In short

Lesson 2 gave you a خَبَر that was one word: البَيْتُ كَبيرٌ. That is only the smallest of its three shapes. A خَبَر can also be a whole clause (البَيْتُ بابُهُ واسِعٌ, “the house - its door is wide”) or a preposition with its noun (الكِتابُ عَلى الطّاوِلَةِ). Nothing new is added to the sentence: it is still مُبْتَدَأ plus خَبَر, still verbless, still a جُمْلَةٌ اسْمِيَّةٌ. Only the second slot has grown.

The third shape is the one that pays off immediately, because it is how Arabic says “I have”. There is no verb that does the work of English “to have” - not at A1, not later. Instead you take a prepositional predicate, move it to the front, and let the thing owned follow as an indefinite subject: عِنْدي كِتابٌ, “with-me a-book”. The same move gives you “there is”: في الغُرْفَةِ رَجُلٌ، هُناكَ مُشْكِلَةٌ. Learn one small mechanism here and two of the most frequent sentence types in Arabic come with it.

The rule

1. The خَبَر comes in three shapes. Arabic grammar names them, and the names are worth knowing because every later lesson uses them.

• خَبَرٌ مُفْرَدٌ - a single word, a noun or an adjective, normally indefinite, and مَرْفوع: البَيْتُ كَبيرٌ، سَميرٌ مُهَنْدِسٌ. This is lesson 2.
• خَبَرٌ جُمْلَةٌ - a complete sentence doing the job of the predicate: البَيْتُ بابُهُ واسِعٌ، الوَلَدُ يَلْعَبُ في الحَديقَةِ.
• خَبَرٌ شِبْهُ جُمْلَةٍ - “quasi-sentence”: a preposition plus its noun (جارٌّ ومَجْرورٌ) or a place/time word (ظَرْفٌ): الكِتابُ عَلى الطّاوِلَةِ، المُدَرِّسُ في الصَّفِّ، الحَقيبَةُ تَحْتَ السَّريرِ.

2. A خَبَر that is a clause needs a pronoun pointing back. In البَيْتُ بابُهُ واسِعٌ the predicate clause is بابُهُ واسِعٌ, itself a miniature nominal sentence with its own مُبْتَدَأ (بابُهُ) and خَبَر (واسِعٌ). What ties it to البَيْتُ is the little ـهُ on بابُ. That pronoun is called الرّابِط, “the link”, and it is compulsory: remove it and the two halves fall apart. It agrees with the outer مُبْتَدَأ in gender and number: الشَّقَّةُ نَوافِذُها كَبيرَةٌ، الطّالِبُ خَطُّهُ جَميلٌ، المَدينَةُ شَوارِعُها نَظيفَةٌ.

You write no case ending on the clause as a whole - a sentence has no vowel to carry. The grammarians say it stands فِي مَحَلِّ رَفْعٍ, “in the position of the nominative”. For now that is a label, not a task.

3. Word order flips when the مُبْتَدَأ is indefinite. The default is مُبْتَدَأ then خَبَر. But lesson 2 also said the مُبْتَدَأ must be definite - and “I have a book” needs an indefinite one, because the book is new information. Arabic resolves the conflict by moving the شِبْهُ الجُمْلَةِ to the front:

عِنْدي كِتابٌ. / لي أَخٌ. / في الغُرْفَةِ رَجُلٌ.

The fronted predicate is now a خَبَرٌ مُقَدَّمٌ (“advanced predicate”) and the noun behind it a مُبْتَدَأٌ مُؤَخَّرٌ (“delayed subject”). This is not stylistic preference and not emphasis: with an indefinite subject the fronting is required. *كِتابٌ عِنْدي is not a sentence a native writer produces.

With a definite subject both orders are available and both are normal: الكِتابُ عِنْدي and عِنْدي الكِتابُ. Then, though, the meaning is different - “the book is with me”, about a book already under discussion. So عِنْدي الكِتابُ can never be your translation of “I have a book”.

4. The delayed subject stays مَرْفوع and indefinite. It is the subject of the sentence, not an object of anything, so it wears ـٌ: عِنْدي كِتابٌ، لي أَخٌ، في الغُرْفَةِ رَجُلٌ. Watch the two different endings sitting side by side in one short sentence: the noun after the preposition is مَجْرور (الغُرْفَةِ, with a kasra) while the delayed subject is مَرْفوع (رَجُلٌ, with tanwīn ḍamma). Neither one ever takes a fatḥa here.

