Arabic

Letter

ة‎ (تَاء مَرْبُوطَة ‎(tāʾ marbūṭa))

1. ة ‎(tāʾ marbūṭa) is a variant of the letter ت ‎(tāʾ) used at the end of words. It is formed from the letter ه ‎(hāʾ) with the addition of the two overdots of ت ‎(tāʾ).

Usage notes

• It mostly exists in grammatically feminine words. It always follows a fatḥa ـَ ("a"), and it normally has no other sound in modern Arabic. However, a /t/ is added in genitive construct (إِضَافَة ‎(ʾiḍāfa)), and it changes to a normal ت ‎(tāʾ) when a suffix is added, e.g. غُرْفَة ‎(ḡurfa, “a room”) -> غُرْفَتِي ‎(ḡurfatī, “my room”) (غُرْفَة ‎(ḡurfa)‎ (ة‎ -> ت‎) + ـِي ‎(-ī)‎).
• When desinential inflection is used in Classical Arabic or in formal Modern Standard Arabic, non-pausal ة is pronounced as /t/ (preceded by usually unwritten fatḥa "a") and has -u/un, -i/-in, -a/an case endings, e.g. لُغَةٌ - "luḡa" (pausal and informal), "luḡatun" formal, non-pausal pronunciation (nominative case, indefinite).
• Adverbials from tāʾ marbūṭa do not add alif (ا) with fatḥatān. Instead, fatḥatān is attached directly to tāʾ marbūṭa and the "hidden t" is pronounced with the ending "-an" e .g. عَادَةً ‎(ʿādatan, “usually”).
• In a more relaxed orthography ة is replaced with ه ‎(hāʾ) with the same pronunciation, especially in Egypt and Sudan.
• Loanwords in other languages (e.g. Persian or Turkish) from words with tāʾ marbūṭa use the endings at, ah, a or e.

Suffix

ـَة • ‎(-a)

1. suffix used to form feminine adjectives from masculine adjectives
2. suffix used to form feminine nouns from masculine nouns referring to people
3. suffix used to form singulative nouns (referring to one item) from collective nouns (referring to a collection of items), e.g. بَقَرَة ‎(baqara, “cow”) from بَقَر ‎(baqar, “cattle”) or شَجَرَة ‎(šajara, “tree”) from شَجَر ‎(šajar, “trees”)
4. suffix used to form instance nouns (nomina vicis, referring to a single instance of an action) from verbal nouns, e.g. ضَرْبَة ‎(ḍarba, “a blow”) from ضَرْب ‎(ḍarb, “hitting”) or اِنْتِفَاضَة ‎(intifāḍa, “an uprising, an intifada”) from اِنْتِفَاض ‎(intifāḍ, “rising up, shaking off”)
5. suffix used to form abstract nouns from nisba adjectives in ـِيّ ‎(-iyy), e.g. اِشْتِرَاكِيَّة ‎(ištirākiyya, “socialism”) from اِشْتِرَاكِيّ ‎(ištirākiyy, “socialist”) (alternatively, the combination of the two suffixes can be viewed as a single suffix ـِيَّة ‎(-iyya))
6. suffix used to form nouns referring to devices from occupational/characteristic nouns and adjectives (e.g. دَبَّابَة ‎(dabbāba, “tank”) from دَبَّاب ‎(dabbāb, “crawling, crawler”)) and from active participles (e.g. طَابِعَة ‎(ṭābiʿa, “printer (computing device)”) from طَابِع ‎(ṭābiʿ, “printer (person)”))
7. suffix used to form nouns of various sorts from adjectives (e.g. قَرِينَة ‎(qarīna, “connection”) from قَرِين ‎(qarīn, “connected”) or مُعَلَّقَة ‎(muʿallaqa, “poster, placard”) from مُعَلَّقَة ‎(muʿallaqa, “suspended”))

Derived terms