Iʿrab: the three case endings
Arabic · Key Stage 3 · The School
Three states, three endings
RAFʿ (nominative, ـُ) marks the subject. NAṢB (accusative, ـَ) marks the object and several other roles. JARR (genitive, ـِ) follows a preposition or a possessive construction. The little vowel at the end of a word is not ornament: it tells you the word's JOB in the sentence.
Word order is freer because of it
English relies on order: "the boy hit the ball" differs from "the ball hit the boy". Arabic marks the roles with endings, so the order can move without confusion. That is why Quranic Arabic can place a word first for emphasis — إِيّاكَ نَعْبُدُ — without losing who does what.
What triggers each case
After مِن, في, على, بِ — jarr. The direct object of a verb — naṣb. The subject of a nominal sentence — rafʿ. إِنَّ puts its subject into naṣb, which is why إِنَّ اللهَ has a fatha on the name. Learn the triggers and reading the endings becomes prediction rather than guesswork.
ضَرَبَ زَيْدٌ عَمْراً — Zayd hit ʿAmr. The ḍamma on زَيْدٌ marks it as the doer; the fatḥa on عَمْراً marks it as the one acted upon. Now swap the endings: ضَرَبَ زَيْداً عَمْرٌو — ʿAmr hit Zayd. Identical letters in an identical order, opposite meanings. That is what iʿrāb is for, and why it is not decoration.