Grammar term · I'rab · i'rab
الضَّمَّة
al-damma
Damma marker
I'rab · i'rabI'rab marker (alama)core term10,456+ in the Qur'an
In one line
The damma — the small و-shaped vowel (-u) that is the base marker of raf'.
Classical definition
فَأَمَّا الضَّمَّةُ فَتَكُونُ عَلَامَةً لِلرَّفْعِ فِي أَرْبَعَةِ مَوَاضِعَ: فِي الِاسْمِ الْمُفْرَدِ، وَجَمْعِ التَّكْسِيرِ، وَجَمْعِ الْمُؤَنَّثِ السَّالِمِ، وَالْفِعْلِ الْمُضَارِعِ الَّذِي لَمْ يَتَّصِلْ بِآخِرِهِ شَيْءٌ.
“The damma is the marker of raf' in four places: the singular noun, the broken plural, the sound feminine plural, and the present verb with nothing attached to its end.”
(الآجرّومية)
Key words in the Arabic
مَوَاضِعplaces, positions
الِاسْم الْمُفْرَدthe singular noun
جَمْع التَّكْسِيرthe broken plural
جَمْع الْمُؤَنَّث السَّالِمthe sound feminine plural
Understand it
A damma on a final letter is Arabic saying “this word is a principal here”. Learn its four homes from the definition and you also learn, by elimination, where it cannot appear: the dual, the sound masculine plural and the five nouns show raf' with letters instead — the secondary markers.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A final ـُ (or ـٌ with tanwin) doing grammar: in الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, the damma on الْحَمْدُ marks it as mubtada.
Related terms