
Page Subject
I Introduction
1 The Arabic Alphabet
2 The Arabic Consonants Diagram
5 One Direction Connectors, Emphatic Consonants, Short Vowels in Arabic
6 Nunation, The Shadda, The Sun Letters
7 The Moon Letters, Arabic Syntax, The Definite Article, Arabic
Morphology
8 The Feminine Marker, The Personal pronouns
9 Countries, towns, villages, Definiteness in Arabic, The Nisba
10 Long vowel to a Diphthong, The Possessive pronouns, Sentences in
Arabic
11 The Vocative Particle, The Idaafa, The Simple Idaafa
12 The Diptotes, Demonstrative Pronouns, The Equational
Sentence
13 Interrogative Particles, Indefinite Noun Subject, Negating Equational
Sentences
14 The Subject markers, The Different Forms of
Interrogative Particles, The Idaafa (revisited)
15 Verb-Subject Agreement, Transitive Verbs, Helping Vowels
16 Object Pronouns, The word , The Cluster Buster
17 Negation of Past Tense Verbs, ,
18 The conjunction( ) , Definiteness (Revisited), Emphasis/Contrast
19 The Defacto Case of the Noun and Adjective, , ,
Numbers, Plurals
20 Numbers (Revisited), &
21 Verb Object Pronouns, Object Pronouns of Prepositions
22 Prepositions, Feminine Sound Plurals, The Roots, The Verb Form
Numbers
24 The Phonological Environment for Form VIII Verb, Non-human Plurals
25 Multiples of 10, The Conjunction , The Singular Subject and its mood
markers
26 The Present Tense of the Arabic verb, The Moods
27 Vowels of the Present Tense Verb
28 , Negation of Present and Future Tense Verbs, The Sick Verbs
29 , The Plural Vocatives, Masculine Sound Plural (Revisited)
30 Negation of the Future Tense (Revisited), Verbs with Two Objects, The Semi-
Diptotes

31 & her Sisters, The Apposition , The Moody Present Tense
32. The Subjunctive Mood
33 (Revisited), The Nominalizer & her Sisters
II
34 Adjectives (Revisited) & her Sisters (Revisited)
35 Phony/Fake Idaafa, The Perfect Particle , The Verbal Noun
36 Forms of the Verbal Nouns
37 The Relative Pronouns
38 (Revisited), The Cognate Accusative
39 The noun , The Emphasis The Dropping of the
Shadda of
and her sisters
40 The Imperative Mood,
41 The preposition , The Apposition (Revisted), Verbs of
Beginning, The Active Participle
42 Derivation of the Active Participle, The nouns and
43 The Haal Construction
44 The Passive Participle, Derivation of the Passive Participle
Negation Particle (Revisited)
45 The Accusative of Distinction (Revisited)
46 Particles of Exception
47 The Accusative of Purpose, The Absolute Negation
48 The Long Vowels (Revisited)
50 The Pedagogy Section, The whole language and guided
participatory approach
60 Functional Arabic Verbs list
69 References

I
INTRODUCTION
The Arabic language developed through the early centuries in the Arabian
Peninsula in the era immediately preceding the appearance of Islam, when it acquired the
form in which it is known today. Arab poets of the pre-Islamic period had developed a
language of amazing richness and flexibility. For the most part, their poetry was
transmitted and preserved orally. The Arabic language was then, as it is now, easily
capable of creating new words and terminology in order to adapt to the demand of new
scientific and artistic discoveries. As the new believers in the seventh century spread out
from the Peninsula to create a vast empire, first with its capital in Damascus and later in
Baghdad, Arabic became the administrative language of vast section of the Mediterranean
world. It drew upon Byzantine and Persian terms and its own immense inner resources of
vocabulary and grammatical flexibility.
During the ninth and tenth centuries, a great intellectual movement was
underway in Baghdad, in which many ancient scientific and philosophical tracts were
transposed from ancient languages, especially Greek, into Arabic. Many were augmented
by the new wisdom suggested by Arabic thinkers; other text were simply preserved, until
Europe reawakened by the explosion of learning taking place in Arab Spain, saw its
rebirth in the Renaissance. That is how Arabic became by the eleventh century the
principal reservoir of human knowledge, including the repository for the accumulated
wisdom of past ages, supplanting previous cultural languages such as Greek and Latin.
And it was the Arabic language alone which united many peoples in the
Arab Empire and the civilization which flourished under it. For when we speak of the
Arab civilization and its achievements we do not necessarily mean that all its
representative were Arab, or that all were Muslims. It was the peculiar genius of Arab
civilization that it attracted and encompassed people of many races and creeds. Citizens
of the Arab Empire, they identified themselves with this civilization and it was the Arabic
language, with its great flexibility, that made them exponents of that civilization..
Between the eighth and twelfth centuries, Arabic was as much the universal language of
culture, diplomacy, the sciences and philosophy as Latin was to become in the later
Middle Ages. Those who wanted to read Aristotle, use medical terms, solve mathematical
problems, or embark on any intellectual discourse, had to know Arabic.
The first rules of Arabic language, including its poetry metrical theory, and
its syntax, morphology and phonology, were written in Iraq. This task was conducted
both in Al-Basrah under Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmed Al-Farahidy and in Al-Kuufah under Abu
al-Hasan Al-Kisaa'i. During the Middle Ages Al-Khalil in his book and, his
student, Siibawayh in concluded that task. The first complete dictionary of the
Arabic language was composed by Al-Khalil, who had also been involved in the reform
of the Arabic script and who is generally acclaimed as the inventor of the Arabic metrical

theory. The professed aim of , which goes under his name, was the inclusion
of all Arabic roots. In the introduction, a sketch is given of the phonetic structure of
Arabic, and
II
the dictionary fully uses available corpora of Arabic by including quotations from the
Qur'an and from the numerous pre-Islamic poems, which had both undergone a process
of codiﬁcation and written transmission by the hands of the grammarians.
The early attempt to write the Arabic grammar began as early as the time
of the fourth Well-Guided Caliphs, Ali Ibn Abi Taalib, when he commissioned a man
named Abu Al-Aswad Al-Du'ali for the task. In his book (
) Al-Anbari, reports the following anecdote .
)(
:
–-
.:
.
.:
.
I came to The Leader of the Believers, Ali Ibn Abi Talib, and found that he was
holding a note in his hand. I asked, "What is this, Oh Leader of the Faithful?" He
said, "I have been thinking of the language of the Arabs, and I came to ﬁnd out
that it has been corrupted through contacts with these foreigners.Therefore, I have
decided to put something that they (the Arabs) refer to and rely on." Then he gave
me the note and on it he wrote: Speech is made of nouns, verbs and particles.
Nouns are names of things, verbs provide information, and particles complete the
meaning." Then he said to me, "Follow this approach and add to it what comes to
your mind."
Al-Du'ali continued to say,
.)(
.)

(.!
.
I wrote two chapters on conjunctions and attributes then two chapters on
exclamation and interrogatives. Then I wrote about and I
III
skipped . When I showed that to him (Peace be upon him), he ordered
me to add . Therefore, every time I finish a chapter I showed it to him
(May God be satisfied with him), until I covered what I thought to be
enough. He said, "How beautiful is the approach you have taken!" From
there the concept of grammar came to exist.
Following Abu Al-Aswad Al-Du'ali came a group of grammarians that we know
most of by their names, not their works. The list includes:
Ibn ‘AaSim ‚ , Al-Mahry , Al-Aqran
, Al-‘Adwaany , Al-Akhfash
, Al-‘Araj , Al-Hadhramy , Ibn
Al-‘Alaa' , Al-Thaqafy , who wrote two
famous books, and
Waafi credited Al-Thaqafy for transferring the interest from Basrah to
Kuufa, because he began his work there, and Al-Khalil was his student. Among the other
Kuufic grammarians were Al-Tamiimy
and Al-Harraa' and Al-Ru'aasy who
wrote )) .If Siibawayh was considered the 'Imaam of grammar in Basrah, the
Kuufic version was Al-Kisaa'y who
studied under Al-Harraa' and Al-Ru'aasy . Unfortunately, Al-Kisaa'y
did not author any major work in Arabic grammar. However, he became one of the best
seven readers of the Quran.
The framework of the Arab grammarians served exclusively for the analysis of
Arabic and, therefore, has a special relevance for the study of the language. From the
period between 750 and 1500 we know the names of more than 4000 grammarians who

developed a truly comprehensive body of knowledge on their own language.
Siibawayh was the first grammarian to give an account of the entire language in
what was probably the first publication in book form in Arabic prose. In his book,
, Al-Husary reported that Siibawayh used to have his work
reviewed by another grammarian of his time named Al-Akhfash Al-Saghiir who said that,
" Siibawayh showed me the grammar rules he came up with thinking that I knew better
than him. In fact, he has better knowledge than me." Siibawayh's example set the trend
for all subsequent generations of grammarians, who believed that their main task was to
IV
provide an explanation for every single phenomenon in Arabic. Consequently, they
distinguished between what was transmitted and what was theoretically possible in
language. In principle, they accepted everything from reliable resources, which included
the language of the Qur'an, pre-Islamic poetry, and testimonies from trustworthy Bedouin
informants. After the period of the Islamic conquests, the sedentary population of Mekka
and Medina began to regard the free-roaming Bedouin, whose language preserved the
purity of the pre-Islamic times, as the ideal type of Arab, and the term
'Language of the Arabs' came to denote the pure, unaffected language of the Bedouins.
Versteegh stated that the early beginnings of grammar and lexicography began at
a time when Bedouin informants were still around and could be consulted. There can be
no doubt that the grammarians and lexicographers regarded the Bedouin as the true
speakers of the Arabic FuSHa, and continued to do so after the conquests. In the words of
Ibn Khalduun, the Bedouin spoke according to their linguistic intuitions and did not need
any grammarian to tell them how to use the declensional endings. There are reports that it
was fashionable among notable families to send their sons into the desert, not only learn
how to shoot and hunt, but also to practice speaking pure Arabic. The Prophet
Mohammed was one of those when he was a small boy. Other reports come from
professional grammarians who stayed for some time with a Bedouin tribe and studied
their speech because it was considered to be more correct than that of the towns and
cities.
The Arabic linguistic references tell us that the need for some "linguistic
authority" came to exist long before the time of Al-Khalil and Siibawayh. There is a vast
amount of anecdotes concerning the linguistic mistakes made by the non-Arabs who
converted to Islam. It is commonly believed that these anecdotes document a state of
confusion and corruption of the Classical language. According to many resources, the
Well-guided fourth Caliph, Ali Ibn 'Abi Taalib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet
Mohammed, was the first to insist that something to be done. One anecdote mentioned
that Ali came to perform his pre-dawn prayer at the Mosque of A-Kuufah. As he went in,
he heard a non-Arab Muslim reading the Quran and that man was assigning the end-
words voweling incorrectly. The verse in question was from FaaTir (Chapter #35. Verse #

