Grammar term · Sarf · morphology
مَمْدُود
mamdud
Mamdud (ending in hamza after alif)
Sarf · morphologyNoun ending typeadvanced term805+ in the Qur'an
In one line
The stretched noun — سَمَاء، حَمْرَاء: a hamza at the end with an extra alif before it, declining fully and openly.
Definition (modern)
الِاسْمُ الْمَمْدُودُ: هُوَ كُلُّ اسْمٍ مُعْرَبٍ آخِرُهُ هَمْزَةٌ قَبْلَهَا أَلِفٌ زَائِدَةٌ.
“The mamdud is any declinable noun ending in a hamza preceded by an added alif.”
(النحو التطبيقي)
Key words in the Arabic
هَمْزَةٌa hamza — carries vowels happily
أَلِفٌ زَائِدَةٌan added (non-root) alif
Understand it
Unlike its cousins, the mamdud has no hiding problem: the hamza takes every vowel — السَّمَاءُ، السَّمَاءَ، السَّمَاءِ. What matters is the hamza's pedigree: original (إِنْشَاء from نشأ), flipped from a root waw or ya (سَمَاء from سمو), or added for the feminine (حَمْرَاء from حمر) — and only that last, feminine-alif kind blocks tanwin and drags the word into mamnu' min al-sarf.
How to spot it
Recognition test
ـَاء at the end of a noun: check the root. Root letters supply the hamza or it flips from waw/ya → normal declension; hamza added for ta'nith (فَعْلَاء shapes, أَشْيَاء) → no tanwin, jarr with fatha.
In the Qur'an
وَٱلسَّمَآءَ بَنَيْنَٰهَا بِأَيْيْدٍ
Adh-Dhariyat 51:47 — “We built the heaven with might”
ٱلسَّمَآءَ — hamza after an added alif: a mamdud whose hamza flipped from the root waw of سمو, so it declines fully.
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