Learn Arabic › A1 › نَحْو
نَحْو
grammar (Arabic syntax) /ˈnaħw/
nounA1#437 most common
Also: direction, way, toward, approximately, about
Example sentences
أُحِبُّ النَّحْوَ.
I like grammar.
النَّحْوُ مُهِمٌّ في تَعَلُّمِ العَرَبِيَّةِ.
Grammar is important in learning Arabic.
مَشَيْتُ نَحْوَ المَدْرَسَةِ في الصَّباحِ.
I walked toward the school in the morning.
حَضَرَ الاجْتِماعَ نَحْوُ مِئَةِ مُوَظَّفٍ.
About a hundred employees attended the meeting.
يَرى عُلَماءُ النَّحْوِ أنَّ الإِعْرابَ أساسٌ لِفَهْمِ المَعْنى.
Grammarians hold that case inflection is a basis for understanding meaning.
عالَجَ المُخْرِجُ القِصَّةَ على نَحْوٍ لم يَتَوَقَّعْهُ النُّقّادُ، فأثارَ جَدَلاً واسِعاً.
The director treated the story in a way the critics did not expect, sparking wide debate.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | نَحْوٌ (naḥwun) | أَنْحاءٌ (anḥāʾun) |
| Genitive | نَحْوٍ (naḥwin) | أَنْحاءٍ (anḥāʾin) |
| Accusative | نَحْواً (naḥwan) | أَنْحاءً (anḥāʾan) |
| Vocative | يا نَحْوُ (yā naḥwu) | يا أَنْحاءُ (yā anḥāʾu) |
Word family
نَحا (naḥā)to head toward, aim at
نَحْوِيّ (naḥwī)grammatical; grammarian
مَنْحى (manḥā)course, trend, orientation
أَنْحاء (anḥāʾ)directions, regions, parts (plural)
اِنْتَحى (intaḥā)to betake oneself toward, withdraw aside
Etymology
The word comes from the triliteral root n-ḥ-w, whose core sense is to aim at or head toward. From "direction" the noun was extended to "manner" and then to "about, approximately." The grammatical sense arose in early Islam: tradition credits Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali, told to "proceed in this way" (unḥu hādhā an-naḥw), so the new discipline of syntax took the name naḥw, "the way."
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