Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

In Arabic, "father" (أب) and "brother" (أخ) belong to a special grammatical group known as the "Five Nouns" (الأسماء الخمسة).

While most nouns show their grammatical case with short vowels, أب and أخ use **long vowels** when they act as the first part of an Idafa (possession structure) or attach to a pronoun suffix.

### Nominative Case (مرفوع)
When acting as the subject of a sentence (or the subject of كان), these nouns take the long vowel و. Notice how أخ becomes أخو and أب becomes أبو.

{{item:1121658}}

{{item:1121660}}

### Accusative Case (منصوب)
When acting as the direct object of a verb, they take the long vowel ا. Here, أخ becomes أخا and أب becomes أبا.

{{item:1121663}}

{{item:1121676}}

### Genitive Case (مجرور)
When following a preposition, or when acting as the possessor in a larger Idafa phrase, they take the long vowel ي. In this case, أخ becomes أخي and أب becomes أبي.

{{item:1121666}}

{{item:1121668}}

*Note: These special long-vowel endings apply only when the noun is possessed by another noun or by a pronoun. If you are just saying "a father" or "a brother" on its own, it declines with standard short vowels!*

Declension of father and brother (أب، أخ)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

interrogative

noun

numeral

particle

prefix

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

The definite article and locatives (الـ)

Basic noun gender (ة)

Sun and moon letters

Singular subject pronouns (أنا، أنت، هو، هي)

Indefinite nouns and nominal sentences (ـٌ)

Demonstrative pronouns for 'this' (هذا / هذه)

Separate prepositions (في، من، إلى، على)

Attributive adjectives

Predicative adjectives

Yes/No questions (هل، أ)

Basic questions (من، ما، أين)

Singular possessive pronouns (ـي، ـك، ـه، ـها)

Plural subject pronouns (نحن، أنتم، هم)

Plural possessive pronouns (ـنا، ـكم، ـهم)

Noun possession

Attached prepositions (بـ، لـ، كـ)

Pronouns with prepositions

Having and possessing (عند، لـ، مع)

Regular plural nouns (ـون، ـين، ـات)

Broken plurals

Dual nouns (ـان / ـين)

Plural and distant demonstratives (هؤلاء، ذلك، تلك)

Non-human plural agreement

Present tense singular verbs

Verbal sentences (VSO)

Present tense plural verbs

Topicalized sentences (SVO)

The indefinite accusative case (ـاً)

Verb object pronouns (-ني، -ك، -ه)

Present tense negation (لا)

Question words with verbs (متى، كيف...)

Adverbs of time and place

The future tense (سـ / سوف)

Intentions and desires (أن)

Negating states and possession (ليس)

Past tense singular suffixes

Past tense plural suffixes

Negating past events (ما)

Singular commands

Numbers 1 to 10

Number agreement for 1 and 2 (واحد، اثنان)

Asking how many (كم)

Numbers 3 to 10 (ثلاثة إلى عشرة)

Ordinal numbers 1 to 10 (الأول، الثاني)

Basic conjunctions (فـ، أو، لكن)

Ordering at a café (واحد، اثنان)

Food and drink with conjunctions (و، ف، أو، لكن)

There is and there are (هناك / ليس هناك)

Direct address (يا)

Giving reasons (لأنّ)

Relative pronouns (الذي / التي)

Quantifiers (كل / بعض)

The past tense of 'to be' (كان)

Past possession

Numbers 11 to 19 and tens to 80

Telling time (الساعة)

This book vs this is a book (هذا الكتاب، هذا كتاب)

Greetings (مرحبا، السلام عليكم)

How are you? and goodbye (كيف حالك، مع السلامة)

Nationalities (مصري، مصرية)

Roots and patterns (كتب، كتاب، مكتب)

Politeness (من فضلك، آسف)

Complex possession chains

Colors and traits (أفعل / فعلاء)

Plural colors and traits (فُعْل)

Comparative adjectives (أفعل من)

Superlative adjectives (أفعل)

Adverbs of manner (ـاً)

The nominative case (ـُ)

The genitive case (ـِ)

The accusative case (ـَ)

Dual noun cases (ـان / ـين)

Masculine plurals and 'the best of' (أفضل النجارين)

Emphasizing sentences (إنّ)

Connecting clauses (أنّ)

Reporting speech (قال إنّ)

Expressing contrast (لكنّ)

Comparison and probability (كأنّ, لعلّ)

Distant plural pointing (أولئك)

Plural relative pronouns (الذين, اللواتي)

Past habits (كان + present)

Ongoing actions (ما زال)

Masculine plurals online (مبرمجون، مؤثرون)

Perfective past (قد)

Probability (قد)

The subjunctive mood (أن)

Question	Answer
baker	خبازkhabbâz
The baker's brother is an excellent manager.	أخو الخباز مدير ممتاز.akhû al-khabbâzi mudîrun mumtâzun
bakery	مخبزmakhbaz
Your father was buying bread from the bakery.	كان أبوك يشتري الخبز من المخبز.kâna abûka yashtarî al-khubza mina al-makhbazi
butcher	جزارjazzâr
shop	دكانdukkân
I saw the butcher's brother in front of the shop.	رأيت أخا الجزار أمام الدكان.ra'aytu akhâ al-jazzâri amâma ad-dukkâni
item	غرضgharad
grocer	بقالbaqqâl
I bought these items from the grocer's father.	اشتريت هذه الأغراض من أبي البقال.ishtaraytu hâdhihi l-aghrâda min abi l-baqqâl
spice seller / perfumer / apothecary	عطارattâr
The spice seller's brother's shop is very small.	دكان أخي العطار صغير جدا.dukkânu akhî al'attâri saghîrun jiddan
to pass (by, elapse)	مرmarra
The spice seller's father passed by this street.	مر أبو العطار بهذا الشارع.marra abu al-'attâri bihâdhâ ash-shâri'i
salon	صالونsâlôn
barber	حلاقhallâq
Is this the barber's father's salon?	هل هذا صالون أبي الحلاق؟hal hâdhâ sâlûnu abî al-hallâq?
I took the salon's items from the barber's brother.	أخذت أغراض الصالون من أخي الحلاق.akhadhtu aghrâda aṣ-ṣâlûni min akhî al-ḥallâqi
Did you pass by the butcher's brother today?	هل مررت بأخي الجزار اليوم؟hal mararta bi'akhî al-jazzâri al-yawm?
Boy, ask the grocer's father about the items.	يا ولد، اسأل أبا البقال عن الأغراض.yâ waladu, is'al abâ al-baqqâli 'ani al-aghrâd.
The baker's brother was busy in the bakery.	كان أخو الخباز مشغولا في المخبز.kâna akhû al-khabbâzi mashghûlan fî al-makhbazi
to bake	خبز
The baker bakes the bread in the bakery every morning.	يخبز الخباز الخبز في المخبز كل صباح.
My father baked a cake for my brother's birthday.	خبز أبي كعكة لعيد ميلاد أخي.

Contributors