The following discussion of Form IV is based largely on the active voice. For the passive conjugations, which you should be able to predict anyway once you know the active, see the charts at the end of this book. You need to familiarize yourself with the passive conjugations – the drills on Form IV in this chapter will include use of the passive voice.

Form IV verbs are characterized by I prefixed to the root and a sukuun placed over the first radical.For exampled أَكْرم , أخْبر and أَجْلًس Form IV verbs are almost always transitive and often have a causative meaning. For example, جلس means “to sit” whereas أَجْلًس means “to seat (someone).”

In the past tense they conjugate just like all verbs you have seen. You can refer to the charts at the end of this book if you need to.

In the present tense, these verbs have a voweling pattern close to those of Forms II and III. The vowel on the prefix is a dhamma and the stem vowel is a kasra. The sukuun remains on the first radical. Here are the present-tense conjugations for the verb يُكملُ , أَكملَ (“to complete”). Note that the أَ prefix for the past tense is dropped entirely in the present.

 

Plural		Dual		Singular
نُكْمِلُ	نَحْنَ	تُكْمِلانِ	أنتُما	أُكْمِلُ	أنا
تُكْمِلونَ	أنتُم	يُكْمِلانِ	هما (m)	تُكْمِلُ	أنتَ
تُكْمِلْنَ	أنتُنَّ	تُكْمِلانِ	هما (f)	تُكْمِلينَ	أنتِ
يُكْمِلونَ	هم			يُكْمِلُ	هو
يُكْمِلْنَ	هنَّ			تُكْمِلُ	هي

 

 

 

 

 

These conjugations probably seem pretty easy to you by now, and I do not think you need me to go through an explanation of the conjugations above. You should note, however, that a present-tense Form IV verb, when it is unvocalized, will look like a Form I and a Form II. So, when you are reading a text and come across a new verb in the imperfect which has only three consonants after the prefix, you will have to decide what form it is by using your dictionary along with the context. For example يعلم can mean “to know,” “to teach,” or “to inform” depending on whether it is Form I, II, or IV (يَعْلمُ , يُعَلِّمُ , or يُعْلِمُ ) There will be more on this after I have finished discussing Form IV verbs.

The command conjugations are formed from the jussive, as is the case with all verbs. أكْمل means “to complete.” To tell someone to complete a lesson, we first derive the jussive تُكمِلْ Then we drop the تُ prefix and are left with كْمِلْ. Thus, we have a word which begins with a consonant followed by a sukuun, so we need to add a prefix., In Form IV the prefix is a fatha over a hamza which is seated on an alif. So we add أَ to كْمِلْ and get أكْمِلْ. This hamza never elides. Form IV is the only form whose commands begin with أَ.

Below you will read discussions of the kinds of Form IV verbs (hollow, defective, etc.). Note that for all of them, the command form always has the prefix of أَ added to it, even if the process by which the command is derived yields a consonant followed by a vowel. You will see what I mean below.

The verbal noun of أكمل is إكْمال . All Form IV sound verbs will have the same pattern. Thus, the verbal noun of أَسْلَمَ “to submit” is إسْلام

The active participle of a Form IV is formed just as in Forms II and III. Thus “one who submits” (from أسلم) is a مُسلم which must always be mispronounced on the evening news. (“Moslem” is not an Arabic pronunciation; it should be “Muslim” with the u short and not ever pronounced with great stress as in “Mooslim.” A “Mooslim” is a Muslim with antlers.)

The passive participle is formed by changing the stem vowel from a kasra to a fatha just as in Forms II and III. The passive participle of أدْرج (“to include”) is مُدْرَج (“included”).

The pattern for the passive voice in the past tense is أُكْمٍلَ, and in the present passive it is يُكْمَلُ

Hollow Verbs

Form II and III hollow verbs are completely regular. Form IV hollow verbs present some of the difficulties that their Form I counterparts do. However, Form IV hollow verbs all conjugate the same way regardless of whether the middle radical is a و or a ي. The principle of shortening the hollow radical applies in Form IV for both tenses exactly as it applies in Form I, so Form IV hollow verbs should not be too difficult to master. For example, أَقام “to reside” and “to build” is the form IV of the verb قامَ. For أَقام, we shorten its alif in the past tense whenever the Form I قام would shorten its alif. However, in Form IV the alif is always shortened to, a fatha regardless of the identity of the middle radical. Thus “I resided” is أَقَمْتُ, whereas “I stood” is قُمْتُ. The latter word has a dhamma for the stem vowel because of the category to which the verb belongs. But the former, like all Form IV hollow verbs, will always have the alif replaced by a fatha whenever shortening is required. Remember that the middle radical is shortened in Form IV for the same conjugations and for the same reasons as Form I.

In the imperfect, all Form IV verbs have as stem vowel of a ي or a kasra if the ي needs to be shortened. The ي will be shortened exactly as the middle radicals are shortened in Form I. The present tense of أقام is يُقيمُ for هو but is يُقِمْنَ for هن. This parallels the Form I situation precisely. The only difference is that in

Form I the radical can be represented by a و or a ي or by an alif, depending on the category of the Form I verb. This is not the case in Form IV.

The shortening occurs in both tenses and in all moods, just as in Form I. Below are the past tense, imperfect indicative, and jussive conjugations for the Form IV يُقيمُ , أَقامَ

Jussive	Present	Past	Singular
أُقِمْ	أُقيمُ	أَقَمْتُ	أنا
تُقِمْ	تُقيمُ	أَقَمْتَ	أنتَ
تُقيمي	تُقيمينَ	أَقَمْتِ	أنتِ
يُقِمْ	يُقيمُ	أَقَامَ	هو
تُقِمْ	تُقيمُ	أَقَامَتْ	هي
			Dual
تُقيما	تُقيمانِ	أَقَمْتُما	أنتُما
يُقيما	يُقيمانِ	أَقاما	هما ((m
تُقيما	تُقيمانِ	أَقامَتا	هما ((f
			Plural
نُقِمْ	نُقيمُ	أَقَمْنا	نَحْنَ
تُقيموا	تُقيمونَ	أَقَمْتُم	أنتُم
تُقمْنَ	تُقمْنَ	أَقَمْتُنَّ	أنتُنَّ
يُقيموا	يُقيمونَ	أقاموا	هم
يُقمْنَ	يُقمْنَ	أَقَمْنَ	هنَّ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now try to derive the imperative for أقام for أنتَ , then read what follows to see if you did it correctly.

To form the imperative, we take the jussive for the second person (in this case masculine singular), and get تُقِمْ When we drop the prefix we get قِمْ This gives us a word which begins with a consonant followed by a vowel. Normally قِمْ would therefore be the command. However, ALL FORM IV VERBS HAVE THE SAME PREFIX IN THE COMMAND CONJUGATIONS NO MATTER WHAT. Thus we add أ and get أَقِمْ The prefix avoids the possibility of mistaking the command of a Form IV hollow for a Form I hollow. For example, the command for قام is قُمْ and when unvocalized it could otherwise be mistaken for a Form IV command.

Now, try to derive the other commands for أَقامَ and then look at the answers below.

 

 

Command	Pronoun
أَقِمْ	أنتَ
أَقيمي	أنتِ
أَقيما	أنتما
أَقيموا	انتم
أَقِمْنَ	انتنَّ

 

 

 

 

Make sure you understand why these commands are formed the way they are before you go on.

The verbal noun of أقامَ is إقامة. All Form IV hollow verbs will have the same pattern.

The active participle of this verb is مُقيم and the passive participle is مُقام

In the passive voice, the verb becomes أُقيم in the past tense and يُقام in the present.

