I. الجذر
• In Arabic, words that are related in meaning tend to be related in form as well. That is, they contain the same core group of consonants. Note the words that have to do with books and writing.
كتب/يكتب, الكتابة, مكتب/مكاتب, مكتبة/مكتبات, كتاب/كتب
• The group of words above shares three consonants: ك -ت- ب .
• This core group of consonants (usually three in number) that gives the basic meaning to a family of words is called root or الجذر.
• ا alif cannot be part of an الجذر but hamza ء can as in ق- ر- ء that has to do with reading.
• The order of these consonants is critical to the integrity of الجذر: د- ر- س is not the equivalent to س- ر- د and ك -ت- ب is not the equivalent to ك -ب -ت
• You can easily identify the جذر of words that have three consonants.
How to identify الجذر of word that have more than three consonant?
1. Eliminate any prefixes and suffixes and ال
2. Look for long vowels, especially alif, and the consonants ت, س, م and ن . These letters are often not part of الجذر. But rather belong to الوزن, or pattern.
منقوش الاقتصاد مستخدم يلتحق
ن- ق- ش ق -ص -د خ -د -م ل -ح -ق
Two things to keep in mind about الجذر.
1. If you see only two consonants, the second consoant might have a شدة . This is called a doubled or geminate root.
• فر is ف- ر-ر
2. Sometimes المضارع of a verb or the plural of a noun will clarify the missing letter of its جذر.
• The word خال contains only two consonants but its plural اخوال shows a third root letter و.
• The جذر of the verb يعيش (ع- ي -ش ) is visible in المضارع but not in الماضي عاش
Why learning to identify الجذر.
1. Having an ides about the basic meaning of a جذر.help you guess the meanings of a related words
2. The majority of Arabic dictionaries do not list words alphabetically, but rather by الجذر . to find the word منقوش, you must look it up under ن- ق- ش
II. الوزن
• The consonants of الجذر fit into slots of a pattern or وزن (اوزان ج.)
• Each word in Arabic has both a وزن and a جذر.
• The اوزان are given using the consonants ف- ع- ل as a neutral جذر : the وزن for طالب is فاعل
يدخل يخرج يدرس يرفض يسكب يفغل
ثقيل ثمين سعيد كبير صغير فعيل
نجارة فلاحة وزارة سياسة تجارة فعالة
• The extra letters used to make up longer اوزان include شدة , long vowels, and the consonants ا, ت, س, م and occasionally ن . the following aere some of the اوزان that contain these letters.
مشغول مفعول طالب فاعل
مستقبل مستفعل يدرس يفعل
امتحان افتعال انشغل انفعل
