Arabic nouns and adjectives

Arabic nouns and adjectives are declined according to case, state, gender and number. While this is strictly true in Classical Arabic, in colloquial or spoken Arabic, there are a number of simplifications such as loss of certain final vowels and loss of case. A number of derivational processes exist for forming new nouns and adjectives. Adverbs can be formed from adjectives. Nouns (اِسْمٌ DIN) and adjectives in Classical Arabic are declined according to the following properties: Case (حَالَةٌ DIN) (nominative, genitive, and accusative) State (indefinite, definite or construct) Gender (masculine or feminine): an inherent characteristic of nouns, but part of the declension of adjectives Number (singular, dual or plural) Nouns are normally given in their pausal form. For example, مَلِك DIN "king" would be declined as مَلِكٌ DIN "king (nominative singular indefinite)", اَلْمَلِكُ DIN "the king (nominative singular definite)", etc. A feminine noun like مَلِكَة DIN "queen" would be declined as مَلِكَةٌ DIN "queen (nominative singular indefinite)", اَلْمَلِكَةُ DIN "the queen (nominative singular definite)", etc. The citation form with final ـَة DIN reflects the formal pausal pronunciation of this word (i.e. as it would be pronounced at the end of an utterance) — although in practice the h is not usually pronounced, and hence the word may be cited in some sources as DIN. The following table is an overview of noun and adjective inflection in Classical Arabic: NOTE: The plural forms listed are actually separate declensions. Most singular adjectives of the indicated declensions, as well as some singular nouns, are declined in the plural according to the indicated plural declensions. However, most nouns have a plural from a different declension — either a sound plural (declined according to one of the plural declensions, sometimes with a different stem as well) or a broken plural (invariably with a different stem, and declined according to one of the singular declensions).