Arabic Tutorial – Lesson 3

الْمَعْرِفَةُ وَالنَّكْرَةُ

Al-marifah is basically referred to the alif & laam found at the beginning of an Arabic word.( الْمَعْرِفَةُ – ٱلْ)

While An-nakroh is basically referred to the double sign found on the last letter of a naming word. It is otherwise known as At-tanween. (النَّكْرَةُ – ــٌــٍــً)

When Al-marifah is applied to a name, we say: the name collect marifah, and that means the word is specific and definite.

Al-marifah is regarded as article “the” in English language.

Examples of names that collect marifah are as follows:

meaning	المعرفة	Meaining	المعرفة
The man	الرَّجُل	The house	الْبَيْتُ
The book	الْكِتَابُ	The pen	الْقَلَمُ
The Garden	الْجَنَّةُ	The Town	الْبَلَدُ

When An-nakroh is applied to a name, we say: the name collect nakroh, and that means the word is not specific and indefinite.

An-nakroh is regarded as article “a/an” in English language.

Examples of names that collect nakroh are the following:

meaning	النكرة	Meaining	النكرة
A man	رَجُلٌ	A house	بَيْتٌ
A book	كِتَابٌ	A pen	قَلَمٌ
A Garden	جَنَّةٌ	A Town	بَلَدٌ

Note: Only Common name (غير العلم) can be either in marifah or nakroh, but proper name (العلم) is always in a state of marifah even if it does not shows it.

Meaning that, Proper noun (العلم) will forever be in a state of marifah whether it attracts alif and laam physically or not.

For example, let consider the following:

1. The Ibraheem ×
2. A Ibraheem ×
3. An Ibraheem ×
4. Ibraheem √

You can not say: The Ibraheem, or A Ibraheem or An Ibraheem, therefore, whenever you want to use the name Ibraheem, you will use it without any article, that’s why I marked only the fourth line in the example above as correct.

Furthermore, the name Ibraheem is a proper noun ( i.e can only be beard by a single person not a group ) and it’s article has been naturally embedded inside it and , so it can never show the article outside.

But in case of Common noun (غير العلم), I.e a name that can be beard by a group of people, can either be with article or not.

For example, let consider the following:

1. The Country √
2. A Country √
3. The Animal √
4. An Animal √

We can say: The country, or A country or An animal, simply because both country and animal are common nouns used to called a group of different countries and animals respectively.

I hope you understand, fine !, these are example:

Al-Alamu

Note 2: In as much as we can not have two articles for a name like “the a boy” or “an the boy” or “a an boy“, so also we can not have Marifah ( ٱلْ) and Nakroh, I.e tenween (ــٌــٍــً) on the same name.

Let see these example:

• الْبَيْتٌ × The a house ×
• الرَّجْلٌ × The a man ×
• الْقَلَمٌ × The a pen ×