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Lesson 6: Prepositions (حُرُوفُ الْجَرِّ) Next
Lesson 6: ▶ Part 1: Prepositions (فِي / عَلَى / مِنْ / إِلَى) Part 2: More Prepositions (بِ / لِ / عَنْ / مَعَ) Part 3: Dialogue (Prepositions) Part 4: Exercises (Prepositions) Part 5: Vocabulary (Prepositions)

Notice the Location

Let's learn how to describe where things are. Look closely at how placing these tiny words in front of a noun changes the meaning!

اَلْمَسْجِدُ
The mosque
فِي اَلْمَسْجِدِ
In the mosque
فِي (Fee) = In
اَلْمَكْتَبُ
The desk
عَلَى اَلْمَكْتَبِ
On the desk
عَلَى ('Alaa) = On
اَلْبَيْتُ
The house
مِنْ اَلْبَيْتِ
From the house
مِنْ (Min) = From

Notice the Vowels... Again!

In the last lesson, we learned that the default vowel is the Dammah `ُ` (U-sound).
But look at the sentences above again very carefully. What happened to the Dammah when we added "In", "On", or "From"?

اَلْمَسْجِدُ Default State
+ فِي
فِي اَلْمَسْجِدِ New State!
The Preposition Attack (Majroor):

Prepositions (like In, On, From) are powerful words. When a preposition comes before a noun, it attacks the noun and forces the default Dammah `ُ` to drop down and become a Kasra `ِ` (I-sound).

When a noun has the Kasra because of a preposition, we say it is in the Majroor (مَجْرُورٌ) state.

3. Quick Vocabulary Check (Locations)

Let's recall some locations from our previous lessons so we can put things inside them!

اَلْبَيْتُ
The House
اَلْمَسْجِدُ
The Mosque
اَلْمَكْتَبُ
The Desk
اَلسَّرِيرُ
The Bed
اَلْغُرْفَةُ
The Room
اَلْحَمَّامُ
The Bathroom
اَلْمَطْبَخُ
The Kitchen
اَلْفَصْلُ
The Class

4. Sentence Construction Lab

Read these sentences aloud. Identify the Subject (Mubtada) which takes the default Dammah, and the Location which is forced to take the Kasra by the preposition!

The man is in the mosque.
اَلرَّجُلُ فِي اَلْمَسْجِدِ
The book is on the desk.
اَلْكِتَابُ عَلَى اَلْمَكْتَبِ
The boy is in the classroom.
اَلْوَلَدُ فِي اَلْفَصْلِ
The pen is on the bed.
اَلْقَلَمُ عَلَى اَلسَّرِيرِ
The student is in the room.
اَلطَّالِبُ فِي اَلْغُرْفَةِ
The teacher is in the kitchen.
اَلْمُعَلِّمُ فِي اَلْمَطْبَخِ

Prepositions Down!

Fee, Li, Min, Ila — and every noun after them is Majroor!