الخَبَر
al-khabar
The predicate
The noun in the nominative that is predicated of the mubtadaʾ, and by which the sense of the sentence is completed.
- الخَبَرُal-khabarPredicate
- The noun in rafʿ that is predicated of the mubtadaʾ.
A mubtadaʾ alone tells the listener nothing: say “Zayd” and he waits. The khabar is what he was waiting for. This is why the grammarians say the sentence is not a sentence until the fāʾida — the benefit, the completed sense — has landed.
Single and clausal
- Single (mufrad): “Zaydun qāʾimun” — Zayd is standing.
- A clause (jumla): “Zaydun abūhu qāʾimun” — Zayd, his father is standing.
- A quasi-clause (shibh jumla) — a preposition-phrase or an adverbial: “Zaydun fī-l-dāri.”
زَيْدٌ فِي الدَّارِ
Sources
- المقدمة الآجروميةAl-Muqaddima al-Ājurrūmiyya
The primer every student of Nahw begins with; the ḥadd (definition) of each term below is its wording.
- ألفية ابن مالكAlfiyyat Ibn Mālik
In the glossary
Related entries
The noun in the nominative with which a sentence begins, free of any expressed governor.
Read entryThe change that comes over the end of a word because of the governor that enters upon it — whether the change is pronounced or only intended.
Read entry