Lesson 11 of 16 · Full sentences
Inna and its sisters
إِنَّ وَأَخَوَاتُهَا
After this lesson: Recognise inna, know the emphasis it adds, and expect the ending it forces.
Inna is placed at the front of a nominal sentence to assert it firmly: 'indeed', 'truly'. English often has to translate it with a whole phrase, or with nothing but a change of tone.
It changes the endings. The subject after inna becomes manṣūb, ending in -a: al-insān becomes inna l-insāna. The statement that follows stays marfūʿ. Seeing that -a after inna is a reliable signpost.
Its 'sisters' work the same way: anna (that), lākinna (but), kaʾanna (as though), laʿalla (perhaps), layta (if only). All of them take a subject in -a.
In the Qur'an
إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لَفِى خُسْرٍ
inna l-insāna la-fī khusr
Indeed mankind is in loss.
Notice. Inna forces l-insāna into -a, and the extra la- on la-fī piles emphasis on emphasis.
فَإِنَّ مَعَ ٱلْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
fa-inna maʿa l-ʿusri yusrā
So indeed, with hardship comes ease.
Notice. Here the statement is brought forward before the subject yusran — emphasis on top of emphasis.
Check yourself
Nothing is scored or saved here — answering is how the rule sticks. When you want a score, the same checks are drilled to mastery below.
What ending does the subject take after inna?
Which of these is a 'sister' of inna?
Word morphology, grammar and syntax trees are shown by the Quranic Arabic Corpus (corpus.quran.com), the annotated linguistic resource developed at the University of Leeds.