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23 The connected noun

23.1 Introduction

Consider the sentence:

رَأَيْتُ ٱلرَّجُلَ.
“I saw the man.”

If the listener (or reader) can identify the individual referred to by the noun “the man” (maybe from a pre-existing mutual understanding with the speaker), then there is no problem with this sentence. But often, further clarification is needed for the listener to correctly identify the individual to whom the speaker is referring. This further clarification can be provided in a number of ways.

One way is to use an adjectival noun to describe the noun. For example:

رَأَيْتُ ٱلرَّجُلَ ٱلطَّوِيلَ.
“I saw the tall man.”

Another way is to use a pointing noun, thus:

رَأَيْتُ ذَ ٰلِکَ ٱلرَّجُلَ.
“I saw that man.”

But sometimes, a whole sentence is needed to provide the needed identification. In this case, Arabic uses what is called a connected noun and a connector. This example should help you understand what we mean:

In the above sentence, the connected noun is ٱَلَّذِي ʾallad͡hī. It is applied to singular masculine nouns, like ٱلرَّجُل. By itself it may be translated as “the one1m that/which/who/whom”. It is called a connected noun because it must be directly followed by a qualifying sentence that connects to it.

The qualifying sentence is called the connector and it contains the necessary information for the listener to correctly identify the individual intended by the speaker.” The connector in the above example is the sentence لَقِيتُهُ بِٱلْأَمْسِ “I met him yesterday.”

Note by the way, that we did not translate the pronoun “him” in our original translation (above). This is because it would sound unnatural in English to say: “I saw the [specific] man (whom) I met him yesterday.” But this pronoun is an essential part of the Arabic connector and is called the link-back pronoun. We will deal with it in section 23.3 later in this chapter.

There are two types of connected nouns:

  1. The specific connected nouns
  2. The general connected nouns

We will study both these types separately within this chapter.

23.2 The specific connected nouns

The specific connected nouns have a significance which is restricted to a specific individual or category of individuals, and its connector should contain sufficient information to identify that specific individual.

The specific connected nouns is a group of nouns where each noun is applied to a gender and number of individuals. They are:

Connected noun Description
ٱَلَّذِي ʾallad͡hī Singular masculine. For both intelligent and non-intelligent beings. Rigid. Only one ل in its spelling.
ٱَلَّتِي ʾallatī Singular feminine. For both intelligent and non-intelligent beings. Also used for plural non-intelligent beings of both genders. Rigid. Only one ل in its spelling.
ٱَللَّذَانِ ʾallad͡hānī Dual masculine. For both intelligent and non-intelligent beings. Flexible: ٱَللَّذَيْنِ ʾallad͡hayni in the a- and i-states. Two ل’s in its spelling.
ٱَللَّتَانِ ʾallatānī Dual feminine. For both intelligent and non-intelligent beings. Flexible: ٱَللَّتَيْنِ ʾallatayni in the a- and i-states. Two ل’s in its spelling.
ٱَلَّذِينَ ʾallad͡hīna Plural masculine. For both intelligent beings. Rigid. Only one ل in its spelling.
ٱَللَّاتِي ʾallātī For plural feminine intelligent beings. Also used for non-intelligent beings of both genders but ٱَلَّتِي is more common there. Rigid. Two ل’s in its spelling. Has the following variants: ٱَللَّاتِ ʾallāti, ٱَللَّائِي ʾallāʾī, ٱَللَّوَاتِي ʾallawātī

23.2.1 Grammatical position of the specific connected noun

Consider again the same example:

رَأَيْتُ ٱلرَّجُلَ ٱلَّذِي لَقِيتُهُ بِٱلْأَمْسِ.
“I saw the [specific] man whom I met yesterday.”

In this example, the connected noun ٱَلَّذِي ʾallad͡hī is a describer (in the a-state) to the described noun ٱلرَّجُلَ. Because ٱَلَّذِي is a rigid noun, it will appear the same in all states without any change to its ending.

As a describer, the connected noun may also come as the last in a series of describers, and can also be combined with a pointing noun. For example:

رَأَيْتُ ذَ ٰلِکَ ٱلرَّجُلَ ٱلطَّوِيلَ ٱلَّذِي لَقِيتُهُ بِٱلْأَمْسِ.
“I saw that [specific] tall man whom I met yesterday.”

