C: The Verb يَرى , رأى

The verb رأى, يرى is perhaps the only truly irregular verb in the language. In the past tense it conjugates exactly like the verb بني, يبني However, in the present tense this verb has two peculiarities. The first is that the middle radical, the hamza, disappears completely. The second is that it ends in an alif maqsuura instead of in a ي the way يبني , بنى does, as do all verbs belonging to that particular class of defective verbs. Whenever this alif maqsuura has to be shortened, it is shortened to a fatha, which is what we would expect. Below are the complete conjugations for يرى , رأى .

Jussive

Present

Past

Singular

أَرَ

أَرى

رأَيْت

أنا

تَرَ

تَرى

رأَيْتَ

أنتَ

تَرَىْ

تَرَيْنَ

رأَيْتِ

أنتِ

يَرَ

يَرى

رَأى

هو

تَرَ

تَرى

رَأتْ

هي

Dual

تَرَيا

تَرَيانِ

رأَيتما

أنتُما

يَرَيا

يَرَيانِ

رأيا

هما (m)

تَرَيا

تَرَيانِ

رأتا

هما (f)

Plural

نَرَ

نَرى

رأَيْنا

نَحْنَ

تَرَوْا

تَرَوْنَ

رأَيتم

أنتُم

تَرَيْنَ

تَرَيْنَ

رأَيْتنَّ

أنتُنَّ

يَرَوْا

يَرَوْنَ

رَأَوْا

هم

يَرَيْنَ

يَرَيْنَ

رأَيْنَ

هنَّ

Here are the command conjugations for يَرى , رأى. I know they look funny, but we have seen the same kind of thing before in Part II with verbs like يفي , وفى.

Command

Pronoun

رَ

أنتَ

رَيْ

أنتِ

رَيا

أنتما

رَوْا

انتم

رَيْنَ

انتنَّ

There is another similar verb يى , يَأى meaning “to be quiet” or “to be calm”. It can also mean “to disappear.” It also loses the middle radical of hamza in the imperfect as well as ending in an alif maqsuura instead of a ي . However, unlike most verbs whose first radical is a yaa’, it loses that yaa’ in the imperfect as well.(See note 1 below) This is analogous to verbs we saw in Chapter One of Part I such as يَجِدُ , وَجَدَ and يَعي , وعى For the sake of completeness, below are the complete conjugations for the verb يَى , يَأى

Jussive

Present

Past

Singular

أَ

أي

يَأَيْتُ

أنا

تَ

تي

يَأَيْتَ

أنتَ

تَيْ

تَيْنَ

يَأَيْتِ

أنتِ

يَ

يى

يَأَي

هو

تَ

تى

يَأَتْ

هي

Dual

تَيا

تَيانِ

يَأَيْتُما

أنتُما

يَيا

يَيانِ

يَأَيا

هما (m)

تَيا

تَيانِ

يَأَتا

هما (f)

Plural

نَ

نى

يَأَيْنا

نَحْنَ

تَوْا

تَوْنَ

يَأَيْتُم

أنتُم

تَيْنَ

تَيْنَ

يَأَيْتُنَّ

أنتُنَّ

يَوْا

يَوْنَ

يَأَيْنَ

هم

يَيْنَ

يَيْنَ

يَأَوْا

هنَّ

Here are the command conjugations for يى , يَأى

Command

Pronoun

أنتَ

أنتِ

يا

أنتما

انتم

إِيْنَ

انتنَّ

The command conjugations for أنتُما and أنتن are quite regular. For example, for أنتما in the jussive, the verb is conjugated تيا. First, we drop off the jussive prefix of تَ and we are left with يا. This gives us a consonant (for here the ي is clearly working as a consonant) followed by a vowel. For أنتن when we remove the تَ prefix we are left with يَنْ which does not give us the proper consonant-vowel pattern. So we add a helping vowel, as we would with any Form I sound verb. Here the helping vowel is إ since the ي is in effect the stem vowel (just as we do for the verb يَرْجعُ , رَجَعَ because its stem vowel is a kasra – so we get إرْجعْ ) Thus, our command is إِينَ Since all long vowels automatically have a sukuun (see Chapter One of Part II where this was discussed), it does not matter if you include the sukuun or not.

However, with the other conjugations we come up with what are, in effect, irregular command conjugations. The command for أنتَ is a good example. In the jussive we have تَ. Here you cannot separate the prefix from the suffix. So when the تَ is taken away there is nothing left. You do not have a consonant vowel combination, which would give you the command, nor do you have a consonant with a sukuun followed by a stem vowel, as would be the case with Form I sound verbs. So you cannot add a prefix since there is no stem vowel there for the prefix to be in harmony with. So nothing is written at all.

The pronoun أنتِ poses a similar problem. When we take the prefix away we are left with يْ . Since the ي is followed immediately by a sukuun and there is nothing else following the sukuun, we do not know if the ي is acting as a vowel or as a consonant. Since it is not clear what the ي’s role is, Arab grammarians have preferred not to add a helping vowel to give the command conjugation. Also, since no Arabic word or syllable can begin with a vowel, the ي cannot be written by itself. So, the consensus was to leave the command for أنتِ blank as well. The conjugation for أنتم leaves us with a similar quandary regarding the و and the same conclusion was reached.

Some of you reading this book have probably lived in Cairo and you know how loud it is there. Others of you will, I hope, get a chance to study and live there someday. When you do, you will see how loud it is. I have always thought that part of the reason was that despite government efforts to get people to stop blowing their horns and yelling all the time, the problem was really a grammatical one. You see, the Egyptian government put up big signs all over the city telling people to be quiet. However, they used the verb يى , وأى since it really is more commonly used in Egypt than elsewhere. So they put up these big signs all over town – big rectangular signs like this:

and wrote “be quiet” in them. However, since Arabic grammar requires that the command form be blank for the pronoun أنتم (which is what would have to be used to address a group of people including at least one male), Egyptians have only noticed that there are these blank signs posted all over town.

I understand that school teachers and even university professors have this problem too when they try to quiet down their classes by writing “be quiet” on the blackboard. The problem does not seem to exist, however, in all-girls schools.

Note 1 – This is to avoid conjugations yielding unacceptable vowel-consonant patters. For example, the theoretical conjugation for the third person masculine singular in present tense would be يَيْى . Here the suffix, a long vowel, would be starting a syllable. As you know, this is not allowed in Arabic. So the first first radical is dropped, and the correct conjugation becomes يى, which gives us an acceptable vowel-consonant combination.

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