Grammar, Morphology and Syntax
Grammar, morphology and syntax (النحو والصرف)
This section tests productive control, not just recognition: you are asked to parse words (إعراب), supply correct case endings, transform verbs between tenses, voices and forms, and fix agreement errors. Two systems run in parallel - morphology (root and pattern, أوزان) and syntax (governing particles and case, إعراب).
Core rules
- Most words are built on a three-consonant root in one of ten verb forms: II فعّل (intensive/causative), III فاعل (with someone), IV أفعل (causative), V/X reflexive and estimative (تعلّم، استعمل), VII/VIII passive-reflexive (انكسر، اجتمع).
- Weak roots behave irregularly in the jussive: قال → لم يقلْ; رمى → لم يرمِ; وعد → لم يعدْ.
- Cases: rafʿ (ـُ), naṣb (ـَ), jarr (ـِ). Some words are mabnī and never change: pronouns, demonstratives, relative pronouns, past-tense verbs with an attached subject pronoun.
- Governers: إنّ وأخواتها (noun accusative, predicate nominative); كان وأخواتها (noun nominative, predicate accusative); لم, لن, لا الناهية, لام الأمر (jazm); حروف الجر (jarr).
- إضافة: the muḍāf takes no ال and no tanwīn, and the muḍāf ilayh is always genitive.
Worked example
«لم يكتبِ الطلابُ واجباتِهم في المكتبةِ.»
- لم + jussive → يكتبْ (sukūn); the kasra is added only to break the consonant cluster before the following hamzat al-waṣl.
- الطلابُ: fāʿil, marfūʿ, sign ḍamma.
- واجباتِهم: mafʿūl bihi, manṣūb - but its sign is kasra, because it is a sound feminine plural; ـهم is muḍāf ilayh in the genitive.
- في المكتبةِ: jār wa majrūr.
Traps that cost marks
Marking الطلاب as object because English word order puts the object second; putting fatḥa on جمع مؤنث سالم; writing ال on the muḍāf; and using بـ before a direct object on the model of English ‘with’.