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

### The Accusative of Specification (التمييز)

In Arabic, verbs that express increasing, growing, or filling up often leave a lingering question: increased in *what*? filled with *what*?

To resolve this ambiguity, Arabic uses a grammatical structure called التمييز (Specification). You simply follow the phrase with an **indefinite noun in the accusative case**.

This accusative noun is usually marked by a double *fatha* (tanween) at the end, which often requires adding an *alif* (ا) to the end of the word.

{{item:1137684}}

{{item:1137686}}

{{item:1137695}}

### Filling and Overflowing

This same rule applies to verbs describing something becoming full or overflowing.

Note that when the specifying noun ends in a *taa marbuta* (ة), like the word for "delight" (بهجة), the accusative case is marked directly on the ة without adding an extra *alif*.

{{item:1137687}}

{{item:1137689}}

{{item:1137692}}

### Expressing Emotions and Growth

The التمييز is an elegant and native-sounding way to describe swelling emotions, personal growth, and states of the heart. Instead of saying "the company became more proud," Arabic beautifully phrases it as "the company overflowed in pride."

{{item:1137704}}

{{item:1137703}}

{{item:1137705}}

### 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 something you hear in the audio but never see in the drills. Here are some of them with every vowel written out:

| as written | fully vocalized | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ازداد أخي فخرا لأن صديقه أسرع منه. | اِزْدَادَ أَخِي فَخْرًا لِأَنَّ صَدِيقَهُ أَسْرَعُ مِنْهُ. | My brother increased in pride because his friend is faster than him. |
| امتلأ قلب الأم بهجة في العيد. | اِمْتَلَأَ قَلْبُ الأُمِّ بَهْجَةً فِي العِيدِ. | The mother's heart filled with delight during the holiday. |
| فاضت العائلة فرحا بسبب النجاح. | فَاضَتِ العَائِلَةُ فَرَحًا بِسَبَبِ النَّجَاحِ. | The family overflowed with joy because of the success. |

After ازداد, امتلأ and فاض, the noun that says *with what* is indefinite and accusative. You can see it as the alif of **فَخْرًا** and **فَرَحًا**. On **بَهْجَةً** the *-tan* is only heard.

Specification after verbs of increase (ازداد نضجا)

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
to increase	ازدادizdâda
maturity	نضجnudj
The young man increased in maturity after the trip.	ازداد الشاب نضجا بعد الرحلة.izdâda ash-shâbbu nudjan ba'da ar-riḥlati.
to become full	امتلأimtala'a
delight	بهجةbahja
The mother's heart filled with delight during the holiday.	امتلأ قلب الأم بهجة في العيد.imtala'a qalbu al-ummi bahjatan fi al-'eid
to overflow	فاضfâda
longing	شوقshawq
Maryam's heart overflowed with longing.	فاض قلب مريم شوقا.fâda qalbu maryama shawqan.
to grow	كبرkabura
certainty	يقينyaqîn
The girl grew and increased in certainty.	كبرت البنت وازدادت يقينا.kabirati l-bintu wazdâdat yaqînan
pride	فخرfakhr
My brother increased in pride because his friend is faster than him.	ازداد أخي فخرا لأن صديقه أسرع منه.izdâda akhî fakhran li'anna sadîqahu asra'u minhu.
joy	فرحfarah
The child was not filling with joy at the gift.	لم يكن الطفل يمتلئ فرحا بالهدية.lam yakuni t-tiflu yamtali'u farahan bil-hadiyyah
The family overflowed with joy because of the success.	فاضت العائلة فرحا بسبب النجاح.fâḍati l-â'ilatu faraḥan bisababi n-najâḥ
The student was not growing in maturity.	لم تكن الطالبة تكبر نضجا.lam takuni t-tâlibatu takburu nudjan
The teacher was happy and increased in delight.	كان المعلم سعيدا وازداد بهجة.kâna al-muallimu saîdan wazdâda bahjatan
My heart filled with certainty thanks to your advice.	امتلأ قلبي يقينا بفضل نصيحتك.imtala'a qalbî yaqînan bifadli nasîhatik
Thanks to this project, the company overflowed with pride.	بفضل هذا المشروع، فاضت الشركة فخرا.bifadli hâdhâ al-mashru`i, fâdati ash-sharikatu fakhran
The traveler increased in longing for his family.	ازداد المسافر شوقا إلى عائلته.izdâda al-musâfiru shawqan ilâ a'ilatihi.

Contributors