28):
Those truly fear Allah,
Among His Servants
Who have knowledge
Apparently, that man had the nominative case assigned to what supposed to be the
direct object , and the accusative case was assigned to the subject . Because
the end-word voweling is the manifestation of Arabic language grammar, the meaning of
that verse was completely messed up. That same day Ali handed a note to Abu Al-'Aswad
Al-Du'ali which said that, "Speech is made of three elements; nouns, verbs, and
particles." Ali asked Al-Du'ali to expand on that definition and write the first grammar
rules for
V
Arabic. In other words, Ali was asking for a "linguistic authority" whose rules should be
enforced.
According to some historians, Al-Du'ali at first hesitated but was later persuaded
when his own daughter made a terrible mistake in the use of the declensional endings, by
confusing the expressions:
/!
How beautiful is the sky!/What is the most beautiful thing in the sky?
She was reported to have said:
/!
The origin of the "dot," notation of the three short vowels, and the Nunation is
ascribed to 'Abu Al-'Aswad, and the names of the vowels (FatHa, Dhamma, Kasra) are
connected to their articulations. From that we have the common expression,
!, literally meaning "put the dots on the letters!, i.e., to "be more clear/
specific."Two other innovations attributed to 'Abu Al-'Aswad concern the notation for
hamza (glottal stop) and Shadda (consonant gemination). Both signs are absent from the
Nabataean script.
The framework of the Arab grammarians served exclusively for the analysis of
Arabic and therefore has a special relevance for the study of the language. From the
period between 750 and 1500 we know the names of more than 4000 grammarians who
elaborated a comprehensive body of knowledge on their own language.
Most Arabic grammars follow the order established by Siibawayh and start with
syntax , followed by morphology , with phonology added as an

appendix. Phonology did not count as an independent discipline and was therefore
relegated to a position at the end of the treatise, although a considerable body of phonetic
knowledge was transmitted in introductions to dictionaries and in treaties on recitation of
the Qur'an,
The grammarians' main preoccupation was the explanation of the case endings of
the words in the sentence, called , a term originally meant the correct use of
Arabic according to the language of the Bedouins but came to mean declension.
Kees believes that the works which appeared after Al-Khalil and Siibawayh only
contributed either by offering commentaries or further explanations. In this context, this
publication is nothing more than an account of the most common rules non-speakers of
Arabic will need to refer to in their quest for learning the language. Yet, our additional
aim is to offer some suggestions and ideas on how to present these commonly used rules.
VI
These suggestions and ideas are based on recent research in language proficiency learning
and pedagogy.
Many researchers agree that formal classroom instruction of certain
grammatical structures -that is, morphological inflections, function words, and syntactic
word order- can be beneficial to students. The rationale for teaching grammar is
multifaceted. First students are expected to be already literate and therefore have
established expectation concerning language instruction. Grammar instruction can be
beneficial because of the fact that it raises learners' consciousness concerning the
differences and similarities of L1 and L2. In this respect, grammar instruction can be used
as a "linguistic map," with reference points of "rules of thumbs" to assist students as they
explore the "topography" of the new language.
However, we need to remember that grammatical structures by themselves
are rather useless. Like road signs, grammatical structures take on meaning only if they
are situated in a context and in connected discourse. Furthermore, Krashen (1982)
reminds us that grammatical structures will become internalized only if the learners are
placed in a situation in which they need to use the structures for communicative purposes.
Consequently, an important role of the teacher is to create
learning situations in which the students feel a need to master the grammar in order to
comprehend and communicate in the target language. A detailed pedagogy scheme on
how to teach and learn grammar is provided in a section that follows the presentation of
the rules.

1
1. The Arabic Alphabet.
The Arabic sources, as long as they do not attribute the invention of the Arabic
script to Adam or Ishmael, tell us that the script had been introduced either from South
Arabia region or from Mesopotamia (Iraq). Ibn Al-Nadim, for example, said that the
people of Al-Hira, the capital of the Lakhmid dynasty in the Euphrates valley, used a
form of Syriac cursive script which had developed into the Arabic alphabet.
Versteegh claims that the theory of Syriac origin has now been abandoned
by most scholars. It seems much more likely to him that the Arabic alphabet is derived
from a type of cursive Nabataean in Petra, Jordan. In the Aramaic script, from which
Nabataean writing ultimately derived, there are no ligatures between letters. But in the
cursive forms of the Nabataean script most of the features that characterize the Arabic
script already appear. Versteegh adds that the elaboration of an Arabic script for texts in
Arabic took place as early as the second century CE. This would mean that the
development of the Arabic script as it is used in pre-Islamic inscriptions occurred largely
independently from the later developments in Nabataean epigraphic script. The most
important internal development in Arabic script is the systematic elaboration of
connections between letters within the word, and the system of different forms of the
letters according to their position within the word.
According to Siibawayh, the Arabic Alphabet is made of 29 letters,
including 3 long vowels. He put them in the following order starting with the laryngeal
and ending with labial, representing the place of articulation along the vocal tract.
Though Siibawayh listed 29 letters he concluded that in reality there were 35
sounds which are represented by those 29 letters. He explained that the recitation of the
Quran and reading of poetry had necessitated the existance of those 6 additional sounds.
The list included the 'light Nuun' , the 'medial Hamza'
, 'Alif al-'Imaala ,'the J-sounded Shiin
, the Z-sounded emphatic S' , 'the velarized
'Alif' in the language of Hijaaz in words like, .
Siibawayh went on to say that he could trace 42 sounds but the additional
7 sounds were not favorable in the recitation of the Quran and reading of poetry.
Therefore, they were of less signiﬁcance since their use is only limited to oral
communication.

2
Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmed, who died in 791, grouped and put them in the following
order:
The codification of the Qur'an was a crucial moment in the development of a
written standard for the Arabic language. On a practical level, the writing-down of the
holy text involved all kinds of decisions concerning the orthography of the Arabic script
and elaboration of a number of conventions to make writing less ambiguous and more
manageable than it had been in pre-Islamic Arabia.
Writing was not unknown in the peninsula in that period. But, for religious
reasons, early Islamic sources emphasized the illiteracy of the Prophet Mohammed. The
Prophet was , someone who could not read nor write, and this was what made the
revelation of the Qur'an and his recitation of the text a miracle.
There are clear indications that as early as the sixth century writing was fairly
common in the urban centers of the peninsula, in Mekka and to a lesser degree in Medina.
In the commercial society that was Mekka, businessmen must have had at their disposal
various means of recording their transactions. There are references to treaties being
written down and preserved in the Ka'ba in Mekka. Even the , the transmitters of
poetry, sometimes relied on written notes, although they recited the poems entrusted to
them orally. In the Qur'an, we find reflection of a society in which writing for commercial
purposes was well established. In the second sura we find, for instance, detailed
stipulations on the settlement of debts that include the exact writing-down of the terms.
In the biography of the Prophet, there are many references to his using scribes for
his correspondence with Arab tribes and of writing treaties. In the accounts preserved by
the historians, scribes and witnesses were mentioned and the Prophet signed those
documents with his fingernail. Tradition has preserved the names of several scribes to
whom Mohammed dictated messages, chief among them being Zayd Ibn Thabit.
Just as Christian monks of the Middle Ages spent lifetimes writing and
illuminating religious manuscripts, their Arab and Muslim forebears contemporaries
devoted their lives to producing elegantly handwritten copies of the Quran. In lieu of
pictorial representation, which was frowned upon, calligraphy became not only practical,
but decorative, replacing design, painting and sculpture over a period of centuries. Later
every caliph's court employed these artists to draw up official documents, design official
signatures and write out diplomatic correspondence.

The Arabs and Muslims of that time used interlaced geometric lines derivations
from the Kufic style to adorn the walls of palaces and mosques, and the name of this
style, arabesque, is a reminder of its cultural origins. Arabic calligraphy forms a primary
ornamentation of the Moorish palace of Alhambra in Granada, other citadels and
3
mosques of Moorish Spain speak eloquently of the golden ages of arabesque design and
calligraphy.
The tracery and flowing patterns of the arabesque style, of calligraphy itself,
imply a deeper, symbolic meaning stemming from ancient mystic beliefs. The designs
endlessly reproducing themselves in apparently confused entanglements, but in reality
flowing an ingenious system, are interpreted as symbolic of the order of nature which in
perpetual change always repeats its cycles. The meanders are said to represent the
continuity of life, the circle is held to stand for eternity and the rosettes and palmettos of
design for birth and maturity.
Calligraphers today play an integral role in the Arab and Muslim Worlds. They
not only copy Quranic verses and design phrases to be incorporated into building tiles
and mosques , but they write nearly all newspaper and magazine headlines. Modern
Arabic lends itself to the art, with its fluid design and diacritical markings.
2.The Arabic Consonatial System includes equal numbers of voiced versus
voiceless, two nasals, three velarised, two lateral and one trill. Please note the
following diagram:
Obstruents Sonorants (all voiced)
Unvelarized Velarized
Voiceless voicedvoiceless voicednasal lateral trill
labial
labio-dental
interdental
dento-alve. ///
palatal
velar
uvular /
Pharyngal

