Arabic The Possessive Expression – الإضَافَةُ

The Possessive Expression – الإضَافَةُ

• In this lesson we will cover a new principle which is called the principle of “Possessive Expression” in English , In-Shā’-Allâh (God-Willing). This expression is a type of the Arabic term which is called  /Iđâfa/.
• The /Iđâfa/ literally means (adding or annexing). It means adding one noun to another to form a relationship of possession or belonging (one noun being owned or belonging to the other noun – e.g. teacher’s book). Consider the following examples showing the difference between the possession and the belonging in the /Iđâfa/:

·      This principle is applied when two nouns are joined together to make one structure.

·      In the  possessive expression, one noun is the “possessor” called /Muđâf  Ilaihi/ while the other is the “possessed” called /Muđâf/ in Arabic. For example, if we say “the teacher’s book”, “the teacher” is the possessor and “the book” is possessed.

·      In English this type of expression is constructed with the preposition (of) or using the letter (s) with an apostrophe before it i.e., ‘s. The examples of such type of constructions are:

o  The book of Hamid

o  Hamid’s book.

·      In Arabic however, the possessed noun (e.g., book) comes before the possessor so it would literally read “Book teacher’s”.

·      Let us analyze an example below and we will explain how the rules are applied:

o  /Kitāb -ul-Mudarrisi/

·      The first part is the possessed noun (called /Muđâf/  – مُضَافٌ) – in our example this is /Kitāb/ (book) as we have already discussed.  The rules of the possessed noun are:

1. Although /kitāb/ is not definite – in other words, ‘al’ (the) – does not come before the noun, it is implied.  Hence this means ‘the book’ and not ‘a book’ even though ‘al’ is not written before /kitāb/.
2. The possessed noun can be in any case (genitive – with /kasrah/, accusative – with /fatħah/, or nominative – with /đammah/). We do not need to worry about this at the moment, in normal cases it is nominative so it ends with a /đammah/ but if preceded by a preposition it takes the genitive case so it ends with a /kasrah/.
3. Since the possessed noun is definite therefore it cannot take /tanwīn/ i.e., it cannot take double /đammah/

·      The second part is the possessor (called /Muđâf Ilaihi/ –مُضَافٌ إِلَيْهِ ) – this is /Al Mudarrasi/ (the teacher) in our example.  The possessor can be either:

A.   Definite or indefinite (e.g. /Al-mudarrisi/ or /mudarrisin/ – the teacher or a teacher)

B.   The possessor is always in genitive case (therefore the last letter originally takes a /kasrah/ or /kasratain/).

·      Carefully read the following text and take a particular look at the vowel endings of the words: