Arabic Grammar (Nahw and Sarf)
Arabic (العربیة / al-'arabīyya) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic family, with roughly 375 million native speakers across 22 Arab states. It is the language of the Qur'an (revealed 610–632 CE) and of one of the world's deepest grammatical traditions, codified by Sibawayh in the eighth century. Arabic grammar is conventionally divided into two disciplines: nahw (نحو) — syntax — and sarf (صرف) — morphology.
Arabic words are built from triliteral roots (usually three consonants) inserted into morphological patterns. From the root ك ت ب (k-t-b, "writing") come kitāb (book), kātib (writer), maktūb (written), maktab (office), kataba (he wrote), yaktubu (he writes). This root-pattern system is the heart of sarf.
Script and phonology
The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters, all consonants. Short vowels are marked with optional diacritics (fatha, kasra, damma); long vowels are full letters (ا، و، ي). The script is right-to-left and cursive, with each letter taking up to four positional forms.
Arabic phonology includes the emphatic (pharyngealised) consonants ص، ض، ط، ظ — characteristic of Semitic — and the pharyngeal pair ح، ع. The distinction between ض and ظ gives Arabic its old self-description as lughat al-ḍād ("the language of the ḍād").
The root system (sarf)
Arabic morphology is dominated by the triliteral root. Each root carries an abstract semantic field; specific words are derived by inserting it into one of roughly fifteen verbal forms (al-awzān, called "Forms I–X" in Western grammar) and various nominal patterns.
The ten classical verb forms
| Form | Pattern | Example (k-t-b) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | fa'ala | kataba | basic ("he wrote") |
| II | fa''ala | kattaba | intensive/causative ("made write") |
| III | fā'ala | kātaba | reciprocal ("corresponded") |
| IV | af'ala | aktaba | causative ("caused to write") |
| V | tafa''ala | takattaba | reflexive of II |
| VI | tafā'ala | takātaba | reciprocal of III |
| VII | infa'ala | inkataba | passive/middle |
| VIII | ifta'ala | iktataba | reflexive of I |
| IX | if'alla | (colour/defect) | "to become red/lame" |
| X | istaf'ala | istaktaba | requestative ("asked to write") |
Nominal patterns
Major nominal patterns include:
- Active participle (ism al-fā'il): kātib — "writer".
- Passive participle (ism al-maf'ūl): maktūb — "written".
- Place noun (ism al-makān): maktab — "office".
- Instrument noun (ism al-āla): miftāḥ — "key".
- Family: Semitic → Central Semitic → Arabic.
- Sister languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, Amharic.
- Script: 28 consonantal letters, right-to-left.
- Sarf: root-and-pattern morphology; ten classical verb forms.
- Nahw: case-based syntax; three cases — raf' / naṣb / jarr.
- Sibawayh's al-Kitāb (8th c.) — foundational grammar.
- Diglossia: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA, al-fuṣḥā) vs spoken dialects.
Syntax (nahw): cases and i'rab
Classical Arabic is fully inflected: nouns and adjectives take three cases marked by short vowel endings:
| Case | Marker | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Raf' (رفع) | -u | Nominative; subject |
| Naṣb (نصب) | -a | Accusative; object, adverbial |
| Jarr (جرّ) | -i | Genitive; after prepositions and in iḍāfa (construct) |
A noun is definite with the article ال (al-) and is then unnunated; indefinite nouns take tanwīn (an added -n): kitāb-u-n, kitāb-a-n, kitāb-i-n.
The iḍāfa (construct state)
Two nouns can be linked in a possessive construct: kitāb-u r-rajul-i — "the book of the man". The first noun (governing) loses the article and any tanwīn; the second (governed) goes into the genitive (jarr).
Sentence types
Arabic distinguishes:
- Verbal sentence (jumla fi'liyya): starts with a verb. Kataba l-walad-u risāla-tan — "the boy wrote a letter".
- Nominal sentence (jumla ismiyya): starts with a noun. Al-walad-u kabīr-un — "the boy is big" (no verb "to be" in the present).
Verb conjugation
Arabic verbs conjugate for person, number, gender, tense and mood. The two principal tenses are:
- Perfective (al-māḍī): suffixed conjugation; e.g., kataba "he wrote".
- Imperfective (al-muḍāri'): prefixed (and partly suffixed) conjugation; e.g., yaktubu "he writes / will write".
The imperfective has three moods: indicative (marfū', -u ending), subjunctive (manṣūb, -a), jussive (majzūm, no ending). The imperative is built from the jussive.
Number: dual, plural and broken plurals
Arabic has three numbers — singular, dual (-ān/-ayn), and plural. Plurals are of two types:
- Sound plural (jam' sālim): suffixed -ūn/-īn for masculine human, -āt for feminine.
- Broken plural (jam' taksīr): the singular's pattern is altered internally. kitāb → kutub "books"; qalam → aqlām "pens".
Most Arabic plurals are broken — a major learning challenge.
Sibawayh and the classical tradition
The grammatical canon was fixed by Sibawayh (Abu Bishr 'Amr ibn Uthman, d. c. 796) in his eight-volume Al-Kitāb ("The Book"), composed in Basra. His pupil al-Akhfash and rivals at Kufa (Al-Kisa'i, Al-Farra') shaped the two main schools. Later grammarians — Ibn Malik (d. 1274) of the Alfiyya in 1,000 verses, Ibn Hisham (d. 1360) — produced the textbooks still taught in madrasas.
Modern Standard Arabic and dialects
| Variety | Sphere |
|---|---|
| Classical Arabic (CA) | Qur'an, pre-modern literature |
| Modern Standard Arabic (MSA, al-fuṣḥā) | Newspapers, formal speech, modern literature |
| Dialects | Egyptian, Levantine, Maghrebi, Gulf, Iraqi, Sudanese |
This diglossia — the coexistence of a formal high register and many spoken dialects — is the defining sociolinguistic feature of the Arabic world.
For CSS, memorise five facts: (1) Arabic is Semitic, not Indo-European; (2) it has 28 letters; (3) it has three cases (raf', naṣb, jarr); (4) Sibawayh wrote the foundational al-Kitāb; (5) Ibn Malik's Alfiyya is the standard 1,000-verse grammar manual.
Conclusion
Arabic grammar is one of the most rigorously systematised in the world. Its root-and-pattern morphology and its case-marked syntax give it a remarkable internal logic that has fascinated grammarians from Sibawayh to modern Western Arabists. For CSS aspirants, mastering even the outlines of nahw and sarf opens access to the Qur'an, the classical canon, the modern Arab novel and the contemporary press.