Arabic Grammar Guide
Arabic grammar is not a maze — it is a map. English-speaking students often struggle, and many give up their study, because of the technical complexity they see in the terminology. But once the terms are understood through practice, grammar becomes exactly that: a map that carries us to our destination.
Here is every term of Quranic Arabic you need, explained in plain English. May Allah grant us the ability to continue in our goal of learning Arabic to understand the Qur’an.
How to use this guide
Every term sits in a teaching section, ordered the way the language builds: from the word, through the phrase, to the sentence and what changes it.
- Looking for one term? Use the search box on the left — it takes Arabic without tashkeel, loose transliteration, or the English meaning.
- Browsing? Open a section in the index on the left.
- New to Arabic? Take the sections in order — they are a syllabus, not an alphabet.
Foundations
اللَّفْظ والكَلَامHow Arabic builds meaning: utterance, word, compound, and complete speech.
The three word types
أَقْسَام الكَلِمَةEvery Arabic word is an ism, a fi'l or a harf — everything else follows from this.
Sentences
الْمُرَكَّب التَّامّThe complete construct — the sentence, al-jumla: nominal and verbal, its clause types and what changes it.
Phrases
الْمُرَكَّب النَّاقِصTwo or more words joined, but not yet a sentence: the phrase.
The ism
أَقْسَام الاسْمEvery ism carries four properties at once — definiteness, gender, number and i'rab, the four of (DiGNI). The nouns built from a verb are in The root system.
The verb
أَقْسَام الفِعْلTense, voice, and the verbs that will not conjugate. The root, its measures and the sound changes are in The root system.
The harf
أَقْسَام الحَرْفThe particle by the job it does, split first into those that govern an ending and those that do not.
I'rab (RICE)
الإِعْرَابRole, i'rab, category, expression — the four questions that settle any ending, and every term each one needs.