When discussing dietary restrictions or allergies, you often need to single out ingredients you cannot eat. Arabic offers three interchangeable particles to express "except," "save," or "excluding": عدا, خلا, and حاشا.
When used "bare"—meaning they are not preceded by the particle ما—they possess unique grammatical flexibility. You can treat them as either past-tense verbs or prepositions. Both are grammatically correct.
Acting as Verbs (Accusative Case)
If you treat عدا, خلا, or حاشا as verbs, the excepted noun acts as the direct object and takes the Accusative case (منصوب). This is visually obvious with indefinite nouns, which take the standard accusative marker (an added alif with a double fatha):
| Maryam refused all milk derivatives because of the lactose save one derivative. | رفضت مريم كل مشتقات الحليب بسبب اللاكتوز خلا مشتقا واحدا.rafadat maryamu kulla mushtaqqâti al-halîbi bisababi al-lâktûzi khalâ mushtaqqan wâhidan. |
| We eat everything save food that has gluten in it. | نأكل كل شيء خلا طعاما فيه غلوتين.na'kulu kulla shay'in khalâ ta'âman fîhi ghalûtîn. |
| The patient avoided all products except sesame. | تجنبت المريضة كل المنتجات عدا سمسما.tajannabati al-marîdatu kulla al-muntajâti 'adâ simsiman. |
Acting as Prepositions (Genitive Case)
Alternatively, you can treat these same particles as prepositions. The noun immediately following them becomes the object of the preposition and takes the Genitive case (مجرور).
Because short vowel markings are usually unwritten, the spelling of definite nouns looks identical whether intended as accusative or genitive objects. In spoken Modern Standard Arabic, you are free to pronounce either case ending!
| Those patients avoided every food except oats. | تجنب أولئك المرضى كل طعام عدا الشوفان.tajannaba ulâ'ika al-marda kulla taâmin ada ash-shawfâna |
| She was going to eat all the seafood save fish. | كانت سوف تأكل كل الطعام البحري خلا السمك.kânat sawfa ta'kulu kulla at-ta'âmi al-bahriyyi khalâ as-samaki |
| The food that we cooked is delicious excluding the soy derivatives. | الطعام الذي طبخناه لذيذ حاشا مشتقات الصويا.at-taâmu alladhî tabakhnâhu ladhîdhun hâshâ mushtaqqâti as-sûyâ. |
Seeing the endings
This course writes Arabic the way books and newspapers print it, without the short-vowel marks, so the ending this lesson is about is usually something you hear in the audio but cannot see in the drills. Here are some of them with every vowel written out:
| as written | fully vocalized | case |
|---|---|---|
| تجنب أولئك المرضى كل طعام عدا الشوفان. | تَجَنَّبَ أُولَئِكَ المَرْضَى كُلَّ طَعَامٍ عَدَا الشُّوفَانَ. | accusative (عدا as a verb) |
| الطبق الذي طلبه الطباخ خفيف عدا صلصة الصويا. | الطَّبَقُ الَّذِي طَلَبَهُ الطَّبَّاخُ خَفِيفٌ عَدَا صَلْصَةِ الصُّويَا. | genitive (عدا as a preposition) |
| رفضت مريم كل مشتقات الحليب بسبب اللاكتوز خلا مشتقا واحدا. | رَفَضَتْ مَرْيَمُ كُلَّ مُشْتَقَّاتِ الحَلِيبِ بِسَبَبِ اللَّاكْتُوزِ خَلَا مُشْتَقًّا وَاحِدًا. | accusative (خلا as a verb) |
Read as a verb, عدا, خلا or حاشا makes the noun after it its object, so the noun is accusative: عَدَا الشُّوفَانَ. Read as a preposition, it makes the noun genitive: عَدَا صَلْصَةِ الصُّويَا. On a definite noun the two look the same on paper, and only the vowel you hear tells them apart. On an indefinite masculine noun the accusative shows as a written alif, so مُشْتَقًّا وَاحِدًا can only be the verb reading.
