Endings
What does a small piece added to a word show or change?
المعنى
Small pieces attached to a word can change its meaning or show how it fits into a sentence. They can make a new word or mark features such as number, time, person, and a participant's role. Languages differ in how many they use and where they attach, and some express these meanings without them. Unlike Prepositions and postpositions, these pieces belong to the word rather than standing separately beside it.
طريقة التعرّف عليه
Compare related forms of a word and look for recurring attached pieces that add meaning or show its role in the sentence.
في اللغة الأم
Arabic uses prefixes and suffixes to identify a verb's subject, and endings can mark number, gender, or a noun's role in the sentence. Added pieces also help form new words, alongside patterns that change sounds inside a word. Short final vowels and -n endings belong to fully pronounced formal Arabic; they are usually unwritten, and many are dropped at a pause.
وَصَلَ الْمُعَلِّمُ. (waṣala al-muʿallimu.)
The -u ending marks the teacher as the subject.
رَأَيْتُ الْمُعَلِّمَ. (raʾaytu al-muʿallima.)
The same noun has an -a ending as the object.
كَتَبْتُ الرِّسَالَةَ، وَأَنْتَ كَتَبْتَ الْعُنْوَانَ. (katabtu al-risālata, wa-ʾanta katabta al-ʿunwāna.)
The endings -tu and -ta distinguish I from you when addressing one man.
في اللغة قيد التعلم
English uses endings such as -s for plural nouns and present-tense verbs with he, she, or it, -ed for many past-tense verbs, and -ing in forms built with be. It also adds pieces to make new words, as in kind and kindness. Most nouns do not change their ending to show their sentence role; word order and prepositions do that work.
My sister works in a shop.
-s marks the present-tense verb with a singular subject such as my sister.
We washed the cups.
-ed marks past time; -s shows that there is more than one cup.
Thank you for your kindness.
-ness makes a noun from the adjective kind.
Learners whose language uses little or no word-ending grammar may omit -s or -ed. Learners whose language marks noun roles with endings may expect an English noun ending where a preposition or word order is needed.