المُبْتَدَأ
al-mubtadaʾ
The subject of a nominal sentence
The noun in the nominative with which a sentence begins, free of any expressed governor.
- المُبْتَدَأُal-mubtadaʾSubject (of a nominal sentence)
- The noun in rafʿ that is free of any expressed governor.
“Free of any expressed governor” is the whole of the definition. The mubtadaʾ is not raised by a verb or a particle standing before it; it is raised by the very act of beginning — al-ibtidāʾ — which is a maʿnawī (non-verbal) governor. That is the position of the majority of the Basrans.
زَيْدٌ قَائِمٌ
What may occupy the position
- An overt noun: “Muḥammadun rasūlu-llāh.”
- A pronoun: “anā ṭālibun” — I am a student.
- A muʾawwal maṣdar — an infinitival clause read as a noun: “an taṣūmū khayrun lakum.”
Here the clause an taṣūmū is read as a maṣdar — “your fasting” — and stands as the mubtadaʾ; khayrun is its khabar. This is why the grammarian insists the mubtadaʾ is a noun: what is not a noun must first be construed as one.
Sources
- المقدمة الآجروميةAl-Muqaddima al-Ājurrūmiyya
The primer every student of Nahw begins with; the ḥadd (definition) of each term below is its wording.
- قطر الندى وبلّ الصدىQaṭr al-Nadā wa Ball al-Ṣadā
In the glossary
Related entries
The noun in the nominative that is predicated of the mubtadaʾ, and by which the sense of the sentence is completed.
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 entryThe noun in the nominative whose verb is mentioned before it.
Read entry