5. عِنْدَ and مَعَ keep their fatḥa. Both are ظَرْف words - a place word and an accompaniment word - and both stand in the accusative, which is where their fatḥa comes from. It stays put in front of the attached pronouns: عِنْدَكَ، عِنْدَهُ، مَعَنا، never *عِنْدُكَ or *عِنْدِكَ. The one exception is the first person, where the ـي pulls a kasra in front of itself here as it does everywhere else (lesson 7): the د of عِنْدي and the ع of مَعي carry that kasra, not a fatḥa - never *عِنْدَي، *مَعَي. The only other place عِنْدَ changes shape is after مِنْ, which pulls it into the genitive: مِنْ عِنْدِهِ “from his place”. As always a final short vowel is inaudible at a pause: someone answering هَلْ عِنْدَهُ قَلَمٌ؟ with a bare نَعَمْ، عِنْدَهُ stops on عِنْدَهْ. The ḍamma is still written.

Meanwhile لِـ behaves as lesson 7 described: it switches its kasra to a fatḥa in front of every suffix except the first person - لَكَ، لَهُ، لَها، لَنا، لَهُمْ, but لي.

6. Three words for “have”, and they are not interchangeable. English flattens all of this into one verb; Arabic makes you choose.

• عِنْدَ - “in one’s keeping”. Things you possess or have available: money, a car, a question, an appointment, time, an idea. عِنْدي سَيّارَةٌ، عِنْدَنا اِمْتِحانٌ غَدًا، عِنْدَها فِكْرَةٌ. This is the everyday default for objects.
• لِـ - ownership in the fuller sense, plus kinship, rights and inherent properties. Relatives take لِـ, not عِنْدَ: لي أَخٌ “I have a brother”. So do rights and characteristics: لَهُ حَقٌّ في ذٰلِكَ، لَها صَوْتٌ جَميلٌ، لِلْمَدينَةِ تاريخٌ طَويلٌ.
• مَعَ - “on me right now”, physically in hand or in pocket. هَلْ مَعَكَ قَلَمٌ؟ asks whether you are carrying a pen this second; هَلْ عِنْدَكَ قَلَمٌ؟ asks whether you own one. مَعي المِفْتاحُ means the key is on my person.

The line between عِنْدَ and لِـ is not absolute in modern usage, and عِنْدي أَخٌ is heard. But the pairs عِنْدي سَيّارَةٌ / لي أَخٌ are the safe, standard defaults, and كِتابٌ لي “a book of mine” (lesson 7) is only ever لِـ.

7. Followed by a noun instead of a pronoun. All three take a full noun as easily as a suffix, and the noun that follows is مَجْرور with a kasra: عِنْدَ الطَّبيبِ وَقْتٌ، مَعَ سَميرٍ حَقيبَةٌ، لِـ الطُّلّابِ حُقوقٌ - written as one word, لِلطُّلّابِ. After لِـ that kasra comes from the preposition itself (lesson 16); after عِنْدَ and مَعَ it comes from a construct, the إِضافَة of lesson 20. Same visible result either way.

8. هُناكَ for “there is”. هُناكَ is simply the locative adverb “there” - a different word from the demonstrative pronouns of lesson 13, though it is built on the same هُنا/هُناكَ pair mentioned there - and modern Arabic uses it exactly as English uses existential “there”:

هُناكَ مُشْكِلَةٌ. / هُناكَ مَطْعَمٌ قَريبٌ. / هُناكَ طالِبٌ في المَكْتَبِ.

Structurally it is the same sentence you have just learned: a fronted predicate with a delayed indefinite subject, still مَرْفوع, still tanwīn’d. The word هُناكَ itself never changes - no gender, no number, no ending. And its subject is normally indefinite: *هُناكَ الرَّجُلُ فِي الغُرْفَةِ is not “the man is in the room”; for that you write الرَّجُلُ فِي الغُرْفَةِ, a plain nominal sentence with a definite subject.

Where the location is stated, plain fronting is just as good and slightly more elegant: في الغُرْفَةِ رَجُلٌ، أَمامَ البَيْتِ حَديقَةٌ صَغيرَةٌ. Use هُناكَ when there is no location to name.

9. أَنا عِنْدي - grammatical, but not the default. Learners add the pronoun because English has “I”. Arabic does not need it: the ـي inside عِنْدي already says who. Written out, أَنا عِنْدي سَيّارَةٌ is in fact a خَبَرٌ جُمْلَةٌ from rule 2 - أَنا is the مُبْتَدَأ, عِنْدي سَيّارَةٌ is a whole sentence serving as its predicate, and the ي is the link pronoun. So it is well formed, and it reads as contrastive: “I have a car (whatever the others have).” As a neutral statement, drop أَنا.

10. Not in this lesson. Saying you do not have something needs لَيْسَ عِنْدي, which is lesson 23. Saying you had something needs كانَ عِنْدي, lesson 32 - and in both cases the noun owned stays exactly as you see it here, مَرْفوع and indefinite, because a شِبْهُ جُمْلَةٍ predicate has no ending of its own to hand it: كانَ عِنْدي كِتابٌ, never *كانَ عِنْدي كِتابًا. The formal يوجَدُ / لا يوجَدُ “there exists”, a passive verb, waits for lesson 52. Everything on this page is present, positive and verbless.

