Grammar term · Word types · Aqsām al-kalimah — the three types
What are the three types of word?
aqsam al-kalima
أَقْسَام الْكَلِمَة
Word typesAqsām al-kalimah — the three typescore term
Also written: Aqsam al-kalimah · Types of words · Parts of speech
In one line
Every Arabic word is one of exactly three types — an ism, a fi'l or a harf. There is no fourth.
Definition
اَلْكَلِمَةُ ثَلَاثَةُ أَقْسَامٍ: اِسْمٌ، وَفِعْلٌ، وَحَرْفٌ.
“The word has three divisions: a noun, a verb and a particle.”
(النحو التطبيقي)
Understand it
Arabic sorts a word by how it behaves, not by what it means, and that gives three boxes and no more.
The three definitions run in parallel, and the parallel is the whole lesson. Each one changes a single thing about the one before it.
The three types
Every word is one of three: an ism, which names; a fi'l, which names and carries a time; or a harf, whose meaning appears only in company.
An اِسْم (ism) means something on its own, with no time — قَلَمٌ (qalamun), “a pen”. A فِعْل (fi'l) means something on its own and carries a time — كَتَبَ (kataba), “he wrote”. A حَرْف (harf) means nothing on its own; its meaning appears only beside another word — مِنْ (min).
How to spot it
Recognition test
Three signs belong to the ism alone, and seeing any one of them settles it: tanwīn (ـٌ ـً ـٍ), tā' marbūta (ة) at the end, or ال at the front. No fi'l and no harf ever carries them. If none appears, test for a verb — قَدْ, سَـ or سَوْفَ will sit in front of a fi'l. If neither set fits, it is a harf, and that is the definition rather than a guess.