But connected nouns need not only occur as describers. They may occur in various grammatical positions. Here are some examples:

As a subject:

وَالَّذِينَ يَکْنِزُونَ ٱلذَّهَبَ وَٱلْفِضَّةَ وَلَا يُنْفِقُونَهَا فِي سَبِيلِ ٱللَّـٰهِ فَبَشِّرْهُمْ بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ
“And those who hoard gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allāh - give them tidings of a painful punishment.”
9:34

As an information:

خِيَارُ أَئِمَّتِکُمُ الَّذِينَ تُحِبُّونَهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَکُمْ
“The best of your rulers are the ones whom you love and who love you” [Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim:1855]

هُنَّ اللَّوَاتِي عَلَى الْمِنْبَرِ
“They are the ones which (are) on the pulpit.”
[Sunan al-Dārimī:36]

As a doer:

قَدْ بَلَغَنَا ٱلَّذِي قُلْتُمُوهُ.
“The [specific] one (thing) that you said has reached us.”

As a doee:

رَبَّنَا أَرِنَا ٱللَّذَيْنِ أَضَلَّانَا مِنَ ٱلْجِنِّ وَٱلْإِنْسِ
“Our Lord, show us those who misled us of the jinn and men”
41:29

Following a preposition:

أَوْ کَٱلَّذِي مَرَّ عَلَىٰ قَرْيَةٍ
“Or [consider such an example] as the one who passed by a township”
2:259

As a base noun in an annexation:

قَدْ سَمِعَ ٱللَّـٰهُ قَوْلَ ٱلَّتِي تُجَادِلُکَ فِي زَوْجِهَا
“Certainly has Allāh heard the speech of the one who argues [i.e., pleads] with you, [O Muḥammad]”
58:1

23.4 The general connected nouns

The general connected nouns are unrestricted in significance, and may be applied to any individual who fits the criteria given in the connector. The two main general connected nouns are:

  1. مَنْ man. Typically used for intelligent beings and translated as “who”.
  2. مَا mā. Typically used for non-intelligent beings and translated as “what”.

There are also some other rarely or dialectally used general connected nouns that we will not cover. These are أَيّ ʾayy, ذُو d͡hū, and ذَا d͡hā.1

Unlike the specific connected nouns (ٱَلَّذِي, etc.), the general connected nouns do not vary for number and gender.

For example:

أُحِبُّّ مَنْ يَعْدِلُ
“I love [him] who is just.”

أُحِبُّّ مَنْ يَعْدِلُونَ
“I love [them] who are just.”

ٱِصْنَعْ مَا بَدَا لَکَ.
“Do what seems (good) to you.”

مَرَرْتُ بِمَا يُعْجِبُکَ.
“I passed by what will please you.”

23.4.1 مَنْ and مَا after prepositions

When مَنْ and مَا are directly preceded by the prepositions مِنْ and عَنْ, these prepositions lose their ن and are joined to the following noun with the noun’s م doubled. For example: مَمَّنْ mimman, مَمَّا mimmā, عَمَّنْ ɛamman, عَمَّا ɛammā.

The preposition فِي is also often (though not always) optionally attached to these connected nouns, thus: فِيمَنْ fīman, فِيمَا fīmā.

The remaining prepositions follow the normal rules: عَلَى مَا, کَمَنْ, etc. But we will see, if Allāh wills, in chapter ??, that مَا and مَنْ are also used as question nouns, in which case the rules of joining prepositions to them will differ.

23.4.3 Applicability of مَا and مَنْ to intelligent and non-intelligent beings

As we mentioned earlier, مَنْ is typically used to refer to intelligent beings. And مَا is typically used to refer to non-intelligent beings. However, there are some circumstances in which these roles can differ.

