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### Formal Case Endings

In formal Arabic—such as news broadcasts, official speeches, and literature—words take short vowel endings to indicate their grammatical role in a sentence. This system is called الإعراب.

While these short vowels are rarely written in everyday text, news anchors and public speakers pronounce them clearly to sound professional and precise.

### The Nominative Case (المرفوع)

The default grammatical case in Arabic is the Nominative case. It is marked by the short vowel ـُ (Damma). 

If a noun is indefinite, the ending is doubled, written as ـٌ (Tanwin Damma). 

The Nominative case is primarily used for two parts of a sentence:
- The subject of the sentence
- The predicate (the core information about the subject) in a nominal (verbless) sentence

### Subjects and Predicates

In a simple nominal sentence, both the subject and the predicate are in the Nominative case. In formal speech, the definite subject ends with the ـُ vowel, and the indefinite predicate ends with the ـٌ vowel.

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### Adjective Agreement

When an adjective directly modifies a noun, it must match that noun's grammatical case. If the subject is in the Nominative case, any adjective attached to it is also Nominative.

In the following example, both the subject and its modifying adjective are definite, so they both take a single ـُ, while the indefinite predicate takes the ـٌ ending:

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### The Nominative Case in Context

These patterns form the backbone of formal news announcements. Notice how the subjects, their descriptive adjectives, and their predicates all operate in the Nominative case:

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### Seeing the endings

This course writes Arabic the way newspapers and books print it: without the short-vowel marks. So the drills above look like الوزير مشغول, and the endings live only in the audio. Here are the same sentences with every vowel written out:

| as written | fully vocalized | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| الوزير مشغول. | الوَزِيرُ مَشْغُولٌ. | The minister is busy. |
| الحكومة جديدة. | الحُكُومَةُ جَدِيدَةٌ. | The government is new. |
| القرار رسمي. | القَرَارُ رَسْمِيٌّ. | The decision is official. |

The definite subject ends in **ـُ** (الوَزِيرُ). The indefinite predicate ends in **ـٌ** (مَشْغُولٌ). Listen for the final *-u* and *-un* when you play the sentences.

The nominative case (ـُ)

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 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)

Expressing purpose (لـ)

Question	Answer
minister	وزيرwazîrun
The minister is busy.	الوزير مشغول.al-wazîru mashghûlun
government	حكومةhukûma
The government is new.	الحكومة جديدة.al-hukûmatu jadîdatun
decision	قرارqarâr
official	رسميrasmi
The decision is official.	القرار رسمي.al-qarâru rasmiyy.
spokesperson	متحدثmutahaddith
The spokesperson is present.	المتحدث حاضر.al-mutahaddithu hâdirun
statement	بيانbayân
urgent	عاجلâjil
The official statement is urgent.	البيان الرسمي عاجل.al-bayânu ar-rasmiyyu 'âjilun.
economy	اقتصادiqtisâd
stable	مستقرmustaqirr
The economy is stable today.	الاقتصاد مستقر اليوم.al-iqtisâdu mustaqirrun al-yawma
crisis	أزمةazma
The crisis is huge.	الأزمة ضخمة.al-azmatu dakhmatun
The urgent decision is a solution to the crisis.	القرار العاجل حل للأزمة.al-qarâru al-âjilu hallun lil'azmati
The government spokesperson is a smart man.	متحدث الحكومة رجل ذكي.mutahaddithu al-hukuumati rajulun dhakiyyun
The minister's statement is important.	بيان الوزير مهم.bayânu l-wazîri muhimm.
Is the economy stable after the crisis?	هل الاقتصاد مستقر بعد الأزمة؟hal al-iqtisâdu mustaqirrun ba'da al-azmati?
The political decision is clear.	القرار السياسي واضح.al-qarâru s-siyâsiyyu wâdih.

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