Laryngeal /
4
3. One Direction Connectors. Of the 29 letters that make the Arabic Alphabet only six
connect to the proceeding letter. These include two long vowels and , and four
consonants; . The rest connect to both sides.
4. Emphatic Consonants are a Semitic languages phenomenon. In Arabic there are four
which include . These consonants are articulated by a process of
velarization: the tip of the tongue is lowered, the root of the tongue is raised towards the
soft palate (velum), and in the process the timbre of the neighboring vowels is shifted
towards a posterior realization.
5. Short Vowels in Arabic
The notation of the short vowels was a complicated problem. Abu Al-Aswad Al-
Du'ali is credited with introduction of the system of colored dots in the writing
system, and the terminology, "FatHa - , Dhamma - , Kasra -.". But, a substantial
improvement in the system of short vowels notation is usually attributed to the first
lexicographer of the Arabic language, Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmed. He replaced the colored
dots with specific shapes for the short vowels and the Shadda. With Al-Khalil's
reform, the system of Arabic orthography was almost the same ever since.
When used at the end of a definite noun or adjective they indicate case.
(a) - indicates Nominative case as in
)b) - indicates Accusative case as in
(c) - indicates Genitive case as in
As you might have noticed, Siibawaih did not include the short vowels.
Neither did he talk about the diphthongs which are created every time you have a

short vowel proceeding the long vowels and as in
6. Nunation. When a noun or an adjective is indefinite it carries Nunation, which is
any of the short vowels plus /n/ sound.
)a) - indicates Nominative case as in
)b) - indicates Accusative case as in
)c) - indicates Genitive case as in
5
Please notice that the accusative Nunation - is always written on ( ) as in . An
exception to that is when the final consonant is either the feminine marker, Taa'
MarbuTa , or Hamza,
7. The Shadda is used when you have two identical consonants in a sequence,
providing that the first has a Sukuun (zero vowel).
is written as
8. The Sun Letters. Due to a Phonological rule, the / / sound of the definite article
is assimilated by any of the following sun consonants. Therefore, you need to use
Shadda to replace the assimilated / /. The Sun Letters are:
9. The Moon Letters have the definite article fully pronounced. They are:
10. Arabic Syntax. According to Siibawayh words are noun , verb , or
particle intended for items which are neither noun nor verb. The basic
difference between the three parts is the declension, .In principle, only
nouns and their adjectives have case endings to indicate their syntactic function in a
sentence. This classification remained intact throughout the history of the Arabic
grammatical traditions. The noun category was defined either as a word with certain
syntactic characteristics such as its combinability with the definite article or as a word
denoting an essence. Unlike the definition of the noun in Western grammar, the

Arabic noun category includes adjectives, pronouns and even a number of
prepositions and adverbs. The category of the verb was defined as a word that denotes
an action and could be combined with some particles. The particle category includes
the remaining words, and their function is to assist other words in their semantic
function in the sentence.
11. The Definite Article in Arabic. A noun or adjective is made definite by prefixing
( ) to it.
a. an old house
b. the old house
6
12. The Arabic Morphology. At a very early date, the Arab grammarians invented a
notation for the morphological patterns , which represented the three root
radicals For those grammarians, the task of morphology was the breakdown of
words into radical and auxiliary consonants . The grammarians set up methods to
identify the radicals, of which the most important was , the comparison of the
form under scrutiny with morphologically-related words with the same semantic content.
In line with the idea of the purity of the language, the semantic extension of an existing
word was regarded as the most appropriate device for expansion of the lexicon. The
model for this procedure was believed to have been given by the language of the Qur'an
itself. Semantic extension became an accepted method of creating new terminology.
13. The Feminine Marker. As in many other languages, any Arabic noun/adjective
has to be either masculine or feminine. With few exceptions, the general rule is to
suffix the Taa' MarbuTa ( / ) to the masculine noun/adjective forms to derive the
feminine ones. Examples are:
nouns///
adjectives ///
However, you need to remember that the Taa' Marbuta ( / ) is used in certain
ancient Arabic male proper names such as:
Also, it is used on some broken plural patterns such as:

(giant ) / (professor/s) /
14. The Personal pronouns are used to replace nouns. The following is a list of the
singular (1-5) and plural forms (6-10):
.6.1
.7.2
8..3
.9.4
10..5
15. All countries, towns, villages, etc. are treated as feminine. The exceptions to this
rule are six Arab countries. These are:
,,,,,
7
16. Definiteness in Arabic. As you might have noticed in the phrases in point #11
above, adjectives in Arabic usually follow nouns and agree with them in terms of
number, gender, case, and definiteness/indefiniteness.
a. small book
b. the small book
If an adjective completely agrees with its noun in every aspect, then you have
a phrase, as in examples (a) and (b) below. However, if a noun (subject) is definite
and its adjective (predicate) is indefinite you have a sentence, as in (c).
(a) a new house
(b) the new house
(c) The house is new
17. The Nisba is an adjective that is created from a noun. The most common are
those that refer to origin, nationality or country. The main device for making such
adjectives from nouns is to suffix ( ) for masculine and ( ) for feminine to the
noun. The noun must be first stripped off (a) the definite article, (b) feminine suffix,

or (c) final position long vowel.
a. ) )
b. ) )
c. ) )
18. Long vowel to a Diphthong. If any of the two long vowel , is proceeded by
the short vowel , the long vowel changes its character to a diphthong:
uu ---> ou
ii ---> ei
19. The Possessive pronouns are suffixed to nouns to express possession and,
consequently, make them definite.
8
my house, your (f) house, our house
The following is a list of the personal pronouns (singular 1-5 and plural 6-10), and
their corresponding possessive ones:
6. 1.
2.7.
3.8.
4.9.
5.10.
20. Sentences in Arabic. The closest equivalent in Arabic grammar to the Western
notion of a 'sentence' is , a syntactically complete string of words that expresses
a semantically complete message. In a sentence, there is always one head word that
relays or determines the sentential functions resulting in markers in the form of case
endings. According to the Western analysis of Arabic sentence structure , there are
two
types of sentence: nominal and verbal. The Arab Grammarians differ and suggest

three types.
(a) The verbal sentence is the basic sentence. Its
order is (object)<--- subject <--- verb. In this type of sentence, a verb is marked by
the gender of its subject.
(b) The Nominal Sentence is where the subject
takes an initial position for emphatic purposes, followed by the verb, (object)<---
verb <--- subject. Consequently, the verb is marked by the number and gender of its
subject.
(c) The Equational Sentence is made of a
subject and a predicate without any expressed verb. The verb "to be" is understood,
predicate<--- subject. Both the subject and the predicate have to be in the
nominative case.
21. The Vocative Particle is limited for use with people only. The noun it is used
with becomes definite, and therefore would carry a short vowel, not Nunation.
! O, professor!
9
22. Idaafa . The Idaafa structure is usually made of two or more nouns that
are semantically related and in a sequence. Sometimes it sounds like a sort of
"possessive" relationship, where English could use "of" or "'s" .The first term of the
Idaafa might be in any case and should not take Nunation or a definite article. The
Second term of the Idaafa, on the other hand, is always in the genitive case and may
take Nunation or a definite article.
the language professor:
a language professor:
If you encounter a cluster of nouns, then you should try to find out if it is an

Idaafa structure.
23. The Simple Idaafa is made of two nouns. The Complex Idaafa is made of 3 or
more. As expected, such sequences will create a Syntactical Environment where some
nouns will play double grammatical functions.
a. the university building
b. the door of the university building
24. The Diptotes is a category of proper names of individuals, countries, cities, and
towns. These nouns share the following characteristics:
a. They do not take the deﬁnite article.
b. In spite of the absence of the deﬁnite article, they do not
take Nunation.
c. In the genitive case they take the accusative case marker
instead.
a. Omer's hobbies
b. from Baghdad
25. Demonstrative Pronouns. The use of "this/that & these/those" in Arabic is
determined by the number and gender of the noun/adjective they introduce.
a. Singulars are (f) (f)
b. Plurals are (no gender
distinction)
10
26. The Equational Sentences. As indicated earlier, an equational sentence in Arabic
is a sentence without a verb. It consists of two parts, a subject and a predicate. The
subject could be (a) a demonstrative pronoun, (b) a personal pronoun, or (c) a noun,
while the predicate may be either of these, as well as (c) an adjective, (d) an adverb,
or (e) a prepositional phrase.
)a) a subject demonstrative pronoun.

)b) a subject personal pronoun.
)c) a subject noun.
)a) a predicate personal pronoun.
)b) a predicate noun.
)c) a predicate indefinite adjective.
)d) a predicate adverb.
(e) a predicate prep. phrase .
A pronoun of separation could be added in example (b) above, where both the
subject and the predicate are nouns.
.
27. Interrogative Particles. / are interrogative particles which are used to
introduce questions that may be answered with either Yes or No.
Is this an office?
There is some phonological restriction on the use of when the following
word starts with a Hamza, such as:
It is better, in fact easier phonetically, to use
28. Indefinite Noun Subject. You cannot start a sentence in Arabic with an indefinite
noun subject. Under such circumstances, the subject needs to be moved inside the
sentence and, therefore, will take the predicate position, not its syntactical function.
.
There are Egyptian students (f) in the classroom.
11
29. Negating Equational Sentences. This type of Arabic sentence is negated by
using . Remember that the predicate noun or adjective has to be in the
accuasative case.

The professor is not Egyptian. .
30. The Subject markers for verbs in the past tense are suffixed to the verb stem in
order to demonstrate subject/verb agreement.
They are:
)-()()()()(
)()-()()()(
31. The Different Forms of . When subject pronouns are attached to , it
will take the following forms:
32. Interrogative Particles / (revisited). The Arabic language does not
tolerate the use of with any form of in order to make a question. You
have to stick with .
Isn't the student (m) in the library?
33. The Idaafa (revisited). Arabic grammar does not allow anything to be placed
between the first and second term of Idaafa except for a demonstrative pronoun.
Therefore,
)a) the student’s book
is correct and
)b) this student’s book
is also correct. But,
(c)
12
is incorrect due to the fact that the possessive pronoun)(is inserted between
the first and second terms of Idaafa.
34. Verb-Subject Agreement. A verb that proceeds its subject is marked by gender

only. If it follows its subject it should be marked by both number and gender.
The students (f) went to the dorm.
.
The students (f) went to the dorm.
.
35. A Transitive Verb (a) requires an object; intransitive (b) does not.
a. I ate an apple..
b. I went to the university. .
36. Helping Vowels replace the Zero Vowel when the following word starts with
Hamza. Therefore, an environment for using a helping vowel will be created every
time one uses a definite article. The purpose of this Phonological Rule is to provide a
smooth transition from one word to the next. Generally speaking, this transition is
governed by the following rules.
a. If the proceeding vowel is FatHa the helping vowel is Kasra.
Is the book new? ( (
b. If the proceeding vowel is Kasra, the helping vowel is FatHa.
This pencil is from the office. .) )
c. If the proceeding vowel is Dhamma, the helping vowel is Dhamma.
)(
Why did you (m, pl) meet the director (f(?
37. Object Pronouns. You remember what was mentioned earlier that possessive
pronouns are suffixed to nouns. Now, I would like to remind you that object pronouns
are suffixed to the verbs. Please, notice the difference of the pronouns in the
following sentences:
a. (Possessive Pronoun) .
b. (Object Pronoun) .
13

38. The word has different meanings, depending on the context. It could mean
"what," and in this case you are expected to have a demonstarative pronoun or a
deﬁnite noun following it.
What is this?
What is his job?
When the question wordis followed by a verb in the past tense, it changes
its own function to a negation particle.
I did not eat at this restaurant. .
39. The Cluster Buster. Generally speaking, Arabic does not tolerate three or more
consonant clusters. The common practice to deal with such a phonological
environment is to insert a short or long vowel in between. We mentioned earlier the
use of the short helping vowel. A good example for the use of a long vowel is when
we have an attached object pronoun for transitive verbs which have as a
subject. Notice the use of the long vowel ( ) to break the cluster in the following
sentences:
.
You (mp) saw her in the market.
.
You (mp) met us in the cafe.
.
You (mp) taught him Arabic.
40. Negation of Past Tense Verbs. There are two methods to negate the verbs in past
tense. The easy way is by using before the verb. The other is to use the negation
particle ¸ followed by the jussive form of the verb.
We didn’t watch/see this movie. .
.
41. / are nouns that can also be used as adverbs.

