The five nouns in Arabic
You’ve probably noticed by now that most words in Arabic have three-letter roots, while some have four or even five.
But there are also examples with two-letter roots, often referring to family members or body parts. Let’s take a look at some of them:
What are the 5 special nouns in Arabic?
Five nouns with two-letter roots are considered special because they take a long vowel instead of a short one when annexed or when a personal pronoun suffix is attached.
Depending on the grammatical case, they take:
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و (-uu) for the nominative
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ا (-aa) for the accusative
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ي (-ii) for the genitive
These five nouns are:
One important point to highlight is that the personal pronoun suffix comes after the long vowel, and the pronoun for the first person is ي (-ii) or ني (-nii).
So, if I want to say “my father” (or any word ending in u, short or long), the i wins.
Examples:
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أبو + أنا → أبي (aby – my father)
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حُلمُ + أنا → حُلمي (hulmy – my dream)
Why? Because u + i = ي . Even a short u shifts and becomes ي .
This is extremely important to remember, especially since in many dialects, to say “my father” you simply keep the و :
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Dialect: أبوي (abuy)
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Standard Arabic (MSA): أبي (aby) — the و is dropped.
The same applies for “my brother”:
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Dialect: أخوي (akhuy)
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Standard Arabic: أخي (akhy).
Let’s look at some more examples:
