Language Learning

Basic Word Formation in Arabic

Word formation in Arabic is the process of creating new words by means of adding prefixes, suffixes, infixes, or changing the diacritical marks (i.e., short vowels) in the word roots. Take the Arabic word root كَتَبَ 'he wrote' which is a verb. By adding the prefix مَـ to it and changing the short vowels over the كـ and ـب, it becomes مَكْتَبٌ 'an office' which is a noun. If you add the infix ـا after the first letter and change the short vowels over the ـتـ and ـب, it becomes كَاتِبٌ 'a writer' which is a noun. Likewise, if we change the short vowels in كَتَبَ  to كُتُبٌ 'books', it becomes a plural noun. In this post, I will explain three basic Arabic word formation rules: formation of feminine nouns, formation of definite nouns, and formation of possessive nouns.

Masculine الْمُذَكَّر and Feminine الْمُؤَنَّث:

Arabic Language has a gender. That is, nouns and adjectives are either masculine مُذَكَّر or feminine مُؤَنَّث. The masculine is the basic form. So, to form the feminine, we add the feminine marker (i.e. ة or ـة, depending on the letter that precedes it) to the end of the masculine, as shown in the table below. Therefore, most of the words that end ـة / ة in Arabic are feminine. 

The indefinite النَّكِرَة and definite المَعْرِفَة:

Arabic nouns and adjectives are either indefinite نَكِرَة or definite مَعْرِفَة, that is specific entity/thing or unspecific. The indefinite noun/adjective is the basic form. There are three ways to make it definite. The most common way is by adding the definite article ال to the beginning the word, as in the following table.

 Personal /separate pronouns ضَمَائِر الفَاعِل  and adjective pronouns ضَمَائِرُ الْجَرِّ الْمُتَّصِلَةِ:

There are twelve personal/separate pronouns in Arabic. The most common in everyday spoken Arabic are أَنَا ‘I’, نَحْنُ ‘we’, أَنْتَ ‘you, masculine’, أَنْتِ ‘you, feminine’, أَنْتُم ‘you, masculine plural’, أَنْتُنَّ ‘you, feminine plural’, هُوَ ‘he’, هِيَ ‘she’, هُم ‘they, masculine plural’, and هُنَّ ‘they, feminine plural.’ For each of these pronouns, there is a corresponding attached (adjective) pronoun, as shown in table below.

By adding the attached pronouns to nouns, we form possessive nouns. But you must take heed that attached pronouns are only suffixed to indefinite nouns. This suffixation makes the indefinite nouns definite, which is the second way of form definite nouns in Arabic.