(a) There is a student (f) in the classroom. .
(b) The new book is here. .
14
42. is a noun that will be a first term of Idaafa and could mean "every/each" if it is
followed by a singular indefinite noun. If the singular noun is definite, would mean
"all/whole". If it is used after a noun, then it should carry its corresponding pronoun
suffix and its function becomes emphatic.
a. I read every book! .
b. I read the whole book. .
c. I read the book, all of it.
However, if is followed by a plural noun, that noun should be definite
and both create Idaafa. Check the following sentences:
All the employees (m) came.
.
All the office employees (m) came.
43. The conjunction ( ) changes to ( ) when the sentence is negated.
I like coffee and tea.
.
Neither do I like coffee nor tea . .
44. Definiteness in Arabic (Revisited). You should know by
now that a noun or an adjective in Arabic is made definite by one of the following
methods:
a. a definite article
b. following the vocative particle
c. a possessive pronoun
d. by relating it to a definite noun in Idaafa structure
45. Emphasis/Contrast. Since verb form indicates the person,

gender, and number of the subject any use of a subject pronoun is considered
redundant. If, however, you want to emphasize or contrast two objects Arabic allows
you to use the subject pronoun in such a linguistic environment.
.
I went to the library and they went to the restaurant.
15
46. The Defacto Case of the Noun and Adjective in Arabic is Nominative. A noun
case is changed to accusative if it becomes an object of a verb (There are other cases
where a noun should carry the accusative case marker. Check Kaana & Inna points).
A noun is said to be in the genitive case if it follows a preposition
or it is a second term of Idaafa. No matter what is the case of the noun, the adjective
will follow, marked by the same case.
The Egyptian man is in his house. .
I saw the Egyptian man. .
I said hello to the Egyptian man. .
47. (why) has to be followed by a verb because it asks about action/activity
(verbs usually express those).
Why did you (m) go back to the room?
48. When it means “how many,” has to be followed by an indeﬁnite noun, in the
accusative case. Unlike English, it has to be singular. Arab grammarians call it a
particle of "The Accusative of Distinction," or .
How many students are there in the class?
49. Numbers that proceed nouns should take the opposite gender
of those nouns. Furthermore, they should carry the marker that is determined by their
grammatical function in the sentence. The noun itself has to be in the genitive case
because this combination will create an Idaafa.
a. I met ﬁve students (f). .

b. Five students (m) came. .
50. Plurals. There are three types of plural in Arabic:
a. The Masculine Sound plural is created by ( ) suffixed to the noun in
the nominative case, and ( ) in both genitive and accusative cases.
teachers (m)
16
b. The Feminine sound plural is created by dropping the Taa’ MarbuuTa and
replacing it with ( ) for the nominative case and ( ) for the
accusative & genitive cases.
teachers
c. The Broken plural is an irregular form. Even though several nouns
may exhibit the same "broken" pattern, one has to learn the
words individually.
dog(s), cat(s) //
51. Numbers (Revisited). It was mentioned earlier that numbers that proceed nouns
should take the opposite gender of those nouns. An additional rule which you need to
consider is that unlike English, the noun has to be in plural only between 3-10. After
that the noun has to be singular in the accusative case. This is another example of
"accusative of distinction."
.
I bought fifteen pencils.
52. / both mean “which” (as a question word). The first is used for masculine
while the second is used for feminine. The noun which follows either one of them has to
be in the genitive case. The implication is that the two nouns create Idaafa. Please notice
that / carry the vowel of the original case of the noun you ask about.
a. Which magazine (subject-nominative) is this?

17
b. Which student (m) (object-accusative) did you (f) see?
c. To which city (object of a prep.-genitive) did you travel?
53. Verb Object Pronouns. We mentioned earlier that object pronouns are suffixed
to the transitive verbs.
.
He saw her at the train station.
54. Object Pronouns of Prepositions. The object pronouns for transitive verbs are the
same for the intransitive verbs which take prepositions. An exception to this is the object
pronoun for the first person, , which becomes ( ) for some prepositions.
.
She went with me to the market.
Please remember that the object pronouns in such linguistic environment are
attached to prepositions, not the verbs.
The list of verb and preposition object pronouns suffixes includes the
following:
Object Subject Independent
1./)(
2.
3.
4.-
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

10.
18
55. Prepositions which end with Alif MaQsura, ( ) will reclaim their original ( )
form when any object pronoun is attached to them. Check the following example:
.
He greeted her when he saw her at the train station.
56. Feminine Sound Plurals take the genitive marker for the accusative case.
.
We saw the students (f) at the post ofﬁce.
57. The Roots. Most Arabic words can be attributed to some 3-letter root, where
radicals are referred to by means of a prototypical root, . stands for the ﬁrst
radical, for the second, and for the third. This 3-letter root form is the entry you
need to use when you want to check out any word in any Arabic dictionary. You
should know by now how to dissect words in order to get to that root. Mainly, you
need to drop off any gender and number markers of the noun/adjective. In case of the
verbs, you need to drop off any subject, tense, and mood markers.
58. The Verb Form Numbers system is quite old, going back to the earliest
European Arabic grammars such as that of Guillaume Postal, Paris, ca. 1538 and
Pedro de Alcala' ca. 1613. Their order of numbering is the same as that which we are
familiar with today. Another grammar was published in Rome ca. 1622 which uses
the numbering system but has forms II and IV switched. Erpenius' grammar was only
superseded in 1810 by the grammar of De Sacy, who used the same system which has
been in vogue ever since. Incidentally, the numbering system was also used in older
grammars of Hebrew, but seems to have fallen out of usage.
The system, an extremely useful mnemonic device is not entirely unrelated to
the traditional work of , for it follows the order of and .The
use of numbering, however, is the Latin, European innovation which might have been
a claque on some aspect of the study of Latin grammar. At the very least, it is well
known that Latin grammar traditionally numbers the different classes of conjugation.
De Sacy is careful to make clear in his presentation the verb forms that they fall into
groups of

19
Most verbs in Arabic can be classified into ten forms. These forms are:
1.6.
2.7.
3.8.
4.9.
5.10.
Furthermore, each transitive pattern has an automatic passive counterpart where the stem
short vowel Ftha and Kasra are replaced by Dhamma and Kasra.
To learn more about these forms, please check the computer program ARAFORM. You
will find it and other programs at the following website:
www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/mjiyad/
59. The Phonological Environment for Form VIII Verb. The
characteristic feature of Form VIII is the reflexive affix / / which is inserted after
the first radical of the root. That / / will create the environment for a phonological
rule of assimilation that applies itself if the first radical is a dental stop or fricative.
The result is that the inserted / / is assimilated. Involved here are the following
consonants:
Compare the following examples:
)a) a fully pronounced//

)b) a fully assimilated//--
Luckily, Arabic does not have many verbs of this type. However, you need to
remember the three following related phonological rules:
)1(.After the emphatic consonantsthe inserted//becomes
emphatic,as in-
20
)2(.After the fricativesthere is a complete assimilation and the
resultant double consonant is written with Shadda, as in–
)3(.If the ﬁrst radical of the verb is)(as in,the
)(will be completely assimilated by the inserted//,and thus
the use of the Shadda would be required. Consider the following example:
–
60. Non-human Plurals are treated as feminine singular in terms
of adjective, pronoun, and subject-verb agreement.
..
The cars are new. They are pretty, too.
61. Multiples of 10 do not show gender distinction. Consider the following
sentence:
.
I wrote twenty letters and I read twenty books.
62. The Conjunction is usually followed by a noun or a pronoun sufﬁx in the
accusative case. On the other hand, tolerates the use of verbs after it. Both are
used to make compound sentences and mean "but."
.

I don’t like coffee but I like milk.
.
The program is beautiful but it is long.
63. The Singular Subject and its mood markers for verbs in the present tense are
prefixed and suffixed to the verb stem. This is necessary to demonstrate subject/verb
agreement. These singular markers are:
21
Subject markers ...
Mood markers - - - -
64. The Plural Subject and mood markers. It was mentioned above that for verbs
in the present tense subject and mood markers are prefixed and suffixed to the verb
stem in order to demonstrate subject/verb agreement. The same is true with plural
markers, which are:
Subject marker ....... ...
Mood markers none none -
65. The Present Tense of the Arabic verb requires that you prefix the subject marker
and suffix the mood marker to the stem of the verb. However, this is not as easy as it
sounds, especially for Form I. The vowels you need to add are going to be a little bit
challenging. Note the following paradigm.
1.1.--
2.1.--
3.1.--
4.1.--
2.--

3.--
4.--
5.--
6.--
7.--
8.--
9.--
10.-–
22
66. The Moods. The Present tense verb in Arabic has three moods.
1. Indicative is the regular present tense verb.
.
My sister lives in this apartment.
2. Subjunctive is used when there is doubt, fear, hope, purpose,
obligation, negated future, etc.
.
My sister will not live in this apartment.
3. Jussive is used in negating the past tense with the particle
.
My sister did not live in this apartment.
67. Vowels of the Present Tense Verb. There are three important vowels you need to
take note of when you conjugate any Arabic verb from past tense to the present tense.
These include:
1. The Subject marker vowel, which is the ﬁrst vowel of the
verb;
2. The Stem Vowel, which is the vowel that goes on the second
radical/consonant of the root;
3. The Mood Marker Vowel, which is the last vowel of the
verb.