Forms & patterns

The three shapes of خَبَر

عِنْدَ، لِـ، مَعَ with the attached pronouns

The remaining four persons are built the same way and are left out only to keep the table readable: عِنْدَكُنَّ، عِنْدَهُنَّ، لَكُنَّ، لَهُنَّ، مَعَكُنَّ، مَعَهُنَّ for the feminine plural, and عِنْدَكُما، عِنْدَهُما، لَكُما، لَهُما، مَعَكُما، مَعَهُما for the dual. Note that هُ keeps its ḍamma throughout here, because a fatḥa comes before it (lesson 7).

The fronted pattern, slot by slot

Choosing between the three

Examples

Common mistakes

• عِنْدي الكِتابُ. (meaning “I have a book”) -> عِنْدي كِتابٌ. - The delayed subject must stay indefinite. With الـ you have said “I have the book”, about one already known to your listener.
• كِتابٌ عِنْدي. -> عِنْدي كِتابٌ. - An indefinite subject cannot open the sentence. The شِبْهُ الجُمْلَةِ has to be fronted; that is what licenses the indefinite noun.
• عِنْدي كِتابًا. -> عِنْدي كِتابٌ. - كِتابٌ is the مُبْتَدَأ of the sentence, not an object. There is no verb here to put anything in the accusative.
• أَنا أَمْلِكُ قَلَمًا. (meaning “I have a pen”) -> مَعي قَلَمٌ. - Do not hunt for a verb “to have”. مَلَكَ - يَمْلِكُ “to own” does exist and is right for real ownership (يَمْلِكُ سَيّارَةً “he owns a car”), but it is too heavy for a pen in your pocket, and it will not translate “I have a question / an exam / a brother” at all.
• أَنا عِنْدي سَيّارَةٌ. (as a neutral statement) -> عِنْدي سَيّارَةٌ. - The ـي already names the owner. أَنا is grammatical but adds contrast you probably did not intend.
• عِنْدُكَ وَقْتٌ؟ / لِكَ بَيْتٌ جَميلٌ. -> هَلْ عِنْدَكَ وَقْتٌ؟ / لَكَ بَيْتٌ جَميلٌ. - Both words wear a fatḥa in front of a suffix: عِنْدَ keeps the one it always has, and لِـ swaps its kasra for one. The exception is the first-person ـي, which takes a kasra in front of itself in all three: لي، عِنْدي، مَعي.
• مَعي أَخٌ في القاهِرَةِ. (meaning “I have a brother in Cairo”) -> لي أَخٌ في القاهِرَةِ. - مَعَ would mean he is standing next to you. Relatives belong to لِـ.
• هُناكَ الرَّجُلُ في الغُرْفَةِ. -> في الغُرْفَةِ رَجُلٌ. / الرَّجُلُ في الغُرْفَةِ. - هُناكَ introduces something new, so its noun is indefinite. A definite noun makes a plain nominal sentence instead.
• البَيْتُ بابُ واسِعٌ. -> البَيْتُ بابُهُ واسِعٌ. - A clause used as a خَبَر needs the link pronoun tying it back to the مُبْتَدَأ. Without ـهُ the two halves are unrelated.
• الكِتابُ عَلى الطّاوِلَةُ. -> الكِتابُ عَلى الطّاوِلَةِ. - Inside the شِبْهُ الجُمْلَةِ the preposition still governs its noun: kasra, not ḍamma.

Tips

• Translate “I have” as “with me is” in your head, and the word order sorts itself out before you write anything: with-me a-book, to-me a-brother, in-the-room a-man.
• Fix the two endings as a pair: kasra behind the preposition, tanwīn ḍamma on the thing owned - في الغُرْفَةِ رَجُلٌ. If both your words end alike, one of them is wrong.
• Drill the three columns as three short chants - عِنْدي، عِنْدَكَ، عِنْدَكِ، عِنْدَهُ… then لي، لَكَ، لَكِ، لَهُ… then مَعي، مَعَكَ، مَعَكِ، مَعَهُ… They are the same twelve endings you already learned in lesson 7, so this is revision, not new memorising.
• Sort your vocabulary as you meet it: cars, money, time and questions go with عِنْدَ; brothers, sisters, rights and voices go with لِـ; keys, phones and pens in your pocket go with مَعَ.
• Whenever a sentence of yours starts with an indefinite noun, stop and reverse it. That single check catches most errors this pattern produces.
• Use هُناكَ freely for “there is” - it is unmarked, modern and invariable - but prefer plain fronting when you are naming the place anyway.
• Ignore for now the emphatic fronting of literary style, where the order itself carries the rhetoric (لِلَّهِ الأَمْرُ and the like). It is real, and nothing at A1 needs it.
• Do not try to negate or move any of this into the past yet. لَيْسَ عِنْدي and كانَ عِنْدي leave the noun owned untouched - it is worth previewing that now - and the full pattern has a lesson of its own waiting at 23 and 32.