Words and the Types of Words
- A word having a meaning is called (كَلِمَةٌ). It is of three types: (اِسْمٌ) – noun, (فِعْلٌ) – verb and (حَرْفٌ) – particle.
An (اِسْمٌ) is independent of other words in indicating its meaning. It also does not have any tense, e.g. (رَجُلٌ) – man, (حَامِدٌ) – specific name, (ضَرَبَ) – to hit, (طَيِّبٌ) – good, (هُوَ) – he, (أَنَا) – I.
A (فِعْلٌ) is a word that indicates some action together with one of the three tenses, e.g. (ضَرَبَ) – he hit, (ذَهَبَ) – he went, (يَذْهَبُ) – he is going or he will go.
A (حَرْفٌ) is a word whose meaning cannot be understood without an (اِسْمٌ) or (فِعْلٌ), e.g. (مِنْ) – from, (عَلَى) – on, (فِي) – in, (إِلَى) – till, (ذَهَبَ الرَّجُلُ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ) – The man went to the musjid.
The Types of Nouns
- Nouns are of two types:
(1) (مَعْرِفَةٌ) – definite and
(2) (نَكِرَةٌ) – indefinite.
An indefinite noun is a word which refers to a general thing. The word (رَجُلٌ) – a man, does not refer to any specific person. It can refer to any person. The word (طَيِّبٌ) does not refer to any particular good thing. Every good thing can be called (طَيِّبٌ).
A definite noun refers to a specific thing. Zaid (زَيْدٌ) is the name of a particular person. Makkah (مَكَّةُ) is the name of a specific city. (الرَّجُلُ) – the man – refers to a specific person.
The Types of Definite Nouns
Definite Nouns are of seven categories:
- (اِسْمُ الْعَلَمِ) – proper nouns, e.g. (زَيْدٌ), (حَامِدٌ) – proper nouns.
- (اِسْمُ الضَّمِيْرِ) – pronouns, e.g. (هُوَ) – he, (أَنْتَ) – you, (أَنَا) – I.
