In one line
Definition
Key words in the Arabic
Understand it
A حَرْف جَرّ never stands alone. It takes an ism after it, and that ism is majrur — every time, without exception.
مَرَرْتُ بِزَيْدٍ (marartu bi-zaydin), I passed by Zayd. فِي الْبَيْتِ (fi al-bayti), in the house. The kasra is not decoration; it is the particle's work.
The two parts
The particle and the noun after it: the noun is always majrur, and the pair together forms a shibh al-jumla.
The pair together is called الْجَارّ وَالْمَجْرُور (al-jarr wa-al-majrur), and the pair forms a شِبْه الْجُمْلَة — a quasi-sentence, which then attaches to something else in the sentence.
There are twenty prepositions in all. These nine are the ones the books single out.
The nine best known
| # | Meaning | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | مِنْ | min | a part of something; the start of a limit in place, time or otherwise; a cause |
| 2 | إِلَى | ila | the end of a limit in place, time or otherwise |
| 3 | عَنْ | 'an | passing beyond — moving away from |
| 4 | عَلَى | 'ala | being above something; also accompaniment |
| 5 | فِي | fi | being contained in, or the circumstance of; also a cause |
| 6 | رُبَّ | rubba | few, or many — only the context decides which |
| 7 | بِ | bi | the instrument; a cause; a circumstance; accompaniment |
| 8 | كَ | ka | comparison, or resemblance |
| 9 | لِ | li | ownership; close association; entitlement; a cause |
There are twenty prepositions in all; these are the nine the books single out.1 Three more — الْوَاو، الْبَاء، التَّاء — are prepositions and oath particles at once, and التَّاء enters upon no word but اللَّه.
How to spot it
In the Qur'an
A kasra is not proof of jarr
A kasra at the end is not proof of jarr.
هٰذِهِ always ends in a kasra and is mabni — it can be in any of the three states.
A partly declining noun takes a fatha in jarr, not a kasra: فِي مَسَاجِدَ.
A dual in rafa ends in ـَانِ — a kasra on the nun, and still marfu'.
Read the particle, then the category. The ending comes last.
Related terms
Common questions
Are there really only two ways for a noun to be in jarr?
Yes — a harf jarr in front of it, or being the second half of a possessive pair. Anything else that looks like jarr is a follower copying a word already in jarr, and inheriting a case is not the same as causing one.
Next in the guideاَلْمُضَاف إِلَيْهWhat is the possessor (mudaf ilayh)? →Notes
- The set of nine, their order and their meanings follow اَلنَّحْو التَّطْبِيقِي (an-Nahw at-Tatbiqi), which says عَدَدُهَا عِشْرُونَ حَرْفًا — twenty in all — and then confines itself to the best known. ↩
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