The future in Arabic is very easy. In fact, it is so easy that I am not even going to provide a drill on it. If you cannot understand the future, then run for Congress.

 

The future particle in Arabic is شَوْفَ It is placed before the imperfect verb. So “I will go to the library in order to study Arabic” is سَوْفَ أذهبُ الى المكتبة لادرس العربية

 

To negate the future, place لا between سوف and the imperfect verb. Our sentence above is negated like this سَوْف لا أذهبُ الى المكتبة لادرس العربية

Never write anything between سوف and the imperfect verb except لا. For example, if you wish to include the subject in your sentence, place it after the verb or before سوف . For example الطالب سوف يذهب or سوف يذهب الطالب

 

سَوْفَ can be abbreviated to سَ When the abbreviation is used, it is written as part of the verb. For example سَأذْهَبُ “I will go.” When the abbreviation is used, the sentence cannot be negated. If you need to negate a sentence with سَ change the سَ to سَوْفَ and then add لا.

 

There is another way to negate the future using the particle لَنْ . When this particle is used, سوف is dropped completely from the sentence. The verb following لَنْ must be written in the subjunctive. The resulting negation is stronger than using سوف لا For example,سوف لا يجتمع شامير مع عرفات means “Shamir will not meet with Arafat.” This sentence means that there was probably a meeting set up which Shamir will not attend or cannot attend. On the other hand لن يجتمع شامير مع عرفات means “Shamir will not (ever) meet with Arafat.” Here the meaning is much stronger and suggests that he will not meet with Arafat under any circumstances.

 

Note that the future is often used in the passive. Beware of that fact. (سَيُسْتَقْبَلُ “he will be met” for example.)

As I said above, there is no separate drill on the future. However, drills 48-52 will include the future. These drills will review all of the verb business you have covered so far and will include other things from the book as well. Do them now. Then read the last part of this chapter, which deals with the conditionall, and do drill 53. You will then have completed the core of this book. مَبْروك

 

Then go on to Part III. You can cover Part III in any order that you like. In fact, I hope that by now you have already read at least the sections on using the Hans Wehr dictionary and on how to be a good student of Arabic. Most of the grammar-related material in Part III is largely secondary, and one section rarely presupposes having mastered a previous section. These can be studied at your leisure.

 

 

Quadriliteral verbs have roots made of four consonants instead of the usual three. They exist in four forms, only two of which occur with any frequency. Once you master these verbs, you will be finished with your review and mastery of the Arabic verb system. The quads (as the quadriliterals are called) are very easy and we will not need to worry about things like hollow and defective verbs when we deal with them.

 

Some quadriliterals are clearly words which have been adapted from other languages. For example, the verb تَلْفَنَ means “to telephone” someone. I wonder what word it was borrowed from? Others have been in the language for a long time and their origins are uncertain, while still others which have been in the lexicon for centuries are clearly of foreign origin like تَرْجَمَ and فَلْسَفَ .

 

Often quads are onomatopoeic in nature. هَمْهَمَ means “to mumble” and وَسْوَسَ means “to whisper.” Many of these words, as you can see, are formed by repeating two consonants twice in a row in a way which yields the onomatopoeic effect.

 

تَلْفَنَ is a Form I quad. The تَ in this verb is part of the root. The second radical in Form I quads always has a sukuun. In the past tense, these verbs conjugate like any other verb. Thus “I telephoned” is تَلْفَنْتُ In the present tense, these verbs have a pattern similar to Form II triliteral verbs. “He whispers” is يُوَسْوِسُ . The prefix vowel is always a dhamma, the sukuun remains over the second radical (unlike Form II triliteral verbs) and the stem vowel is a kasra. The complete conjugations are in the charts.

The passive is also regular. You should be able to generate it in both tenses on your own., Try to do so now for هو for the verb تَرْجَمَ “to translate.” You should have come up with تَرْجِمَ and يُتَرْجِمُ .

 

Now derive the command conjugations using the rules you have seen for all other verbs. Then compare your answers to the charts. (For أنتَ the command of تَلْفَنَ is تَلْفِنْ .) If you are wrong, review the section on commands in Chapter Two of Part II.

The active participle is مُتَلْفِن and the passive participle is مُتَلْفَن

The verbal noun is تَلْفِنَة.

 

Form II quads tend to be the intransitive counterparts of the Form I version, but not always. They are usually said to be related to Form I quads the way Form V triliteral verbs are related to Form II. تَزَخْرَفَ is atypical Form II quad meaning “to be decorated.” The تَ, here is the Form II quad prefix. The Form I quad of this verb is زَخْرَفَ , meaning “to decorate” something.

In the past tense,these verbs conjugate like all other verbs. In the present tense, they conjugate just like Form V triliterals. For example يَتَزَخْرَفُ “it is decorated,” maintains a stem vowel of fatha just like a regular Form V. Likewise, the prefix vowel is a fatha.

The active participle is مُتَزَخْرِف . The passive participle would be مُتَزَخْرَف, but this particular verb does not have one.

 

Sometimes Form II quads are used to mean the imitation of the quality indicated by the root. For example تَبَغْدَدَ means “to act like a Baghdadi.” We see this even in Form V triliterals in words such as تَمَصَّرَ “to act like an Egyptian.”

Occasionally, Form II quads are formed from place nouns. For example تَمَرْكَزَ means “to be located or centered” somewhere, from the place noun مَرْكَز meaning “center.”

 

Form III quads are quite rare, so we will skip them.

 

For IV quads are also quite rare but one of them, إطْمَأَنَّ occurs frequently. The verb means “to be calm, tranquil, or secure.” The root is طَمْأَنَ, which is the Form I version of this quad, which means “to calm” someone.

 

The Form IV quad إطْمَأَنَّ has, as you can see, a doubled final radical. The final radical is separated into two, just as is done for doubled verbs. Thus, “I calmed down” is إِطْمَأنَنْتُ In the imperfect indicative, the verb is يَطْمَئِنُّ The stem vowel is a kasra (and the seat of the hamza is now a yaa’), and the prefix vowel is a fatha.

 

The active participle is مُطْمَئِنّ The passive participle does not exist. The verbal noun is إِطْمِئْنان. You will see this verb often, so you should be aware of it. You will rarely, if ever, see other Form IV quads.

 

That, lady or gentleman, is it for the verb system of this language. Read section C and do the drills which follow.

 

 

Form IX verbs are extremely rare and are used only in reference to colors and to physical and mental defects. The complete conjugations are in the charts at the end of this book. The Form IX pattern is إفْعَلَّ (the hamza on the prefix is elidable just as in Forms VII and VIII). A commonly used Form IX is إحْمَرَّ which means “to turn red” and “to blush.” The present tense conjugation is يَحْمَرَّ (the stem vowel becomes a kasra whenever the suffix begins with a consonant or a sukuun, just as with other doubled verbs you have seen in Forms VII and VIII).

