Noun possession

The Possessive Construction (إضافة)

In English, we can show possession by saying "the car's engine" or "the engine of the car." In Arabic, you link two nouns together to show possession or relationship using a structure called إضافة.

The formula is simple: Possessed Noun + Possessor Noun.

There is one crucial rule for making this combination:

• The first word (the thing being possessed) NEVER takes the prefix ال (the).
• The second word (the possessor) takes ال if it is specific.

Even though the first word doesn't have ال, the whole phrase is treated as definite because it is attached to a specific noun. Let's look at this structure using the words محرك (engine) and لون (color).

Asking Questions with Possessive Phrases

You can treat the entire إضافة phrase as a single chunk when building questions with words like أين (where), هل (is/are), or ما (what).

Here are some examples using new vocabulary for car parts: إطار (tire) and سعر (price).

People as Possessors

The possessive construction works the exact same way when the possessor is a person. The word order remains the same: the thing possessed comes first, followed by the person who owns it.

Let's apply this to a person using سائق (driver) and رخصة (license).

Chaining Nouns Together

You can link more than two nouns together to create longer descriptive phrases, such as "the car's plate number" (literally: the number of the plate of the car).

In this longer chain, the rule remains consistent: only the very last word takes the definite article ال. The words before it in the chain drop it.

Watch how رقم (number) and لوحة (plate) combine with السيارة (the car) to form a three-noun chain.