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Arabic Definite Article

1. Definite article اَلْ
2. Arabic definite article rules
3. Exercise
4. Hamza tul wasl همزة الوصل
5. Rules of Hamza wasl

Definite article اَلْ

Arabic definite article اَلْ is very much similar to the English definite article "the". It is used to transform an indefinite noun ( نَكِرَة ) into a definite ( مَعْرِفَة ) . In Arabic, it's called مُعَرَّف بِاللَّام , which literally means, "making definite with the help of laam ( ل )".
In the lesson, Arabic nouns, we have seen an introduction to all Arabic definite nouns including معرّف باللّام. The name معرّف باللّام shows that it is in fact the letter laam ( ل ) that makes a noun definite.

Arabic definite article rules

1. No tanween with ال

A noun having Arabic definite article ال can never have a double vowel (tanween).
All three types of tanweens ( ـً ـٍ ـٌ ) drop to single vowels i.e. ـَ ـِ ـُ
Tanween (double vowel) is the sign of indefiniteness.

As we seen in the above example of the noun 'chair'.

The order of vowels with definite articles in three grammatical cases remains the same as with tanweens. Only their tanweens (double vowels) are replaced with single vowels. Please also notice that in the accusative case, the extra alif ( ا ) only comes in connection with tanween fatha ( ـً ).

2. Definite article with dual and plural nouns

Arabic definite article ( ال ) can be added to dual nouns and plural nouns. However, in broken plural nouns and solid feminine plurals, tanweens (double vowels) are replaced by their single counterparts.

3. Sun and moon letters

You have noticed that in the articulation of the word اَلرِّجَالُ , the letter ل is silent.
Please listen to the pronunciations of the following two words carefully.

In the word اَلشَّمْسُ again we hear no articulation of the letter ل but the other word اَلْقَمَرُ has clear pronunciation of ل.

Sun letters

There are 14 letters in the Arabic alphabet that follow the pattern of the word اَلشَّمْسُ i.e. when the definite article ال is preceding these letters, the sound of ل remains silent. These alphabetic letters are called حُرُوْفُ الشَّمْسِيَّة or in English, sun letters.

Moon letters

Moon letters follow the pattern of the word اَلْقَمَرُ. In these letters, ل of the definite article is clearly pronounced. In Arabic, they are called حُرُوْفُ الْقَمَرِيَّة .

We are at the beginning stage of learning Arabic and using all types of symbols (harakat, sukoon, shaddah) with alphabetic letters. By using symbols, we know where to pronounce ل and where to leave it silent, but in newspapers and books symbols are not used.
It seems hard to remember all moon and sun letters separately but old teachers have developed some catchphrases, which contain either all moon letters or sun letters.

This catchphrase contains all the moon letters in it, the rest of the consonants are all sun letters.
Also, over time, and reading more and more Arabic, sun and moon letters will impregnate into your memory and you would not need any hint.
People who read Quran, but can't speak the everyday Arabic language, have already the difference between moon and sun letters in their memory. They just have to recall some Ayaat from a Quran to fresh their memory of moon and sun letters.

Exercise

Apply the definie article ال to the following nouns.

مُسْلِمٌ
مُسْلِمَانِ
مُسْلِمُوْنَ
مُسْلِمَةٌ
مُسْلِمَتَانِ
مُسْلِمَاتٌ
كَافِرٌ
كَافِرَةٌ
كَافِرَانِ
كَافِرَتَانِ
كَافِرُوْنَ
كَافِرَاتٌ
نَجَّارٌ
نَجَّارَةٌ
نَجَّارَانِ
نَجَّارَتَانِ
نَجَّارُوْنَ
نَجَّارَاتٌ
قَلْبٌ
قَلْبَانِ
قَلُوْبٌ
نَجُوْمٌ
طُلَّابٌ

Answers

Hamza tul wasl همزة الوصل

Hamza tul wasl is a separate topic but it needs to be discussed with the definite article.
Earlier, we have discussed that مُعَرَّف بِاللَّام means making definite with the help of laam ( ل ).
The question here is, what is the function of alif ( ا ) before the letter laam (ل )?

If you can recall from the lesson Arabic short vowels, we have discussed that no Arabic word starts with the sukoon symbol ( ـْ ), because it would be unable to pronounce. An Arabic word must start with any of the three short vowels ( حَرَكَات ), i.e. fathah ( ـَ ), dammah ( ـُ ) or kasrah ( ـِ ). So, we add an extra alif ا with the vowel fathah ( ـَ ) on it before the letter laam ( ل ).
From the lesson, Arabic letter hamza, we know that any alif ( ا ) in combination with long or short vowels is called hamza.
This specific type of hamza that is used in the definite article for the pronunciation purpose is called hamza wasl همزة وصل

In some scripts, a little symbol is placed above ا to easily identify همزة وصل , i.e.

ٱَلْكُرْسِيُ

This symbol ٱ represents the letter ص , which is the abbreviation of the word "wasl" ( وَصْل )
The word وَصْل means "to join".

Rules of Hamza wasl

1. Hamza wasl only comes at the beginning of a word.
2. Hamza wasl is dropped (not pronounced), if a word with hamza wasl has a preceding word.
   In other words, if the word with hamza wasl is the first word of the sentence, we will pronounce the sound of hamza wasl, but if the word with hamza wasl is not the first word of a sentence, the sound of hamza wasl disappears.
   Please see the below examples.

In the first example, the word with hamza wasl ٱَلْكُرْسِيُ has no preceding word.
However, in the second example, ٱلْكُرْسِيِ has the preposition تَحْتَ before it. So, here we would drop the sound of hamza wasl.

Apart from its usage in the definite article, hamza wasl has also other applications. It is the part of some nouns, like the hamza at the start of the word امرأة (woman). It can also come at the beginning of some verbs.
In this lesson, we are now closing the discussion about hamza, as this was just a side note here to understand the definite article اَلْ, but it's a good time to review the previous lesson about hamza.

Another side note: One more difference between the above two example sentences is that in the first sentence the noun chair ( ٱَلْكُرْسِيُ ) has the vowel dammah ( ـُ ) at the end and in the second sentence ٱلْكُرْسِيِ has the vowel kasra ( ـِ ) at the last letter.

The reason for this vowel change is the change in the grammatical case. In the first sentence,
ٱَلْكُرْسِيُ جَمِيْلٌ
the noun الكرسي is in the nominative case. While in the second sentence, the preposition تَحْتَ changes the case of the succeeding noun into genitive.
From the last lesson (Arabic grammatical cases), we know that a singular noun in the nominative case takes the vowel dammah ( ـُ ) on the last letter, and in the genitive case, a singular noun takes kasra ( ـِ ) below the last letter.

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