Foundation  /  Al-Ājurrūmiyya  /  Lesson 4

The four ways a word says “rafʿ”

Materials

• Follow along with this lesson The handout — the text, the parsing, and the notes on one sheet PDF
• The whole book — English Our own translation PDF

Every file opens in a new tab. Nothing to install, no sign-in, and you may keep them.

لِلرَّفْعِ أَرْبَعُ عَلاَمَاتٍ: الضَّمَّةُ، وَالوَاوُ، وَالأَلِفُ، وَالنُّونُ. فَأَمَّا الضَّمَّةُ فَتَكُونُ عَلاَمَةً لِلرَّفْعِ فِي أَرْبَعَةِ مَوَاضِعَ: فِي الاِسْمِ المُفْرَدِ، وَجَمْعِ التَّكْسِيرِ، وَجَمْعِ المُؤَنَّثِ السَّالِمِ، وَالفِعْلِ المُضَارِعِ الَّذِي لَمْ يَتَّصِلْ بِآخِرِهِ شَيْءٌ. وَأَمَّا الوَاوُ فَتَكُونُ عَلاَمَةً لِلرَّفْعِ فِي مَوْضِعَيْنِ: فِي جَمْعِ المُذَكَّرِ السَّالِمِ، وَفِي الأَسْمَاءِ الخَمْسَةِ، وَهِيَ: أَبُوكَ، وَأَخُوكَ، وَحَمُوكَ، وَفُوكَ، وَذُو مَالٍ. وَأَمَّا الأَلِفُ فَتَكُونُ عَلاَمَةً لِلرَّفْعِ فِي تَثْنِيَةِ الأَسْمَاءِ خَاصَّةً. وَأَمَّا النُّونُ فَتَكُونُ عَلاَمَةً لِلرَّفْعِ فِي الفِعْلِ المُضَارِعِ إِذَا اتَّصَلَ بِهِ ضَمِيرُ تَثْنِيَةٍ أَوْ ضَمِيرُ جَمْعٍ أَوْ ضَمِيرُ المُؤَنَّثَةِ المُخَاطَبَةِ.

Li-r-rafʿi arbaʿu ʿalāmātin: aḍ-ḍammatu, wa-l-wāwu, wa-l-alifu, wa-n-nūn. Fa-ammā ḍ-ḍammatu fa-takūnu ʿalāmatan li-r-rafʿi fī arbaʿati mawāḍiʿa: fī l-ismi l-mufradi, wa-jamʿi t-taksīri, wa-jamʿi l-muʾannathi s-sālimi, wa-l-fiʿli l-muḍāriʿi lladhī lam yattaṣil bi-ākhirihi shayʾ. Wa-ammā l-wāwu fa-takūnu ʿalāmatan li-r-rafʿi fī mawḍiʿayni: fī jamʿi l-mudhakkari s-sālimi, wa-fī l-asmāʾi l-khamsati, wa-hiya: abūka, wa-akhūka, wa-ḥamūka, wa-fūka, wa-dhū mālin. Wa-ammā l-alifu fa-takūnu ʿalāmatan li-r-rafʿi fī tathniyati l-asmāʾi khāṣṣatan. Wa-ammā n-nūnu fa-takūnu ʿalāmatan li-r-rafʿi fī l-fiʿli l-muḍāriʿi idhā ttaṣala bihi ḍamīru tathniyatin aw ḍamīru jamʿin aw ḍamīru l-muʾannathati l-mukhāṭabah.

Rafʿ has four signs: the ḍamma, the wāw, the alif, and the nūn.

As for the ḍamma, it is a sign of rafʿ in four places: in the singular noun, in the broken plural, in the sound feminine plural, and in the present-tense verb to whose end nothing has been attached.

As for the wāw, it is a sign of rafʿ in two places: in the sound masculine plural, and in the Five Nouns — which are abūka, akhūka, ḥamūka, fūka, and dhū mālin.

As for the alif, it is a sign of rafʿ in the dual of nouns only.

As for the nūn, it is a sign of rafʿ in the present-tense verb when a dual pronoun, a plural pronoun, or the pronoun of the feminine addressee has been joined to it.

Translation by Alyph Academy. We translate rather than reprint: the classical Arabic is public domain, published English translations are not.

Reading notes

• A case is not a vowel. This is the correction the chapter exists to make. Lesson 3 named four cases and you were probably picturing four vowels. Rafʿ alone has four signs, and only one of them is a vowel — the other three are whole letters. Naṣb, khafḍ and jazm are the same. Get this now and the rest of the book is bookkeeping; miss it and every later chapter reads as arbitrary.
• The sign tells you the shape of the word. Read the list backwards and it becomes a diagnostic, exactly like lesson 1's signs. A final alif marking rafʿ means you are looking at a dual. A final wāw means a sound masculine plural or one of the Five Nouns. A nūn means a verb with a pronoun stuck to it. The sign is doing two jobs at once — case and number.
• The ḍamma is the default, and its four places are worth memorising as a set. Singular noun, broken plural, sound feminine plural, and the bare muḍāriʿ. Notice that three of the four are nouns and one is a verb — which is the first time in the book that a noun-sign and a verb-sign are the same mark.
• “To whose end nothing has been attached.” That clause is doing real work. Yaḍribu takes a ḍamma; yaḍribūna does not, because a wāw has been joined to it and the sign of its rafʿ becomes the nūn at the end. The condition and the fourth sign are two halves of one rule.
• The Five Nouns are a closed list and they are listed in construct. Abūka not ab — because these five behave this way only when annexed to something. Say the five aloud until they are one item in your memory; they return in every later chapter on iʿrāb.
• A warning about the nūn. The nūn is the sign of rafʿ in those verbs — so when it disappears, that is naṣb or jazm. Deletion as a grammatical sign is coming in lesson 6, and it is the idea beginners find strangest: the absence of a letter carrying meaning.

The views and conclusions in a lesson are those of its author and its reviewer. Alyph Academy publishes work by contributors of varying backgrounds and does not thereby endorse their views on any other matter or platform. Nothing here is a religious legal ruling on anyone's particular circumstances.