Grammar term · I'rab · The signs
Kasra marker
al-kasra
الْكَسْرَة
I'rabThe signscore term
In one line
The kasra (كَسْرَة) is the short -i vowel, and it is the base marker of jarr.
Classical definition
وَأَمَّا الْكَسْرَةُ فَتَكُونُ عَلَامَةً لِلْخَفْضِ فِي ثَلَاثَةِ مَوَاضِعَ: فِي الِاسْمِ الْمُفْرَدِ الْمُنْصَرِفِ، وَجَمْعِ التَّكْسِيرِ الْمُنْصَرِفِ، وَجَمْعِ الْمُؤَنَّثِ السَّالِمِ.
“The kasra is the marker of khafd in three places: the fully-declining singular noun, the fully-declining broken plural, and the sound feminine plural.”
Key words in the Arabic
الْمُنْصَرِفfully declining — accepts tanwin
الْخَفْضthe Kufan name for jarr
Understand it
A kasra ending marks a noun as lowered — normally by a preposition in front or an idafa around it. Note the fine print in the definition: “fully-declining”. Diptotes refuse the kasra and show jarr with a fatha instead: بِمَسَاجِدَ. And since verbs never take jarr, a grammatical kasra is itself evidence that you are looking at an ism.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A final ـِ (or ٍ) after a preposition, or on the second word of an idafa — that kasra is jarr.
In the Qur'an
وَٱلْعَصْرِ
Al-'Asr 103:1 — “By (the Token of) Time (through the ages),”
وَٱلْعَصْرِ ends in a kasra: the waw of the oath is a harf jarr, and it drags what follows into jarr. The kasra is the base marker of that state.
Study this ayah word by word →Related terms
Common questions
If a word ends in a kasra, is it in jarr?
Usually, but not necessarily. The kasra is the base marker of jarr, and it is also the nasab marker of the sound feminine plural — the classic trap. It can equally be the fixed vowel of a mabni word.
Next in the guideالسُّكُونSukun marker →Updated