Grammar term · I'rab · The signs
Apparent (zahira) marker
'alama zahira
عَلَامَة ظَاهِرَة
I'rabThe signscore term
In one line
An apparent marker (عَلَامَة ظَاهِرَة) is a case-vowel you can both see and hear on the word's last letter.
Classical definition
العَلَامَةُ الظَّاهِرَةُ حَرَكَةُ إِعْرَابٍ تَظْهَرُ عَلَى آخِرِ الكَلِمَةِ لَفْظًا مِنْ غَيْرِ مَانِعٍ.
“The apparent marker is a case-vowel that shows on the end of the word in speech, with nothing preventing it.”
Key words in the Arabic
تَظْهَرُit shows, appears
مِنْ غَيْرِ مَانِعٍwith nothing preventing it
Understand it
Most i'rab is visible: الْحَمْدُ shows its damma plainly. The term earns its keep as one half of a pair — apparent versus estimated. When an analysis says مَرْفُوعٌ وَعَلَامَتُهُ الضَّمَّةُ الظَّاهِرَةُ, it records that the ending is doing its work in the open.
How to spot it
Recognition test
You can point at the vowel: written, pronounced, and changing with the word's job — zahira.
In the Qur'an
إِذَا زُلْزِلَتِ ٱلْأَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَا
Az-Zalzalah 99:1 — “When the earth is shaken to her (utmost) convulsion,”
The damma on ٱلْأَرْضُ is apparent — you can see it written and you can hear it read. That is the ordinary case, and the two harder kinds are named against it.
Study this ayah word by word →Related terms
Common questions
Why give a name to the ordinary case?
Because it lets the two harder kinds be defined against it. Once apparent is named, a marker can be described as a substitute letter, or as estimated because the word cannot carry it — each one a departure from this baseline.
Next in the guideالضَّمَّةDamma marker →Updated