The following is a chart of these various vowels for the ten forms of the
Arabic verb system:
Form Indicative Mood Stem Subject
I Dhamma unpredictable Fatha
II Dhamma Kasra Dhamma
III Dhamma Kasra Dhamma
IV Dhamma Kasra Dhamma
V Dhamma Fatha Fatha
VI Dhamma Fatha Fatha
VII Dhamma Kasra Fatha
VIII Dhamma Kasra Fatha
IX Dhamma Fatha Fatha
X Dhamma Kasra Fatha

23
68. means "until" when it is followed by a verb in the past tense. When it is
followed by a verb in the present tense it will express purpose and, therefore, means
"in order to/so that." In that case, the verb should be in the subjunctive mood.
(a) .
(b)
.
69. Negation of Present and Future Tense Verbs.
Verbs in the present tense are negated by . Verbs which express future tense
are negated by after dropping the future marker preﬁx ( ). Please remember
that the verb has to be changed to the Subjunctive Mood.
a. We don’t watch/see this movie.
.
b. We will not watch/see this movie.
.
70. The Sick Verbs . Any verb that has a long vowel as one of the
three radicals in its root is called a “sick verb.” These long vowels will go through a
change when the verb is used in the present tense. Consequently, there are three types.
a. Assimilated, if the ﬁrst radical of the verb is a long vowel such as:
/ “to arrive.”
b. Hollow, when the second radical position is occupied by a long vowel such
as:
/ “to walk.”
c. Defective, when the third radical position is occupied by a long vowel such
as:
/“to invite.”
To check how these irregular verbs are conjugated to the various
pronouns for both present & past tenses, please
check the computer program at the website address given earlier.

71. are nouns and when used before another noun they create an Idaafa
(a). If, however, they are used after a noun, they will be emphatic for that proceeding
noun, and will carry its case and its identical pronoun reference (b).
a. .
b. / .
24
72. The Plural Vocatives and . You have already been introduced to
the vocative , which is used with singular nouns and, therefore, could be followed
by a proper noun, a title, or an Idaafa, regardless of the gender.
!!!
The plural forms show gender distinction and, therefore, Arabic has for
the masculine and for the feminine. The plural vocative should be followed
by a noun with the definite article in the nominative case.
!!
73. It was mentioned earlier that the Masculine Sound Plural (MSP) is formed by
suffixing ( ) for the nominative case, and ( ) for the accusative and genitive cases,
to the singular form of the noun.
–/
The final ( ) of this kind of plural is dropped when such a noun takes the position of a
first term of Idaafa. This rule applies regardless of the case of the noun, whether it is
nominative, accusative, or genitive.
/
the university employees (N and A & G)
74. Negation of the Future Tense (Revisited). When the future verb is marked by (
) the negation particle that is used should be followed by the verb in the
subjunctive mood.
becomes

If the future tense is marked by then such a construction may be made
negative by placing before the imperfect indicative verb.
becomes
25
75. Verbs with Two Objects. Among verbs that take two objects is a group that
means "to give/to grant." Consider the following example:
.
The woman gave her daughter a present.
The direct object is and the indirect object is
76. The Semi-Diptotes is another category that includes colors, the elative patterns of
adjectives and some broken plural patterns. They behave like Diptotes and, therefore,
they do not take Nunation and they take the accusative marker for the genitive case.
The ruler is on a green book. .
They (m) study in private schools. .
I talked to a girl who was taller than her sister.
.
However, they can take the deﬁnite article. When they do, they behave like
regular nouns or adjectives.
.
.
.
77. & her Sisters ( ), which
usually go with equational sentences, leave the subject in its nominative case but
change the inﬂected predicate to the accusative case.
The food was delicious. .

The food is not delicious. .
You know that equational sentences refer to present time. The equivalent in
past time is expressed by using the verb .
78. Nouns are said to be in Apposition to another noun when you can drop
off any of them without affecting the semantics of the sentence. Grammatically and
logically speaking, both of the nouns should carry the same case marker.
26
.
The Caliph Omar was fair.
79. The Moody Present Tense. Present tense verbs are said to be in the Indicative
Mood. However, verbs which express hope, desire, purpose, like, dislike, doubt, fear,
uncertainty, obligations, etc., change their mood from the regular Indicative to the
Subjunctive. That also requires that they should follow one of the Subjunctive
particles, such as . Note the purpose
expressed in the following sentence:
.
I went to the library so that I would study there.
880. In the Subjunctive Mood of the Arabic verb, the ﬁnal ( ) of the third person
masculine plural is dropped and replaced by a silent ( ) .
they (m) go
in order for them (m) to go
In addition to ( ), other particles of subjunctivity which express purpose/intention and,
thus, mean “in order to, so that.” include .
.
They (m) traveled to Egypt in order to study there.
The original form of the underlined verb is ( )
Please note that the ﬁnal ( ) of the second person feminine singular should also be

dropped, but without replacement with silent ( ).
you (f.s.) study
so that you (f.s.) study
.
You (f.s.) traveled to Egypt in order to study there.
The original form of the underlined verb is)(
27
81. The most common subjunctive particle in Arabic is probably , which usually
sits between two verbs referring to the same or a different person, and thus,
functioning something like the inﬁnitive in English. If you examine the sentence
carefully, you will notice that introduces a subordinate clause which functions as
an object for the main verb.
.
I want to go to the bank.
82. It has been mentioned earlier that can be used as a question word and as a
negation particle for the verb in past tense. In addition, it can be used to be as a part
of a nominalizer as in:
.
I met him when he lived in this house.
83. The Nominalizer & her Sisters ( ) change the
subject nominative case marker to the accusative but they leave the predicate in its
nominative case. By the way, / are called "Nominalizers" because they
introduce nominal sentences.
.
In fact, the food is delicious.
.
My sister said that the food was delicious.
.
... but the food was delicious.

is only used in the initial position of a sentence, and following any form of
. Anywhere else you have to use . Its meaning, therefore, changes from
"indeed/in fact" to "that". Remember that all these particles should be followed by
nouns or attached pronoun suffixes. Also notice that and her sisters should be
followed by the subject or its corresponding attached pronoun.
28
84. Adjectives. We learned earlier that adjectives in Arabic are usually placed after
the noun they modify, and therefore, they agree in terms of number, gender,
definiteness/indefiniteness, and case with that noun. The comparative and superlative
degrees of the adjectives are formulated following the pattern [Af’alu] ( ).
They should be treated as Diptotes (no Nunation & accusative marker for genitive
case).
Therefore,--------<
and --------<
a. With comparative adjectives, you need to use the preposition
( ) to compare the two nouns, as in:
My house is smaller than hers.
b. In superlative, the most common method is to place the
adjective before the noun, as in:
.
My house is the smallest (house) in the village
Please remember that the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are gender
blind. Therefore, can be used for feminine and masculine nouns as well.
85. & her Sisters (Revisited). We said earlier that & her Sisters are used
with equational sentences. However, they can tolerate the use of verbs after them.
That verb has to be in the present indicative form, as in:
.
She was working in her office.

29
If the subject is expressed, it should be placed between & her sisters and
the verb.
.
The professor was working in her ofﬁce.
An exception to this rule is when you want to topicalize the subject, and that
simply means that you want to emphasize it.
.
86. Phony/Fake Idaafa. You might have noticed that the noun which follows the
adjective that is in the superlative form structure is in the genitive case.
.
The reason is that this combination creates the Syntactical Environment for Idaafa.
Because the components of this structure are not limited to the usual nouns (the ﬁrst
term is in fact an adjective) Arab Grammarians tend to call this Phony/Fake Idaafa.
87. If the Perfect Particle is used with a verb in the past tense, then both are
translated as a Present Perfect (has/have + Participle).
She has worked in this factory. .
When this particle is used with and a verb, then the whole phrase is
translated as a Past Perfect (had+participle).
.
My friend had visited me a year ago.
88. The Verbal Noun is a noun that is derived from a verb. Therefore, it
acts like a noun, as in the following examples:
a. a subject.
b. an object.

c. a ﬁrst term of Idaafa.
30
d. a second term of Idaafe.
e. a predicate .
A verbal noun derived from a transitive verb does sometimes act like that verb and would
take an object.
.
89. Forms of Verbal Nouns. Action/activity is expressed by verbs and verbal nouns.
Like other languages, the verbal nouns in Arabic indicate that action/activity, and
behave like regular nouns. The
following chart shows the various ways of derivation according to the forms:
Verb Form Verbal Noun Verb Example Verbal Noun Example
I. unpredictable any verb unpredictable
II.
III.
IV.
V .
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
90. The Dropping of the Shadda of and her sisters . Arab
grammarians call this . It was mentioned earlier that these particles
change the subject's vowel marker from nominative to accusative case. When the
Shadda is eliminated, the subject maintains its nominative case marker (a).
Furthermore, these particles will tolerate the use of verbs (b) after them.

.
31
(a) .
I heard that the professor (f) is coming.
.
(b) .
My neighbor travelled to Baghdad, but her husband travelled to Cairo.
91. The Relative Pronouns are used to introduce subordinate
adjectival clauses and therefore create complex sentences. The choice of such
pronouns depends on the antecedent's number and gender.
is used for masculine singular.
is used for feminine singular.
is used for feminine plural.
is used for masculine plural.
a. If the antecedent is part of the subject phrase, the relative
clause is embedded inside the main sentence.
.
b. If the antecedent is part of the object phrase/predicate, then
the relative close follows the main sentence.
.
c. If the antecedent is indeﬁnite, you do not need to use a
relative pronoun.
.
d. Sometimes you will encounter a sentence with a relative
pronoun and a relative clause, in which the antecedent is absent, but
still understood.

.
Originally, this sentence is:
( ( .
32
92. (Revisited).We mentioned earlier three possible ways of using this word. The
fourth possibility for using is as a relative pronoun like . With that, it can
introduce a relative clause for an antecedent that is only expressed in a form of an
object pronoun.
/.
I like what I read this week.
93. The Cognate Accusative is a vebal noun, which is derived
from the same verb of the sentence, and it does come in a phrase as:
a. indeﬁnite that is followed by an adjective
.
This man loves his country a lot.
b. deﬁnite as a part of Idaafa or following
.
She respects her professor (the way) a daughter respects her mother.
.
Her family helped her greatly.
Please remember that the Cognate Accusative phrase functions as an adverb to
modify the verb of the sentence.
94. The noun is feminine and means "soul." If you use it before another noun
it will create Idaafa and change its meaning to "same."
.
He always eats at the same restaurant.
If it follows a noun, it should carry a corresponding pronoun reference to that
noun and its case as well. Its function becomes emphatic.

