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Lesson 5 — The teacher's house — joining two nouns

Say "the teacher's house", "the door of the mosque", "my father's car" — Arabic's way of joining two nouns, which is one of the most-used structures in the language and needs no extra word for "of".

How it works

Two nouns, back to back, mean "of"

بَيْتُ الْمُدَرِّسِ is literally "house (of) the-teacher" — no word sits between them for "of". This pairing is called iḍāfah, and it is how Arabic makes almost every possessive and almost every "X of Y" phrase: بَابُ الْمَسْجِدِ, the door of the mosque; مِفْتَاحُ السَّيَّارَةِ, the car key.

Only the SECOND noun can carry الْ

This is the rule that trips every beginner once. بَيْتُ الْمُدَرِّسِ is correct; الْبَيْتُ الْمُدَرِّسِ is not — the first noun never takes الْ in an iḍāfah, because the second noun's الْ (or its being a name, or its own possessive suffix) is what makes the whole phrase definite. The first noun also drops its own tanwīn.

The second noun always takes -i

الْمُدَرِّسِ ends in -i (genitive), not -u. Every second noun in an iḍāfah takes this ending, the same -i a noun takes after فِي or عَلَى from lesson 3 — the two rules are one and the same case.

An iḍāfah can replace a possessive suffix

بَيْتُ الْمُدَرِّسِ (the teacher's house) works exactly like بَيْتُهُ (his house) from lesson 4 — both make بَيْتٌ definite and specific. The difference is only whether the owner is a named noun or a pronoun ending.

Words

بَابُ الْمَسْجِدِ
bābu-l-masjidi
the door of the mosque
مِفْتَاحُ السَّيَّارَةِ
miftāḥu-s-sayyārati
the car key
Sun letter — no l heard.
كِتَابُ الطَّالِبِ
kitābu-ṭ-ṭālibi
the student's book
Sun letter.
بَيْتُ الْمُدَرِّسِ
baytu-l-mudarrisi
the teacher's house
اِسْمُ الْوَلَدِ
ismu-l-waladi
the boy's name
سَيَّارَةُ أَبِي
sayyāratu abī
my father's car
A name/pronoun-suffixed noun needs no الْ — it is already definite.
غُرْفَةُ النَّوْمِ
ghurfatu-n-nawmi
the bedroom
Sun letter — literally "the room of sleep".
مَدِينَةُ جَدَّةَ
madīnatu Jaddah
the city of Jeddah
طَالِبُ الْعِلْمِ
ṭālibu-l-ʿilmi
a student of knowledge
رَسُولُ اللَّهِ
rasūlu-llāhi
the Messenger of Allah

Sentences

أَيْنَ بَابُ الْمَسْجِدِ؟
ayna bābu-l-masjidi?
Where is the door of the mosque?
بَابُ الْمَسْجِدِ هُنَاكَ
bābu-l-masjidi hunāka
The door of the mosque is over there
هَذَا كِتَابُ الطَّالِبِ
hādhā kitābu-ṭ-ṭālibi
This is the student's book
أَيْنَ مِفْتَاحُ السَّيَّارَةِ؟
ayna miftāḥu-s-sayyārati?
Where is the car key?
مِفْتَاحُ السَّيَّارَةِ عَلَى الْمَكْتَبِ
miftāḥu-s-sayyārati ʿalā-l-maktabi
The car key is on the desk
مَا اسْمُ الْوَلَدِ؟
mā-smu-l-waladi?
What is the boy's name?
اِسْمُ الْوَلَدِ أَحْمَدُ
ismu-l-waladi Aḥmadu
The boy's name is Ahmad
سَيَّارَةُ أَبِي فِي الْمَدِينَةِ
sayyāratu abī fī-l-madīnati
My father's car is in the city
بَيْتُ الْمُدَرِّسِ قَرِيبٌ مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ
baytu-l-mudarrisi qarībun mina-l-masjidi
The teacher's house is near the mosque
هُوَ طَالِبُ عِلْمٍ
huwa ṭālibu ʿilmin
He is a student of knowledge
Indefinite iḍāfah — neither noun takes الْ, so the whole phrase reads "a" rather than "the".

Saying it to someone

Grammar you cannot use in a conversation is not yet Arabic. These are the lines that turn the words above into an exchange.

أَيْنَ بَيْتُ أُسْتَاذِي؟
ayna baytu ustādhī?
Where is my teacher's house?
مَا عُنْوَانُ بَيْتِكَ؟
mā ʿunwānu baytika?
What is the address of your house?
هَلْ هَذَا رَقْمُ هَاتِفِكَ؟
hal hādhā raqmu hātifika?
Is this your phone number?
نَعَمْ، هَذَا رَقْمُ هَاتِفِي
naʿam, hādhā raqmu hātifī
Yes, this is my phone number
أَيْنَ مَكْتَبُ الْمُدِيرِ؟
ayna maktabu-l-mudīri?
Where is the manager's office?

Practise

Transliteration uses ḥ ṣ ḍ ṭ ẓ for the emphatic letters, ʿ for ʿayn, ʾ for hamzah, and ā ī ū for long vowels. Read the Arabic, not the transliteration — the transliteration is a crutch to be dropped as early as you can.