Tanween in Arabic: The Double Vowel Marks (التنوين)

Tanween in Arabic: The Double Vowel Marks (التنوين)

After learning about the Arabic alphabet, vowels, and how definite nouns work with "ال", it’s time to understand how indefinite nouns are marked using Tanween (تنوين)—a special diacritic that adds a subtle but important sound to words.

1. What Is Tanween (التنوين)?

Tanween is the doubling of short vowel marks at the end of a noun to indicate that it is indefinite (i.e., it means “a” or “an” in English).

There are three types of Tanween:

Symbol	Name	Sound	Used When...
ـً	Fathatain	-an	After a short "a" sound
ـٍ	Kasratain	-in	After a short "i" sound
ـٌ	Dammatain	-un	After a short "u" sound

2. Examples of Tanween in Use

Let’s look at how Tanween works with Arabic words:

Arabic Word	With Tanween	Transliteration	Meaning
كتاب (book)	كتابٌ	kitaabun	a book
قلم (pen)	قلمٍ	qalamin	a pen
ولد (boy)	ولدًا	waladan	a boy (object)

🔸 Note: Tanween usually appears only on nouns and never on verbs.

3. Tanween and Grammatical Roles

Tanween also helps show the grammatical case of a word in Formal Arabic (Fus-ha):

Case	Tanween Symbol	Function	Example
Nominative	ـٌ (Dammatain)	Subject of the sentence	هذا كتابٌ (This is a book)
Accusative	ـً (Fathatain)	Object of the sentence	قرأتُ كتابًا (I read a book)
Genitive	ـٍ (Kasratain)	After prepositions/possessives	من كتابٍ (from a book)

4. Special Note on Fathatain (ـً)

When using Fathatain (ـً), an extra Alif (ا) is usually added before the mark, unless the word ends in taa marbuta (ة) or hamza on Alif (أ).

Example:

• كتابًــا = kitaaban ✅
• مدرسةً = madrasatan (no extra Alif) ✅

5. When NOT to Use Tanween

You do not use Tanween when:

• The noun has "ال" (the definite article)
• The noun is a proper name (most of the time)
• You are writing informal Arabic (Tanween is often omitted)

Examples:

❌ الكتابٌ (Incorrect – definite nouns don’t take Tanween)
✅ الكتابُ = al-kitaabu (the book)

6. Practice Activities

• Activity 1: Tanween Matching – Match nouns with the correct Tanween based on sentence roles.
• Activity 2: Fill in the Blank – Complete sentences using the right Tanween ending.
• Activity 3: Listening Exercise – Hear the difference between words with and without Tanween.

Why Tanween Matters

Understanding Tanween is crucial for:

• Reading and writing Modern Standard Arabic
• Understanding Qur’anic grammar
• Gaining fluency in Arabic pronunciation patterns

What’s Next?

Now that you’ve mastered Tanween, our next post will focus on Taa Marbuta (ة) and Taa Mabsoota (ت)—two letters that may look similar, but serve different grammatical and phonetic purposes.

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