.
I met the correspondant, himself.
95. The Emphasis with the use of . Emphasis can
be expressed by using any of the above particles after a noun, providing that an
identical
33
personal pronoun be sufﬁxed. The particle should carry the same case marker of the
noun it refers to.
a. nominative
.
The teacher, himself, came.
b. accusative
.
I saw the teachers (f), all of them.
c. genitive
.
I spoke to the students, some of them.
96. is a noun which will create Idaafa when it is used with another noun (a). It
also serves to negate nouns and adjectives and may be translated "non-," "un-," and so
on. When it is used in such a Syntactical Environment (i.e., with adjectives) it creates
what we call "Phony/Fake Idaafa," where the second term is an adjective (b).
a. .
Students and non-students attended the meeting
b. .
His act was unacceptable.
97. The Imperative Mood of the verb is used when someone is given a direct
command or making a request. This command/request is either (a) positive or (b)
negative.
a.
You (f.s.) go to the library!
b.

You (f.s.) do not go to the library!
The verb that is used in both cases is formed from the second person Jussive
Mood with a little modification. In (a) you need to drop the subject marker prefix and
insert a Hamza / / instead to break the resulting consonant cluster, as in . In the
case of the negative imperative (b) you just put the negation particle in front of the
verb.
34
98. Though the imperative structure is inherently addressed to a second person, it can also
be expressed indirectly. In this case you should have in mind either (a) first person or (b)
third person. You can form that by prefixing the particles ( ) or ( ) to the Jussive
Mood verb.
(a) .
Let us eat at this restaurant!
)b(.
Let them (m) go to their homes!
99. The preposition , which means "since," is generally used with words that
express time concepts such as etc.
.
He went home since an hour.
It can also be used with verbs and, therefore, changes its semantic/syntactic functions
to an adverb of time.
.
I have not met her since we separated.
100. The Apposition (Revisted). A noun is said to be in apposition to another
noun if it offers additional information about that noun. The apposition noun should
agree with the original noun's case, gender, and number.
.
I met the school principle, Mr. Ali.

101. Verbs of Beginning. Past tense verbs like may be used with a
following verb in the present indicative. Both verbs agree with the subject which, if
expressed, should be placed between them, as in:
.
The people began to talk about the situation of children in Iraq.
102. The Active Participle In general, the meaning of the active
participle is "performing/having performed" the action indicated by the verb. The
English equivalent is commonly (a) an adjective ending in -ing, as in:
35
(a)
The women living in this apartment are students.
In addition, a great many Active Participles have taken on specific concrete
meanings and are used as (b) ordinary nouns such as:
(b)
The third possible use of the active participle is what the Arab Grammarians
call the circumstantial or Haal Construction.
.
The student (f) came to class carrying her book.
103. The Derivation of the Active Participle. The Active Participle derivation
pattern for verb Form I is usually . For the other forms (II-X), the pattern is to
prefix ( ) to the stem. The stem vowel on the second radical is always Kasra. An
exception to that is for pattern IX, which has to be FatHa. Notice the following
examples:
(IV ((III) (II)
)VII((VI()V(
(X) (IX) (VIII)
104. The nouns and will take long vowel markers instead of the usual short
vowels. This usage is restricted to two conditions: (a) as a first term of Idaafa or (b) when

a possessive pronoun is attached to either of them.
(a) .
.
.
(b) .
.
.
36
105. The Haal Construction . As indicated earlier the active participle can be
used in the Haal Construction. It has to be indeﬁnite and in the accusative case. It has to
agree with the modiﬁed noun in number and gender. Also, you need to remember that the
Haal could be a clause. Notice how the following sentence can be expressed.
.
The student (f) came to class carrying her book.
1..
2..
You might have noticed that the verb of the Haal Clause has to be in the
present indicative mood. Because the verb is transitive, the active participle
derived from it would take an object. That is why the noun in the sentence
above is in the accusative case.
Obviously, if a verb is intransitive, such as , the active participle will
not require an object. Check the following sentence:
.
The student (f) came to class smiling.
You need to remember that whether the Haal Construction is

expressed by a verbal sentence or an equational sentence, the independent pronoun
agrees with the noun modiﬁed by the .
.
He studied Arabic while he was little/young.
106. The Passive Participle is only derived from transitive verbs.
The basic meaning of the passive participle is "undergoing or having undergone the
action
indicated by the verb." The most common use of the passive participle is as an
adjective.
.
I saw the stolen car in front of the post ofﬁce.
37
Secondly, it can be used with as a second term of a fake Idaafa.
.
The university considers her an undesirable person.
Thirdly, it can be used as a a regular noun.
.
It is well known that the Arabs have greatly participated in the world civilization.
107. The Derivation of Passive Participle You may derive a passive
participle for Form I by using the pattern . Examples are:
For the other forms, you replace the stem Kasra vowel with FatHa, as in:
108. Negation Particle (Revisited). In rule # 22, it was mentioned that any
form of is used to negate Equational Sentences. We also said in rule # 62 that
present tense verbal sentences are negated by using . Please check the following
sentences:

.
We know that Sadaat was one of the heros of the Egyptian revolution.
.
We don't know that Sadaat was one of the heros of the Egyptian revolution.
If, however, the same sentence starts with a pronoun subject, Arabic allows
you to negate it with . In fact, this form of negation is pretty strong.
.
.
109. The Accusative of Distinction (Revisited) . In point # 48 we
mentioned that , which means "how many," should always be followed by an
idefinite noun
38
in the accusative case. Arab Grammarians called this noun "The
Distinction of Number." Consider the following example:
.
I read twenty books during the break.
The underlined word could be articles, reports, magazines, charts, etc.
There is another form of this accusative noun which deals with kind/type. It is
called . Usually it is an indefinite singular noun/verbal noun
which has the meaning of "with respect to, in terms of, as to," and thus involves some
level of comparison.
.
As to preparedness for the exam, she is the most among all students.
However, it is not necessary that the accusative of distinction is limited to
expressing comparison. Consider the following sentence:
.
The mother filled the house (with) happiness.

110. Particles of Exception . This category includes:
A noun that follows any of the above has to be in the accusative case.
Examples are:
a. with an intransitive verb:
.
The students came, except for Khalid.
b. with a transitive verb:
The students visited the museum, except for Khalid.
However, if the verb is negated and the semantics of the sentence imply that
the noun which follows is the one who performed the verb's act, then Arabic
allows you to put that noun in the nominative case.
.
The students did not go to the museum, except for Khalid.
39
111. The Accusative of Purpose is an indeﬁnite, singular verbal
noun in the accusative case. It gives information about why the action/verb is done. It
can always be an answer to the question word . Consider the following
sentences:
.
The students stood up.
Why did the students stand up?
.
The students stood up in respect for the professor.
112. The Absolute Negation. It was mentioned earlier that one has to use some form
of to negate the Arabic equational sentence. However, Arab grammarians have
also deﬁned a rather "strong" semantic environment where you have to use Í instead.

They called this method . Check the following examples:
1. There is a man in the house. .
2. There is no man in the house. .
3. There is a no man in the house. .

40
Functional Arabic Verbs List
Depending on the type of the verb used in a sentence, there are three patterns of Arabic
Verbal Sentences.
1. Basically, a transitive verb needs an object, and the pattern is:
(Option. Adv. Ph. 3) +(Op. Adv. 2) +(Op. Adv. Ph. 1) + Object + Subject+ Verb
)(.
123
My mother cooked a delicious meal in her kitchen an hour ago.
Optional means that you can have 1, 2 ,3, or NONE of those adverbial phrases. The order depends
on what you want to emphasize. The most important comes last.
2. An intransitive verb does not need an object, and the pattern is:
(Op. Adv. Ph. 3) +(Op. Adv. 2)+(Op. Adv. Ph. 1) + Subject+ Verb
.
My sister sat by herself in her room all day long.
3. If the intransitive verb takes a preposition the pattern is:
(Op. Adv. Ph. 1) + Object of the Prep. + Preposition + Subject+ Verb
.
My brother went to the library since an hour.
Please note the following :
* Indicates a "sick verb" which means that there is a long vowel among the 3 Radical
Letters of its root.
** Indicates a double end "Shadda Verb."
Both types behave a little bit different from the regular verbs when they are conjugated to
the various subject pronouns.
to travel .1
to eat . 2

41
to meet . 3
to write . 4
to drink . 5
to ask . 6
to read. 7
to work, do . 8
to obtain, get . 9
to befriend with . /10
* to buy .11
* to walk . 12
to talk with . /13
to talk about ./14
to hear . 15
to listen to . 16
to learn . 17
to learn sth. . 18
to play . 19
to go . 20
to leave . 21
to run . 22
to ride . 23
* to drive, lead . 24
to cook . 25
* to sleep . 26
42
*to wake up . 27

**to shower . 28
to welcome, receive someone . 29
to see, watch . 30
to carry . 31
to move, transfer . 32
to go up . 33
to go down . 34
to rent . 35
to spend . 36
to exchange (currency) . 37
* to stand up . 38
to sit down . 39
to dance . 40
* to sing . 41
to help, assist . 42
to begin, start . 43
to complete, ﬁnish . 44
to argue .45
to discuss .46
to look for .47
* to ﬂy . 48
to book, reserve . 49
to laugh .50
* to cry . 51
** to like, love . 52
to hate . 53
43

* to visit . 54
to marry . 55
to elect . 56
to become sick . 57
to feel, sense . 58
to swim . 59
to hug, embrace . 60
to kiss . 61
to open . 62
to close . 63
to hit . 64
to jump . 65
to be informed . 66
to teach . 67
to wear . 68
to take off . 69
to drink . 70
to answer . 71
to correspond with . 72
to be angry with . /73
to compete with . 74
to take . 75
* to give . 76
to author . 77
to steal . 78
44

to think . 79
to believe . 80
to immigrate . 81
to attack . 82
to live, reside . 83
to graduate . 84
to advertise, announce . 85
to smile . 86
to use . 87
to employ . 88
to mention . 89
to remember . 90
to assemble, meet . 91
*to borrow (not money) . 92
to introduce . 93
to imagine . 94
to preserve, maintain . 95
** to solve . 96
to escape . 97
** to continue . 98
to greet . 99
* to arrive . 100
* to find 101.
* to promise 102.
* to invite 103.
to recover 104.
* to act cruely, to be harsh . 105
* to walk . 106

