The third sentence has the same word and again in the accusative case. The ن is dropped this time because the possessive pronoun هُ is attached. Notice that هُ is written هِ as it always is after a kasra or a ي

 

 

Now we come to the dual pronouns. أنْتُما is the second person dual personal pronoun for both masculine and feminine. The corresponding pronoun suffix is كما , which is also used for both genders.

 

هما the dual third person personal pronoun for both genders. The pronoun suffix corresponding to it is also هما. The suffix هما will have its dhamma change to a kasra whenever it is immediately preceded by a kasra or a ي just like its three counterparts هم, هن , and هُ

 

There is no dual for the first person singular. Personally, I wish there were.

 

Now we come to the verbs. In this lesson we are dealing only with the past tense and are using very basic verbs. In future lessons we will cover the dual of the imperfect tense and its moods.

 

Although هُما means “they” dual for both masculine and feminine, there is a separate verb conjugation for the two genders. The suffix for the masculine is just an alif. Thus هما درسا means “They (masc. dual) studied.” “They (fem. dual) studied” is هما دَرَسَتا What we have done in both conjugations is add an alif to the third person singular conjugation for each gender so that دَرَسَ becomes درسا. and دَرَسَتْ becomes دَرَسَتا

 

 

For انتما the conjugation is the same for both masculine and feminine. We acid an alif to the second person masculine plural suffix. Thus “You studied (dual, masc. and fem.)” is انتما درستا.

 

Now remember this. When a verb comes first in a sentence and the subject follows, the verb is always singular. Thus “The two students went to the library” is ذهب الطالبان الى المدرسة If the dual subject comes first, then the verb will be conjugated in the dual.

 

One last note. هذا and هذه have dual forms. For هذا the dual forms are هذانِ for the nominative and هذَيْنِ for the accusative and genitive. For هذه the dual forms are هاتان for the nominative and هاتينِ for
the genitive and accusative.

One absolutely last note. Remember all the business you learned above about non-human plurals and feminine singular agreement? None of that stuff applies to the dual. Any noun that is dual will have dual agreement for the gender of that noun.

The dual in MSA is important and is used often. You must know the dual forms and become comfortable with them. Otherwise you will misunderstand what you are reading or hearing. It is not very hard.

 

1. Verbs agree with their subjects in number and gender. This is clear in sentences 1 and 2.

2. Adjectives agree with nouns in definiteness, gender, number, and case. This is clear in each sentence.

3. If a verb precedes a plural subject, the verb will always be singular. The verb will agree with the subject only in gender. This is clear in sentences 3 and 4.

4. If a plural subject comes before a verb, the verb will agree with the subject in gender and in number. This is clear in sentence 5.

I hope you understand why the nouns and adjectives are in the cases they are in and why those cases are written the way they are. If not, refer to the appropriate sections of earlier chapters before you do anything else.

In sentence 1 we see that the plural of جريدة is modified by the feminine singular demonstrative هذه. The demonstrative هذه will be used with any non-human plural (regardless of the gender of the singular of that noun). Thus هذه الكتب means “these books.”

 

We see that in the response to the question in sentence 2 the person is saying “Yes, I read them.” He is using the direct object pronoun ها, which is feminine singular, to refer to “the articles.” (Direct object pronouns are discussed below.) Then the speaker says that the articles are excellent. He uses the feminine singular pronoun هي to refer to them and uses a feminine singular adjective in the predicate which refers to هي but which would be used to refer to مقالات as in: هذه المقالات ممتازة

In sentence 3 the verb صدر is used. It is an intransitive verb meaning “to be published.” المقالات is the subject of the sentence, so the verb must be feminine singular. Note that even if المقالات were written before the verb, the verb would still be in the feminine singular.

 

So now you should have the idea that any non-human noun, when it is made plural, will have feminine singular agreement at all times. Be sure to know that this applies to all non-human plural nouns, irrespective of the gender of the noun in the singular. Thus, if we replaced مقالات in the sentences above with the word كتب which is the plural of the masculine كتاب , there would be no changes to any of the sentences.

You must learn this rule and work to become accustomed to it. When you read or hear MSA, this rule will be very helpful to your understanding of what you are reading or hearing.

Thus when words in Arabic are said to agree for number and gender you must take into account the rules regarding non-human plurals.

كُلٌّ is a noun which means “each” or “every” and sometimes means “all” depending upon the context. When كل is followed by an indefinite noun, it is translated as “each” or “every.” For example, كلُّ طالبٍ means “each student” or “every student.” The phrase كلُّ طالبٍ is an idaafa. That is why there is no nunation on كل and why the word طالب is in the genitive case. طالب also has nunation because it is indefinite.

Because كل is a noun it can be in any case as required by its usage in the sentence. For example: قرأتُ كلَّ كتابٍ في المكتبةِ. Here كل is in the accusative because it is the object of the verb.

So far, the examples using كل have been indefinite. When كل is followed by a definite singular noun كل is usually translated as “all.” For example كل الكتابِ means “all of the book.”

When the word following كل is plural, that word is usually also definite. In this case also كل is translated as “all.” For example كلُ الطالباتِ “all of the students (fem).” Below are two columns. On the right are phrases and sentences using كل. On the left are the translations. Cover up the English and read the Arabic; then use the translations to check yourself.