 

The same pattern works for other colors as well. Thus أسود becomes إسْوَدَّ and أصفر becomes إصْفَرَّ .

On the other hand, Form X verbs are extremely common and occur in all types (i.e. hollow, defective, impossible, doubled, etc.) We will examine them carefully here. After you have covered Form X you will only need to study the quadriliteral verbs and you will have covered all you need to know about the verb system. In fact, if all you get out of this book is a mastery of the verb system, you will still have gained a great deal.

 

خَدَمَ is a Form I verb meaning “to serve.” إستَخْدَمَ is a Form X verb meaning “to use” or “to employ.” The Form X is derived by prefixing إسْت (the hamza is elidable, in case you were wondering) to the three letters which comprise the Form I verb.The prefix tends to affect the meaning of the verb in two basic ways. First, it can refer to the seeking or putting to use of the meaning of the Form I. Thus, the Form X of خدم refers to the seeking of the service of something or to putting something into service. Another example is عاد which means “to return.” إستعاد means “to get back” or “to reclaim.” That is, the Form X refers to the seeking of what the Form I means. Along the same lines is the Form X إسْتَخرَجَ “to extract” from خَرَجَ “to exit.”

A second way the prefix can influence the meaning is that it denotes the deeming of something to have the qualities implied by the three letters of the root. For example, نَكَرَ means “to disavow.” The Form X إستنكر means “to disapprove.” هَجُنَ means “to be faulty,” while إسْتَهجَنَ means “to condemn” or “to reject.” حَقَّ means “to be true” or even “to be suitable or appropriate.” إسْتَحَقَّ means “to be worthy” and “to merit.”

 

While all Form X verbs will not fit easily into the two categories above, most of them fit in reasonably well. As with the other forms, the patterns can be used to help predict meaning and to lessen reliance on the dictionary, but you cannot always rely on the general tendencies toward meaning associated with any given form. Sometimes you will have to pick up the dictionary.

Sound Form X verbs conjugate exactly like their Form VIII counterparts in the imperfect. The prefix vowel is always a fatha and the stem vowel is always a kasra. Thus, in the imperfect the verb إسْتَخْدَمَ is يَسْتَخْدِمُ . Note also the sukuun over the س of the prefix in both tenses.

 

The command conjugations and the jussive conjugations should all be obvious by now. Try to generate some of these and then check the charts at the end of the book.

The verbal noun is إستخْدام The active participle is مُستَخْدِم and the passive participle is مُستَخْدَم.

Form X verbs also occur,in,the passive and conjugate just as they do in Form VIII. In the past tense, our model verb becomes أُستُخدِم and in the imperfect it is يُسْتَخْدَمُ The complete conjugations are in the charts.

 

 

Hollow Verbs

Form X hollow verbs behave (with rare exceptions, to be noted below) just like Form IV hollow verbs with respect to their conjugations in both tenses. In the past tense, the alif is shortened to a fatha. In the present tense, the alif becomes a yaa’ which is in turn shortened to a kasra when necessary. For example,إستعاد (“to reclaim”) will have its alif shortened to a fatha whenever any Form IV hollow verb would. Thus “I reclaimed” is إستعدتُ The reasons for the shortening should be clear by now.

 

In the imperfect indicative,the alif becomes a yaa’, just as is the case in Form IV.”He reclaims” is يَسْتَعيدُ . The yaa’ shortens to a kasra whenever shortening is required. Thus, “He did not reclaim” is لم يَسْتَعِدْ

 

The verbal noun is very similar to that for Form IV in that it ends in ة also. The verbal noun for our model verb is إستعادة .

The active participle is مُسْتَعيد and the passive participle is مُستعاد

The passive pattern is أُستُعيدَ in the past tense and يُستَعادُ in the imperfect indicative.

Before I show you a couple of exceptions to Form X hollow verb conjugations, let’s review derived hollow verbs for a minute. Experience tells me that students get confused easily by these verbs but that a simple classification scheme can usually remove the difficulties.

Hollow verbs pose conjugation problems in Forms I, IV, VII, VIII, and X. Form I hollow verbs are in a class by themselves. You should review them separately by going over the material in Chapter One of Part II. For now we will look at only the four derived forms which pose problems.

 

In the past tense, the four derived forms all, all, all ALL, ALL, ALL have the alif shortened to a LITTLE TINY ITTY BITTY FATHA whenever shortening is required.

In the imperfect, keep together in your mind Forms IV and X on the one hand, and Forms VII and VIII together on the other. Forms IV and X convert the alif into a yaa’ in the present. When the yaa’ needs to be shortened it becomes a kasra.

Forms VII and VIII keep the alif in the present tense. When the alif needs to be shortened, it is shortened to a fatha.

 

ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND THE SPELLING AMBIGUITIES THAT TAKE PLACE WHENEVER THE SHORTENING IS DONE. If you neglect these ambiguities, you will always have a hard time with the language.

 

Now I want to bring up a couple of exceptions that occur in hollow verbs in Form X. The Form X verb إسْتجابَ means “to respond.” It conjugates just like our model verb إستعادَ in every single way. The root of the verb has a waaw as the middle radical. With a few Form X hollow verbs, the middle radical can sometimes be kept. In this case, there is also the verb إسْتَجْوبَ which means “to interrogate.” In the present tense the verb is يَسْتَجْوِبُ Whenever a Form X keeps the waaw, the verb will conjugate just like a sound verb. The waaw will never disappear, never. It even remains in the verbal noun, إِسْتِجواب, and in the participles مُسْتَجْوِب and مُسْتَجْوَب

 

There are only a very few Form X hollow verbs which will keep the waaw. Most of them, unlike إستجاب will not also have a Form X conjugation which uses an alif in the past tense and a yaa’ in the present tense. Thus إِسْتَحْوَذَ exists only as إستحوذ and does not have a regular Form X hollow manifestation of إستحاذ When such manifestations exist, they will have different meanings.

 

 

Assimilated Verbs

Form X assimilated verbs are regular in their conjugations. The verb إِسْتَوطَنَ means “to settle.” In the present tense it is يَسْتَوْطِنُ Note that the waaw remains and acts as a regular consonant.

The verbal noun for this verb is إسْتيطان Note that in the Form X verbal noun, the waaw changes into a yaa’ just as is the case in Form IV (أوضح becomes إيضاح, for example).

The active participle is مُستَوطِن and the passive participle is مُستَوطَن

 

 

Doubled Verbs

Doubled verbs in Form X work just as their counterparts do in Form IV (what a surprise). Thus the stem vowel in the imperfect is always a kasra, just as in Form IV. إسْتَغَلَّ means “to exploit.” In the present tense it is يَسْتَغِلُّ So for doubled verbs, like hollow verbs, you should group Forms IV and X together, and group Forms VII and VIII together.

