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A: Form II Verbs: Sound, Hollow, Assimilated, Doubled, and Defective

We leave Form I verbs (at least for a while) and come now to the first group of what are called “derived” verbs. As noted earlier, there are fifteen forms of the Arabic verb. It is essential that Forms I-X be learned thoroughly; however, Forms XI-XV need never be learned. Forms II-XV are knownContinue reading “A: Form II Verbs: Sound, Hollow, Assimilated, Doubled, and Defective”

G: كانَ

The verb يكون ,كانَ. is a Form I hollow verb which conjugates exactly like يَزورُ , زارَ Therefore, the conjugations for this verb for the perfect, imperfect indicative, jussive and subjunctive (once we deal with the subjunctive in a later chapter) should pose no problem for the student who has mastered the conjugation of FormContinue reading “G: كانَ”

F: لَيْسَ

لَيْسَ is a verb which gives American students fits. I believe the reason for this is that the verb is introduced to students too early in their study of Arabic. Often it is the first verb they are taught. The verb poses several problems for the novice student. It is hollow, its conjugations are theContinue reading “F: لَيْسَ”

E: Doubled Verbs, Form I: Jussive of Doubled Verbs

Now we come to the last category of Form I verbs. These are verbs whose second and last radical are the same consonant. In such situations the stem vowel disappears in the third person singular and the two radicals are written as one with a shadda above as in the verb شَكَّ (to doubt). InContinue reading “E: Doubled Verbs, Form I: Jussive of Doubled Verbs”

D: Assimilated Verbs, Form I

This section deals with verbs whose first radical is a waaw. These verbs are often referred to as assimilated verbs because the waaw assimilates to a ت in Form VIII, and assimilates into a ي in Forms IV and X when the verbal nouns are generated. This chapter, as whole, only deals with Form IContinue reading “D: Assimilated Verbs, Form I”

C: Defective Verbs, Form I: Present Tense and Jussive

American students generally consider defective verbs to be the most difficult verbs in the language to master. Furthermore, although defective Forms II-X are simpler than those for Form I, most students are not aware of any difference in difficulty. In all seriousness, defective verbs are not any more difficult than hollow verbs in terms ofContinue reading “C: Defective Verbs, Form I: Present Tense and Jussive”

B: Hollow Verbs, Form I: Present Tense and Jussive

You have now learned how to deal with Form I verbs in both tenses as well as how to produce the jussive. Up to this point we have focused only on Form I verbs and only on Form I verbs which do not have a waaw or a yaa’ as one of their radicals. ThisContinue reading “B: Hollow Verbs, Form I: Present Tense and Jussive”

A: Sound Verbs, Form I: The Jussive

You have already learned the past tense for sound, Form I verbs. In this section you will learn the imperfect indicative (present tense) and jussive conjugations. The Arabic imperfect requires that a prefix and a suffix be attached to the radicals of the verb. Let’s take the verb دَرَسَ. The third person masculine singular conjugationContinue reading “A: Sound Verbs, Form I: The Jussive”

E: The Preposition لِ Meaning “belonging to”

لِ has another meaning in addition to “to.” It is used to mean “to belong to.” Normally, when we want to say the Arabic equivalent of “to have” in English, لِ and a pronoun suffix will be used. For example, “I have a car” becomes in Arabic لي سيارة. The Arabic sentence literally means “ToContinue reading “E: The Preposition لِ Meaning “belonging to””

D: Prepositions with Pronoun Suffixes

Well, guess what. Those same pronoun suffixes which we have used for possession (non-demonic) and as direct object pronouns can also be written with prepositions. The combining of these pronouns with prepositions is very common since many verbs have their objects attached to prepositions. When prepositions are written with pronoun suffixes, some changes occur inContinue reading “D: Prepositions with Pronoun Suffixes”