Idaafa
Idaafa is one of the common ways to express possession in Arabic.
English uses ‘’ ‘S’’, or ‘’ of’’ to show possession or ownership of something.
In Arabic, we can put two nouns together to show possession or ownership of something.
Noun +noun:
The noun being possessed المضاف appears first, followed by the noun referring to the owner المضاف اليه
Example
Ali’s book كتاب علي kitaab Ali.
The Student’s book كتاب الطالب kitaab attaalib.
Qatar University جامعة قطر Jaami-at Ghadar.
In the Idaafa construction, the second noun usually has al الـ unless it is name of a person, the first noun never has it.
Qatar قطر Ghadar does not begin with al) (الـ because it is a proper noun
Note that if the idaafa noun ends with a taa marbuuta (ة) -ah is pronounced at.