In Form X, the rules for breaking up the doubled radical are exactly the same as they are for all doubled verbs. Thus “I exploited” is إِسْتَغْلَلْتُ and “they (feminine) exploit” is يَسْتَغْلِلْنَ

When the jussive is used, you have the usual options. You can either use the subjunctive, or you can use the actual jussive. So “He did not exploit” is either لم يَسْتَغِلَّ or لم يَسْتَغْلِلْ. The former, as usual, is more common than the latter.

The verb noun is إستِغلال The active participle is مُسْتَغِلّ The passive participle is مُسْتَغَلّ

 

 

Defective Verbs

Form X defective verbs are just like defective verbs in Forms II, III, IV, VII, and VIII. Or, to put it more simply, Form X defective verbs conjugate in both tenses just like the Form I verb إسْتَلْقى , يَبْني , بنى is a Form X defective verb meaning “to he down.” “I lay down” is إِسْتَلْقَيْتُ (“I lay down,” is past tense in English. If you do not know this, you probably have not taught English as a foreign language). “He lies down,” is يَسْتلقي The same principles of shortening apply here as with all other defective verbs. So, “He did not lie down,” is لم يَسْتَلْقِ .

The verbal noun is أِستلْقاء . The active participle is مُسْتلْقٍ and the passive participle is مُسْتلْقي

You have now completed the ten forms of the triliteral Arabic verb. Practice the conjugations of the various forms and the subcategories of each form. Make sure you can do the passive voice as well. All of the material presented so far in this book must become second nature to you if you ever want to have any success in this language. This does not mean that you have to automatically know where every fatha and kasra has to be placed. But you do need to get to the point where the verb business is not intimidating you and you can produce it correctly at least eighty percent of the time. The best way for you to make this material become second nature is for you is to practice. Write out the conjugations, think about the conjugations, review the drills you have done so far. Reread sections of this book. Do not feel you are an idiot if you do not remember everything you have read up until now. Review. Review. Review.

 

Additionally, read new material. Listen to Arabic. Speak Arabic. Read the section in this book (in Part III) entitled “How To Be A Good Arabic Student.” And know this: If you master even just the material so far presented in this text, you will have made a great stride toward becoming proficient in this language in terms of reading. If you do not master the material presented so far in this text, you will never be able to do anything in Arabic. If you do not have the will to learn the material, which is fine, as one’s individual worth should not be based on whether one wants to be good at any one particular thing, then forget about it and go do something else. I just hope that I will not one day see you on Ted Koppel’s Nightline in the role of “The Middle East Expert” who is illiterate and unable to communicate in the language of the people on which the expert is supposedly so knowledgeable.

 

 

You have already studied (and mastered) the elative. The elative is quite flexible and can be used for a great number of adjectives as you are aware. However, many adjectives do not easily fit the elative pattern. This is especially true for participles of derived verbs. For example, مُتَقدَّم means “advanced.” If you want to say that the United States is more advanced than Chad with respect to the production of nuclear weapons, you have a problem because the word مُتَقدَّم, does not lend itself to the elative form (as you can see, I hope). How will you say “more advanced”? What is usually done in such a case is that the verbal noun from the form of the verb from which the participle is derived is combined with an appropriate elative.متقدم is from Form V. The verbal noun is تَقَدُّم. “More” in Arabic is أكثر . So we will use أكثر and تَقَدُّم in our sentence.

Remember, we want to say the United States is more advanced than Chad in the production of nuclear weapons. So we get:

 

الولايات المتحدة اكثر من تشاد تقدُماً في إنتاج الاسلحة النووية.

 

The verbal noun is placed in the accusative case. Note that the elative is used with the word مِنْ, just as it is with the comparative.

Now here is another example. The word مُخلِص means “sincere.” We want to say that Samiira is more sincere than Samiir. The word مخلص is the active participle of the Form IV verb أخلص The verbal noun of أخلص is إخلاص Can you do it now? The answer is below.

 

سميرة اكثر من سمير اخلاصا.

 

Thus we have “Samiira is more sincere than Samiir.” Literally we have something like “Samiira is more than Samiir with respect to sincerity.” This is what is meant by a tamyiiz construction. The word tamyiiz (تَمْييز) is a Form II verbal noun meaning “specification” or “discrimination.” We use the tamyiiz when we want to say that something is different from something else with respect to a certain characteristic.

 

Often the tamyiiz is used with the verbal noun of derived verbs. This is because the adjectives derived from derived verbs do not fit the elative pattern. You have just seen two examples. However, often the tamyiiz is used with Form I verbal nouns as well. For example عَلِمَ means “to know” or “to learn.” أعلَم is the elative (from عَليم) meaning “more knowing.” It is used for example, in the often-repeated phrase اللهُ أعلم “God knows best.”

 

However, if we want to say “He knows Arabic better than I do” the word أعلَم does not necessarily provide us with the best way to say what we want. We could say هو أعلم مني بالنسبة الى العربية “He knows more than me with respect to Arabic” but we could also choose another elative and use the verbal noun of عَلِمَ In this case we will take the elative أحسن “better” and the verbal noun عِلْم We can then say هو احسن مني علماً باللغة العربية

 

Note that in the last Arabic sentence above I have used the preposition ب.

You will use whatever preposition the verb would normally take. If the verb does not normally take a preposition, then لِ is used. Here are a few more examples.

 

1. They participate in the program more than we do.	١. هم أكثر منّا مشاركةً في البرنامج.
2. The issue of Palestine has a greater impact on the political situation in Jordan than does any other issue.	٢. قضية فلسطين اكبر من أي قضية اخرى تأثيراً على الحالة السياسية في الاردن.
3. He understands Arabic better than she does.	٣. هو احسن منها فهماً للعربية.

In the first sentence, the verb شارك would normally use the preposition في meaning “to participate in something.” Thus, we use في after the verbal noun مشاركة in our tamyiiz construction.

In the second sentence, the preposition على is used with تأثير for the same reason. In the third sentence we are using the verbal noun of the verb فَهِمَ which does not take a preposition. So when we use the verbal noun of this verb in a tamyiiz we attach لِ to what would normally be the object of the verb.

You are almost done with Part II of this book. The next chapter will discuss Forms IX and X as well as some other things. You will then have the vast majority of the verb system down. The same chapter will also discuss quadraliteral verbs (it will be a snap). You will then have completed the core of this book. You have come a long way.

 

 

 

Now we come to a very common construction in Arabic which students often fail to recognize when they are reading due to the problem of not reading in context. The haal clause (from the word حال meaning “condition” or “circumstance,” as in the question كيف الحال؟ ) is a clause which modifies the subject of a sentence by using وَ as a subordinating conjunction. This is a fancy way of saying that وَ is used sometimes in Arabic to mean “while,” as in, “He entered the room while firing his machine gun.” The clause after “while” can have a verb, a participle, or it can be an equational sentence. First, we will look at examples using equational sentences. Study the sentences below, then read the commentary which follows.

 

1. He traveled to Kuwait while he was a student (as a student).	١. سافر الى الكويت وهو طالبٌ.
2. She traveled to Kuwait while she was a student (as a student).	٢. سافرت الى الكويت وهي طالبةٌ.
3. He traveled to Kuwait while he was a student (as a student).	٣. سافر الى الكويت طالبا.
4. She traveled to Kuwait while she was a student (as a student).	٤. سافرت الى الكويت طالبةً.

In the first Arabic sentence you have the وَ followed by the pronoun هو . A subject pronoun must be used with وَ and it must agree with the subject of the sentence. In the second sentence the subject is “she” so the subject pronoun which is used is هي

The وَ and the pronoun can be omitted if the predicate is indefinite. When this is done the predicate is put into the accusative. So in sentence three we now have طالباً instead of طالبٌ . Sentence four is the feminine equivalent of sentence three. Now, how would you say “They (masc. plural) went to Kuwait while they were students” using either of the two methods? The answers are below.

 

سافروا الى الكويت وهم طلابٌ.

سافروا الى الكويت طلاباً.

You should be able to see that the plurals work just like the singular forms. What would the feminine plural versions of the two sentences above be? See below for the answers to this ineffable mystery.

سافرن الى الكويت وهن طالباتٌ.

سافرن الى الكويت طالباتٍ.

 

 

1. The student smiled while reading the Washington Post.	١. إبتسم الطالب وهو يقرأ الواشنطن بوست.
2. The student (feminine) smiled while reading the Washington Post.	٢. إبتسمت الطالبةُ وهي تقرأ الواشنطن بوست.
3. The student smiled while reading the Washington Post.	٣. إبتسم الطالبُ يقرأ الواشنطن بوست.
4. The student (feminine) smiled while reading the Washington Post.	٤. إبتسمت الطالبةُ تقرأ الواشنطن بوست.
5. The student laughed while reading about the Middle East in the New York Times.	٥. ضحك الطالبُ قارئاً عن الشرق الاوسط في النيو يورك تايمز.
6. The student (feminine) laughed while reading about the Middle East in the New York Times.	٦. ضحكت الطالبة قارئةً عن الشرق الاوسط في النيو يورك تايمز.
7. The student (feminine) laughed while reading the newspaper.	٧. ضحكت الطالبةُ قارئةً الجريدة.

Sentences one and two use وَ + the appropriate subject pronoun, just as you would if the clause had no verb. Sentences three and four show that the وَ and the subject pronoun can be dropped. Again, this also can be done in clauses with no verb, as we have seen.

 

Sentences five and six show another variation. The verb itself can be replaced by its own active participle. The participle must be indefinite, accusative, and agree with the subject in gender and number. If the verb which is being replaced is transitive, the active participle can take a direct object as you see in example seven. Do not be put off by the fact that قرأ is a verb with a hamza as a final radical. The hamza will work just like any other consonant. I know that the active participle قارِئ looks strange, but it is exactly the same pattern as ساكن .

 

Sentences five, six, and seven could be modified by the return of the وَ + subject pronoun. The active participles would then be in the nominative case. So sentence five would be ضحك الطالبُ وهو قارئ عن الشرق الاوسط في النيو يورك تايمز

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sentences five and six are included to show the agreement and case of the active participle when the subject is plural.

 

1. The correspondent traveled to Damascus, having studied Arabic.	١. سافر المراسل الى دمشق وقد درس العربية.
2. The correspondent traveled to Damascus, not having studied Arabic.	٢. سافر المراسل الى دمشق وما درس العربية.
3. The correspondent traveled to Damascus, not having studied Arabic.	٣. سافر المراسل الى دمشق ولم يدرس العربية.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my experience, students often have trouble recognizing a haal clause when it is composed of ,و + pronoun + present tense verb. Then tend to translate the , و as “and” therefore giving a very awkward translation of the sentence. Recently, a student I have been working with translated an opinion piece from an Arabic newspaper. The item contained several haal clauses using و + pronoun + verb. He missed every one. Everything else in his translation was correct. So be careful.

 

 

 

I will treat Forms VII and VIII together due to some important similarities between the two forms with respect to hollow and doubled verbs. Additionally, the end of the section will deal with a special feature concerning the spelling of certain Form VIII verbs.

 

Form VII verbs are characterized by a prefix of إنْ  placed before the triliteral root. For example إنْفتح  “to be opened” is a typical Form VII. The Form VII verb is always intransitive and often is, in effect, a passive version of the Form I. In fact, it is often used in place of the passive voice of the Form I. The hamza of the prefix is always elided (See note 1 below) if it is not the first letter in a sentence.

 

Some Form VII verbs are not passive, but they will not be transitive.إنصرف “to go away” is an example which is usually cited in textbooks as a Form VII verb. I believe this is so because it is one of the few Form VII’s which make sense when conjugated for all persons. This verb can also mean “to be spent,” referring to money.

The past-tense conjugations should be obvious. In the present tense, the prefix vowel is a fatha and the stem vowel is a kasra. Thus يَنْصَرفُ, is the conjugation for هو in the present tense. The jussive and the subjunctive conjugations should be evident by now.

 

Now, what about the command? Stop for a moment and try to produce the command for أنتَ and then continue reading. I hope you got إنْصَرِفْ The jussive is تَنْصَرِفْ When you drop the prefix, you are left with نْصرِفْ Thus you need a command prefix. Since the stem vowel is a kasra, you add a prefix of a kasra on an elidable hamza just as you do for Form I. Thus إنْصَرِفْ is the command. Note that for Forms VII through X, the commands will always have the same prefix.

 

The verbal noun is إنْصراف The active participle is مُنْصَرِف  . Form VII verbs do not have a passive participle.

 

Form VIII verbs are characterized by a prefix of إِ (the hamza is elidable, just as in Form VII) and a ت infixed between the first and second radicals. A sukuun is then placed over the first radical. For example,إِكْتَشَفَ   (“to discover”) is a Form VIII verb. Often the meaning of Form VIII verbs is reflexive. The Form I كشف means “to disclose” something to someone else. The Form VIII refers to one’s discovering something for oneself.

Not all Form VIII verbs are reflexive in meaning. Their range of meanings is broad, so you will need to learn the meaning of each one as you come to it. Many Form VIII verbs are transitive.

As usual, the past-tense conjugations should be obvious. If they are not, you know where to look.
The present tense conjugations have exactly the same pattern as Form VII. Thus, the هو conjugation of اِكتشف is يكتشفُ You should see the similarity to Form VII. The command conjugations also take the same patterns as the commands for Form VII. “Discover” is اِكتشفْ

 

The verbal noun pattern is also the same as for Form VII. إِكْتِشاف is “discovery.”

The active participle is مُكْتَشِف and the passive is مُكْتسَف.

 

Some Form VIII verbs occur in the passive vpjce. A verb commonly used in the passive is إِنْتَخَبَ which means “to elect.” “He was elected” is أنْتَخَبَ and “He is being elected” is يُنتَخَبُ. So the passive voice here follows the same patterns as those of the verbs you have studied earlier in this book. Note that in the past, every vowel before the stem vowel becomes a dhamma, and that in the present, you start with  a dhamma, but everything else is afatha until you get to the mood marker. This is the same as in Forms   V and VI, which we studied in the previous chapter and will be the case with Form X as well.

 

 

Hollow Verbs

Hollow verbs in Forms VII and VIII conjugate exactly the same way. We will look at an example of each. إنقاد is a Form VII hollow verb meaning “to be led.” In the past tense the alif is shortened to a fatha whenever shortening is required. Thus “I was led” is إِنْقَدْتُ. The rules for shortening are the same as always.

 

Now in the imperfect, the alif REMAINS an alif when it is long, and is shortened to a FATHA when it is short. Thus, although a sound Form VII verb has a stem vowel of kasra in the imperfect, a hollow Form VII WILL NEVER HAVE A KASRA IN THE IMPERFECT. The middle radical will be either an alif or a fatha depending on whether or not shortening is required. Thus “He is being led” is يَنقادُ. If we put يَنقادُ into the jussive, what do you think will happen? The theoretical conjugation would be يَنقادْ As you know from previous sections in this book, you now actually have two sukuuns in a row. Thus the first sukuun and its alif are dropped. A fatha is put in their place. So “He was not led” is لم يَنْقَدْ Notice that without vowels the conjugations could be for a Form I, II, or IV sound verb, among other things. So be careful.

 

You might wish to try to produce the jussive conjugations for the above verb and then refer to the charts at the end of the book.

The verbal noun is .إنقياد Note the يThe will always be there, even if the middle radical is in reality a و (which it is in this case).

The active participle is مُنْقاد. Note that you have an alif here. The active participle of a Form VII hollow will always have the middle radical represented by an alif. This is different from the pattern you have seen for all other active participles. Be sure to remember this.

There is no passive participle since there is no passive in Form VII at all.

Form VIII hollow verbs behave in all ways just the same as Form VII hollow verbs. For example, the Form VIII of قادَ is إِقْتادَ , which can mean the same thing as the Form VII but can also mean “to lead someone.” In the past tense, the alif is shortened to a fatha whenever shortening is required, just like Form VII. Thus “I led” is إِقْتَدْتُ.

 

In the imperfect, Form VIII hollow verbs also behave exactly as their Form VII counterparts. Thus, “I am leading” is أَقتادُ and “I did not lead” is لم أَقتدْ. The middle radical is always represented by an alif or  by a fatha.

 

The verbal noun also has the same pattern as Form VII. Thus, the verbal noun for our model verb is  إِقْتِياد

 

Now hear, read, and note this. Form VIII verbs have both active and passive participles. I showed you this above using the verb اكتشف . Form VIII hollow verbs, however, have active and passive participles which look exactly the same. The active participle of اقتاد is مُقتاد . This is just like Form VII hollow verbs. The passive participle of the same verb is مُقتاد, the same word. It is context that will tell you which one is being used.

 

Form VIII hollow verbs can occur in the passive. The pattern in the past tense is أقْتيدَ  and in the imperfect is يُقتادُ. The passive voice in the past tense follows the same pattern as the other verbs we have seen. Note also that the passive in the imperfect looks just like the active when it is not voweled.

 

 

Assimilated Verbs

Form VII assimilated verbs are extremely rare and will not be taught in this book. They are regular in all ways.

 

Form VIII assimilated verbs are very common. A typical such verb is إِتَّفَقَ “to agree.” Hey, what happened to the و ? The و assimilates into the infixed ت This assimilation is indicated by the shadda written on the ت Other than that, Form VIII assimilated verbs are completely regular in every respect. The imperfect is يَتَّفِقُ

The passive voice pattern in the past tense is أُتُّفِقَ It the resent tense it is يُتَّفَقُ The verbal noun is إِتِّفاق . The active participle is مُتّفق and the passive is مُتّفَق

 

 

Doubled Verbs

إنْضمَّ الى “to join” is a typical Form VII doubled verb. In the past tense, the verb is conjugated just like any other doubled verb you have seen in Form I. Thus “I joined” is  إنْضَمَمْتُ  Do not forget when to break up the doubled second and third radicals.

 

Now pay attention to the imperfect. “He joins” is يَنْضمُّ Note that the “stem vowel” comes before the doubled consonant, just as would be the case with any Form I doubled verb. For example, يَرُدُّ Note that in the Form I verb, the stem vowel is a dhamma for this verb and that it too is written before the doubled consonant. Now, in Form I, if the doubled consonant in broken up, what happens to the stem vowel? Remember that the stem vowel is moved to its proper place between the second and third radicals. So “they (fem. Plural) are answering” is يَرْدُدْنَ The dhamma is merely moved over to its proper place.

Now we come back to Form VII. The doubled radical will be broken up for the same conjugations and for the same reasons as in Form I. However, WHENEVER THE DOUBLED RADICAL IS BROKEN UP IN FORM VII, THE STEM VOWEL IS CONVERTED TO A KASRA. Thus, to say “They (fem. plural) are joining the Army” you recite melodiously يَنْضَمِمْنَ الى الجيش The doubled radical is separated and the stem vowel is now a kasra.

 

In the jussive, Form VII doubled verbs are conjugated the way Form I and Form IV doubled verbs are. You will recall that Form I and Form IV verbs take the endings for the subjunctive when these verbs are conjugated with لم for any of the “big five” pronouns. So, for example, our model verb, إنْضَمَّ conjugated with لم for the third person masculine singular, is لم يَنْضَمَّ

The verbal noun is إنْضِمام

 

The active participle always will have a fatha for the stem vowel. The active participle of our model verb is مُنْضَمّ

 

Form VIII doubled verbs work exactly the same way as Form VII doubled verbs. إِحْتَلَّ  (to occupy) is a good and a very common example. For انا in the past tense, the conjugation is إِحْتَلَلْتُ . In the imperfect for هو it is يَحْتَلُّ and for هن it is يَحْتَلِلْنَ In the jussive for هو the conjugation is لم يَحْتَلَّ

The verbal noun is إِحتلال

 

Form VIII doubled active and passive participles both have fatha for the stem vowel. So the word مُحْتَلّ can mean both “occupier” and “occupied.”

Some Form VIII doubled verbs occur in the passive voice. إِحتَلَّ is itself a good example. “It (fern) was gccupied” is أُحتُلت Note that the stem vowel is not indicated. “They (fem. plural) were occupied” is أحتُلِلْنَ Here you see the usual stem vowel of kasra in the passive past tense. The imperfect counterparts are يُحتَلُّ and يُحتَلَلْنَ respectively. See the charts if you have questions.

 

You should now be able to see that Form VII doubled and hollow verbs and Form VIII doubled and hollow verbs parallel each other closely. That is, Form VII and Form VIII doubled verbs tend to work the same way in terms of their conjugations and the patterns for their participles and verbal nouns. Also, Form VII and Form VIII hollow verbs also work the same way with respect to conjugations and the production of participles and verbal nouns. I have found it convenient to group them together in my own mind as an aid in remembering how to derive the conjugations, participles, and verbal nouns.

 

 

Defective Verbs

These are easy. Our Form VII example in إنقَضى and our Form VIII example is إنتَهى (Note that the ن is part of the root in our Form VIII example and does not represent a Form VII prefix)

 

These defectives work just like defectives in Forms II, III, and IV. That is, in both tenses they conjugate just like the verb يَجري , جرى Thus, for انا in the past tense, the verbs are إنْقَضيتُ and إنْتَهيتُ

For هو in the present they are ينقضي and ينتهي You should be able to predict the subjunctive, jussive, and command forms. Check the charts at the end.

 

You should also be able to predict the passive voice conjugations for Form VIII defectives (the Form VII’s don’t have a passive voice). You know where to look.

 

The verbal nouns are ;.إِنْقِضاء and إِنْتِهاء  .

The active participles are مُنْقَضٍ and مُنْتَهٍ

The Form VIII passive participle is مُنْتَهي

 

This is a lot of material. You should take a pencil and some paper and see if you can produce the correct conjugations of various Form VII and Form VIII verbs. Then, read the next section and do the drills dealing with Forms VII and VIII.

 

 

Assimilation Of The Infixed ت In Form VIII

 

Since you have had Arabic before, you have probably seen verbs like إتَّبَعَ , إضْطَرَّ , إزْدادَ , and إصْطَدَمَ These are all examples of Form VIII verbs that have assimilated the infixed ت Students are usually not pleased when they first see this phenomenon. I am sure you are not any more pleased now than you were then. At least this time around, I hope, you are less intimidated by the language and realize that many things are no where near as difficult as they seem.

 

What is happening with the above verbs is that the first radical of each of them is affecting the ت which is infixed in order to form Form VIII. There are actually nine offending letters which cause changes to the ت. You do not need to memorize them, although I will list them below. All you need to be aware of is the kind of changes they make to the ت so that you will be able to identify the roots of words which incorporate these changes. For example, you see the word إدَّعى (which will not have the shadda in most texts) and wonder what the hell it is. Well, IF you know that the letter د assimilates the ت completely (I know that it is a big “if’), you will be able to guess that the word you are looking at is the Form VIII of the verb يَدْعو , دعا with which you fell in love some chapters ago.

The offending letters are all produced near the front of the mouth. They are either dental or emphatic. They are:

ت ث د ذ ز ص ض ط ظ

 

Whenever any of these letters is the first radical in a Form VIII verb, the ت will undergo some kind of change. Volume I of EMSA gives good examples. I will use them here.

 

The ث , ت and د all completely assimilate the infixed ت . For example, the Form I تَبِعَ is إِتَّبَعَ in Form VIII. Thus, this type of Form VIII resembles the assimilated Form VIII verbs mentioned above.

 

The Form I ثأَرَ becomes إثأرَ in Form VIII and the Form I دعا becomes إدَّعى in Form VIII. When these Form VIII words are written without the shaddas (do you think that will happen very often?) they look just like Form IV verbs in the past tense. In the imperfect, they look just like Forms I, II, and IV. I wonder if context will help you decide?

 

The ط and the ظ also completely assimilate the infixed ت . For example طَلَعَ is a Form I meaning,  among other things, “to appear.” The Form IV of this verb is أَطْلَعَ meaning “to inform (someone of  something).” The Form VIII is إطَّلَعَ meaning “to inform oneself’ or “to be informed.” All three verbs in the imperfect look like this: يطلع

 

The ظ works just like the ط . Fortunately, there is only one word in the language that I know of that has ظ for its first radical and also exists in Form VIII. That verb is إظلمَ Look it up. I hope its meaning does not describe the way you feel.

 

The ص and the ض convert the infixed ت into a ط. For example, the Form VIII of صدم is إصطَدَمَ and the Form VIII of ضرَّ is إضْطَرَّ

 

The ذ combines with the infixed ت to form a د with a shadda. Thus, the Form VIII of ذكر “to remember” is إِذَّكر “to remember.” Why bother to make the Form VIII for this verb?

The ز turns the infixed ت into a د also. The Form VIII of زاد is إِزْدادَ . This is a verb which you may have seen many times.

If you wish, you may memorize the changes I have just outlined above. That is, if you have nothing else better to do. I recommend, instead, that you simply be aware of a د or ط appearing in a word where a ت should be, and that you keep in mind the Form VIII potential of roots that start with ط , ظ    ت , ث ,د and ذ. Experience with the language will familiarize you with the very limited number of verbs in Form VIII which pull this sort of thing on you. The more common ones are included in your drills on Form VIII.

 

 

 

Note 1 – The elidable hamza with a kasra is used as part of the prefix for Forms VII-X. Often, the elidability of the hamza is indicated in text books by writing the prefix using only the alif and the kasra like this -إِ instead of writing out the whole thing – إِ You will see both renderings in this text.

 

 

 

You no doubt have seen sentences such as the following:أكرمني إكراما عظيما . This is usually referred to as the cognate accusative in English. It is generated by inserting the verbal noun of the verb in the sentence which is usually then modified by an adjective. The verbal noun is most often indefinite and accusative. The Arabic sentence above literally means “He honored me a great honoring. Normally it would be translated “He honored me greatly.”

We want to say “He studied Arabic for a long time,” and use the cognate accusative in order to do so. The verb we will use is درس of course. “He studied Arabic” is درس اللغة العربية Now we will add the verbal noun of درس to the sentence. The verbal noun of درس is دراسة We will place دراسة at the end of the sentence. It will be indefinite and accusative. So now we have درس اللغة العربية دراسة Now we add طويلة to the sentence. It will completely agree with ” دراسة. So now we have:

دَرَسَ اللغةَ العربيةَ دراسةً طويلة.ً

This use of the verbal noun is quite common. It also has some variations. Sometimes the verbal noun is not modified. Thus you could have أكرمني إكراماً. Here the verbal noun adds some emphasis, but not much.

Sometimes the verbal noun is put into an idaafa as in كانوا يعبدون الله عبادة الثنيين “They used to worship God like idolaters (the worship of idolaters).”

There are other uses of the verbal noun along the these lines. They will be easy to spot when you come to them.

 

 

1. They are students who studied in Morocco.	١. هم طلاب درسوا في المغرب.
2. Are there correspondents who know anything about the Middle East?	٢. هل هناك مراسلون يعرفون شيئا عن الشرق الاوسط ؟
3. I do not know an American reporter who speaks Arabic well.	٣. لا اعرف صحفيا امريكيا يتكلم العربية جيدا.

Notice that none of the Arabic sentences has a relative pronoun since the antecedents are indefinite. Notice something else. Each of the examples so far has the antecedent as the subject of the verb. In an Arabic relative clause, the antecedent must be mentioned. So far, we see that the antecedent is mentioned in each clause by the conjugation of the verb. The conjugations agree with the antecedent. Now what happens if the antecedent is not the subject of the verb, but is the object instead?

 

To illustrate what I mean let’s look at the sentence “This is an idea which I heard yesterday.” The Arabic reads هذه فكرةٌ سمعتها امس . Now the antecedent in the Arabic sentence, فكرة is not the subject of the verb in the clause. It is instead the object. When this is the case, the antecedent is referred to by an object pronoun attached to the verb. Literally, the Arabic sentence is, “This is an idea I heard it yesterday.” The object pronoun agrees with the antecedent in the usual ways. The pronoun is known as the عائد in Arabic. Literally . عائد means “one that returns,” since it refers back to the antecedent.

 

Here are some more examples. Look at the Arabic on the right and translate it. Then look at the English on the left to check yourself.

1. This is an article which I read in the newspaper.	١. هذه مقالة قرأتها في الجريدة.
2. They are correspondents whom we saw in the hotel.	٢. هم مراسلون شاهدناهم في الفندق.
3. This is a degree which I obtained from Yarmouk University.	٣. هذه شهادة حصلتُ عليها من جامعة اليرموك.

 

 

 

In the first two sentences the antecedents are referred to by direct object pronouns attached to the verbs. In the third sentence the verb has a preposition before its object. Therefore the pronoun referring to the antecedent is attached to the preposition.

It may take you a while to become comfortable reading relative clauses in Arabic which do not have relative pronouns. The absence of relative pronouns is yet another reason for you to read things in context, because sometimes you need to see the bigger picture in order to understand the small parts which comprise it.

 

 

من can take singular, plural or dual agreement in any gender. ما is always treated as masculine singular.

 

 

In this chapter we will treat Forms V and VI together because of the similarities in their structures.

 

تَعَلَّمَ is a Form V verb meaning “to learn.” Form V is characterized by a prefix of تَ added to the Form II stem, in this case عَلَّمَ Often the Form V has a meaning related to the subject, a sort of reflexive quality. For example, the Form II عَلَّمَ means “to teach.” The Form V تَعَلَّمَ means “to learn” (to teach oneself). Sometimes the meaning is passive. حَقَّقَ means “to realize” in the sense of “to attain.” The Form V تَحَقَّقَ means “to be realized.” However, as with the other forms, you cannot be absolutely certain of the meaning of the word from the form. Therefore you should use the form as a guide to the meaning, but not as a gospel.

 

Please be aware that Form V verbs always begin (in the past tense) with تَ and always keep the shadda over the middle radical. The shadda will not usually be written. The vowel on the shadda in the past tense is also always a fatha.

 

Form V verbs are often transitive but not always, as is the case with تحقّق. Transitive Form V verbs can also be put in the passive, just like the previous forms.

In the past tense, Form V verbs conjugate like all other verbs you have seen. I know this is a great surprise to you, so take a minute to calm down before you go on.

Now that you have calmed down, I want you to know that the past-tense conjugations for Form V are in the charts at the end of this book. We move on to the imperfect.

 

The imperfect will always have a fatha for the stem vowel and for the prefix vowel. تَعلّم conjugated for هو is يَتَعلمُ You can see that the stem vowel is indeed a fatha and that the prefix vowel is also a fatha. As far as the prefix vowel is concerned, you should know that for Forms V through X the prefix vowel is always a fatha. (Except late on Thursday nights, when it is changed to something else for a brief period which is lengthened during the sacred month of Ramadan.) Thus, you now know that the prefix vowel for Form I and Forms V through X is a fatha. The imperfect prefix vowel for Forms II, III, IV is always a dhamma.

 

As I said above, the imperfect stem vowel in Form V is always a fatha. This will also be the case for Form VI. Thus, you have now seen that in Form I, the stem vowel can be either a fatha, a kasra, or a dhamma. In Forms II, III, and IV the imperfect stem vowel is always a kasra. In Forms V and VI it will always be a fatha. We will worry about the other forms when we come to them.

Needless to say, the suffixes added to Forms V and VI in the imperfect are the same as for all other verbs. Below are the present tense conjugations for يَتَعَلّمُ , تَعَلّمَ

Plural		Dual		Singular
نَتَعَلَّمُ	نَحْنَ	تَتَعَلَّمانِ	أنتُما	أَتَعَلَّمُ	أنا
تَتَعَلَّمونَ	أنتُم	يَتَعَلَّمانِ	هما (m)	تَتَعَلَّمُ	أنتَ
تَتَعَلَّمْنَ	أنتُنَّ	تَتَعَلَّمانِ	هما (f)	تَتَعَلَّمينَ	أنتِ
يَتَعَلَّمونَ	هم			يَتَعَلَّمُ	هو
يَتَعَلَّمْنَ	هنَّ			تَتَعَلَّمُ	هي

 

 

 

 

 

The jussive and the subjunctive for Form V are in the charts. Now try your hand at the command conjugations. Remember the rules we learned for the other forms. Produce the command conjugations on a separate sheet of paper and then look below.

 

Command	Pronoun
تَعَلَّمْ	أنتَ
تَعَلَّمي	أنتِ
تَعَلَّما	أنتما
تَعَلَّموا	انتم
تَعَلَّمْنَ	انتنَّ

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see from the conjugations above, there is no prefix added to Form V commands. When we drop the imperfect prefix, we are left with a consonant followed by a vowel, as I am sure you can see. Note that the command conjugations look exactly like past tense conjugations when they are unvoweled. They even sound very much like (and sometimes just like) past-tense conjugations, even when they are fully vocalized. How do you think you will be able to tell the difference? Do you think that maybe, just maybe, it will be the context?

 

In the passive voice for the past tense, the pattern is تُعُلِّمَ The stem vowel is a kasra, just like all other verbs. The first vowel is a dhamma, just like all other verbs. Form V verbs have an extra syllable compared to previous forms of the verb. In the passive voice in the past tense, all vowels before the stem vowel are changed to a dhamma. Thus, you have two dhammas in the verb conjugated above. The suffixes are the same as always.

In the passive voice for the imperfect our model verb is يُتَعلَّم . The stem vowel is, as always for the passive in the imperfect, a fatha. The prefix vowel is, as always for the passive in the imperfect, a dhamma. However, in the imperfect passive, any other vowel before the stem vowel is also a FATHA. So you only will have one dhamma in the imperfect passive.

Some passive conjugations for Form V are in the charts.

The verbal noun for Form V is of the pattern تَعلُّم. The stem vowel is always a dhamma. Notice that the verbal noun looks just like the verb when it is unvocalized.

The active participle is مُتَعلِّم and the passive participle is مُتَعلَّم These should be obvious by now. But note that the active participle does take a kasra for the stem vowel even though the imperfect indicative does not.

 

 

Hollow Verbs

Hollow verbs in Form V are completely regular, just like their Form II counterparts. The identity of the middle radical will show up in the verb itself تَكَوَّنَ and تَعَيَّنَ are examples.

 

 

Assimilated Verbs

Assimilated verbs are also completely regular in Form V. تَوَفَّرَ is a good example.

 

 

Doubled Verbs

Doubled verbs in Form V are completely regular.تَحَقَّقَ which you have already seen above, is a good example.

 

 

Defective Verbs

Of course, I cannot let you get through Form V without some problems. Defective verbs in Form V are no more difficult than they are in Forms II-IV, but they tend to cause the unwary student some problems.

تَحدَّى means “to challenge” and is a good example of a very commonly used Form V defective verb.

 

First of all, regardless of the identity of the last radical, it will always appear as an alif maqsuura in the past tense. This is just like Forms II through IV. “I challenged” is تَحَدَّيْتُ. So the past tense is no big deal and offers nothing new.

 

However, in the imperfect, Form V defective verbs do not conjugate like the verb يقضي , قضي or like the defectives in Forms II through IV. Instead of having the last radical become a ي, as is the case with the aforementioned verbs, Form V verbs keep it as an alif maqsuura so that their present tense conjugations are like those of the verb ينسى , نسى This is because the stem vowel in the imperfect in Form V is always a fatha and the fatha takes control over the last radical, changing it from a ي to instead appearing as an alif maqsuura, ى . Thus, our model verb in the imperfect is يَتَحدّى and will conjugate in the imperfect just like verbs belonging to the category of ينسى , نسى

For the complete conjugations for Form V defectives, go to the charts at the end of the book. But you should be able to produce them completely on your own. You have all of the principles you need.

In fact, try to produce the command conjugations for تَحدّى on another sheet of paper and then look below.

Command	Pronoun
تَحَدَّ	أنتَ
تَحَدَّيْ	أنتِ
تَحَدَّيا	أنتما
تَحَدَّوْا	انتم
تَحَدَّيْنَ	انتنَّ

 

 

 

 

 

Man, this is fun. Let’s go through the steps. First, we need the jussive for the pronoun أنتَ . The present tense would be تَتَحدّى , but in the jussive we must shorten the final radical. Since the final radical is now an alif maqsuura, its short counterpart is a fatha. So we get تَتَحَدَّ for the jussive.

Now we drop off the prefix تَ, which leaves us with تَحَدَّ. Since we now have a word beginning with a consonant followed by a vowel, we have the command.

All of the suffixes on these commands are the same as for the command conjugations of the verb نَسِيَ ,يَنسى and are so for the same reasons. If you have problems, go back to the section of Chapter One in Part II which deals with verbs like يَنْسى , نَسِيَ

 

Notice that some of the unvoweled command forms can be interpreted in more than one way.

 

You will see all of these uses and should be able to recognize them easily. Sometimes a Form VI verb can be transitive. For example, تناول means “to deal with” or “to treat” as in a subject or an idea.

The past tense conjugations should be obvious. They are in the charts.

The imperfect conjugations are exactly like those in Form V. The prefix vowel is a fatha and so is the stem vowel. So the third person singular in the present tense for our model verb is يَتعاوَنُ . The remaining conjugations are in the charts.

Now produce the command for the pronoun انتَ. The correct answer is تَعاوَنْ. If you have a problem, look at the charts and at the explanation for Form V above.

The verbal noun is تَعاوُن, just as in Form V.

The active participle is مُتَعاوِن and the passive participle is مُتَعاوَن The passive participle is not used with most Form VI verbs, but it is used with some.

The passive voice in Form VI is extremely rare. Its conjugations should be obvious to you. They are not in the charts. Just kidding, examples are in the charts. But do not worry about the passive voice for Form VI.

 

Hollow Verbs

The same situation as for Form V applies. تَعاوَنَ is itself a hollow verb.

 

Assimilated Verbs

Again, no problem. These are regular. تَوافَقَ is an example.

 

Cancoctated Verbs

There is no such thing as cancoctated verbs in Arabic or in any other language that I know of.

 

Doubled Verbs

These are very rare in Form VI and will not be taught. تشادَّ is an example and the conjugations are in the charts.

 

Defective Verbs

These work exactly like Form V defective verbs. تَقاضى (“to charge”) is an example., In both tenses it conjugates just like a Form V defective. The participles work the same way also. مُتقاضٍ is the active participle and مُتقاضًى is the passive participle. The verbal noun is تَقاضٍ and it works just like the verbal noun for a Form V defective verb.

 

 

 

In Chapter Three of Part II, I mentioned that there were two other items concerning the passive which I wanted to mention. The first of these two is the impersonal use of the passive. It is often a problem for students, especially for students who do not have an understanding of the use of participles in Arabic, or who have trouble understanding that verbs sometimes require prepositions before their objects. Look at the sentence below, which is in the active voice.

بحثنا عن الكُتُبِ.

The sentences says “We looked for the books.” Note that the verb in the sentence has a preposition before the object. The preposition is عن and it puts الكتب in the genitive case. The preposition is really an integral part of the verb. If we removed the word عن we would change the meaning of the sentence to “We discussed the books.” الكتب would then be the direct object of the verb and would be in the accusative case.

Now, let’s convert this sentence to the passive voice. We want to say “The books were looked for.” Now, what most students will do is the following: بُحِثت عن الكتبِ THIS IS WRONG,WRONG,WRONG. It’s just not right. Whenever the object of a passive verb is really the object of the preposition that goes with that verb, the verb must always be masculine singular. Thus the correct answer is: بُحِثَ عن الكتبِ

No doubt you need more examples. Look at the next two sentences in the active voice.

1.They criticized the recommendations.	١. ندّدوا بالاقتراحات
2. We agreed on the changes.	٢. وافقْنا على التغييرات

The verb in the first sentence is ندّد بِ which means “to criticize.” Now we wish to say that the recommendations were criticized. Since الاقتراحات “the recommendations” remains the object of the preposition, instead of becoming the subject of the passive sentence as would otherwise be the case, the verb ندد must be conjugated for the masculine singular. So you get نُدِّدَ بالاقتراحات.

The same thing goes for the second sentence. Now we wish to say “The changes were agreed on.” Again, “changes” cannot become the subject of the passive verb in the sentence we wish to create since it must follow the preposition that goes with that verb. Therefore the verb is made masculine singular and you get ووفِقَ على التغييرات _.

The impersonal passive is used whenever the word which would normally be the subject of the passive sentence is instead the object of the preposition that goes with the verb in the sentence.

If you are comfortable with most of the material you have covered so far then you are well on your way to learning what you need to know in terms of grammar. The rest of the grammar presented in Part Two will be a piece of cake if you apply yourself.