Arabic · Topic Chapter 2 · Prepositions

Prepositions — the placing words

One win: put anything anywhere — in the room, from Egypt, to the mosque, for the kitchen, at dawn, after the prayer — on the table, with milk, beside you — with the ten little words Units 1–6 have already used, say the ending that follows them, and know when Arabic uses no little word at all.

Covers Units 1–8 (every line here is on a class page) · this chapter grows with each unit · ≈35 minutes · read after Lesson 8 · new for Unit 8: a second “have”, لِـ with an ending (لي أَطْفالٌ · هَلْ لَكِ …؟ · مَنْ لَها …؟), and لَدَيَّ “I have”, in §7; plus بَعْدَ الدِّراسَةِ and مِنَ النَّوْمِ in the ledger · new for Unit 7: عَنْ, which was in the “still to come” box until this unit drilled it · new for Unit 6: مَعَ set free (مَعَكَ), بِجانِبِكَ, لِلصَّلاةِ as a whole answer, إِلى after مُسافِر / ذاهِب, and قَريبٌ مِنَ: all in the coverage ledger; new for Unit 5: مِنَ الـ, عَلى and بِـ set free in §2–§3

1. Ten little words, one job each

A preposition is a small word that says where something is, which way it is going, who it is for — or, with Unit 4, when it happens. Watch the dot in each picture — that is what the word does. Press ▶ or step with ‹ ›.

2. The three that move you around

في, مِنْ and إِلى do most of the work. Ask one question and the choice makes itself:

عَنْ: the one that goes with “far”

Unit 7 adds a tenth placing word, and it arrives already paired with an adjective. قَريب takes مِنْ; بَعيد takes عَنْ. Learn them as a pair, because guessing gets one of them wrong:

Both take the joining vowel in front of الـ: مِنَ with -a, عَنِ with -i. And the adjective agrees with whatever is near or far, so drill 1 runs seven pairs through both genders:

🔊 The dictionary gives عَنْ as “off, away from; from (source); about, on”. Unit 7 uses only the first of those.

مِنْ becomes مِنَ in front of الـ

This chapter listed مِنَ الـ as still to come. Unit 5 puts it on the class page — the plane dialogue and drill 7 — so it is the book's now:

🔊 The -a is not part of مِنْ. It is a joining vowel: two silent letters may not meet, so one appears to carry you into الـ. Most words join with -i (أَوِ العِنَبَ, لا تَأْكُلِ الطَّعامَ); مِنْ is the one that takes -a. The whole rule, with all four of Unit 5's instances, is §5 of Lesson 5.

Before a word without الـ nothing is needed and مِنْ stays silent: مِنْ فَضْلِكِ، مِنْ مِصْرَ 🔊.

إِلى appeared once in Unit 2 (هَيّا بِنا إِلى المَسْجِدِ). Unit 4 makes it the everyday word for leaving the house — with a verb in front of it, أَذْهَبُ I go, and six destinations (Unit 4 p.1, drill 5):

🔊 school · home · the doctor · the mosque · the engineer · uncle. Three of the six are people: إِلى الطَّبيبِ is “to the doctor's” — Arabic heads to a person exactly as it heads to a place.

3. The two that stick to the next word

لِـ and بِـ are single letters. They never stand alone — they are written joined to whatever follows. Watch what happens when لِـ meets a word that starts with الـ:

بِـ means with or in and joins the same way: بِخَيْرٍ “in goodness” is how you answer “how are you”, and بِنا “with us” sits inside “let's go” 🔊.

Unit 4 gives بِـ its first job outside a fixed phrase: by, for how you travel (Unit 4 p.1). It joins الـ without any fusing — بِـ + الحافِلَة ← بِالحافِلَةِ, all letters kept:

Unit 5 gives the same little word its other everyday job — plain with, for what comes alongside (Unit 5 p.2). Nothing about the word changes; only what it is attached to:

Both keep every letter across الـ — بِـ + الحَليب ← بِالحَليبِ — unlike لِلـ, which drops the alif.

4. Listen to the ending

The word after a preposition changes its last vowel. You have been saying it since Lesson 2 — now hear it on purpose:

5. When? — two time words, and the missing preposition

Unit 4 asks مَتى when? and answers it five ways (Unit 4 pp.1, 3). Three of the answers use a little word, and the noun after it ends in -i exactly as in §4. Watch:

So Arabic has two ways to say when: a little word plus -i (عِنْدَ الفَجْرِ، بَعْدَ الصَّلاةِ، في الصَّباحِ), or no little word and -a on the time word itself (السّاعَةَ …، يَوْمَ …). The book's clock and day lines use the second; copy that shape. (You will also hear في in front of a clock time in speech and in other books — it is not wrong, it is simply not the line on your page.)

6. Hidden inside phrases you already say

Six of the course's fixed phrases have a preposition inside. Knowing that turns them from noises into sentences:

7. Two ways to say “have”

There is no verb “to have”. The landlord says at us (is) a nice flat, and that is “we have a nice flat” (Unit 3 p.2, drills 8–9):

🔊 Notice شَقَّةٌ keeps its normal -un: لَدَيْنا is already a finished word (لَدَى + us), and the flat is the thing that is at us, not the word after the preposition. Unit 8 p.213 adds the I form, لَدَيَّ, “at me”: لَدَيَّ طِفْلٌ واحِدٌ 🔊, I have one child.

The second “have”: لِـ + an ending (Unit 8)

Unit 8 says have a second way, and says it far more often: with لِـ “to, for”. I have children is “to me (are) children” (Unit 8 p.194, frames 5 and 7):

Two things to hear. The vowel moves: on its own the word is لِـ with -i, but before every ending except me it is لَـ, so لَكَ · لَكِ · لَهُ · لَها and only لي keeps the i. The thing you have keeps its -un: أَطْفالٌ, exactly like شَقَّةٌ after لَدَيْنا, because it is the thing that is there, not the word after the preposition. Count it and the number goes in front, keeping its own ending: لي خَمْسَةُ أَطْفالٍ 🔊.

8. Fill the gap

Mixed practice — tap the word that fits, hear the sentence when you get it.

9. Build it yourself

Tap chips right-to-left, say it aloud as you build. Every sentence turns on its preposition. The later ones mix the units; every wrong chip is another preposition or a wrong ending.

10. Quick check

11. Coverage so far

This chapter grows with the course. What it covers as of Unit 8:

12. Where this came from

The prepositions live inside the frames you already drill — go back to Lesson 4, Lesson 3 and the Unit 4 reader and listen for the -i after each one, and the bare -a on the clock. The compact list is in the reference sheet; the other topic chapter is Numbers and Their Forms. Anything unclear? Bring it to your teacher — in class.