* to return . 107
45
*to forget . 108
to criticize . 109
to inﬂuence, affect . 110
to exit . 111
to enter . 112
to scream, shout . 113
to whisper . 114
to cross . 115
to express . 116
*to say . 117
*to buy . 118
*to complain . 119
*to grow . 120
to win . 121
to lose . 122
to participate . 123
*to fast . 124
*to pray . 125
*to build . 126
to demolish, tear down . 127
to convert to Islam . 128
to surrender . 129
**to settle down . 130
to be able . 131
to please . 132

to make happy . 133
to raise an issue . 134
*to add . 135
to demand . 136
46
to happen . 137
*to remain, stay . 138
to try . 139
*to be . 140
to take place, occur . 141
to exert . 142
to apologize . 143
*to want . 144
**to respond . 145
to do . 146
to accept . 147
to decline, refuse . 148
to lose . 149
to expose . 150
to push, pay . 151
to deal with a matter, to eat a meal . 152
to discover . 153
*to repeat.154
to supervise . 155
to encourage . 156
to lie . 157

to prefer . 158
to trust . 159
**to continue.160
*to accept . 161
**to decrease . 162
*to increase . 163
to appear . 164
to save . 165
47
to pressure . 166
*to come . 167
to differ . 168
**to doubt . 169
to understand . 170
to serve . [171
*to describe . 172
**to think, believe . 173
to wait . 174
to be late . 175
to surprise . 176
to bother, harrass . 177
to calculate, assume . 178
*to indicate.179
to include . 180
*to manage, direct . 181
to get closer . 182
to accuse . 183

to exceed . 184
to explain . 185
to deﬁne . 186
to achieve, investigate . 187
to be exposed . 188
to expect . 189
to carry out, execute . 190
to wonder, question oneself . 191
*to stroll, walk around.192
to succeed . 193
to fail . 194
48
to commit a mistake, crime . 195
to honor . 196
to renew . 197
to get angry . 198
to target . 199
to be hesitant, to be spread (rumor) . 200
to kill . 201
to wound . 202
.**to get ready.203
to allow 204.
to take 205.
to eat 206.
to come, attend 207.
to study 208.

to mention 209.
*to visit 210.
to live, reside 211.
to write 212.
*to live 213.
*to be absent 214.
to spend the night, evening 215.
to memorize 216.
to wear 217.
to play 218.
to smoke 219.
to change sth. 220.
to help 221.
to travel 222.
to be late 223.
49
to be busy 224.
to meet, assemble 225.
to move to 226.
to rent 227.
to welcome 228.
to leave 229.
to occupy 230.

50
The Pedagogy Section
The Explicit/Implicit Controversy
Although many professionals agree on the benefits of some grammar instruction,
the question of how to teach grammar has met with little agreement. The controversy has
become particularly acute with the advent of the communicative language teaching
revolution, which has consistently underscored the importance of stressing meaning over
form. For years, our profession has been grappling with polarized views concerning the
teaching of grammar within a communicative framework. Some scholars (Higgs and
Clifford 1982) advocate an explicit method of grammar instruction, with direct teacher
explanations followed by related manipulative exercises. Many of us have probably
experienced this method of grammar instruction, since most textbooks tend to present
grammar in this fashion.
Unfortunately, many of the textbooks' manipulative drills are grounded in
shallow and artificial contexts, so these drills become rather meaningless to students.
Another problem with explicit grammar instruction is that it advocates a direct and overt
role on the part of the teacher. Consequently, this practice designates a rather passive role
on the part of the students. Interaction for them is supposed to take place after the
explanation and after a plenty of structural manipulation of the grammatical elements. In
Rivers' (1983) terms, "skill-getting" should be stressed before "skill-using."
On the other side of the spectrum, implicit grammar explanation as
espoused by Krashen (1985), Terrel (1977), and Dulay and Burt (1973) reject the need for
formal grammar analysis. These researchers argue that students can acquire language
naturally if they are provided with sufficient comprehensible input from the teacher. In
other words, if students are exposed to a sufficient amount of comprehensible input, they
will eventually be able to hypothesize and determine the functions as well as the
meanings of linguistic forms. Theoretically, the learners should be able to do the
hypothesizing on their own.
However, Herron and Tomasello (1992) advise that the inductive method
cannot guarantee that the learner will discover the underlying concepts or that the
induced concepts will actually be correct. Furthermore, the inductive approach can be
frustrating to adult learners, many of whom have already become analytical with regard
to the rules that govern their native languages. The learners intuitively yearn to speed up
the learning process by consciously comparing and contrasting their own native rules to
the rules that govern the new target language.
Reformulating Grammar Instruction
Although explicit and implicit teaching are clearly opposites, they share some

notable deficiencies. Neither approach acknowledges the critical role of the teacher in
negotiating classroom explanations, and neither approach acknowledges the contributions
and backgrounds that the learners bring to the instructional setting (Tharp and Gallimore
51
1988). Moreover, neither approach recognizes the natural learning tendencies that occur
between human beings outside the classroom. Learning is a dynamic, reciprocal, and
interactive process. However, our profession has been grappling with two established
methods, neither of which recognizes the mutually responsive interactions that are
fundamental to learning as it occurs naturally between humans in everyday life.
Therefore, we believe it is time for the profession to begin a serious
reappraisal regarding teaching of grammar. We are advocating a whole language and
guided participatory approach that contrasts with traditional explicit or implicit teaching.
In many ways, this alternative approach may serve as a viable compromise between
explicit/implicit polarized views. For a number of reasons that will be discussed later, we
believe that a whole language and guided participatory approach might hold the key to
dramatic improvement in the teaching of grammar.
Basic Principles of Whole Language Teaching
Before discussing some practical applications of this approach, we should
discuss some basic principles of whole language and guided participatory teaching. Many
specialists in first language development have been exploring the implications of whole
language teaching for the past decade. Likewise, researchers in cognitive psychology
have been investigating guided participation in the areas of science, math, and social
studies. Unfortunately, foreign language education has been lagging behind these other
disciplines. First we will discuss some basic principles of a whole language approach to
grammar instruction, and then we will discuss how to use guided and joint problem
solving to enhance grammar explanations.
As early as 1976, psychologist Ken Goodman stated that "language is language
only when it is whole" (quoted in Fountas and Hannigans 1989, p. 134). According to
Goodman, the whole is always viewed as being greater than the sum of its parts, and it is
the whole that gives meaning to the parts. In terms of grammar instruction, words,
phrases, or sentences are not linguistic islands unto themselves; on the contrary, these
linguistic elements only gain meaning when they are placed in context, and when used in
conjunction with the whole. According to Goodman, once students experience the whole,
they are then better prepared to deal with the analyses of the parts.
We should acknowledge that Goodman is primarily addressing the needs
of first language learners. However, research in first language development has
oftentimes acted as a catalyst for theoretical advancement in second language
development. Furthermore, many second language specialists are currently emphasizing
the importance of content-based instruction, authentic texts for listening and reading

comprehension, and the need for connected discourse in grammar instruction, all of
which emphasize the importance of whole language rather than fragmented speech in
second/foreign language classroom.
Conceptually, then, we need to reappraise our orientation to grammar instruction
if we have too often focused on fragmented discourse and artificial exercises. Many
52
language programs stress a bottom-up approach by emphasizing the "bits and pieces' of
language (sound, vocabulary lists, verb drills, etc.). This classroom practice usually
results in non-language that can be characterized as being unnatural, cognitively
undemanding, and dull (Cummins 1984). On the other hand, a whole language approach
stresses natural discourse and encourages students to comprehend meaningful and long
samples of discourse from the very beginning of the lesson.
By introducing the lesson with a whole text (for example, a story, poem, song,
taped listening selection or cartoon), the teacher is foreshadowing the grammar
explanation through the use of integrated discourse that will highlight the critical
grammar to be taught. Galloway and Labarca (1990) explain that foreshadowing of new
language elements is beneficial, for it provides "learners with a 'feel' for what is to come
and can help students cast forward a familiarity net by which aspects of language prompt
initial recognitions and later, gradually, are pulled into the learner's productive
repertoire." In this way, the lesson highlights the functional significance of the grammar
structure before the learners' attention is focused on form. In a way, this is like using
advance organizers to assist the students by providing an "anchoring framework" for the
new concepts to be learned. Unlike many classroom textbooks, which may offer a group
of disconnected sentences or a "contextualized" drill, a whole language and guided
participatory approach invites the learner to use language functionally and purposefully
through integrated course.
This practice is in agreement with Krashen's (1982) Input Hypothesis,
which stresses the importance of comprehensible input that "contains structures a little
beyond our level of competence." As a result, from the very beginning of the lesson the
teacher and learners are engaged in authentic use of language through joint problem-
solving activities and interactions. By using pictures, mime, and gestures, the teacher
scaffolds and guides the learners to eventually comprehend the story or other sample of
connected discourse. Once comprehension is achieved, the teacher can then turn the
students' attention to various linguistic elements.
Unlike bottom-up processing, which is traditionally linear in approach, grammar
instruction using a whole language approach is cyclical. During the first stage of the
cycle, the teacher foreshadows the grammar structure with an appropriate text. At this
point, the meaning or comprehension of the text is of prime importance. The second stage
is actually an extension of the first stage, since once again the emphasis is on meaning.

