Grammar term · Sarf · morphology
مَبْنِيّ
mabni
Indeclinable (mabni)
Sarf · morphologyDeclinability (bina)core term53,297+ in the Qur'an
In one line
Indeclinable — a word whose ending never changes for grammatical role.
Classical definition
المَبْنِيُّ مَا لَا يَتَغَيَّرُ آخِرُهُ بِتَغَيُّرِ العَوَامِلِ، كَالحُرُوفِ وَأَكْثَرِ الضَّمَائِرِ وَأَسْمَاءِ الإِشَارَةِ.
“The mabni is that whose ending does not change as the governors change — such as the particles, most pronouns and the demonstratives.”
(بتصرف من الألفية)
Key words in the Arabic
لَا يَتَغَيَّرُ آخِرُهُits ending does not change
الْعَوَامِلthe governors
Understand it
Mabni words are the fixed stars of the sentence: whatever the grammar does around them, their ending stays put. All particles, the pronouns, demonstratives, relatives, question and condition words, plus the madi and amr verbs — all mabni. When a mabni word occupies a case slot, the grammarians say it sits “in the place of” raf', nasb or jarr — which is exactly what the fi mahall entries unpack.
How to spot it
Recognition test
Pronouns, demonstratives, relatives and all particles keep one fixed ending — that is bina.
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