Arabic grammar guides
Short, answer-first guides to the core grammar behind the words of the Quran.
What are Nahw and Sarf in Arabic grammar?
Nahw is Arabic syntax — the rules for how words function in a sentence and how their endings change. Sarf is Arabic morphology — the rules for how words are formed from roots and patterns. Together they are the two foundations of understanding Quranic Arabic.
Read the full answer →What are the three types of words in Arabic?
Every Arabic word is one of three types: ism (noun — a person, place, thing or quality), fi'l (verb — an action tied to time) or harf (particle — a word like 'in', 'on' or 'and' that only has meaning with other words).
Read the full answer →How do Arabic verb tenses work in the Quran?
Arabic has two main verb forms: the past (al-madi), for completed actions, and the present-future (al-mudari'), for ongoing or future actions. A third form, the command (al-amr), gives instructions — for example iqra' (read!).
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