 

 

 

Assimilated Verbs

Assimilated verbs in Form IV are regular with respect to their conjugations in both tenses. The only irregularity they have is with respect to the derivation of their verbal nouns.

أوْجَدَ is the Form IV of وَجَدَ and means “to create.” In the past tense it conjugates like any verb. In the imperfect it is يُوجِدُ The و of the root remains, as does the first radical in any Form IV, and is followed by a sukuun, just as the ك is in يُكمِلُ. The remaining conjugations for Form IV assimilated verbs are in the charts.

The active participle is مُوجِد and the passive participle is مُوجِد The verbal noun is إيجاد The و of the root and the kasra of the prefix do not go together in Arabic, and thus the verbal noun has a ي where the و would normally be.

The passive voice in the past tense is أُوجِدَ and in the present it is يُوجَدُ

Doubled Verbs

أعَدَّ is a Form IV doubled verb meaning “to prepare.” Note that the ع, the first consonant of the root, is not followed by a sukuun as is normally the case in Form IV.

Form IV doubled verbs are like their Form I counterparts with respect to the breaking apart of the doubled radical for certain conjugations. Do you remember this from the discussion of Form I?

In the past tense, certain conjugations begin with consonants. Whenever that is the case, the second and third radicals are separated. Thus, to say “I prepared,” we say أعْدَدْتُ . Here we have a completely normal Form IV conjugation. All three radicals appear, and we even have a sukuun over the first radical. Whenever the suffix begins with a vowel, the second and third radicals are written as one letter with a shadda. Thus, “they prepared” is أَعدّوا

In the imperfect there is also the issue of when to break up the last two radicals and when to write them as one. Again, in Form IV the rules for writing the last two radicals are the same as for Form I. يُعِدُّ is the imperfect for هو Note that the vowel of the prefix is a dhamma, as it is for all Form IV verbs. Note also that the stem vowel is a kasra and that it is written one space earlier than it would be if this were not a doubled verb. The two د’s are written as one, since the suffix begins with a vowel. If we conjugate the same verb for هن, we will break up the last two radicals, since the suffix will begin with a consonant. Thus we get يُعْدِدْنَ Now the stem vowel is between the second and third radicals.

In the jussive, the same rules apply as for Form I doubled verbs. You can either use the true jussive (which nobody does anymore – making you the only one -See note 1 below- ), or you can use the subjunctive-like endings for the big five. If you use the jussive (don’t), remember when to break up the last two radicals just as you would in Form I. Thus “he did not prepare” can be written two ways: لم يُعْدِدْ (and لم يُعِدَّ ) The latter is much more common.

Check your verb charts at the end of the text if you have any questions.

The commands are formed along the same lines as they are for Form I doubled verbs. You can use either the jussive or the subjunctive to form the command. You must add as a prefix. Thus, “prepare” is أعْدِدْ or أَعِدَّ.

The verbal noun is إعْداد

The active participle is مُعِدّ and the passive participle is مُعَدّ

The passive voice pattern in the past tense is أُعِدَّ and in the present it is يُعَدُّ

Defective Verbs

Form IV defectives conjugate just like their Form II and III counterparts in both tenses. أجْري “to hold or conduct (talks)” is a common such verb. For أنا in the past tense, the verb is أَجْريْتُ and for the imperfect indicative it is أُجْرى (يُجْري for the pronoun هو).

In the jussive do not forget to shorten the ي to a kasra when necessary. The same is true for the commands.

The verbal noun for أجرى is إجراء

The active participle is مُجرٍ and the passive participle is مُجْرى

In the passive voice in the past tense is أُجرِيَ and in the present يُجْرى .

 

 

 

 

إعْلان هام An Important Announcement

You have covered by now a considerable amount of the grammar which you need to know in order to be able to read, write, speak, and understand Arabic. This book, of course, will basically be of help to you in reading and to a lesser extent in writing the language. I would like to take some time at this point to highlight some points about reading Arabic based upon my experience as a student and teacher of the language.

Most American students do not achieve real proficiency in reading Modern Standard Arabic. On a scale of 1 to 10, with I being inept and 10 being able to read literature for pleasure, most students of the language after three or four years of university study would be between 1 and 3 with respect to their ability to read. Even the front page of a newspaper is essentially beyond them. Of course, this is not true of all students, especially those who go off to Middlebury for intensive study in the summer or those who go to the Center for Arabic Study Abroad in Cairo, but it is true of the vast majority, even those who do very well in class.

I believe that there are essentially three reasons for this problem.

The first reason, as you must be aware, is that students are often notoriously weak in grammar and thus cannot even begin to deal with an authentic text. This book is aimed in large part at alleviating that particular problem.

The second reason is technique. The typical American student, when confronted with a new text, reads each word as if he or she is terrified of the next word. Normally, the student will grab a dictionary and begin to read each word in isolation, and as soon as he sees a new word (that is, immediately), he rushes through the dictionary to find its meaning, write it down, either in list form, on flash cards, or on the text itself. Usually, he writes down the wrong definition. Then, after misunderstanding that word, he reads one word at a time until he finds another new word (usually the very next word) and proceeds to misunderstand it. Several hours later (if the student has not just given up and gone off to do something more rewarding and less painful) the student has a long list of words, or flash cards, or an Arabic text so filled with English that both the Arabic and English are illegible (which is a good thing, actually, since the English definitions are probably wrong anyway).

The third reason is that Arabic has a very large lexicon. Therefore the student faced with an authentic text is often going to find new words even if he is at a relatively advanced level.

Thus poor grammar, poor technique, and the fact that Arabic has a very large vocabulary, combine to kill the student’s self confidence and his interest in the language.

You, that means YOU, are now in the process of overcoming the first hurdle, the grammar. As you can see, it takes effort, but it is not beyond the capacity of the average congressman to learn the grammar (journalists maybe, but not congressmen). If, and only if, your grammar is strong,you can learn to over-come the other two hurdles.

 

 

 

Reading for Comprehension

In order to learn to read authentic Arabic texts you need to practice reading in a certain way. Let’s say that you are trying to read a two-paragraph article on the front page of a newspaper. What should you do first?

First, read the headline even if you do not understand it. Read the headline and then go to the first paragraph. Usually most of the words in the headline will be repeated in the first paragraph, and often synonyms are given.

So, now you have read the headline, you may not be sure what it says, but you have bravely gone on to the first paragraph without having used your dictionary.

Read the entire first paragraph twice before you even think of using your dictionary. The first paragraph will be anywhere from one to three sentences long in most articles. After you have quickly read the paragraph twice, decide whether or not you understand it. If you do not (you probably won’t), decide who or what is the subject of each sentence, what the verb is, and what the object is, if there is one. If you locate the subject, your grammar should give you a good idea of how to look it up in the dictionary if you need to. The same will be true for the verb. But if your grammar is weak, you will have a horrible time looking up the words you need to know. There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth. (All to no avail, I might add.)

Once you have identified the subject, verb, and object of each sentence and have looked them up if they are new words, skip the other new words in the first paragraph and go on to the second paragraph. Read the second paragraph exactly as you read the first.

Then look at the headline again and see if it makes more sense to you now. By now you should have at least a good general understanding of what the article is about.

Read the article again, this time all the way through, and see how much you now understand. Then, if you wish, look up some of the remaining words you do not know. Unless the number of new words in an article is very few – do not look up every single word you do not know. You will not remember them all anyway. Your time would be better spent doing more reading.

The entire process should not take more than fifteen minutes.

I strongly advise you never to make word lists or use flash cards, or write down the English meanings on the text. This takes a great deal of time. Furthermore, you will never sit down and try to memorize your lists of words in isolation, and if you did, you would not remember them very long (i.e., more than a day at most). Instead of trying to memorize the new words, your time would be better spent either rereading the same text for a third or fourth time or reading a new text using the same method So as you go through a text in the manner I outlined above, do not write down the meanings of the words you lookup and lookup as few words as you possibly can. Instead of carrying flash cards with you on the bus or to meetings or whatever, take an Arabic newspaper and read something in it.

This method will help you retain new words without the need for memorizing lists. Furthermore, since the vocabulary of newspapers is limited, you can teach yourself to read the front page of Arabic newspapers in three to six months if you follow this method and read at least one or two articles every day. Of course, there will always be some new words, but the essential vocabulary can be learned in three to six months.

This method will not work if your grammar is weak. This is especially true due to the nature of the writing system which often spells very different words in the same way when these words are unvocalized. When you read the words in context, your knowledge of the grammar will greatly help you to decipher the text. For example, look at the sentences below. Read them and try to translate them. Then look at my discussion which follows.

لم يعد الرئيس قراءة التقرير.

لم يعد الرئيس قراءة التقرير هامة.

The verb in the first sentence is the jussive of أعاد, which is a Form IV hollow verb. The verb means “to return (something)” but when used with a verbal noun it means to redo whatever the verbal noun is. The verbal noun in question is قراءة which means “reading.” The subject of the sentence is الرئيس The sentence reads: The president did not reread the report.” You should have seen that تقرير is a Form II verbal noun from قرّر and means either “decision” or “report.” Here it means report and it is the second term of an idaafa.

You might ask, “Now Jim, how do you know that the verb يعد is the jussive of the Form IV أعاد and not something else”? I would answer that no other rendering of يعد. makes sense. It could not be يَعُد “he did not return,” for example, because that reading does not make sense here even though it is a legitimate reading of the three letters. The same is true for any other possible reading of those letters. None of them makes sense in the sentence, so only one reading is possible. It is the context, THE CONTEXT, THE CONTEXT, THE CONTEXT which gives the word its meaning.

 

Now let’s look at the second sentence. The typical student will read it and think that the only difference between it and the first sentence is the word هامة at the end. If that were the case, what would the sentence mean? هامة is an adjective (the active participle of the verb هَمَّ “to be important”) meaning “important.” What is it doing in the sentence? What is or is not important? You cannot just add “important” to your translation without making a significant change in your English sentence. Thus, maybe there just might be something different about sentence two in addition to the word هامة. Look at the verb. It is no longer يُعِدْ So what can it be? The answer is that the verb is the jussive of عَدَّ which is a Form I doubled verb meaning “to consider (something to be something).” Since the verb is doubled, the subjunctive is used with لم in place of the actual jussive. The sentence is “The president did not consider the reading of the report important.”

Sentence two cannot be understood until the last word has been read. Therefore, if you do not read for context, you will not understand it. If you look up each word in isolation you will never figure it out. I hope I have made my point.

Incidentally, here are some of the possible readings of يعد . fully vocalized.يُعِدَّ , يَعُدَّ , يُعَدَّ , يُعِدْ , يُعَدْ , يَعُدْ, يُعْدِ , يَعِدْ , يَعْدُ and يُعْدَ. All of these are actually words which have meaning. Other readings are possible but not all of them have meaning when applied to the combination يعد with the jussive.

By the way, the two sentences above, with which you have just struggled, were given to two friends of mine, both of whom are native speakers of Arabic and both of whom teach Arabic for a living. Each of them had difficulty, especially with the second sentence, which they had to read two or three times. They both said that the word هامة in the second sentence is what clued them in on the meaning of the verb and thus gave them their proper understanding of the sentence. So even native speakers have to read for context. If even they have to do so, then what about you?

 

If you adopt the method I outlined above, you will be forever free from memorizing lists of words. Read every day and your vocabulary will begin to stick with you. Many words you will only have to look up once or twice. Some words may have to be looked up on a number of occasions before the brain commits them to long-term memory, but these will only be about ten per cent of the new words you learn. But for this method to work you have to work. No language is learned overnight. You need to work on Arabic each day. Not for 12 hours, but for about an hour and sometimes less. In six months, if you do this, and if you learn the grammar, the front page of newspapers will be no big deal to you. You can speed up the process by working harder. Once you get comfortable with the descriptive front-page articles (or even before then), try your hand at editorials and opinion pieces. They will be more difficult, but in a relatively short time they will cease to be a problem if you follow the same method.

 

More on the subject of learning to use Arabic is presented in Part III of this book.

 

 

 

Note 1 – You may occasionally see the jussive used in poetry, but rarely if eveer in prose.

Plural		Dual		Singular
نُقابِلُ	نَحْنَ	تُقابِلانِ	أنتُما	أُقابِلُ	أنا
تُقابِلونَ	أنتُم	يُقابِلانِ	هما (m)	تُقابِلُ	أنتَ
تُقابِلْنَ	أنتُنَّ	تُقابِلانِ	هما (f)	تُقابِلينَ	أنتِ
يُقابِلونَ	هم			يُقابِلُ	هو
يُقابِلْنَ	هنَّ			تُقابِلُ	هي

You should see that the vowel on the prefix is always a dhamma and that the stem vowel is always a kasra. This is the same as for Form II verbs.

The jussive and the subjunctive are the same for Form III as for all other forms. Therefore I am not going to list them here.

The command conjugations for Form III are also similar to those for Form III. We take the jussive and then drop the prefix. We are left with a word beginning with a consonant and followed by a vowel, so We already have the command and do not need a command prefix. For example, for أنتَ the jussive is تُقابِلْ . We drop تُ the and are left with قابِلْ which is the command. Here are the command conjugations for Form III.

 

Command	Pronoun
قابِلْ	أنتَ
قابِلي	أنتِ
قابِلا	أنتما
قابِلوا	انتم
قابِلْنَ	انتنَّ

 

The active participle is of the pattern مُفاعل as in مُقابل . The passive participle is مُفاعَل as in مُقابَل. The primary verbal noun pattern is مُفاعَلة as in مُقابَلة. A secondary verbal noun pattern is discussed below.

 

Hollow Verbs

Hollow verbs in Form III are regular just like those in Form II. If the middle radical is a و, it will appear as a strong consonant. The verb حَاوَلَ. is an example. The same is true for the ي , as in the verb عايَنَ Just as in Form II, there is never any shortening of the middle radical.

 

Assimilated Verbs

Assimilated verbs in Form III are regular in every way. The و never disappears. For example واصل ,يواصل.

 

Doubled Verbs

Doubled verbs are extremely rare in Form III and will not be treated in this book.

 

Defective Verbs

Defective verbs in Form III work just as their counterparts do in Form II. There is only one way to conjugate them in the perfect, and only one way in each of the imperfect moods, just like Form II. Below is the verb ينادي , نادى meaning “to call,” conjugated for the past tense and the imperfect indicative.

 

Past Tense

نادَيْنَ

Plural		Dual		Singular
نادَيْنا	نَحْنَ	نادَيْتُما	أنتُما	نادَيْتُ	أنا
نادَيْتُم	أنتُم	نادَيا	هما (m)	نادَيْتَ	أنتَ
نادَيْتُنَّ	أنتُنَّ	نادَيتا	هما (f)	نادَيْتِ	أنتِ
نادَوا	هم			نادَى	هو
هنَّ			نادَتْ	هي

 

Commands

Command	Pronoun
نادِ	أنتَ
نادي	أنتِ
نادِيا	أنتما
نادوا	انتم
نادينَ	انتنَّ

 

The verbal noun of نادى is مُناداة.

The active participle is مُنادٍ and the passive participle is مُناديّ . These are just the same as in Form II.

 

Notes on Form III

Form III verbs are transitive and often express the attempt to do the action described by the Form I root. Thus, قاتَلَ means “to fight” from the root قتل mean “to kill.” Note that the verb حَاوَلَ means “to attempt.”

Many Form III verbs involve doing the action described by the Form I verb directly to some one else. For example, كاتَبَ means “to correspond with someone,” from the root كتب meaning “to write.” شارك means “to participate with someone” in the doing of something, from the root شرك meaning “to share” with someone or “to become a partner with someone.”

 

Form III verbs also have a secondary verbal noun pattern. The pattern is فِعال and sometimes exists side by side with the primary pattern given above. Sometimes this secondary pattern is preferred or even the only one used. Sometimes the two verbal nouns have different meanings, but usually this is not the case. Here are some common verbs for which the secondary pattern of the verbal noun is often used.

 

Verbal Noun	Meaning	Verb
كِفاح	to struggle	كافَحَ
جِهاد	to struggle	جاهَدَ
قِتال	to fught	قاتَلَ
نِداء	to call	نادى
نِضال	to struggle	ناضَلَ
صِراع	to struggle	صارَعَ

 

These verbs also have the primary pattern for their verbal nouns. You will see both patterns. In case you are interested, جِهاد is the term you often hear translated as “holy war” by the news media, and indeed it does sometimes have that meaning as a technical term in Islamic studies. However, since it is against Federal Communications Commission regulations for newscasters ever to pronounce an Arabic word correctly, you have probably heard the word pronounced something like “jeeehad,” as in heehaw.

You have now studied Forms I-III. You are actually getting close to learning all 10 forms, since, as you see, the derived forms are much easier to master than Form I. The following exercise will drill you on Form III as well as on Forms I and II. Pay careful attention to the context. Since nothing will be voweled, Forms I and II will often look the same. Form III verbs, because of the alif, should stand out and be easily recognized. I will talk more about context in Chapter 4 and again later in this text.

 

After you do drill 32, go on to the next section of this chapter. PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION TO THE NEXT SECTION. It will give you the only conjugations for Arabic verbs which you have not yet had, the conjugations for the passive voice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A verbal noun represents a change in the form of a verb which allows it to be used as a noun in a sentence. For example, the verbal noun in English for “to read” is “reading.” You would say, for example, “Reading is good for you.” In the previous sentence, “reading” is the subject. If you say “I love reading Arabic books” you have made “reading” the direct object. In this section we will study the derivation and some of the uses of the verbal noun in Arabic.

Derivation of Verbal Nouns: The Good News

The verbal nouns for the overwhelming majority of derived verbs (Forms II-X) are extremely easy to derive. Within each form if you can derive one verbal noun you can derive almost all of them. Here we will look at Form II verbal nouns.

 

The verbal noun for دَرَّسَ is تَدْريس Look at the way the verbal noun is constructed. A prefix of تَ is added to the word while a sukuun is placed over the first radical. Then a ي, acting as a long vowel, is placed between the second and third radicals. The result is pronounced “tadriis.” This is the pattern for the vast majority of Form II verbal nouns. For example, the verbal nouns of ذكّر and عيّن are, respectively, تذكير and تعيين What could be easier? Note that for عيّن the verbal noun contains two consecutive yaa’s. The first is from the verb itself and acts as a consonant; the second is added as part of the verbal noun and is pronounced as a long vowel. The word is pronounced “ta’yiin.”

 

Defective verbs have a slightly different pattern. The verbal noun for سمّى is تَسمية pronounced “tasmiya.” Here the ي of the root and the ي which is added give us just one ي preceded by a kasra. All Form II defectives have this pattern.

 

Form II verbs whose last radical is a hamza take a pattern very similar to that of defective verbs. For example, the verbal noun of هنّا (“to congratulate”) is تَهنئة Note that the hamza sits on a ي. The word is pronounced “tahni’a.”

 

A few Form II verbs have more than one verbal noun pattern. The two patterns may have different meanings. For example, the verb كرّر means “to repeat” but it also means to “to refine” as in oil refining. The verbal noun for the first meaning is تكرار while the verbal noun for the second meaning is تَكْرير. The verb جرّبَ (“to test”, “to try”) has a verbal noun of تجربة and one of تجريب. Sometimes the former refers to a specific test while the latter usually refers to the act of testing in general.

 

The exceptions to the pattern of تفعيل are nonetheless rare and you should not worry about them.

You should also be aware that most of the regular Form II verbal nouns take feminine sound plurals. A few of them may also taken broken plurals. Usually the broken plural will have a different meaning. For example تَعليم (“instruction”) has a sound plural تَعليمات meaning “instructions.” However, it also has a broken plural تعاليم meaning “teachings” as in the teachings of some popular figure. As with all nouns, you should deal with the meanings of the plurals as you come to them.

 

The Bad News

The bad news is that while the verbal nouns of the derived forms are easy to predict, the verbal nouns of Form I verbs come in many different sizes, shapes and patterns. As you learn each new Form I verb you will have to memorize its verbal noun just as you memorize the broken plurals for new nouns and adjectives. Be aware, also, that some Form I verbs can have more than one verbal noun and that these nouns may differ in meaning from each other.

 

There are many patterns. In EMSA vol. 1, Chapter 16, there is a good list of some of the most common Form I verbal nouns. It would behoove you to pay great attention to that list. Note the many patterns. Do not try to memorize the patterns themselves. Just learn the actual nouns. But it is good to be aware of the possibilities in terms of patterns so that you can tell what is going on when you are reading a text. It is always to your benefit to be able to determine what kind of word you are reading if you do not know its meaning. If you know what kind of a word it is, it will be very easy for you to find it in a dictionary or to make an educated guess about the word’s meaning if you know other words from the same root.

Just for reference, below is an abridgment of the chart on pages 314-315 of volume one of EMSA showing one or two examples of each of the major patterns listed on that chart.

 

Verbal Noun	Verb	Verbal Noun	Verb
ذَهاب	ذَهَبَ	بَحْث	بَحَثَ
بِناء	بنى	نَقْل	نَقَلَ
دِراسة	دَرَسَ	ذِكْر	ذَكَرَ
خَوْف	خافَ	شُرْب	شَرِبَ
وُصول	وَصلَ	عَودة	عادَ
		عَمَل	عَمِلَ

 

Use of the Verbal Noun

The verbal noun in Arabic has a number of uses. In this chapter I will focus on the three most problematic ones. Other uses of the verbal noun (covered in Chapters Five and Six of Part II) are largely stylistic or ornamental and are very easy to learn. Learn what’s in this chapter, and you will have the verbal noun stuff down.

 

The verbal noun in Arabic usually refers to the doing of the action referred to by the verb. Here we will focus on three ways it can be used: to replace a verb in the subjunctive, as a concept, or as a concrete noun. No doubt, you want examples of this. Let’s take each item one at a time.

 

In our examples we will use the verbal noun for the verb يَعملُ , عَمِلَ (“to work”). The verbal noun for this verb is عَمَلٌ. In the first type of usage mentioned in the above paragraph the word عَمَل means “work” in sentences such as “He went to Kuwait in order to work there.” In such situations, the particle لِ is attached to the verbal noun. Examine the following sentence.

 

 

Here we simply add لِ, meaning “of,” to اللغة and put the word in the genitive case since لِ always puts a noun in the genitive . The meaning is the same. Basically the two styles are interchangeable and you will see both.

The subjunctive as a concept in grammar refers, in general, to that which is uncertain or related to emotion. Often it is used for things which are sought, desired, or feared, but which are not necessarily realized. In such situation, verbs in many languages reflect the somewhat uncertain nature of what is happening through changes in their conjugations. In many languages, Spanish for example, the subjunctive exists in more than one tense and the conjugations can become rather confusing. In Arabic, however, the subjunctive is only used as a mood of the imperfect tense. As a result, there is only one way to conjugate a verb in the subjunctive in Arabic.

The subjunctive in Arabic occurs in situations. One is after particles such as كَيْ , لِ and لِكَيْ which essentially mean the same thing: “in order to” or after the particle لَنْ which is used to negate the future. The other situation is after the word أنْ , which is used with verbs of desire, emotion, or intention. In this chapter we will deal with the first of the two situations. Regardless of which of the two uses of the subjunctive is being employed, the subjunctive conjugations will be the same.

 

Below are the subjunctive conjugations for the verb يَدْرُسُ , دَرَس

 

Plural		Dual		Singular
نَدْرُسَ	نَحْنَ	تَدْرُسا	أنتُما	أَدْرُسَ	أنا
تَدْرُسوا	أنتُم	يَدْرُسا	هما (m)	تَدْرُسَ	أنتَ
تَدْرُسْنَ	أنتُنَّ	تَدْرُسا	هما (f)	تَدْرُسي	أنتِ
يَدْرُسوا	هم			يَدْرُسَ	هو
يَدْرُسْنَ	هنَّ			تَدْرُسَ	هي

 

As you can see, the differences between the subjunctive conjugations and the present tense conjugations are minimal. For the “big five” (whenever the present tense suffix is a dhamma), the subjunctive suffix is a fatha. For أنتِ we drop the final نَ just as we do for the jussive. Whenever the present tense suffix is ونَ the subjunctive is وا with the alif unpronounced. For the second and third person feminine plurals the conjugations are the same as they are for the present tense and the jussive.

 

A simpler way to look at it is this: All five present tense conjugations which end in a dhamma end instead with a fatha in the subjunctive. For all other conjugations in the subjunctive you use the jussive conjugations.

 

At this point you may wish to know something rather interesting. Outside of the passive voice, there are no more conjugations in Arabic that you will ever have to learn. Yes, we are only through Form II and you will need to learn Forms III through X, but there is nothing new in them. You will see nothing that you have not seen before. They will be a breeze. Yes, there is a thing or two in classical Arabic regarding conjugations, but you will probably never see them unless you read classical texts. If you do wish to read classical texts you can learn the remaining things you need to know by looking at Wright, Cowan, or Haywood/Nahmad. As for the passive voice, it is much simpler than the active and will be treated in the next chapter.

 

You have just seen the subjunctive conjugations for a Form I sound verb. For the sake of completeness, I will now give the conjugations in the subjunctive for the other types of Form I verbs and for Form II verbs. You will see that everything that was said above will apply to the charts below. These are mainly for reference and you can skip them if you wish and go on next part of this section which discusses how لِ is used with the subjunctive.

 

Hollow Verbs

Below are the subjunctive conjugations for the verb يَقولُ , قالَ.

Plural		Dual		Singular
نَقولَ	نَحْنَ	تَقولا	أنتُما	أَقولَ	أنا
تَقولوا	أنتُم	يَقولا	هما (m)	تَقولَ	أنتَ
تَقُلْنَ	أنتُنَّ	تَقولا	هما (f)	تَقولي	أنتِ
يَقولوا	هم			يَقولَ	هو
يَقُلْنَ	هنَّ			تَقولَ	هي

 

Assimilated Verbs

Here are the subjunctive conjugations for the verb يَعِدُ , وَعَدَ (“to promise”).

Plural		Dual		Singular
نَعِدَ	نَحْنَ	تَعِدا	أنتُما	أَعِدَ	أنا
تَعِدوا	أنتُم	يَعِدا	هما (m)	تَعِدَ	أنتَ
تَعِدْنَ	أنتُنَّ	تَعِدا	هما (f)	تَعِدي	أنتِ
يَعِدوا	هم			يَعِدَ	هو
يَعِدْنَ	هنَّ			تَعِدَ	هي

 

Doubled Verbs

 

Below are the subjunctive conjugations for the verb يَرُدُّ , رَدَّ (“to reply”). (The subjunctive conjugations for Form I doubled verbs were also given in Chapter One of Part II.)

 

Plural		Dual		Singular
نَرُدَّ	نَحْنَ	تَرُدّا	أنتُما	أَرُدَّ	أنا
تَرُدّوا	أنتُم	يَرُدّا	هما (m)	تَرُدَّ	أنتَ
تَرْدُدْنَ	أنتُنَّ	تَرُدّا	هما (f)	تَرُدّي	أنتِ
يَرُدّوا	هم			يَرُدَ	هو
يَرُدُدْنَ	هنَّ			تَرُدَّ	هي

 

 

Defective Verbs

 

Okay, now we come to the defectives. Typically, they are just a bit more difficult than the other verbs. We will start with the first type of defective that we treated in Chapter One using يَبْدو , بَدا (“to appear”) as our model.   (Do not confuse this verb with يَبْدَأ , بَدَأَ “to begin.”) The chart is below.

Plural		Dual		Singular
نَبْدُوَ	نَحْنَ	تَبْدُوا	أنتُما	أَبْدُوَ	أنا
تَبْدوا	أنتُم	يَبْدُوا	هما (m)	تَبْدُوَ	أنتَ
تَبْدونَ	أنتُنَّ	تَبْدُوا	هما (f)	تَبْدي	أنتِ
يَبْدوا	هم			يَبْدُوَ	هو
يَبْدونَ	هنَّ			تَبْدُوَ	هي

 

You will recall that for the present tense conjugations which normally end in a dhamma with sound verbs (our “big five”), we get only a waaw with verbs of this kind. That is because the theoretical conjugations end in dhamma-waaw-dhamma, which is always rendered as a waaw pronounced as a long vowel. In the subjunctive those same conjugations become dhamma-waaw-fatha which is a permissible sequence so the fatha remains. All of the other conjugations in the subjunctive, as with all verbs, are the same as the jussive conjugations. Cynics might also want to note that since most texts are unvowelled the fatha will not appear anyway. These cynics may have noted similar instances with regard to many verb conjugations.

 

Now we come to the second type of Form I defective represented here by the illustrious verb قضى, يقضي (“to decide”, “to rule”).

Plural		Dual		Singular
نَقْضِيَ	نَحْنَ	تَقْضِيا	أنتُما	أَقْضِيَ	أنا
تَقْضوا	أنتُم	يَقْضِيا	هما (m)	تَقْضِيَ	أنتَ
تَقْضينَ	أنتُنَّ	تَقْضِيا	هما (f)	تَقْضيَ	أنتِ
يَقْضوا	هم			يَقْضِيَ	هو
يَقْضينَ	هنَّ			تَقْضِيَ	هي

This verb is also regular in the subjunctive. In the present tense, you will recall, the combination of kasra-yaa’-dhamma becomes simply a yaa’ pronounced as a long vowel because the sequence is not permissible. Again, as in the case of the first type of defective, the subjunctive sequence is permissible and is used. For all other conjugations the subjunctive is the same as the jussive. Cynics take note. The subjunctive fathas will not usually appear anyway.

Plural		Dual		Singular
ننْسى	نَحْنَ	تَنْسَيا	أنتُما	أنْسى	أنا
تَنْسَوْا	أنتُم	يَنْسَيا	هما (m)	تَنْسى	أنتَ
تَنْسَيْنَ	أنتُنَّ	تَنْسَيا	هما (f)	تَنْسىْ	أنتِ
يَنْسَوْا	هم			يَنْسى	هو
يَنْسَيْنَ	هنَّ			تَنْسى	هي

 

In the present tense, as we saw in the last chapter, the “big five” conjugations for this type of verb end in an alif maqsuura, instead of a waaw or a yaa’ as we see with the other two types of defectives. In the subjunctive, this third class of defectives still ends in just an alif maqsuura. No fatha is added. So the present tense and the subjunctive are the same for the big five conjugations. There is no reason to add a fatha to a word which already ends with an alif maqsuura, which is itself equal to two fathas. For all of the other conjugations, the subjunctive and the jussive are the same – just as is the case for the other two types of defectives and for all verbs in the language.

 

 

Form II Verbs

For the sake of completeness, below are the conjugations for a Form II sound verb and a Form II defective verb. Remember that Form II defectives are the only verbs in Form II which should be thought of as a separate category from sound verbs. Furthermore, there is only one kind of defective conjugation in Form II. Form II defectives, always, always, conjugate like Form I defectives of type two such as يجْري , جرى and يَقضي , قَضى That means in both tenses and all moods. That means that they NOW AND FOREVER WILL CONJUGATE IN EVERY INSTANCE JUST LIKE THE VERB قضي ,يقضي and the verb يجري , جرى in terms of the prefixes and suffixes used in the conjugations.

Here are the subjunctive conjugations for يُدَرَّسُ , دَرَّسَ

Plural		Dual		Singular
نُدَرِّسَ	نَحْنَ	تُدَرِّسا	أنتُما	أُدَرِّسَ	أنا
تُدَرِّسوا	أنتُم	يُدَرِّسا	هما (m)	تُدَرِّسَ	أنتَ
تُدَرِّسْنَ	أنتُنَّ	تُدَرِّسا	هما (f)	تُدَرِّسي	أنتِ
يُدَرِّسوا	هم			يُدَرِّسَ	هو
يَدَرِّسْنَ	هنَّ			تُدَرِّسَ	هي

 

 

Here are the subjunctive conjugations for the verb يُسَمّي , سَمّى

Plural		Dual		Singular
نُسَمِّيَ	نَحْنَ	تُسَمِّيا	أنتُما	أُسَمِّيَ	أنا
تُسَمِّوا	أنتُم	يُسَمِّيا	هما (m)	تُسَمِّيَ	أنتَ
تُسَمِّينَ	أنتُنَّ	تُسَمِّيا	هما (f)	تُسَمِّيَ	أنتِ
يُسَمِّوا	هم			يُسَمِّيَ	هو
يُسَمّينَ	هنَّ			تُسَمِّيَ	هي

The Particle لِ

Now that we know how to produce the subjunctive, we will learn something about how to use it. As I said before, essentially there are two situations in which the subjunctive is used. One situation is with verbs of desire, emotion, or intention. Again, that situation will be treated later. The other case is after certain particles or words, many of which mean “in order to.” The most common such particle is لِ. This particle is attached to the verb which is then conjugated in the subjunctive.

 

For example, let’s say “He went to the library in order to study the beautiful Arabic language.” In Arabic we would have ذهب الي المكتبة لِيَدْرُسَ اللغة العربية الجميلة

 

You can see that we have written لِ as part of the verb يَدْرُسَ which is put into the subjunctive. That is all there is to it. The sentence could also be translated as “He went to the library to study the beautiful Arabic language.” The use of “in order to” or “to” is one of style in English.

لِ is negated with لِئَلا (pronounced “li’ala”) and كَي and لِكَي are negated with كَيلا and لِكَيلا respectively. حتّى is negated with حتى لا For example:

That does it for the subjunctive for this chapter. Read Part D on verbal nouns and then do the drills which follow.

Form II

 

 

Commands are as much fun to give people in Arabic as they are in other languages. Arabic commands are not quite so simple as they are in English, but they can be mastered easily now that you know how to do the jussive. As I stated in a previous chapter, the word jussive refers to the form of the verb used in a command. It is from the jussive that Arabic commands are derived.

 

Command conjugations exist for أنتن , انتم , أنتِ , أنتَ and أنتما . Therefore you have only five conjugations to learn for the commands for each type of verb. Furthermore, although I will give you all five command conjugations for each kind of verb, the drills will stress the commands for the first three pronouns at the beginning of this paragraph since they are the most commonly used.

 

We will start with the Form II verb يُدَرِّسُ , دَرَّسَ (“to teach”) to illustrate the way commands are done for every Form II verb in the language. As I hove said, the command is derived from the jussive. The jussive for this verb for the pronoun أنتَ is تُدَرِّسْ. If we take off the prefix تُ we are left with دَرَّسَ which is the command for انتَ. For أنتِ (and for the other pronouns) we do exactly the same thing. The jussive for أنتِ is تُدَرِّسي. When we delete the prefix, we are left with دَرِّسي which is the command for the second person feminine singular.

The exact same procedure is followed for the plural commands and for the dual. Here are the commands for the verb يُدَرِّسُ , دَرَّسَ

Assimilated, hollow and doubled verbs will have their commands formed exactly the same way, so no examples will be treated here. In fact, defective verbs also form their commands the same way. However, defective verbs do look sort of funny so let’s take a closer look a them. Maybe they will look even funnier.

We will use the defective verb يُصلِّي , صَلّى and derive the commands for it. For the second person masculine singular, the jussive is تُصلِّ. We drop the prefix and we have the command صَلِّ. This looks funny. Now look at all the command forms for this verb below.

Remember that commands, like everything else in the language, will be unvocalized. Thus the first command in the chart above can look like the past tense of a Form I doubled verb when there are no vowels. Likewise, the fourth command in the chart above will look just like the past tense conjugation for هم. Another example is the second person masculine singular command for the Form II verb دَرَّسَ also discussed above. The command form and the past tense form look the same when unvoweled. Usually you can tell what is going on from context, but your mind must be aware of all the possible readings of a group of consonants so that you can make sense of texts and use a dictionary correctly. Practice helps a great deal. The more you read, the more quickly you will be able to determine the nature of the words you are using.

 

Form I

Sound Verbs

 

Form I verbs, like all verbs in the language, derive their command forms from the jussive. However, the pattern of the Form I command is different from that of Form II. We will now see why.

 

We will take the verb يُدرسُ , دَرسَ as our model. The jussive of this verb for أنتَ is, as you know, تَدْرُسْ Now we will drop the prefix, just as we did for Form II. We are left with دْرُسْ. For Form II, whatever was left after the dropping of the prefix was the command. Now, however, we have دْرُسْ which begins with two consonants with no vowel in between. As you know, a consonant cluster cannot begin a word in Arabic. Therefore, for all Form I sound verbs we must add a prefix in order to get the command form. If the stem vowel is a dhamma, as is the case here, the prefix is a hamza, seated on an alif, followed by a dhamma. أُ. If the stem vowel is either a fatha or a kasra, the prefix is a hamza with a kasra seated underneath an alif إِ . In our current situation, the imperfect stem vowel is a dhamma, so we add أُ and get أُدْرُسْ The same prefix will be used for all the command forms of this verb. The commands for يُدرسُ , دَرسَ are Below.

 

Command	Pronoun
إِذْهَبْ	أنتَ
إِذْهَبي	أنتِ
إِذْهَبا	أنتما
إِذْهَبوا	انتم
إِذْهَبْنَ	انتنَّ

 

 

The verb يَرْجِعُ , رَجَعَ has a kasra for the stem vowel in the imperfect. It will thus take the same prefix as the verb above.

Command	Pronoun
إِرْجِعْ	أنتَ
إِرْجِعي	أنتِ
إِرْجِعا	أنتما
إِرْجِعوا	انتم
إِرْجِعْنَ	انتنَّ

 

 

These are examples of how all Form I sound verb commands all Form I sound verb commands are generated. Please note that no Form I sound verbs have a prefix beginning with a fatha. Also note that the hamza used in these Form I sound verbs is elidable. So for example, you might come across إجْلسْ وادْرُسْ I which would be pronounced “ijlis wadrus”.

 

Now let’s take a break and review the rules for forming commands for verbs in Forms I and II.

 

1. Take the jussive conjugation for the appropriate pronoun.

2. Delete the prefix for that conjugation.

3. If you now have a word beginning with a consonant and a vowel, you have your conjugation.

4. If you have a word beginning with a consonant and a sukuun you add a prefix based on the stem vowel.

5. If the stem vowel is a dhamma your prefix is أُ .

6. If the stem vowel is a fatha or a kasra your prefix is إِ.

 

The rules above apply to all ten forms with the exception of Form IV and a few other verbs which I’ll treat at the end of this section. In Form IV the prefix is always أَ and the hamza is not elidable. Otherwise all of the rules above apply.

Now let’s see how these rules apply to the other categories of Form I verbs. Hollow Verbs

 

Hollow Verbs

We first go to the jussive to derive the command. Let’s take the verb يَقولُ , قالَ So, rule number one above for أنتَ yields تَقلْ as I am sure you understand and remember. If we drop the prefix (rule two) we get قُلْ. Since we now have a consonant immediately followed by a vowel (rule three) WE NOW HAVE THE COMMAND FORM FOR THIS VERB for the second person masculine singular. For all Form I hollow verbs, we never need to add a prefix once we drop the prefix of the jussive. Before you look at the commands for this verb below, fill in the blank chart below with its commands based on the rules above. Then fill in the rest of the blanks for the verbs يسير , سار and يخاف , خاف. Then look at the chart which follows and see how you did.

 

The Do-It-Yourself Hollow Verb Command Chart

خافَ	سارَ	قالَ	Pronoun
			أنتَ
			أنتِ
			أنتما
			انتم
			انتنَّ

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Do-It-Yourself Hollow Verb Command Chart – Corrected Version

خافَ	سارَ	قالَ	Pronoun
خَفْ	سِر	قٌلْ	أنتَ
خافي	سيري	قولي	أنتِ
خافا	سيرا	قولا	أنتما
خافوا	سيروا	قولوا	انتم
خَفْنَ	سِرنَ	قٌلْنَ	انتنَّ

You see that for three conjugations the middle radical remains. This is because the middle radical remains for these conjugations in the jussive. So do not think that you shorten the middle radical for these verbs for all command conjugations just because you do so for أنتَ. This is a common mistake which American students make.

 

 

Defective Verbs

If you can generate the jussive for each type of defective verb, you can generate the command. Defective verbs, like sound verbs, require a prefix in the command form. The rules for adding the prefix for defective verbs are the same as they are for sound verbs. Just follow the rules in the list I gave you above.

 

For example, we will begin with the first type of defective verb we studied, using يَشكو , شكا (“to complain”) as our model. The jussive for أنتَ is تَشْكُ When we drop the prefix we have شْكُ Obviously we now have the,same problem for this verb as wq do for Form I sound verbs. Since the stem vowel is a dhamma we add أُ as our prefix which gives us أشْكُ

 

The other two types of defectives, those like يجْري , جرى and يَنْسى , نَسيَ use إِ for the command prefix. Therefore, these two types of verbs use the same prefix as do the remainder of the Form I sound verbs, those whose stem vowel is either a fatha or kasra. (Verbs of the fourth category, such as سعى,يسعى have the same command patters as verbs like يَنسى , نَسيَ) Again, use the blank chart below and follow the rules you have been given and see if you can derive the command conjugations for defective Form I verbs. Remember, first you must know the type of defective the verb is, then you derive the jussive for the appropriate pronoun, then you drop the prefix of the jussive, and then you add the correct command prefix.

 

1. For the “big five” conjugations in the subjunctive, a fatha replaces the dhamma of the present tense and the sukuun of the jussive.

2. For all the rest of the conjugations, the subjunctive is the same as the jussive.

Now, let’s look at the pronouns used in deriving command conjugations. Only one of them, أنتَ is a member of the big five. So for أنتَ two different command conjugations are possible, one based on the subjunctive, the other on the jussive. The one based on the subjunctive is more common.

The other four pronouns will each have only one possible outcome since the jussive and subjunctive conjugations for them are the same. Let’s do أنتَ first. We will use the verb يَرُدُّ , رَدَّ as our model verb.

 

In the subjunctive, the conjugation for أنتَ is تَرُدَّ. If we drop the تَ prefix we are left with رُدَّ which begins with a consonant followed by a vowel. So رُدَّ is the command based on the subjunctive.

In the jussive, the conjugation for أنتَ is تَردُدْ When we drop the تَ we get ردُدْ which requires the prefix أ (since it begins with a consonant with a sukuun and has a dhamma as a stem vowel) and gives us أُردُد . As I said above, the jussive-based command conjugation for أنتَ for doubled verbs is rare.

The other four command pronouns are all derived from the jussive. For example, for انتم the jussive gives us تَرُدّوا. We drop the prefix and get رُدّوا which is our command. Below is a chart for the commands for the verb يَرُدُّ , رَدَّ

 

Command	Pronoun
رُدَّ (أرْدُدْ)	أنتَ
رُدّي	أنتِ
رُدّا	أنتما
رُدّوا	انتم
أُرْدُدْنَ	انتنَّ

 

 

Keeping in mind that although for أنتَ you will want to use the subjunctive, the six rules for deriving command conjugations apply to Form I doubled verbs as well as they do to other verbs.

 

Three Oddball Verbs

The verbs أَكَلَ , أَخَذَ and أَمَرَ are slightly irregular because they have a hamza as their first radical. For each of these verbs, when we derive the command by using the jussive, we cut off not only the prefix used with the jussive, but the hamza as well. For example, the jussive for أنتَ of the verb أحذ is تأخذ If we were to take away only the تَ prefix we would have .أخُذْ. We would then have to add a prefix of أُ which would give use two hamza’s in a row. Arabic does not like two hamza’s in a row. Neither do I. In order to avoid this most unpleasant situation, the hamza of the root is removed along with the تَ prefix. This leaves us with خُذْ Since this word begins with a consonant and a vowel it is now the command. (I must admit that I am truly bedazzled by this language.) Here are all of the command conjugations for يَأخُذُ , أَخَذَ

أَكَلَ and أَمَرَ form their commands in the same way. If the command for أَمَرَ is preceded by و or by ف it,will retain the hamza of its root. In other words, the command for this verb for أنتَ is مُرْ just as خُذْ and كل are commands for أنتَ. However, if we add و or ف to مُرْ we we will have وأمُرْ and فأمُرْ This bringing back of the hamza is only done for the verb أَمَرَ and it will not always be done.

 

 

Negative Commands

Negative commaos for all verbs are done by using لا in front of the jussive. Thus لا تدرس means “do not study” and لا تقل means “do not say.” Make sure you use the correct jussive conjugation for the person(s) you are addressing – لا تدرسي – to a woman, for example. Do not ever, not once, not one single time, try to negatea command by putting لا in front of the imperative. Do not write لا إِقْرَأ when you mean to say لا تَقْرَأ. There is no such thing in Arabic as using لا with a positive command.

 

Indirect Commands

Indirect commands are formed with لِ and the jussive.لِندْرُسْ means “let’s study” and لِيدْرُسْ means “let him study.”

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 known collectively as derived verbs because they are usually based on Form I verbs.For example, the verb ذَكَرَ is a Form I verb meaning “to remember” or “to mention.”ذَكَرَ is a Form II verb meaning “to remind,” and ذاكرَ is a Form III verb meaning “to study (long)” and “to commit to memory.” Forms II and III can easily be traced to the root made up of the three consonants dhaal, kaaf, and raa’. They are said to be derived from these consonants which give us the Form I verb ذَكَرَ. Be aware that a Form I verb does not usually exist in all fifteen or even ten forms. It may exist only as a Form I, or only one or two other forms may be derived from it. Sometimes a verb does exist in a number of forms. In addition, sometimes a trilateral root (a root made up of three consonants), does not exist in Form I but does exist in derived forms.

The distinguishing feature of a Form II verb from a Form I verb is that a shadda is placed over the middle radical in Form II. Usually some sort of meaning is associated with the forms and some texts go into great detail on this issue. For Form II verbs, the change in meaning from Form I is usually that if the Form I version is intransitive such as كَثُرَ “to be numerous”, the Form II is transitive as in كَثّرَ “to make numerous.” On the other hand, if the Form I verb is already transitive, then the Form II is usually causative, as in the example for ذَكّرَ above. In Form I it means “to remember” but in Form II it means “to remind,” that is, to cause someone else to remember something.

 

Some Good News

In the past tense, Form II sound verbs conjugate exactly as Form I sound verbs. There is no difference whatsoever. So conjugation for these verbs in the past tense should not be a problem. Furthermore, all of the subcategories of Form II verbs, except the defectives, all conjugate in the past tense just like sound verbs, This means, for example, that there is no need to shorten the middle radical for hollow verbs. So these verbs should be no problem either. Examples are given below. The same is true for the present tense. In this chapter we will treat each subcategory individually but will treat both tenses for the subcategory at the same time.

Sound Verbs

As stated above, in the past tense, Form II sound verbs conjugate just as Form I sound verbs do. Below, for the record, are the past tense conjugations for ذَكَّرَ.

 

Plural		Dual		Singular
ذَكَّرْنا	نَحْنَ	ذَكَّرْتُما	أنتُما	ذَكَّرْتُ	أنا
ذَكَّرْتم	أنتُم	ذَكَّرا	هما (m)	ذَكَّرْتَ	أنتَ
ذَكَّرْتٌنَّ	أنتُنَّ	ذَكَّرَتا	هما (f)	ذَكَّرْتِ	أنتِ
ذَكَّروا	هم			ذَكَّرَ	هو
ذَكَّرْنَ	هنَّ			ذَكَّرَتْ	هي

 

As you can see, there is no difference, in terms of the conjugations, between Form II and Form I sound verbs. Of course, in Form II there is a shadda over the middle radical. Also, in Form II, the stem vowel in the past tense is always a fatha. So, for example, the verb  شَرِبَ meaning “to drink” exists in Form II as شَرَّبَ  which means “to give someone something to drink.”

 

In the present tense, the verb ذَكَّرَ is يُذَكِّرُ in the third person masculine singular. Note the differences here between the Form II present and the Form I present. In Form II the prefix begins with a yaa’ just as in Form I, but the vowel with the yaa’ is a dhamma instead of a fatha as in Form I. As you know, the vowel used in the prefixes of Form I verbs is always a fatha. For Form II, the vowel used in the prefixes is always a dhamma. The consonants of the prefixes, as you will see, are exactly the same in Form II as in Form I. In fact, they will be the same for all verbs irrespective of form.

 

Now look at the first radical of يُذَكِّرُ There is a fatha placed over it instead of a sukuun as in Form I. Look at the stem vowel. The stem vowel is a kasra. This is the way all (that means all ) Form II verbs are conjugated for every person. The first radical always has a fatha and the stem vowel is always a kasra. There is no guessing about the stem vowel in Form II verbs. You will see that in each of the derived forms, thestem vowel is completely predictable. Now take a look at the present tense conjugations for ذَكَّرَ, يُذَكِّرُ below.

Hollow verbs in Form II are completely regular. If the middle radical is a waaw it shows up in all of the past and present tense conjugations as a regular consonant. The same is true if the middle radical is a yaa’. For example, look at the sample conjugations below for the verb يُزَوِّرُ , زَوَّرَ (“to forge”).

Jussive	Present	Past	Pronoun
تُزَوِّرْ	تُزَوِّرُ	زَوَّرْتَ	أنتَ

 

As you can see, the waaw is never shortened. If the middle radical in the example above were a yaa’, as in the case of the verb , يُعينُ , عَيّنَ (“to appoint”), it would never be shortened either.

 

Assimilated Verbs

The waaw in assimilated verbs in Form II always remains and acts as a regular consonant. For example يُوفقُ , وَفّقُ shows that the waaw remains in the imperfect and is pronounced as a consonant.

 

Doubled Verbs

Doubled verbs in Form II are also completely regular. The middle and last consonants are separated and a shadda is then placed over the middle consonant. For example, the Form I verb يَرُدُّ , رَدَّ becomes يَرُدّدُ , رَددَّ in Form II. You never have to worry about what to with the doubled radical in Form II.

 

Defective Verbs

I have saved the best for last. Defective verbs in Form II are simpler than they are in Form I, but they are not quite as simple as their other Form II colleagues. Here we will use the verb  يُسمّي , سَمّى (“to name”) as our example.

 

In the past tense, all Form II defective verbs conjugate just as يَجري , جَرى does in the past. In the present tense they also conjugate like a  يَجري , جَرى (Of course the prefix vowel will still be a dhamma and there will still be a shadda over the middle radical.) So if you know that verb, you can conjugate any Form II defective. Below is the verb يُسمّي , سَمّى conjugated for the past, present, and jussive. Following the charts is some stimulating commentary.

 

Note that if the jussive conjugations above were unvocalized, many of them would look like jussive conjugations for Form I hollow, doubled, and assimilated verbs. In fact, some of these jussive conjugations would look like present tense conjugations for doubled and assimilated Form I verbs. You will have to learn to read these verbs from context.

 

In fact, since most Arabic texts have no vocalization whatsoever, many words, especially verbs, can have a number of different readings. Context is the only way to determine which reading to give the word. The past tense conjugations of سَمّى will always look like Form I conjugations of verbs such as جرى. The present tense conjugations of سَمّى will also look like the present tense conjugations of جرى Conjugations of سَمّى can also be read in other ways.

The problem of the many possible readings of a verb will be addressed in detail in Chapter Four. For now, you must learn all conjugations thoroughly so that the section Chapter Four dealing with this subject will be perfectly clear to you. This is a very important subject for Americans learning Arabic. You must learn your conjugations as we go through the text, not just so that my comments on this matter will be fully appreciated when you get to Chapter Four, but also so that you will become able to read Arabic at a rate faster than my cat. Otherwise you will have extraordinary difficulty with this language. I know this sounds harsh, but it is true. If you have not learned the conjugations presented so far, go back and review them before you go on to Drill 27.