Prepositions in Arabic (حُرُوف الجَرّ hurūf al-jarr) are generally used to show position as in فِى fī (in) and مِن min (from) or time as in فى السّاعة الخَامِسَة fī as-sā’a al-ẖamisah (at five o’clock)
Sometimes they refer to more abstract concepts as in the case of عَن ‘an (about) or عَلَى الأقَل ‘ala al-aqall (at least).
These particles have deeper meanings than their counterparts in English and are used in different contexts to express a wide range of meanings.
The most common حُرُوف الجَرّ hurūf al-jarr are:
من، إلى، حتى، في، عن، على، اللام، والكاف، والباء،
مِن min | From | جِئتُ مِنَ المَسجِدِ | I came from the masjid |
إِلَى ilā | To | إِلَى أَينَ تَذْهَبُ يا أَخِي؟ | (To) Where are you going, my brother? |
فِي fī | in | أَسكُنُ في المَدِينَةِ | I live in the city |
عَلَى ‘alā | on | نِمتُ عَلى السَّرِيرِ | I slept on the bed |
لِ li | For | هَذَا الكِتَابُ لِزَيدٍ | This is Zaid’s book |
كَ ka | Like | لَيسَ العَالِمُ كَالجَاهِلِ | The scholar is not like the ignorant one |
بِ bi | With | كَتَبْتُ بِقَلَمٍ أَحمَرَ | I wrote with a red pen |
حَتَّى hattā | Till, until | قَرَأتُ كِتَابِي حَتَّى نِمتُ | I read my book until I slept |
Important Notes
- The noun after a proposition is always genetive (it takes the state of Jarr)
- The letters ب,ك,لا,م are always attached to the noun, unlike the other preposition letters which occur separately
- Arabic prepositions are “mabni” which means that they have mostly fixed word-endings regardless of their position