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JAMB Arabic Syllabus 2026/2027
Complete official UTME Arabic syllabus — all topics, sub-topics and JAMB learning objectives. Study what actually comes out, nothing extra.
5
Sections
60
Questions
JAMB Arabic Syllabus PDF
Official JAMB document • Free download
Section A
A
Comprehension
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1. Comprehension Passage
- A passage of approximately 70 words in standard Arabic
- Five multiple-choice questions set on the passage
- Content drawn from candidates' experience: current affairs, sports, education, politics, economy, health, culture and ethics
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Use appropriate words or phrases for specific thought
- Deduce the lesson in the passage
- Determine the main theme of the passage
- Give an appropriate title to the passage
- Interpret the meanings of particular words
Section B
B
Translation
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1. Translation (English ↔ Arabic)
- Ten questions in total: five on translation from English into Arabic, five on translation from Arabic into English
- Translation into English includes key words and phrases in a sentence
- Questions based on standard Arabic and English usages
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Use an appropriate Arabic word or phrase to convey the meaning of an English word or phrase
- Determine an appropriate English word or phrase for an Arabic statement
- Interpret idiomatic expressions in both Arabic and English
- Transfer ideas expressed in Arabic to English and vice versa
- Communicate effectively in Arabic and English
Section C
C
Grammar
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1. Pronouns and Demonstratives
- Demonstrative pronouns (أسماء الإشارة)
- Relative pronouns (الموصولة)
- Conditional pronouns (الشرط)
- Interrogative pronouns (الاستفهام)
- Separable and inseparable pronouns (الضمائر المنفصلة والمتصلة)
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Identify the various forms of demonstrative and relative pronouns
- Differentiate between separable and inseparable pronouns
2. Nouns: Gender, Number and Case
- Gender: Masculine and Feminine (المذكر والمؤنث)
- Characteristics of the noun (عَلامات الاسم)
- Dual form (المثنى)
- Plurals: sound masculine plural (جمع المذكر السالم), sound feminine plural (جمع المؤنث السالم), broken plural (جمع التكسير)
- Construct phrase (المضاف والمضاف إليه)
- Nouns in the accusative (منصوبات الأسماء): direct object, adverbs of place and time, adverb of circumstance, the exempted with illā, the specification, the vocative
- Subject and predicate (المبتدأ والخبر)
- Active and passive voice / doer and doer-substitute (الفاعل ونائب الفاعل)
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Compare gender markers in Arabic
- Identify the characteristics of Arabic nouns
- Differentiate between singular and dual forms of nouns
- Construct plural forms of singular nouns
- Identify construct phrases and their usages
- Distinguish between doer and doer-substitute and apply them in sentences
- Identify different types of adverbial clause, the exempted, specification and the vocative and use them in standard Arabic
3. Appendants (التوابع)
- Adjective (النعت)
- Conjunction (العطف)
- The permutative (البدل)
- Emphasis (التوكيد)
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Identify correct usage of adjectives, conjunctions, permutative and emphasis in Arabic sentences
4. Prepositions
- Prepositions (حروف الجر)
- Particles of nasb (حروف النصب)
- Particles of jazm (حروف الجزم)
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Apply correct preposition particles in a given sentence
5. Verbs
- Transitive and intransitive verbs (الفعل اللازم والفعل المتعدي)
- The perfect verb (الفعل الماضي)
- The imperfect verb (فعل المضارع): indicative (المرفوع), subjunctive (المنصوب), jussive (المجزوم)
- The imperative verb (فعل الأمر)
- Trilateral and derived verb (الفعل الثلاثي المجرد والمزيد فيه)
- Verbal noun (المصدر)
- Conditional sentence (الجملة الشرطية)
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Differentiate between transitive and intransitive verbs and use them in sentences
- Identify the perfect verbs and their forms
- Identify the imperfect verbs and their grammatical forms in sentences
- Identify the imperative verbs and their forms
- Differentiate between trilateral and derived verbs
- Apply the rules governing conditional sentences, identify, construct and differentiate them in normal sentences
6. Modifiers (النواسخ)
- Kāna and its associates (كان وأخواتها)
- Inna and its associates (إن وأخواتها)
- Zanna and its associates (ظن وأخواتها)
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Identify the kinds of modifiers and apply them in Arabic usage
7. Derivatives (المشتقات)
- Active participle (اسم الفاعل)
- Passive participle (اسم المفعول)
- Comparative/superlative (اسم التفضيل)
- Noun of instrument (اسم الآلة)
- Nouns of time and place (اسما الزمان والمكان)
- Relative adjective (اسم النسبة)
- Hyperbole noun (اسم المبالغة)
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Identify the types of derivatives
8. Numerals
- Arabic numerals from 1 to 1000 (العدد ١ – ١٠٠٠ فقط)
- Intricacies of numeral usage in Arabic
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Recognise and count Arabic numerals from 1 to 1000 and identify the intricacies involved in their usage
Section D
D
Composition
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1. Arabic Composition
- Five questions on subjects relating to candidates' lives and environment
- Topics include: education, culture, health, politics, economy, sports and current affairs
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Use appropriate words for specific thoughts
- Use correct idiomatic expressions in Arabic
- Communicate effectively in Arabic
- Express ideas clearly in Arabic
- Demonstrate the use of common Arabic idioms and proverbs
Section E
E
Arabic Literature
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1. Introduction to Arabic Literature
- Definition, divisions and genres of literature (الأدب: تعريفه وأقسامه وفنونه)
- Literary periods (العصور الأدبية)
- Poetry: definition, types and purposes (الشعر: تعريفه وأنواعه وأغراضه)
- Prose: definition and genres (النثر: تعريفه وفنونه)
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Identify the essence of Arabic literature: poetry, prose and their periods
2. The Pre-Islamic Period (c. 500 – 610 CE)
- Al-Shanfarā and his poem "Aqīmū banī ummī ṣudūra maṭiyyakum…"
- Aktham ibn al-Ṣayfī al-Tamīmī and his oration before Kisrā "Inna afḍala al-ashyā'…"
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Identify pre-Islamic Arabic poetic and prosaic traditions and conventions
3. The Islamic Periods (610 – 1798 CE)
- Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf al-Thaqafī and his admonitory oration "Ayyuhā al-nās qad aṣbaḥtum fī…"
- ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and his oration on sincerity in jihad
- ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Muqaffaʿ and his epistle on friendship "Abdhul li-ṣadīqika…"
- Jarīr ibn ʿAṭiyya and his poem in praise of Caliph ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Identify and analyse the style of figurative expressions contained in a given Islamic literature
4. The Modern Period (1798 CE to date)
- Aḥmad Shawqī and his poem "Al-ʿIlm wa al-taʿlīm wa wājib al-muʿallim"
- Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān and his poem Al-Mawkib "Al-khayr fī al-nās maṣnūʿ…"
- ʿAbbās Maḥmūd al-ʿAqqād and his book "Al-Lugha al-shāʿira"
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Describe the aesthetic features in literary texts and assess their modern cultural values
5. Arabic Literature in West Africa
- Asmāʾ bint al-Shaykh ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī and her poem "Aʿyunī jūdā wa abkiyā li-ḥabībatī"
- ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Qādir al-ʿAsalī and his book "Qiṣṣat ʿabath al-ṭufūla"
- Muḥammad al-Amīn Sāmbō Ghassāma and his poem "Al-iftikhhār bi al-qārra al-ifrīqiyya al-ʿarīqa"
- Yaḥyā Ādam al-Fulānī and his book "Ahl al-Takrūr"
What JAMB expects you to do:
- Evaluate areas of successful use of Arabic as a medium of West African literature, analyse their contents and describe their major characteristics and themes
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Now Practice JAMB Arabic Past Questions
Reading the syllabus is step one. The fastest way to score high is to practice real past questions from every year — with instant answers and explanations.
