Arabic grammar lessons


Here are some pages I put together on Arabic grammar. Most of this information focuses on Egyptian Arabic, but some material on standard Arabic is also included. I've used EA to indicate that a lesson covers Egyptian Arabic and MSA to indicate that a lesson covers (modern) standard Arabic.

Articles & the sun and moon letters  EA - information on the definite article, its use, and the "sun and moon letters" (rules of assimilation of the -l of the definite article).

Nouns  EA - information on how to inflect nouns for gender and number (make them feminine, dual, and plural).

Adjectives  EA - definition of what adjectives are and how to inflect them for gender and number. A list of common, basic adjectives. Information on the rules of adjective agreement with nouns, and how to form nisba adjectives.

Comparative and superlative adjectives  EA - how to form the "elative" adjective forms that are used for comparisons. How to make both comparative and superlative statements.

Adverbs  EA - lists of common adverbs, arranged by type (adverbs of time, place, degree, and manner).

Subject and object pronouns  EA  MSA - tables of the subject and object pronouns in Arabic.

Possessive pronouns  EA  MSA - tables of the possessive pronouns, with notes on usage and examples.

Demonstrative and relative pronouns  EA  MSA - tables of the demonstrative and relative pronouns, with examples of usage.

The genitive construct and other ways to express possession  EA - information on the إضافة construct that indicates possession, and on prepositions that can also be used for the same purpose.

Introduction to the Arabic sentence  EA  MSA - the basic types of Arabic sentences, definition of subject and predicate, and how to negate sentences.

Asking questions  EA  MSA - information on how to ask questions in Arabic, covering questions using interrogative words (who, what, when, where, how, why, etc.), yes/no questions, and questions posing alternatives to choose from.

The verb forms  MSA - information on the different verb forms and their associated meanings, and a table of all the verb forms including their perfect/imperfect conjugations, active/passive participles, and verbal nouns.

Verb conjugations  EA  MSA - information on the different types of sound and weak verbs, and conjugation tables for verbs of each type.

Verb tenses  EA - information on the past, simple present, present continuous, and future tenses: how to use them and negate them, with examples.

Modals  EA  MSA - information on modals, including examples of usage.

The imperative  EA - how to form and negate commands, including tables showing the steps to do this and examples.

The active participle  EA - the usage of the active participle, including examples, how to derive the active participle from verbs, and a table of commonly-used active participles.

The passive participle  EA - the usage of the passive participle, including examples and how to derive the passive participle from verbs.

Conditional statements  EA - how to form possible and impossible conditional statements, including lots of examples.

Numbers  EA - the numbers from 0 to 1 billion, information on how to read out long numbers, and noun-number constructions.

Case endings  MSA - information on the nominative, genitive, and accusative cases: when and how to use them, with examples.

kaana, inna, and Zanna and their sisters  MSA - information on these verbs, which shift part of the sentence they're in to the accusative case; includes examples.