Arabic The Declinable and the non-Declinable الْمُعْرَبُ وَالْمَبْنِيُّ

The indeclinable nouns – الأَسْمَاءُ الْمَبْنِيَّةُ

• We learnt earlier that the majority of Arabic nouns are declinable and the indeclinable nouns are an exception to the general rule. We also learnt that the indeclinable noun is the noun which has a constant (fixed) ending regardless of its position or grammatical case in the sentence. Following are the types of the indeclinable nouns:

1. The pronouns الضَّمَائِر:

• The pronouns are considered nouns in the Arabic grammar, because the words in Arabic are divided into only three categories; nouns, verbs and articles. Therefore the pronouns, the demonstratives and the relatives are subdivisions of nouns.
• All pronouns (detached or attached) are indeclinable. Therefore each pronoun will remain in its original form irrespective of whether it is in place of nominative, accusative or genitive.
• We will not study the pronoun divisions in detail right now; this will be detailed in many lessons (lesson 44 to lesson 48). Here we will learn some examples which will help us to understand the rules above. Consider the following examples:

2. The demonstrative pronouns أَسْمَاءُ الإِشَارَةِ:

• The demonstratives such as (هَذَا this), (هَذِهِ this; for feminine), (هَذَانِ these; for dual masculine), (هَاتَانِ these; for dual feminine), (هَؤُلاءِ these; for plural), (ذَلِكَ that), (تِلْكَ that; for feminine), (ذَانِكَ those; for dual masculine), (تَانِكَ those; for dual feminine), (أُولَئِكَ those; for plural) are considered below. These demonstratives are studied in detail in lesson 24.
• All demonstrative pronouns are indeclinable except for the dual masculine and feminine forms which are declinable as detailed in the declension of the dual (lesson 18 and lesson 55). Consider the following examples:

• In the above mentioned examples we notice that the demonstrative pronoun (hādhā) falls in different positions (direct object, subject, and Muĵrūr) but it still has the same ending (long vowel ā).
• More examples:

• You will notice that /hā’ulā’i/ above is indeclinable on kasrah on its ending regardless it grammatical position (direct object or subject as above).

3. Relative pronouns الأَسْمَاءُ الْمَوْصُولَةُ:

• The Arabic relative pronouns such as (الَّذِي who/which), (الَّتِي who/which for feminine), (اللَّذَانِ who/which for dual), (اللَّتَانِ who/which for the dual feminine), (الَّذِينَ who/which for plural), (اللاتِي –  اللائِي who/which for plural feminine) are considered below.  Please note that we have already learnt the relative nouns in lesson 24.
• All relative nouns are indeclinable except for the dual masculine and feminine which follow the general declension of the dual nouns (as detailed in lesson 18 and lesson 55). Consider the following examples:

• In the above mentioned examples, the relative noun الَّذِينَ has a constant ending (fatħah) whether it is in place of nominative (in the first example), accusative (in the second example) or genitive (in the third example).

4. Interrogative (questioning) nouns أَسْمَاءُ الاسْتِفْهَامِ:

• All the interrogative nouns as (مَاذَا؟ what?), (مَنْ؟ who?), (أَيْنَ؟ where?), (كِيْفَ؟ how?) etc. are indeclinable. These will be learnt in lesson 41 and lesson 42 In-Shaa’-Allaah (God willing). Consider the following examples:

• You may notice that the interrogative (questioning) noun أَيْنَ is indeclinable, as it has a constant ending whether it is in the place of nominative (in the first example) or in the place of genitive (in the second example).

5. Conditional nouns أَسْمَاءُ الشَّرْطِ:

•  The conditional nouns such as (مَنْ whoever), (مَهْما whatever), (أَيَّان whenever), (أَيْنَما wherever) etc. are all indeclinable nouns. These will be learnt in detail in lesson 49 In-Shaa’-Allaah (God willing). Consider the following examples:

• In the above mentioned examples the conditional nouns are indeclinable.

6. Verbal nouns أَسْمَاءُ الأفْعَالِ:

• We will learn in lesson 50 that the verbal nouns are the nouns which have the meaning of verbs and forms of nouns (i.e. they are not conjugated as verbs), e.g.: (صَهْ hush), (آه ah, or I feel pain) etc.
• All the verbal nouns are indeclinable. Consider the following examples:

• The verbal nouns in the above mentioned examples are indeclinable, i.e. they have their own constant ending regardless their position in the sentence.
• In addition to the six types of indeclinable nouns mentioned above there are some indeclinable adverbs (e.g. مُنْذُ since), and some allusive nouns that are indeclinable (e.g.: كَيْتَ in such a way).
• There are also some nouns which are occasionally indeclinable (i.e. they are originally declinable, but they are indeclinable in some situations) as follows:

1-   The single person addressed by the call (lesson 82), e.g. يَا رَجُلُ (oh man).

2-   The composite numbers from eleven to nineteen (except the first part of twelve as it is dual) detailed in lesson 26, e.g.: خَمْسَةَ عَشَرَ (fifteen).

3-   The noun of (lā) of the generic negation when the noun is singular indefinite and not annexed (detailed in lesson 61), e.g.: لا شَكَّ فِي هَذَا (No doubt in this).

• With this we end the declinable and the indeclinable nouns. After the exercises we will start the declinable and indeclinable verbs.