Practice Arabic Past Questions →📚 JAMB Recommended Textbooks
These are the official books listed by JAMB for Arabic preparation:
📖 Bashīr Aḥmad Muḥyī al-Dīn & al-Marḍī Mukhtār al-Marḍī — Al-Muṭālaʿa al-wāḍiḥa, Ṭan al-Mī wa-Abnāʾihi, Kano
📖 Sayyid Ḥamra Mālik (2005) — Al-Inshāʾ al-ʿArabī al-mutawassiṭ (li-al-madāris al-thānawiyya), Ibadan University Press
📖 ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Ṣabrī & ʿAlī ʿUmar Bak — Al-Qirāʾa al-rashīda, Parts 1–4, Dār al-Maʿārif, Cairo
📖 ʿAbdullāh al-Ṭayyib — Samīr al-talāmīdh, Parts 1–2, Maktab al-Nashr, Khartoum
📖 Gharb Ṭ. Zāriyā (1999) — Kayfa taktub al-inshāʾ, Bayero University Press, Kano
📖 Muḥammad al-Awwal Abūbakar et al. — Al-ʿArabiyya al-muyassara al-jadīda li-al-marḥala al-thānawiyya, Spectrum Books, Ibadan
📖 Muḥammad Badīʿ Sharīf, Salīm Ḥakīm & al-Ḥājj Ḥusayn Ādamū — Al-ʿArabiyya al-jadīda fī Nījiryā, Books 1–3, Longman, Lagos
📖 Adekilekun, A.L.A. — Learning Arabic Language, Ilorin
📖 Balogun, I.A.B. & Oseni, Z.I. (1982) — A Modern Arabic Course Book 1, Islamic Publications Bureau, Lagos
📖 Haywood, J.A. & Nahmad, H.M. (1965) — A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language, Lund Humphries, London
📖 Malik, S.H.A. (1982) — A Guide to Arabic Composition, Books I & II, Islamic Publications Bureau, Lagos
📖 Arabic newspapers, magazines and journals
📖 ʿAlī al-Jārim & Muṣṭafā Amīn — Al-Naḥw al-wāḍiḥ li-madāris al-marḥala al-awwaliyya, Parts 1–3, Dār al-Maʿārif, Cairo
📖 Muḥammad Ājurūm al-Ṣanhājī — Matn al-Ājurūmiyya, Cairo
📖 Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd — Al-Tuḥfa al-saniyya bi-sharḥ al-muqaddima al-Ājurūmiyya, Dār al-Fikr, Beirut
📖 Aḥmad al-Iskandarī et al. — Al-Mufaṣṣal fī tārīkh al-adab al-ʿArabī, al-Maʿārif al-ʿUmūmiyya, Cairo
📖 Zakariyyā Ḥusayn (2004) — Al-Māʾida al-adabiyya li-al-ṭullāb al-ʿArab fī Ifrīqiyā, Dār al-Nūr, Ọtị
📖 ʿAbdullāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Fūdī — Tazyin al-waraqāt, Ibadan University Press
📖 ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Dūnald Shuʿayt (2009) — Al-Shiʿr al-ʿArabī al-Nījiryī bayna al-māḍī wa-al-ḥāḍir, Bek Press, Niger State
📖 ʿĪsā Albī Abūbakar (Dr.) — Dīwān al-riyāḍ, Al-Nahār, Iwo
📖 Murtaḍā Badmāṣī (1997) — Mustaqbal al-lugha al-ʿArabiyya fī Nījiryā, Dār al-Nashr al-Islāmiyya, Lagos
📖 Ṣiddīq Fārūq Abū al-Riḍā — Mukhtārāt min tawjīhāt al-minbar li-al-Shaykh Ādam ʿAbdullāh al-Ilūrī, Dār al-Maʿrifa, Cairo
📖 Muḥammad Thālith Mī Angū (2006) — Limādhā yakrahūnanā, 2nd ed., Sumbash Press, Kano
Common Questions 🤔
JAMB Arabic has five sections: Section A (Comprehension — 5 questions), Section B (Translation — 10 questions), Section C (Grammar), Section D (Composition — 5 questions), and Section E (Arabic Literature — 10 questions). Grammar carries the most questions and covers 22 distinct grammatical topics.
JAMB sets 60 questions in Arabic. The distribution is: 5 on Comprehension, 10 on Translation, the bulk on Grammar, 5 on Composition and 10 on Arabic Literature. Mastering Grammar and Literature gives the greatest advantage.
The highest-yield grammar areas are verbs (perfect, imperfect and imperative), the modifiers Kāna, Inna and Zanna with their associates, noun plurals (sound masculine, sound feminine and broken plural), the construct phrase (iḍāfa), and nouns in the accusative case. These appear in almost every sitting.
Section E covers four literary periods: the Pre-Islamic Period (c. 500–610 CE), the Islamic Periods (610–1798 CE), the Modern Period (1798 CE to date), and Arabic Literature in West Africa. You must know the key authors and works in each period — especially the West African writers since these are unique to the Nigerian JAMB syllabus.
The West African Arabic Literature section (Section E, Topic 5) requires knowledge of four writers: Asmāʾ bint ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī (poet), ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Qādir al-ʿAsalī (prose writer), Muḥammad al-Amīn Sāmbō Ghassāma (poet), and Yaḥyā Ādam al-Fulānī (prose writer). Know their works, styles and themes.
The five-section structure of the Arabic syllabus — Comprehension, Translation, Grammar, Composition and Literature — has remained stable. The grammar section remains the most extensive, covering 22 topics. Always practise past questions from 2023 onwards to stay current with JAMB's question style.