Arabic The Possessive Expression – الإضَافَةُ

The Indeclinable Words الْكَلِمَاتُ الْمَبْنِيَّةُ

In this part of lesson, we will learn a new concept of Arabic Grammar In-Shā’-Allâh (God-Willing). You have already learned that in Arabic language the words take different cases i.e., nominative (đammah/đammatain), accusative (fatħah/fatħatain) or genitive (kasrah/kasratain) on their last letter. A word takes single case when it appears with the definite article /al/ and double case when it is without the definite article /al/.
There are certain words however which have to indicate their function therefore they do not change their case and maintain their vowel ending. The words which do not change their vowel endings in order to indicate their function are called indeclinable words and have to remain unchanged.
The following are few examples of the indeclinable words (we will study this in detail in later lessons so this is only an introduction):

Rule	Translation	الْكَلِمَاتُ الْمَبْنِيَّةُ (The Indeclinable Words)
The interrogative articles are indeclinable	1. Who	۱. مَنْ
	2. Where	۲. أَيْنَ
	3. What	٣. مَاذَا
The directing words are mostly indeclinable	1. This (masculine)	۱. هَـٰذَا
	2. That (masculine)	۲. ذَلِكَ
	3. This (feminine)	٣. هَـٰذِهِ
The prepositions are indeclinable	1. On	۱. عَلَىٰ
	2. In	۲. فِي
	3. To	٣. إِلَىٰ
The pronouns are always indeclinable	1. He	۱. هُوَ
	2. She	۲. هِيَ
	3. You	٣. أَنْتَ

The indeclinable words do not take different cases for different causes and do not take /tanwīn/ as well.

Picture:	Translation:	Arabic:
	This is a man	هَـٰذَا رَجُلٌ.
	Who are you?	مَنْ أَنْتَ؟
	Whose bag is this?	حَقِيْبَةُ مَنْ هَذِهِ؟
	This is a duck	هَذِهِ بَطَّةٌ.
	Where is the lion?	أَيْنَ الأَسَدُ؟
	What is on the desk	مَاذَا عَلَىٰ الْمَكْتَبِ؟
	The teacher is in front of students	الْمُدَرِّسُ أَمَامَ طُلابٍ

Read the following sentences carefully while taking particular care of the vowel endings
Please note that we will introduce sentences related to Islam occasionally within this course for the benefit of Muslims studying this course. Those students who are not Muslim may find it beneficial to learn about Islamic belief which is the main religion in the Arab world and indeed many other parts of the world.:

English:	Arabic:
Where is the teacher’s house? It is far away	أَيْنَ بَيْتُ الْمُدَرِّسِ؟ هُوَ بَعِيدٌ.
The Quraan is the book of Allah (God)	الْقُرْآنُ كِتَابُ اللهِ.
The Ka’ba is Allah’s (God’s) house	الْكَعْبَةُ بَيْتُ اللهِ.
The teacher went out of the principal’s room	خَرَجَ الْمُدَرِّسُ مِنْ غُرْفَةِ الْمُدِيرِ.
Abbas’s car is in the street	سَيَّارَةُ عَبَّاسٍ فِي الشَّارِعِ.
The door of the mosque is opened	بَابُ الْمَسْجِدِ مَفْتُوحٌ.
Where is the dog? It is under the car	أَيْنَ الْكَلْبُ؟ هُوَ تَحْتَ السَّيَّارَةِ.
This is the house of Hamid and that is the house of Khalid	هَـٰذَا بَيْتُ حَامِدٍ وذَلِكَ بَيْتُ خَالِدٍ.