Grammar term · I'rab · The signs
Dual alif
alif al-ithnayn
أَلِف الِاثْنَيْن
I'rabThe signsadvanced term
In one line
The alif of the dual (أَلِف الِاثْنَيْنِ) is the ا on a verb — كَتَبَا, يَكْتُبَانِ — standing for “the two of them”: a pronoun in mahall rafa.
Definition (modern)
أَلِفُ الِاثْنَيْنِ مِنَ الضَّمَائِرِ الْخَمْسَةِ الَّتِي تَخْتَصُّ بِمَحَلِّ الرَّفْعِ، وَتَتَّصِلُ بِالْمَاضِي وَالْمُضَارِعِ وَالْأَمْرِ.
“The alif of the two is among the five pronouns confined to the place of rafa; it attaches to the past, the present and the command verb.”
Key words in the Arabic
أَلِفُ الِاثْنَيْنِthe alif of 'the two'
تَتَّصِلُ بِـattaches to
Understand it
One letter carries the whole meaning 'they-two' or 'you-two': كَتَبَا (they two wrote), يَكْتُبَانِ (they two write), اكْتُبَا (you two, write!). In the mudari' it creates two of the five famous verbs (al-af'al al-khamsa), whose nun survives in rafa and drops in nasab and jazm. Wherever it appears it is a full pronoun in mahall rafa — fa'il or the ism of كان.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A verb-final alif meaning 'two people': the pronoun. On a mudari' look for the ـَانِ ending and apply the five-verbs i'rab; on a madi or amr the alif stands alone.
In the Qur'an
مَّا ٱلْمَسِيحُ ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ إِلَّا رَسُولٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِ ٱلرُّسُلُ وَأُمُّهُۥ صِدِّيقَةٌ ۖ كَانَا يَأْكُلَانِ ٱلطَّعَامَ ۗ ٱنظُرْ كَيْفَ نُبَيِّنُ لَهُمُ ٱلْءَايَٰتِ ثُمَّ ٱنظُرْ أَنَّىٰ يُؤْفَكُونَ
Al-Ma'ida 5:75 — “Christ the son of Mary was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how Allah doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!”
Two alifs, two jobs: in كَانَا the pronoun is the ism of كان; in يَأْكُلَانِ it is the fa'il — both in mahall rafa.
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Common questions
Is this alif part of the verb, or a word of its own?
It is a pronoun — the doer itself, attached to the verb. That is why it fills the fa'il's place rather than describing one, and why no particle can remove it: it is not an ending, it is who did the action.
Next in the guideحَذْف النُّونElision of nun →Updated