مَنْ may be used for non-intelligent beings when a non-intelligent being is compared with an intelligent being. For example,

وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَ كُلَّ دَابَّةٍ مِّن مَّاءٍ ۖ فَمِنْهُم مَّن يَمْشِي عَلَىٰ بَطْنِهِ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَمْشِي عَلَىٰ رِجْلَيْنِ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَمْشِي عَلَىٰ أَرْبَعٍ ۚ

“Allāh has created every [living] creature from water. And of them are those that move on their bellies, and of them are those that walk on two legs, and of them are those that walk on four.”

مَنْ may also be used for non-intelligent beings when attributes usually applicable to intelligent beings are applied to a non-intelligent being. For example:

أَسِرْبَ الْقَطَا، هَلْ مَنْ يُعِيرُ جَنَاحَه * لَعَلِّي إِلَىٰ مَنْ قَدْ هَوِيتُ أَطِيرُ
O flock of birds, is there who will lend his wing
that perhaps I may fly to whom I love
أَ: “O”, سِرْب: “flock”, قَطَا: a species of bird, هَلْ: “is there?”, يُعِيرُ: “lend”, جَنَاح: “wing”, لَعَلِّي: “Perhaps I”, هَوِيتُ: “I love”, أَطِيرُ: “I fly”.

مَنْ may also be used for non-intelligent beings when there is a mixed group including both intelligent and non-intelligent beings, and the intelligent beings are given preference. For example:

وَلِلَّهِ يَسْجُدُ مَن فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ
“And to Allāh prostrates whoever is within the heavens and the earth”
13:15

Similarly, مَا may, in some circumstances, be used for intelligent beings. This may be when there is a mixed group including both intelligent and non-intelligent beings, and the non-intelligent beings are given preference because of their larger number. For example:

يُسَبِّحُ لِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ
“Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth is exalting Allāh”
62:1

مَا may also be used for intelligent beings when the person being referred to is vague to the speaker. For example:

رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَکَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّرًا
“My Lord, indeed I have pledged to You what is in my womb, consecrated [for Your service]”
3:35

مَا may also be used for intelligent beings when the characteristics of an intelligent being are highlighted when referring to them. For example:

فَانکِحُوا مَا طَابَ لَکُم مِّنَ النِّسَاءِ
“then marry those that please you of [other] women”
4:3

23.4.4 Grammatical position of the general connected nouns

The general connected noun may occur in various grammatical positions. Here are some examples:

As a subject:

ما عِنْدَکُمْ يَنْفَدُ
“Whatever you have will end”
16:96

As an information:

مَالُکَ مَا قَدَّمْتَ، وَمَالُ وَارِثِکَ مَا أَخَّرْتَ
“Your wealth is what you have sent forward, and the wealth of your inheritors is what you have left behind.”
adab:153

As a doer:

فَعَلَهُ مَنْ هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِنِّي
“it was done by one who was better than I”
bukhari:668

As a doee:

اعْمَلُوا مَا شِئْتُمْ
“Do whatever you will”
41:40

Following a preposition:

وَأَغْنِنِي بِفَضْلِکَ عَمَّنْ سِوَاکَ
“and make me independent from (all) who are besides You”
tirmidhi:3563

As a base noun in an annexation:

هُمْ شَرُّ مَنْ خَلَقَ ٱللَّـٰهُ.
“They are the most evil of whom Allah has created.”

مَا تَرَىٰ رَأْيَ مَا نَرَىٰ.
“You do not think what we think.”
(literally: “You do not opine the opinion of what we opine.”)

أَمْرَ مَا تَحْذَرُ
“the matter of which you are wary”

Unlike the specific connected nouns (ٱَلَّذِي, etc), the general connected nouns do not occur as describers.2

So while we can say:

مَرَرْتُ بِٱلرَّجُلِ ٱلَّذِي أَحْسَنَ إِلَيّ.
“I passed by the man who was good to me.”

we cannot say:

\(\times\) مَرَرْتُ بِٱلرَّجُلِ مَنْ أَحْسَنَ إِلَيّ.

We will have to say instead:

مَرَرْتُ بِمَنْ أَحْسَنَ إِلَيّ.

