Is this Word a Fi'il ? Lesson 3(i) - Identifying Fi'il

Assalamualaikum.

We have finished studying all the 9 isim indicators. So when we are analyzing the Quran in terms of grammar, if a paticular word does not satisfy any of the conditions of the isim indicators, there are only 3 possibilities : 

1. the word could be one of a small group of "special" isim which do not exhibit any sign of an isim. (we will learn more about this exceptions in later lessons)
2. it could be a harf .  (since harf are usually short words of not more than 3 letters - it is rather easy to identify harf)  OR 
3. it could be a fi'il 

We will now learn how to positively identify if a word is Fi'il.  Before that let's recap what we already know about Fi'il.


There are 3 types of Fi'il :

Now lets learn how to recognize a Fi'il. 

Just like isim , there are  several clues to help us identify a word as a FI’IL. Most of the clues involve how the word starts or how it ends. However , we need to know that how a fi'il starts and ends may be obscured because 2 or more words can be combined.  

These are the words which can be attached to a fi'il :

OK. Here is how you can recognize fi'il .  The first isim indicator is any word ENDING WITH TA' SUKUN

The second isim indicator is as when the word ends with WAU SUKUN followed by ALIF ZIYADAH (silent alif)  as follows :

Here is a summary of the two isim indicators we learnt today 

You can watch my video on this topic. Just  CLICK HERE  and subscribe to my YouTube channel . 

Is that word an Isim ? Lesson 2(iii) Identifying Isim

Assalamu'alaikum.

Just three more Isim Indicators to go !

The 7th sign is kasrah / baris bawah at the end of the word.  Here are some examples :

 


Before we discuss the next 2 isim indicators, you need to know this fact : 

Wait a minute ! Just what is harf jarr ? 

The following are the harf jarr you need to be familiar with as they are often mentioned in the Quran :  

However, single letter harf jarr is quite tricky to detect as they will be attached to the isim : 

Now let's look at some examples :

Let's  turn our attention to Idhofah . What is it ?

Here are some examples of Idhofah in the Quran 

We have finished discussing all the 9 signs of Isim. Here's a brief summary of ALL the isim indicators.

You can watch my YouTube channel Arabic Grammar Made Easy & Fun !  for a detailed explanation of this post. Good luck !  

Is that word an Isim ? Lesson 2(ii) Identifying Isim

Assalamualaikum,

You have learnt  two ways to positively identify a word as an isim :

Now it's time to learn about 4 more signs/clues  that the word is an ISIM  

All in all , todate you have now learnt 6 ways to tell if the word is an isim . Here's the summary of the 6 fi'il indicators :

Please watch my video Arabic Grammar Made Easy & Fun !  to have a better understanding of this lesson. 

Is that word an Isim ? Lesson 2(i) Identifying Isim

Assalamualaikum.

One of the beauties of  the Arabic language is the way words are formed.  You can tell if the word is an isim, fi'il or harf just by looking at the word itself without having to know its meaning.

Today we will begin to learn how to identify an isim using some pointers which I call ISIM INDICATORS. 

Please watch my video Arabic Grammar Made Easy & Fun ! YouTube channel 

Type of Words (ii)

Assalamu'alaikum.

More examples on the 3 types of words

Do watch my video Arabic Grammar Made Easy & Fun ! YouTube channel

Introduction : Types of Words

Assalamu'alaikum.

بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Let's begin - , shall we ?  

This slide is fairly simple.  For more explanations, you can watch my YouTube video (link at the bottom of this post). 

Watch this on Arabic Grammar Made Easy & Fun YouTube

Why did I start this Blog ?

You would have thought that having attended Arabic classes for five years in my secondary school, I should be fluent in Arabic, right? Well that’s not the case. I was more interested in excelling in my core subjects to qualify for a scholarship. Arabic was only an additional subject taught with no bearing on my overall results and the teacher didn’t really mind if I slept through her entire class. So it’s no surprise I left school with enough Arabic to say only two sentences perfectly – “My name is Zafinas” and “I’m sitting on a chair !” I kid you not .

It was 25 years later that I realized the importance of really studying the Quran and wished I had paid attention in class. In 2007 I bought my first Arabic grammar book , formed a small group of friends and got someone to teach us a couple of hours a week. In Malaysia, adults who attend Arabic classes tend to drop out when it starts to get tough – the number of students dwindle to the point the class gets cancelled. You form another group, start all over again from basics and the same thing happens. Hence the reason I had to learn Arabic from several teachers. Thanks to these teachers who taught me the basics , I bought even more books and studied in my free time. Alhamdulillah nowadays I am finally able to understand most of the Quran when I am reciting it. Memorising the vocabulary is still a struggle but insya Allah , with practice I hope to be able to understand the entire Quran over time (its literal meaning at least – tafseer in its entirety is another milestone I hope to achieve).

Initially all these grammar rules were too daunting and difficult to grasp. But Alhamdulillah it finally clicked after I really sat down and studied the material. I was going to compile all my notes over the years – so thought I might as well put it down in a blog. And if just one person can learn something from this simple blog – that will be huge bonus !

It is better that you watch my YouTube videos as well at  Arabic Grammar Made Easy & Fun YouTube channel  I do try to keep it simple but sometimes I get carried away and the duration of the videos exceed my 10-minute mark. 😀 

I welcome any suggestions , corrections to my blog. Learning is an on-going process – and Arabic ,which I used to find boring, has become one of my passions in life. Perhaps it can be yours too !

Assalamu'alaikum

If you can read the Quran but always wished that you understood exactly what you were reading , then this is the blog for you ! Together we will learn some basic Arabic grammar to enable us to start on our journey to acquire enough knowledge of the Arabic language insya Allah.

The objective of this blog is NOT to teach you to converse in Arabic. 

My aim is to teach you the basic Arabic grammar which will help us to

• develop a greater understanding of the solat , zikir, du'a and of course , the Quran we recite
•  make it easier for us to memorize the Quran or du'a practised by Rasulullah s.a.w.

Here's how  I plan to do so :

1.  Provide brief introduction to Arabic language -  with emphasis on the three types of words (isim/noun , fi'il/verb and harf/particle .
2. Teach you how to identify the 3 word types without the need to know its meaning. This will give you the confidence to forge ahead !  Even if you have no idea what the word means when you are reading the Quran , you can at least tell that the word is a verb, a noun or a particle.  
3. Tell you more about isim - all the information we can get from every isim - gender, number, definiteness & i'raab
4.  Introduce you to changeble nouns (mu'raab) and unchangeable/fixed nouns (mabni)  and the cause of these changes to the noun
5. Tell you more about fi'il - the various types , the information we can get from each fi'il -  action, doer/pronoun & time frame 
6.  Discuss how to change a root word (past tense) to other forms such as present tense form, imperative , verbal noun etc
7.  Explain how an Arabic sentence is constructed - namely the two basic types of sentences 
8. Provide list of common verbs and nouns in the Quran for you to memorize at your own pace.

Insya Allah, if we really want to learn something beneficial , with effort and du'a , He will make it easier for us to do so.