Grammar term · I'rab · 'Alāmāt al-i'rāb — the signs
Estimated (muqaddar) marker
'alama muqaddara
عَلَامَة مُقَدَّرَة
I'rab'Alāmāt al-i'rāb — the signsadvanced term5,426+ in the Qur'an
In one line
An estimated marker — the case-vowel that is “there” in the grammar but cannot surface on the word.
Classical definition
العَلَامَةُ المُقَدَّرَةُ حَرَكَةٌ تَمْنَعُ مِنْ ظُهُورِهَا عَلَى آخِرِ الكَلِمَةِ عِلَّةٌ، كَالتَّعَذُّرِ فِي المَقْصُورِ وَالثِّقَلِ فِي المَنْقُوصِ.
“The estimated marker is a vowel prevented from appearing on the word's end by some impediment — impossibility on the maqsur, heaviness on the manqus.”
(بتصرف من الألفية)
Key words in the Arabic
تَمْنَعُ مِنْ ظُهُورِهَاprevents it from appearing
التَّعَذُّرimpossibility — the alif takes no vowel
الثِّقَلheaviness — awkward to pronounce
Understand it
Say مُوسَى in rafa, nasab or jarr — the final alif cannot carry any vowel, yet the grammar still assigns one: مَرْفُوعٌ بِضَمَّةٍ مُقَدَّرَةٍ. The Quran's many weak-ending words (الْهُدَى، الدَّاعِي) decline like this — silently, except that the manqus alone shows its fatha in nasab. Nothing changes in what you recite; what changes is how you analyse it.
How to spot it
Recognition test
Words ending in ى or ي whose ending never visibly changes (maqsur, مُوسَى) or hides only its damma and kasra (manqus, الدَّاعِي — the fatha appears in nasab) — their i'rab is muqaddar.
Related terms
Next in the guideالْأَفْعَال الْخَمْسَةThe five verbs →