However, in Semitic languages with grammatical case, such as Classical Arabic, the modifying noun in a genitive construction is placed in the genitive case in addition to marking the head noun with the construct state (compare, e.g., "John's book" where "John" is in the genitive [possessive] case and "book" cannot take definiteness marking (a, the) like in the construct state).
In some languages, e.g. Biblical Hebrew and the modern varieties of Arabic, feminine construct-state nouns preserve an original -t suffix that has dropped out in other circumstances.
In these languages (e.g. Modern Hebrew and Moroccan Arabic), the construct state is used mostly in forming compound nouns.
However, the lack of a construct state is generally considered informal, and is inappropriate for formal speech.
Formal Classical Arabic uses the feminine marker -t in all circumstances other than before a pause, but the normal spoken form of the literary language omits it except in a construct-state noun.
In the spoken varieties of Arabic, the use of the construct state has varying levels of productivity.
In Moroccan Arabic, the construct state is used only in forming compound nouns; in all other cases, dyal "of" or d- "of" is used.
In all these varieties, the longer form with the "of" particle (a periphrastic form) is the normal usage in more complicated constructions (e.g. with an adjective qualifying the head noun, as in the above example "the beautiful queen of the nation") or with nouns marked with a dual or sound plural suffix.
"The king's house" can be expressed in several ways: In later Aramaic, the construct state became less common.
[3] As in Arabic, the smikhut construct state, the indefinite, and definite states may be expressed succinctly in a table: Modern Hebrew grammar makes extensive use of the preposition shel (evolved as a contraction of she-le- "which (is belonging) to") to mean both "of" and "belonging to".
The construct state (סמיכות smikhút) — in which two nouns are combined, the first being modified or possessed by the second — is not highly productive in Modern Hebrew.
Compare the classical Hebrew construct-state with the more analytic Israeli Hebrew phrase, both meaning "the mother of the child", i.e. "the child's mother":[4] ’emmother:CONSTRUCTha-yéledthe-child’em ha-yéledmother:CONSTRUCT the-childha-ímathe-mothershelofha-yéledthe-childha-íma shel ha-yéledthe-mother of the-childHowever, the construct state is still used in Modern Hebrew fixed expressions and names, as well as to express various roles of the dependent (the second noun), including: repúblika-tbanánotrepúblika-t banánot"Banana Republic"hofaa-tperformance-CONSTRUCTbkhoraprecedencehofaa-t bkhoraperformance-CONSTRUCT precedence"premiere"mevakércritic:CONSTRUCTha-mdináthe-statemevakér ha-mdinácritic:CONSTRUCT the-state"the State Comptroller"moreteacher:CONSTRUCTderekhwaymore derekhteacher:CONSTRUCT way"guide"orekharranger:CONSTRUCTdinlaworekh dinarranger:CONSTRUCT law"lawyer"menora-tlamp-CONSTRUCTkirwallmenora-t kirlamp-CONSTRUCT wall"wall lamp"Hebrew adjectival phrases composed of an adjective and a noun feature adjectives in the construct state, as in: sh'vúrbroken-CONSTRUCTlévheartsh'vúr lévbroken-CONSTRUCT heart"heartbroken"In Berber, the construct state is used for the possessor, for objects of prepositions, nouns following numerals, and subjects occurring before their verb (modified from the normal VSO order).