Arabic Noun Phrase 2

LESSON 2

مُضَافٌ وَُ مُُضَافٌ إُِلَيْوُِ

Consider the following sentences: ‘slave of Allah,’ ‘messenger of Allah,’ ‘door of the house,’ ‘the Messenger’s order,’ ‘Mahmood’s pen,’ ‘Khalid’s book,’ ‘Hameed’s house.’ These phrases and those with a similar pattern are called mudaaf (مُضَافٌُ ) and mudaaf ilayhi (مُضَافٌ إُِلَيْوُِ ). One thing (mudaaf) is attributed to the other (mudaaf ilayhi). Many times, the relationship is that of the possessed to its possessor. The possessed is called mudaaf and the possessor is called mudaaf ilayhi. For example, in the phrase ‘Mahmood’s pen,’ the pen is owned by Mahmood. Therefore, ‘pen’ is mudaaf and ‘Mahmood’ is mudaaf ilayhi.

To translate a sentence of this type into Arabic, follow these steps:

1. Take out ‘of’ or the apostrophe and the ‘s,’ which show possession.
2. If you have taken out the apostrophe and the ‘s,’ reverse the sequence. Write the second word first and the first word second. If you took out ‘of,’ then there is no need to reverse the sequence.
3. Replace the English words with their Arabic equivalents.
4. Give the mudaaf a single dammah and the mudaaf ilayhi two kasrahs.

For example, to translate the phrase ‘Mahmood’s pen’ to Arabic, first take out the apostrophe and ‘s.’ It becomes ‘Mahmood pen.’ Then, change the order of the words to ‘pen Mahmood.’ Next, replace the words with their Arabic equivalents. You get قلمُ

مُمود . Now, give the mudaaf a single dammah and the mudaaf ilayhi two kasrahs. You get قَ لَمُ مَُُْمُوْدٍُ . Following the same method, ‘Khalid’s book’ becomes كِتَابُ خَُالِدٍُ . For a sentence with ‘of,’ such as ‘ring of gold,’ first remove the ‘of.’ It becomes ‘ring gold.’ Now, replace the words with their Arabic equivalents. You get خاتم ذُىب .

Lesson 2

Now, give the mudaaf a single dammah and the mudaaf ilayhi two kasrahs. You get خَاتَمُ ذَُىَبٍُ .

The rules concerning alif-laam have been mentioned in the first lesson. Those rules will apply here also. Thus, if there is an alif-laam at the beginning of the mudaaf ilayhi, the two kasrahs will become one kasrah. خَاتَمُ ذَُىَبٍُ will become خَاتَمُ اُلذَّىَبُِ . It should be noted here that the mudaaf never accepts alif-laam or tanween. For instance, in the above example, خَاتَمُُ will not accept alif-laam or tanween.