The general connected noun can, however, occur as a replacement.3 For example,

والمسلمون مَن تبع رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم کثير
“And the Muslims, who follow the Messenger of Allāh, are many”

23.4.5 Use with the preposition مِنْ

The preposition مِنْ is frequently used with the general connected nouns to restrict the applicability of the connected noun to a group or type. This مِنْ may come either before the connected noun, or after its connector. For example:

فَأَعْطَانِي مَا کَانَ عِنْدَهُ مِنْ خُبْزٍ.
“Then he gave me what he had of bread.”

مَنْ دَخَلَ ٱلشَّأْمَ مِنَ ٱلْعَرَبِ
“Those Arabs who entered Syria”
(literally: “Who entered Syria from the Arabs”)

فَانکِحُوا مَا طَابَ لَکُم مِّنَ النِّسَاءِ
“then marry those that please you of [other] women”
4:3

اللَّهُمَّ اقْسِمْ لَنَا مِنْ خَشْيَتِکَ مَا يَحُولُ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَ مَعَاصِيکَ
O Allāh, apportion for us, from the fear of You, (that) what shall come between us and disobedience of You
tirmidhi:3502
(The connected noun مَا is the direct doee of the verb of command اقْسِمْ.)

23.4.6 Use with a repeated word to express vagueness or uncertainty

The general connected nouns مَنْ and مَا are used with a word that is repeated to express a vague or uncertain quantity or quality. For example:

هُمْ مَا هُمْ
“They are what they are.”

نَزَلَ مَنْ نَزَلَ مِنْهُمْ
“Some of them came down.”
(literally: Came down who came down from them.”)

جَمَعْتُ مَا جَمَعْتُ
“I gathered what I gathered.”

23.5 Omitting the connected noun and/or the connector

TODO. See النحو الوافي

23.6 Sentences without connected nouns

There are some sentences where we might expect a connected noun but which are always, or often (as the case may be), expressed in Arabic without a connected noun. These sentences are of different types:

23.6.1 Sentences with indefinite nouns needing a qualifying sentence

When an indefinite noun needs a qualifying sentence, it is natural in English to insert “that”, “which”, “who”, etc. between the noun and the following sentence. For example, “I passed by a man who was sleeping.”

In Arabic, however, we will not use any connected noun in such sentences. This is because the connected nouns are considered definite nouns. And therefore they may not be a describer to an indefinite noun. So while we can say:

مَرَرْتُ بِٱلرَّجُلِ ٱلَّذِي يَنَامُ.
“I passed by the man who is sleeping.”

we cannot say

\(\times\) مَرَرْتُ بِرَجُلٍ ٱلَّذِي يَنَامُ.

Instead, we put the qualifying sentence directly after the indefinite noun. The qualifying sentence will then not be a connector, but will itself be the describer to the described noun:

مَرَرْتُ بِرَجُلٍ يَنَامُ.
“I passed by a man (who) is sleeping.”

Here is another example:

جَلَسْتُ فِي مَجْلِسٍ قَدْ رُشَّ بِمَاءِ ٱلْوَرْدِ.
“I sat in a sitting (that) had been sprinkled with rose-water.”

A connected noun can, however, follow an indefinite noun, if we intend to start a separate sentence with it, or if it is a replacement (see chapter 14.6). For example.

وَابْعَثْهُ مَقَامًا مَحْمُودًا الَّذِي وَعَدْتَهُ
“Resurrect him to a praiseworthy station, the one that you promised him”
bukhari:614

وَيْلٌ لِّکُلِّ هُمَزَةٍ لُّمَزَةٍ
الَّذِي جَمَعَ مَالًا وَعَدَّدَهُ
“Woe to every scorner and mocker
Who collects wealth and [continuously] counts it.”
104:1-2

23.6.2 Sentences containing a noun with generic definiteness

Sometimes the definite article ٱَلْ does not determine a particular individual, but makes a noun definite only in a generic way. In this case a qualifying sentence may directly follow it without any intermediate connected noun used as a describer.4 Because there is no connected noun, the qualifying sentence is, again, not analyzed as a connector. For example:

کَمَثَلِ الْحِمَارِ يَحْمِلُ أَسْفَارًا
“like that of a donkey who carries volumes [of books]”
62:5
(Note how the translator has actually translated ٱلْحِمَار as “a donkey” because in English an indefinite noun is often used to indicate a generic type.)

