Iḍāfah

Iḍāfah (إضافة) is the Arabic grammatical construct case, mostly used to indicate possession.

This article is about the construction in Arabic. For the corresponding structure in Persian and related languages, see Ezāfe.

Idāfa basically entails putting one noun after another: the second noun specifies more precisely the nature of the first noun. In forms of Arabic which mark grammatical case, this second noun must be in the genitive case. The construction is typically equivalent to the English construction "(noun) of (noun)". It is a very widespread way of forming possessive constructions in Arabic, and is typical of a Semitic language. Simple examples include:

  • دارُ السَلامِ dāru‿s-salām "the house of peace".
  • كِيلُو مَوْزٍ kīlū mawz "a kilo of bananas".
  • بِنْتُ حَسَنٍ bintu Ḥasan "the daughter of Hasan/Hasan's daughter".
  • بَيْتُ رَجُلٍ baytu rajul "the house of a man/a man's house".
  • بَيْتُ الرَجُلِ baytu‿r-rajul "the house of the man/the man's house".
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