However, the second stage differs due to an increased level of learner
participation. Now the learners have a general idea of the signiﬁcance of the text;
consequently, they can become more participatory through various activities, mime, role
playing, etc. All of these activities serve to deepen comprehension for the learners. Once
comprehension is achieved and meaning is understood, the teacher moves into the third
stage and turns the learners' attention to focus on form, or the various linguistic elements
of the grammatical structures.
53
After this stage, the teacher completes the cycle by encouraging learners to
interact with integrated discourse through expansion activities such as rewriting or
recreating similar stories, paired activities, or group activities. Through these extension
activities, the learners become more aware of the function of the grammatical structure.
That is, they learn that they can carry out a particular task or function by exploiting or
using the appropriate grammatical structure. This approach is in agreement with Larsen-
Freeman's (1991) suggestion that meaning, form, and function need to be "interacting
dimensions" of grammar instruction.
A Model for Integrating Form in a Whole Language Approach
Focus on form has recently become the topic of intense research and has
been shown to be an important design feature of language teaching (Long 1991). The
theory of learning and development has emphasized the importance of creating a zone of
proximal development with the learner so that what the learner requires help on today
will emerge as independent, automatic performance at a later time. Grammar teaching
can also be viewed in this way. It is no less an interactive process between expert and
novice than any other aspect of developing communicative ability in learners. Learners
need to be guided to reﬂect on language they use to create their own meanings.
No language teaching should be driven by grammar instruction alone, nor
should grammar instruction be literally interpreted to mean instruction on morphology
(e.g., adjective or subject-verb agreement, rules for pluralization, etc.) or meaningless
manipulation of forms. When the teacher focuses on form, attention is drawn to the
formal properties of the language, which includes its sound system, word formation,
syntax, discourse markers, and devised for relating one sentence to another, to name a
few. Our colleagues who teach reading in the elementary schools call this form of
instruction "language Arts." Classes that focus on language form for the purpose of
increasing comprehension and meaning have been shown to result in greater language
gains than classes where no focus on form is available or where forms are learned as
meaningless structures (Lightbown and Spada 1990). Therefore, the issue is not whether
a teacher should focus on form; rather, answering the question of how and when and in
what context will ultimately clarify this important design feature of foreign language
instruction. The following is a four step model for contextualizing interactions with

students about the forms in a whole language lesson.
1. Presentation of Meaningful Language
This step represents the "whole" language you are presenting in a thematic way. It
can be an interesting story (folktales and legends work well), a TPR lesson, a recorded
authentic listening or video segment, an authentic document, or a demonstration of a real-
life situation. Materials from the textbook (narratives, dialogues, stories) may even be
used if they are found to be interesting and episodically organized. The presentation does
not consist of isolated, disconnected sentences illustrating the target form in question.
Rather, it is thematic, contextualized whole language intended to capture student interest
and
54
provide opportunities for the teacher to create comprehension through the negotiation of
meaning. The structure should appear often enough during the presentation to be salient
to the student without making the language sound unnatural or stilted. Authentic stories,
documents, or listening segments can guarantee naturalness and often contain naturally
occurring repetitions.
The presentation should also be interactive. By scaffolding participation in
the activity, teachers can guide students through the new elements of the language to be
learned. This guided participation may take the form of student repetition of key phrases
cued by the teacher during a storytelling session, student-teacher role reversal in a TPR
activity, cloze exercise based on listening segments, or discussions that anticipate the
content of a reading. The goal here is to enable students to stretch their language abilities
by using the new elements of the target language in meaningful ways through the help
and mediation of the teacher. This step may last either part of or the entire class session.
For example, a storytelling lesson may contain pre-storytelling activities, dramatization,
pair-work comprehension checks, or story-telling exercises. The length of time required
depends on the nature of the activity and the amount of negotiation work required to
charge the language with meaning.
2. Attention
This step focuses learner attention on some aspect of the language used
during the presentation activity. In this step, the teacher highlights some regularity of the
language. This can be achieved in several ways. Teachers can ask questions about
patterns found in a written text or about words and phrases repeated in a story. Overhead
transparencies of example sentences from the presentation can be prepared, with
important words and phrases circled or underlined. The point to this step is to get learners
to focus attention on the target form without needless elaboration or wasted time.
3. Co-construct an Explanation

Learners and teachers should be co-constructors of grammatical explanation.
After learners focus attention on the target form, the teacher assists them in raising their
awareness about the target structure. During this step, students are guided to hypothesize,
guess, make predictions, or come to generalizations about the target form.
Co-constructing an explanation requires teacher questions that are well chosen,
clear, and direct. Questions are powerful tools in the hands of teachers who can adjust
their questioning "in ﬂight" to meet the emergent understandings of their students. For
example, asking students questions such as "what words do you hear or see repeated in
the text, and what could they mean?," "What pattern do you see in this group of words?,"
and "How do certain words change as their meanings change?" is a way to help students
to draw insights from the language they hear and understand. These cognitive "probes"
help learners discover regular grammatical patterns, sound systems, word order, unique
cultural meanings of words, or language functions.
55
As students hypothesize and generalize about the target form, teachers
build upon and extend students' knowledge without overwhelming them with superﬂuous
grammatical details. Hypothesis testing can also be conducted, with teachers leading
learners in trying out their new knowledge by applying their generalizations to new
situations. Teachers are also aware that the help they provide is graduated and may range
from brief hints about the target form to explicit instruction if needed (Aljaafreh 1992(.
It is important to note that, unlike guided induction techniques, which
primarily rely on teacher questioning, a co-constructed explanation is not inquisition.
Rather, co-constructed explanations recognize that students may not be able to perceive
the formal properties of language on the basis of the teacher's questions alone. What is
obvious to an expert language user is often a mystery to the novice. A co-constructed
explanation is as participatory for the teacher as it is for students. That is, teachers need to
assess the abilities of their students and assist them by providing as well as eliciting
information when necessary. As Tharp and Gillimore (1988) point out, teaching is
responsive assistance and cannot be reduced to series of actions to be performed in the
same order in every instructional circumstance. By listening closely to learner
contributions during this step, teachers can assess how much help is needed to attain the
concept. In time, some learners may be able to work in small groups on their own
grammar problems and report back to the class about their discoveries (Fotos and Ellis
1991(.
4. Extension Activity
Focus on form is only useful if this knowledge can be pressed into service by the
learners in a new way at a later time. In whole language teaching, the teacher never loses
sight of the "whole." Therefore, the extension activity provides learners with the
opportunity to use their new skill in creative and interesting ways while at the same time
integrating it into existing knowledge. The extension activity should be interesting, be

related to the theme of the lesson in some way, and, most importantly, allow for creative
self-expression. Extension activities are not work sheets on which learners use the target
form to fill in the blanks of disconnected sentences. Rather, they can be information-gap
activities, role play situations, dramatizations, games, authentic writing projects, paired
interviewed, class surveys, or simulations of real life situations. The possibilities are
endless, as long as the learners have the chance to try to use the target form in ways that
they see are useful and meaningful. The extension activity closes the circle and puts the
"whole" back into whole language teaching.
The discussion above should lead to the conclusion that language learning
is a thinking process, or from the learner's viewpoint, a guessing game. Teachers need to
design cognitively demanding activities that will encourage learners to hypothesize,
predict, take risks, make errors, and self correct (Fountas and Hannigan 1989). By doing
so, the learners become active participants in the learning process. All the whole language
and guided participatory activities should encourage the learners to be active thinkers and
hypothesizers as they collaborate in language learning activities with the teacher or with
their peers.
56
Whether listening to a storytelling activity, co-constructing a grammar
explanation, or collaborating with peers during an extension activity, the learners are
actively discovering and hypothesizing about the target language. This approach concurs
with Bruner's (1986) advice that students need to be cognitively challenged through the
use of discovery methods. Moreover, all he classroom activities should encourage
interaction and the functional use of language by giving learners opportunities to share
information, ask questions, and solve problems collaboratively.
Finally, a distinguishing theme of whole language and a guided
participatory approach to grammar instruction is that learning needs to be integrated,
contextualized, and meaning-centered activities (Pearson 1989). Such activities facilitate
comprehension and retention on the part of the learners. Furthermore, the extension
activities encourage learners to integrate meaning, form, and function while experiencing
language in context. It should be mentioned that creating integrated and meaning-
centered activities is probably one of the most difficult aspects of whole language
teaching, since, many textbooks still stress context-reduced practice and fragmented
materials.
Creating contextualized activities is the only way to implement, encourage
and succeed at whole language teaching. Through whole language learning students are
able to converse with more confidence, and their listening, reading, and writing skills
improve. As they use Arabic in real communication, it becomes less "foreign" and more
natural , integral part of their experience. We know the best way to learn a foreign
language is to live with those who speak it, and our students should be encouraged to take
this step and go to the Arab World for a semester or a year program. In preparation for
that event, and also for those students who will not venture beyond the classroom, there is

much practice to be done with peers and with teacher, whose responsibility is to ﬁnd or
create meaningful practice.

57
References:
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Aljaafreh, A. "The Role of Implicit/Explicit Error Correction and Learner's Zone of
Proximal Development." Unpublished dissertation. University of Delaware, 1992.
Bruner, J. Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge, MA; Harvard University Press,
1986.
Celce-Murcia, M. "Making Informed Decisions About the Role of Grammar in Language
Teaching." Foreign Language Annals 18 (1985):297-301.
Cummins, J. "Language Proﬁciency, Bilingualism and Academic Achievement."
Bilingualism and Special Education: Issues in Assessment and Pedagogy. San Diego,
CA: College-Hill, 1984.
Fotos, S.., and R. Ellis. "Communicating about Grammar: A Task-Bases Approach."
TESOL Quarterly 25 (1991): 605-628.
Fountas, I., and I. Hannigan. "Making Sense of Whole Language: The Pursuit of
Informed Teaching," Childhood Education 65 (1989): 133-137.
Galloway, V., and A. Labarca. "From Student to Learner: Style, Process and Strategy."
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Directions in Foreign Language Education. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook
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Herron, C., and M. Tomasello. "Acquiring Grammatical Structures by Guided
Induction."The French Review 65 (1992): 708-718.
Higgs, T. V., and R. T. Clifford. "The Push Toward Communication." Ed. T. V. Higgs.
Curriculum, Competence and the Foreign Language Teacher. ACTFL Foreign Language
Series, vol. 13. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook, 1982: 57-79.
Krashen, S. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon,
1982.
Krashen, S. The Input Hypothesis: New York: Longman, 1985.
Larsen-Freeman, D. "Teaching Grammar." Ed. M. Celce-Murcia.Teaching English as a
Second Language. Boston, MA: Heinle and Heinle, 1991: 279-295.
Lightbown, P., and N. Spada. "Focus on Form and Corrective Feedback in
Communicative Language Teaching." Studies in Second Language Acquisition 12 (1990):
429-448.
Long, M. "The Least Second Language Acquisition Theory Needs to Explain." TESOL
Quarterly 24 (1991): 649-666.
Oller, J., Jr. "Some Working Ideas for Language Teaching." Eds. J. Oller, Jr. and P.
Richard-Amato. Methods That Work. Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1983.
Pearson, D. "Reading the Whole-Language Movement." Elementary School Journal 90
(1989): 231-241.
Rivers, W. Communicating Naturally in a Second Language. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1983.
Terrel, T. "A Natural Approach to Second Language Acquisition and Learning." Modern
Language Journal 61 (1977): 325-337.
Tharp, R., and R. Gallimore. Rousing Minds to Life: Teaching, Learning and Schooling
in Social Context. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
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