- حَالَةُ الْرَّفْعِ Nominative case (or subjective case) – word (originally) ends with a dhammah ُor ٌ .
- حَالَةُ الْنَّصْبِ Accusative case (or objective case) – word (originally) ends with a fathah َor ً.
- حَالَةُ الْجَرِّ Genitive case (or possessive case) – word (originally) ends with kasrah ِor ٍ.
Nominative case
In the sentence ضَرَبَ أَحْمَدٌ مُحَمَّدً (Ahmad beat Muhammad), the word أَحْمَدٌ is in the nominative case as indicated by the ٌ at the end of the word. Note that أَحْمَدٌ is the فَاعِلٌ (subject) of the sentence.
Accusative case
In the sentence ضَرَبَ أَحْمَدٌ مُحَمَّدً (Ahmad beat Muhammad), the word مُحَمَّدً is in the accusative case as indicated by the ًat the end of the word. Note that مُحَمَّدً is the مَفْعُوْلٌ (object) of the sentence.
Genitive case
Words that fall into the genitive case are normally found in a prepositional phrase or possessive phrase as shown below. (This is what I know now, there could be more.)
- Prepositional phrase: In the prepositional phrase فِي الْبَيْتِ (in the house), the word الْبَيْتِ is in the genitive case as indicated by the ِ at the end of the word.
- Possessive phrase: In the possessive phrase كِتَابُ اللهِ (book of الله), the word اللهِ is in the genitive case as indicated by the ِat the end of the word.
Important note
In the beginning of this post I stated that case in Arabic is called الْاِعْرَبُ. Yes it is. In fact, as far as I know, the last vowel (or huruf) of the affected word in any case is called الْاِعْرَبُ. This brings to one very important matter in the study of Arabic language, that is, the الْاِعْرَبُ of words usually change according to how the word is used in phrases or sentences. I was told before that even a single (wrong) vowel can change the whole meaning of an Arabic sentence. So let's be careful.
