What is the definite article (al-)?

In one line

Definition

Key words in the Arabic

Understand it

Attach الْ to the front of an indefinite noun and it becomes definite — and the tanwin falls away: كِتَابٌ (“a book”) becomes الْكِتَابُ (“the book”). Before sun letters the lam assimilates in speech — الشَّمْس is pronounced ash-shams — though the spelling keeps الْ. Together with idafa, this is one of the two main ways Arabic makes a noun specific.

How to spot it

In the Qur'an

Don't confuse it with

Two things are easy to confuse here.

First, الْ is not always for definiteness. It also arrives as part of a name (الْحَسَن), or to make a class statement — الْإِنْسَانُ ضَعِيفٌ, “man is weak”, meaning all of humankind.

Second, sun and moon letters change the sound, not the grammar. اَلشَّمْس and اَلْقَمَر are equally definite; only the ل of the first is assimilated in pronunciation.

Related terms

▶ Watch the lessons

From the free course The Language of Quran — Easier than English (Book One) (LoQ1), taught by Ustadh Muhammad Arjan Ali.

Common questions

Does ال always make a word definite?

No, and that is the trap. It also arrives as part of a name and stays there, and it is used to make a statement about a whole class rather than about one member of it. Definiteness is its commonest job, not its only one.