Grammar (Qawaʿid): Morphology, Syntax, and Transformation
Grammar (Qawaʿid) in the Assam ASSEB Higher Secondary Arabic paper tests morphology (ṣarf), syntax (naḥw), and controlled transformation. Questions ask you to parse a word, choose a case ending, correct agreement, or rewrite a sentence without changing its meaning.
Core rules
- Nominal sentence: mubtadaʾ + khabar, both normally marfūʿ.
- Verbal sentence: verb + fāʿil (marfūʿ) + mafʿūl (manṣūb).
- Kāna makes the khabar manṣūb; inna makes the mubtadaʾ manṣūb.
- Idāfa: muḍāf takes no tanwīn or final nūn; muḍāf ilayhi is majrūr.
- Passive: transitive verb becomes mabnī li-l-majhūl; the mafʿūl becomes nāʾib fāʿil and is marfūʿ.
Worked example
Transform ‘kataba al-ṭālibu al-darsa’ into the passive. Identify: kataba = transitive perfect; al-ṭālibu = fāʿil, marfūʿ; al-darsa = mafʿūl, manṣūb. Drop the fāʿil, change the verb to kutiba, and make al-darsu the nāʾib fāʿil: ‘kutiba al-darsu’. Do not write ‘kutiba al-ṭālibu’, because the original subject is no longer grammatical subject.
Traps
Forgetting that intransitive verbs cannot take a direct passive; misreading diptotes and defective nouns; missing feminine agreement; treating the muḍāf as definite when it is indefinite; and changing word order without need. Check every ending against its ʿāmil.
Method
Parse first, then transform, then re-parse the result.