The Five Nouns In Arabic Language (الأسماء الخمسة)

 The Five Nouns In Arabic Language (الأسماء الخمسة)

By: Yusuf Basirat Bolanle

Introduction

In our previous lesson, we discussed The Five Verbs In Arabic Language and their different grammatical analysis and positions. In this lesson, we shall talk about another interesting topic, which is "The Five Nouns" in the Arabic language and their different grammatical analysis as well.

Discussion

The five nouns or five names in the Arabic language are known as (الأسماء الخمسة). They are the special type of nouns or names that their three states of grammatical status: the nominative (الرفع), the accusative (النصب), and the genitive (الجر) are indicated by Letters or Alphabets. The nominative case is denoted by Waw (و) instead of Ad-dammah, the accusative case is denoted by Alif (ا) instead of Al-fatha while the Genitive case is denoted by Yaa (ي) instead of Al-kasrah.

The five nouns in the Arabic language are: 

1-  (أب)  Father

2 - (أخ) Brother

3 - (حم)   In-law

4 - (فو Mouth

5 - (ذو)  Owner

The five nouns in the Arabic language and their different positions in grammatical analysis.

The five nouns can be in the following positions as stated earlier:

1-  (Nominative case) Ar-rafu position (الرفع)

2- (Accusative case) An-nazb position (النصب)

3-  (Genitive case) Al-jarri position (الجر)

The Five Nouns In The Nominative Case (الرفع)

When any of the five nouns is in a nominative case, it is mandated to take Ad-damah parsing mark. In the case of the five nouns, there is no clear ad-damah sign to be put on them, instead of that there is a replacement of ad-damah sign with the alphabet (و) Waw. This waw will be doing the function of ad-damah sign since it is meant to replace it in the sentence. Examples of when the five nouns are in nominative position are, like when they are subjects, the nouns to the verb kaana and its sisters (كان وأخواتها), the Khabar (الخبر) information to the particle inna and its sisters (إن وأخواتها) and so on. Examples are-

    ذهب أبو زيد إلى المسجد

Abu Said went to the mosque

أبوك مهندس مجتهد

Your father is an Engineer

كان أبوك مسلما قويا

Your father was a strong Muslim

إن الفائز أبو محمد

Surely, the person who won was your father

In the above examples, the first two sentences, (أبوك) is in the position of the subject in each of the sentences. In the third sentence, (أبوك) is in the position of Kaana noun (اسم كان) while in the last sentence (أبوك) is in the position of Khabar Inna (خبر إن). They are all in (الرفع) Ar-rafu (Nominative) case, which is why they all take waw (و) as an indication to replace Ad-damah parsing mark.

The Five Nouns In The Accusative Case (النصب)

The five nouns in the accusative case take an-nazb (النصب) parsing mark. But instead of Putting a clear al-fatha sign on it, it is replaced with (ا) Alif. That is, the fatha sign is always replaced with the alphabet alif.  Examples of the places where the five nouns can be found in the accusative case are: the objects (مفعول به),  the (خبر) Khabar (information) to kaana and its sisters (كان وأخواتها), the (اسم) noun, to Inna and its sisters (إن وأخواتها) and so on.  Examples are:

رأينا أباك فى المسجد

We saw your father in the mosque

كان الرجل  أباك

The man was your father

إن أباحبيب رجل كريم

Habeeb's father is an honored man

In the first sentence in the above examples, the word (أباك) is in the position of an object (مفعول به). in the second sentence, (أباك) is in the position of Khabar (خبر كان) while in the third sentence, the word (أبا) is in the position of (اسم إن), the noun to inna. That is why in all the aforementioned sentences, the word (أبا) takes (ا) instead of taking the al-fatha parsing mark. The Alphabet alif has replaced the Al-fatha sign in all the sentences.

The Five Nouns In The Genitive Case (الجر)

In this case, the five nouns are in the position to take al-jarri (الجر) parsing mark which is al-kasrah (الكسرة). However, instead of the clear al-kasrah sign on the noun, it is replaced by (ي) Yaa alphabet. This means instead of seeing a clear kasrah sign on the noun, (ي) Yaa will be in the place to represent the al-kasrah sign. Examples of places where the five nouns can be in a genitive case are: the prepositional noun and the possessive noun positions. Examples of this are:

رضي الله عن أبيك

Allah is pleased with your father

هذا الكتاب لأبيك

This book is for your father

رأيت فى أخيك الكرم

I saw honor in your  brother

سيارة أبيك جميلة جدا

Your father's car is very beautiful

كتاب أخيك مفيد للغاية

Your brother's book is very beneficial

In the above sentences, the first three examples show that the two of the five verbs (أبيك) and (أخيك)  are taking (ي) Yaa, instead of the Al-Kasrah parsing mark. This is because the word (أبيك) and (أخيك) in the sentences are in their prepositional object position following one of the prepositional particles. However, the last two sentences show that the word (أبيك) and (أخيك) are in the possessive position, which is why they also take the alphabet yaa (ي) instead of the Al-kasrah parsing mark.

Note carefully:

1- Before any of these five nouns will be categorized as part of the five nouns, it should not take the possessive pronoun Yaa (ى), which denotes (my) at the end. This means that, the first person speaker pronoun Yaa (ى) should not be attached to any of them at the end, if this happens, it will not be regarded as one if the five nouns anymore. Examples of this are:

أبى فى المسجد

My father is in the mosque

رأيت أخى فى المدرسة

I saw my brother at the school

نظفت فمى فى الصباح

I cleaned my mouth in the morning

حمى جلس على المقعد

My in-law sat on the seat

In all the above sentences, the nouns there are not regarded as five nouns because they all take first-person speaker  Yaa (ى) at the end.

2-   Also, the noun (فم) should not take the alphabet (م) at the end, it should be written as (فو), (فا), and (في). if it is written as (فم), then, it is no more one of the five nouns as its function has changed in the sentence.

3-     In addition to all these, the five nouns should be in a position of (مضاف) (possessed or owner) where other pronouns aside first-person speaker pronoun Yaa can be attached to it or it is attached or related to other words or nouns (الإضافة) before it can give the function of five verbs. For instance, the word (أبو) father only, can not give the meaning of five verbs except it is written as (أبوك) or (أباك) or (أبيك) (Your father) with its three different positions, functioning as (مضاف) (owner or possessor) in the sentence.

4- Majority of the examples above focused on only one name or noun which is  (أب) (father), just to be specific or for clear understanding. However, The other four nouns take the same rules of writing and grammatical analysis just as (أب) does.