Grammar term · Sarf · morphology
حَرْف
harf
Particle (harf) — indeclinable
Sarf · morphologyPart of speech (Sarf)core term17,398+ in the Qur'an
In one line
A particle — a word whose meaning appears only in combination with other words, and whose ending never changes.
Classical definition
وَالْحَرْفُ مَا لَا يَصْلُحُ مَعَهُ دَلِيلُ الِاسْمِ وَلَا دَلِيلُ الْفِعْلِ.
“The particle is that with which neither the sign of the noun nor the sign of the verb fits.”
(الآجرّومية)
Key words in the Arabic
مَا لَا يَصْلُحُ مَعَهُthat with which … does not fit
دَلِيلsign, tell-tale evidence
Understand it
The harf is defined by what it refuses: no ال, no tanwin, no قَدْ — none of the noun-tests or verb-tests will stick. Its meaning lives in what it does to the words around it: مِنْ (from), فِي (in), هَلْ (turning a statement into a question), لَمْ (negating the past). And a harf never changes shape — every particle is mabni.
How to spot it
Recognition test
If a word takes neither noun-signs nor verb-signs, it is a harf — e.g. مِنْ، هَلْ، لَمْ.
Don't confuse it with
The other meaning of harf: a letter of the alphabet (حُرُوف الْهِجَاء). In grammar a harf is a complete little word — مِنْ is a particle of two letters.
Related terms