Modern Standard Arabic 5.7. Nouns of Place, Instrument, & Intensity

We discussed different types of nouns in Arabic, such as active and passive participles in Level IV, Lesson 7, and verbal nouns in Lesson 3 of this level. In this lesson, we discuss additional noun types, such as nouns of place, nouns of instrument, and nouns of intensity or repetition in Arabic.

Nouns of Place

The masculine patterns مَـفْـعَـل (maf‘al) and مَـفْـعِـل (maf‘il), and their feminine forms مَـفْـعَـلَـة (maf‘alah) and مَـفْـعِـلَـة (maf‘ilah), are often used to form nouns of place, such as:

The plural of most of these nouns of place follows the pattern مَـفـاعِـل (mafā‘il). For example:

Some nouns of place use the passive participle, especially Patterns (7), (8), and (10):

Here are some examples:

Nouns of Instrument

Nouns of instrument are special derived nouns that describe an instrument, machine, or tool used to perform a specific action. Most nouns of instrument follow one of these three patterns:

Here are some examples:

Nouns of Intensity or Repetition

Nouns of intensity or repetition follow the pattern فَـعّـال (fa‘‘āl) for masculine nouns and فَـعّـالَـة (fa‘‘ālah) for feminine nouns. For example, the word for “liar” in Arabic is كـاذِب (kādhib), which follows the pattern فـاعِـل (fā‘il). However, to describe someone who lies frequently, we use the word كَـذّاب (kadh dhāb), which follows the pattern فَـعّـال (fa‘‘āl) to indicate intensity and repetition of the action.

Most derived nouns that emphasize intensity or repetition refer to either a profession or an instrument used to perform a specific action.

Here are examples of nouns of intensity or repetition used as names of tools and instruments:

As for workers in professions that use this pattern, here are some examples:

The feminine form of the above nouns is obtained by adding a ة (tā’ marbūṭah) ‘tied-t’ to the end of the word.

The name of the profession itself often follows the pattern فِـعـالَـة (fi‘ālah). For example:

Next: Adverbs

Back to: Progressive & Perfect Tenses

Other lessons in Level V: