Mubeen

7) Possession

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Prepositions

Prepositions never have Tanween nor are affected by any grammatical case.

  1. عَنْ: about
  2. مِنْ: from
  3. إلَى: to
  4. عَلَى: on, upon, on top of

Possessive prepositions

Recall the possessive pronouns from the previous lesson.

To say "a pen to you" to a male:

  1. a pen --> قَلَمٌ
  2. to you --> إلى+ك

Since Alif Maqsura (ى) cannot come in the middle of a word (review lesson3), it must be transformed to Yaa (ي), so:

  1. to you --> إليك

The same rule applies for preposition "على":

Example: السلام عليكم

  1. السلام: is ال+سلام, meaning "the peace" or just "peace"
  2. عليكم: is على+كم, which is transformed to "عليكم" according to the previous rule.

Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns are just a couple of letters appended to the end of the word.

  1. My: ي (y)
  2. Our: نا (na)
  3. Your [m]: كَ (ka)
  4. Your [f]: كِ (ki)
  5. Your [plural]: كُمْ (kum)

Here's the transformation of a possessive case:

  1. My pen (English sentence)
  2. Pen My (Flip the order)
  3. قلم+ي (Translate)

Examples:

  1. Our pen: قلم+نا = قَلَمُنَا
  2. Your [plural] pen: قلم+كم = قَلَمُكُمْ
  3. Your [f] pen: قَلَمُ+كِ = قَلَمُكِ
  4. Your [m] pen: قَلَمُ+كَ = قَلَمُكَ

Tanween rules

Recall that Tanween is used for indefinite articles. In Arabic, when a noun belongs to someone/something, it is definite and known by its possessor.

Possessive grammar

The last Haraka of every word is affected by its grammatical case. The default case to every word is called nominative, where Dhamma ــُـ ‎ is used at the end.

Example: قَلَمٌ جَيِّدٌ (A good pen) has both "قَلَمٌ" and "جيِّدٌ" as nominative. Notice how ending is Dhamma.

When a singular word is in possessive case, its ending is changed to Kasrah ــِـ ‎. In all cases, Tanween is just follows the original Haraka. Tanween is but a shorthand to adding a nun at the end.

Example: قَلَمُ مُحَمَّدٍ (Pen of Muhammed)

Romanized as "Qalamu Muhammaden". Notice that pen is defined by it is being belonging to Muhammed, so Tanween must be removed, and Muhammaden is in possessive case.