أَنْتَ ٱلْوَزِيرُ لَا يُعْصَىٰ
“You are the (sort of) vizier (who) is not disobeyed.”

هُمُ ٱلْفَوَارِسُ يَحْمُونَ ٱلنِّسَاءَ.
“They are the (kind of) horsemen (who) protect the women.”

23.6.3 Sentences with prepositional or adverbial phrases

If a sentence has a definite noun which is to be qualified by a prepositional or adverbial phrase, then in many cases, that phrase may directly follow the definite noun without any intermediate connected noun used a describer. But using a connected noun is also permissible if one wishes to emphasize that the specificity of the noun. When there is no connected noun, the prepositional or adverbial phrase is not analyzed as a connector, but is considered attached to an implied verb that has the idea of “being”, like “is”, “are”, etc. When there is a connected noun, then it is analyzed as a connector, as usual. For example:

سِرْتُ فِي ٱلْحَدِيقَةِ عِنْدَ ٱلْمَسْجِدِ.
“I walked in the garden next to the mosque.”
or
سِرْتُ فِي ٱلْحَدِيقَةِ ٱلَّتِي عِنْدَ ٱلْمَسْجِدِ.
or
سِرْتُ فِي ٱلْحَدِيقَةِ ٱلَّتِي هِيَ عِنْدَ ٱلْمَسْجِدِ.
“I walked in the [specific] garden that [is] next to the mosque.”

  1. Fischer claims (§427):

    Other interrogatives (§289) are also used as relatives: عَرَفَ ٱلْمَکِيدَةَ وَکَيْفَ کَانَ ٱلْمَلِکُ أَوْقَعَهَا ‘He knew the trick and how the king employed it.’ وَٱللّٰهِ مَا نُبَالِي أَيْنَ ذَهَبَ ‘By God, we do not care where he went’; cf. also §419b.

    However, we have not been able to find the classical grammarians including کيف, أين, etc. among الأسماء الموصولة. To understand how these interrogatives are to be analyzed in such sentences, it may help to look up the إعراب of the verses : هُوَ الَّذِي يُصَوِّرُکُمْ فِي الْأَرْحَامِ کَيْفَ يَشَاءُ [3:6], and لِيُرِيَهُ کَيْفَ يُوَارِي سَوْءَةَ أَخِيهِ [5:31] in linguisitic tafsīrs like البحر المحيط لأبي حيان and التحرير والتنوير لابن عاشور.

    The article ٱل is also generally included among الأسماء الموصولة المشترکة. However, we have deemed it too complicated to cover (and too confusing to even mention in main text). See النحو الوافي لعباس حسن vol. 1, pp. 356–357 for its treatment.↩︎

  2. See کتاب المقتصد في شرح الإيضاح للجرجاني, vol. 1, p. 319:

    ومَن لا يوصف به، ألا ترى لا تقول: مررت بالرجل مَن أخوه منطلق. فتجعله صفةً للرجل، کما تقول: بالرجل الذي أخوه منطلق

    Also شرح الرضي على الکافية لابن الحاجب vol. 2, p. 314:

    ولا يقع من الموصولات وصفا إلا ما في أوله اللام، نحو الذي والتي، واللاتي، وبابها، لمشابهته لفظا للصفة المشبهة في کونه على ثلاثة أحرف فصاعدا، بخلاف من وما، وأما (أي) الموصول فلم يقع وصفا، لأن الأغلب فيه: الشرط والاستفهام ووقوعه موصولا قليل فروعي ذلک الأکثر، وإنما يوصف بذو، الطائية وإن کانت على حرفين کما في قوله:

    ٣٢٧ - فقولا لهذا المرء ذو جاء ساعيا … هلم فان المشرفي الفرائض

    Basically, of الأسماء الموصولة المشترکة (which comprise ما, مَن, أي, أل, ذو, ذا) only the dialectal ذو appears as a صفة.↩︎

  3. Fischer §421.2. The example too is taken from there. Originally, it is from السيرة النبوية لابن هشام.↩︎

  4. Fischer §428.1, Wright vol. 2, §172, p. 318B.↩︎