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Conjunction Particles

There are nine conjunction particles (أحْرُفُ العَطْفِ):

  1. The particle وَ   means "and". It joins two nouns, verbs, prepositions, or sentences without regards to sequence:

    جاءَ الطالِبُ وَالْمُعَلِّمُ
    The student and the teacher came.

    أكَلَ وَشَرَبَ
    He ate and drank.

    رَكَضَ مِنْ وَإلى الْبَيْتِ
    He ran from and back to the house.

    قابَلْتُ الصُحُفِيَّ وَتَكَلَّمْتُ مَعَهُ
    I met with the journalist and talked to him.

  2. The particle فَ means "then". It joins two nouns in close sequence:

    جاءَ الطالِبُ فَالْمُعَلِّمُ
    The student came, then (immediately) the teacher.

  3. The particle ثُمَّ  means "then". It joins two nouns in loose sequence:

    جاءَ الطالِبُ ثُمَّ الْمُعَلِّم
    The student came, then (some time later) the teacher.

  4. The particle حَتَّى   means "even" or "then". It joins two nouns, provided one is part of the other:

    نَجَحَ الطُّلابُ حَتّى الْكُسولُ
    The students passed, even the lazy one.

  5. The particle أوْ   means "or".

    إقْرأ الْكِتابَ أوِ الْمَجَلَّةَ
    Read the book or the magazine.

  6. The particle أمْ   means "or". It is used after the Hamzah (أ )of in statements of inquiry or equation:

    زَيْدُ جاءَ امْ عُمَرٌ
    Did Zayd come or Omar?

  7. The particle بَلْ…   means "rather". It joins words, but not sentences:

    جاءَ زَيْدٌ بَلْ عُمَرٌ
    Zayd came, rather than Omar.

  8. The particle لَكِنْ   means "but". It joins words but not sentences. It should be preceded by a negative statement, but not by a (وَ ).

    لَمْ يَأتِ زَيْدٌ لَكِنْ عُمَرٌ
    Zayd did not come, but Omar did.

  9. The particle لا   means "not". It joins words only and should be preceded by a positive statement:

    إقْرأ الْكِتابَ لا الْجَريدَةَ
    Read the book, not the newspaper.

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