Moving on from the previous lesson, I decided to shift towards the first part of chapter 1.3. and increase my understandings of Nahw.
Previously, I had learned the objectives of learning Nahw in addition to the differences of kalimah’s and kalam. I also learned the three types of kalam which are ism (noun) f’il (verb) and harf (particle). I had learned its definitions and done some exercises.
For this lesson, the previous knowledge is a requirement as I will now begin to learn the types (Aqsam) of isms.
Images of the lesson are take from this resource and are below. Please refer to section 1.3 of resource if images are not clear:
The first part of the lesson will discuss the types of nouns. This resource also further explains this part:
I learned that there are 3 types of nouns in Arabic.
- Jamid – This is a noun that is its own word and not a derivative of another word. This word also does not cause derivatives to other words. In other words, it is a self-sufficient word. Example: bayt – house. This example is a word that does not have any connection to another word.
- Masdar – This is a root word which many other words derive from. The key of words being derived from one another is to look at the root letters. Example: darsan = to study and its root letters are d-r-s. From these root letters, various other nouns will be derived from which contain the same root letters.
- Mushtaq- This is a noun which is derived from another word. Example: madrasah = School. the word which it came from is darsan = to learn/study. The root letters as mentioned previously is d-r-s. Therefore madrasah is a derivative of the word darsan with its root letters being d-r-s. Madrassah also classically translates to place of learning/studying.
Another part of the lesson is identifying root letters. This resource is a little bit advanced however the first 4 minutes refer to this lesson. The first point in identifying the root letters is to recognize that most words in arabic have 3 root letters. The second point is to recognize that if a word has four letters, then there are most likely some extra letters added. Those extra letters tend to be the letters of waaw (w), alif (a), or yaa (y). The words below contain some exercises to test this knowledge.
Exercises:
- kitab (book) – mushtaq word which masdar is katban (to read). k-t-b are its root letters
- kitab (writer) – mushtaq word taked from masdar katban (to read), k-t-b are its root letters.
- maa (water) – Jamid word which has no derivative forms. m-a-a are the root.
- ilm (knowledge) – masdar word as it has many different word forms such as yalamu (he knows). root letters are i-l-m.