 

 

1. Every student (fem) in this class is from Lebanon.	١. كلُ طالبةٍ في هذا الصف من لبنان.
2. All of the students (fem) in this class are from Lebanon.	٢. كلُ الطالباتِ في هذا الصف من لبنان.
3. In every classroom	٣. في كلِ صفٍ.
4. In all of the classrooms	٤. في كلِ الصفوفِ.
5. All of the city.	٥. كلُ المدينةِ
6. Every page	٦. كلُ صفحةٍ
7. All of the page (The whole page)	٧. كلُ الصفحةِ
8. All of the pages	٨. كلُ الصفحاتِ

 

Often you will see كل with a pronoun suffix following the direct object of a verb. In this case كل and its suffix are used for emphasis. For example قرأتُ الكتابَ كُلَهُ read all of the book.” (Literally “I read the book, all of it.”) Because الكتاب is in the accusative كل is also in the accusative. This is called apposition and refers to consecutive nouns in the same case. The suffix هُ refers الكتاب. The suffix will always agree in gender and number with the noun to which it refers. If مقالة (“article”) were used in place of كتاب, the sentence would be قرأتُ المقالةَ كلَّها .

It is also possible to see the two sentences discussed in the above paragraph rendered as قرأتُه كلَّه and قرأتُها كلَّها . Here the nouns الكتاب and المقالة have been replaced by pronoun suffixes attached to the verbs. In each sentence كل and the suffix attached to it, are still being used for emphasis.

 

كل is also used for emphasis following plural verbs. For example, فهم كلُّهم means “All of them understood.” But the sentence فهموا كلُّهم stresses that all of them understood. If كل is placed before the verb, the verb will agree with the noun or pronoun following كل. See the examples below.

 

١. كلُّهم ذهبوا.

٢. كلُّ الطالباتِ درسن.

٣. كلُّكم فهمتم.

٤. كلُّ استاذةٍ حضرت.

Likewise, in an equational sentence, the predicate will agree in number and gender with the noun or pronoun following كل. See the examples below.

١. كل مدير في هذه الشركة مجنونٌ

٢. كلهم لبنانيون

 

كلٌّ مِن means “everyone of” or “each one of.” For example ُشاهدت كلاً من الموظفين في الاجتماع “I saw every one of the employees at the meeting.”

الكل means “all of it” or “everyone” if it refers to people.

 

 

بَعْضٌ is a masculine singular noun meaning “some.” It is usually followed by a definite noun (singular or plural) or a pronoun suffix. Like كل, the word بعض is in an idaafa with the noun that follows it. ِقرأتُ بعض الكتاب means “I read some of the book” and قرأتُ بعضَ الكتبِ means “I read some of the books.” The latter Arabic sentence can also mean “I read some books” as بعض is not usually followed by an indefinite plural. Thus, “I want to ask you some questions” is usually rendered اريد ان أسألك بعضَ الأسئلة.

 

When بعض follows the verb the verb will usually be masculine singular regardless of the gender and number of the noun or pronoun following بعض. See the sentences below.

 

١. لا يفهم بعضُ الرؤساءِ العربِ شيئا عن حقوق الانسان.

٢. درس بعضُهن العربية مدة طويلة.

 

However, when بعض precedes the verb, the verb usually agrees with the gender and number of the noun or pronoun following بعض .

 

١. بعضُ الرؤساءِ العربِ لا يفهمون شيئا عن حقوق الانسان.

٢. بعضُهن درسن العربية مدة طويلة.

On the other hand, the tendency does not always apply, so you may sometimes see the verb following بعض remain masculine singular because بعض is a masculine singular noun as said above.

 

In an equational sentence, the predicate will usually agree with the noun or pronoun following بعض For example: بعضُ المدرسين لبنانيون (You might see بعض المدرسين لبنانيٌّ, but stick with the first example for the purposes of this book.)

1. Those students (masc.) are from Beirut.	١. أُولئِكَ الطلاب من بيروت.
2. Those students (fem.) are from Beirut.	٢. أُولئِكَ الطالبات من بيروت.

 

 

Note 1 – The software used for this version of the book does not include the daggar alif, so I cannot write it in over the ل. The word أُولئِكَ does have another spelling, however. That spelling is: أُولائِكَ. Here the alif is actually written in. You may sometimes come across this spelling of the word.

I briefly alluded to broken plurals at the beginning of this chapter. These are plurals which arise from internal and sometimes external changes to the singular noun. For example, the plural of كتاب is كتب The word كتب is a broken plural.

Since you have had Arabic before, you know that broken plurals exist in many patterns. My advice is not to try to memorize the patterns themselves. Instead, learn the plurals of new words as you come to them. In time you will become familiar with the patterns themselves and may even be able to produce the plurals for new vocabulary items on the basis of intuition and experience. Lesson 13 of EMSA lists the plurals of some very common words and incorporates many of the major patterns. You might want to take a look at that lesson. Keep in mind that adjectives as well as nouns can have broken plurals. Also be aware that some words may have more than one broken plural, and that sometimes these different plurals will have different meanings.

It is important, very important, that you learn the plurals of new words as you come to them. (The dictionary by Hans Wehr usually gives the plural under the entry for the singular.) This will help when you see new vocabulary items in authentic Arabic texts which are already plurals. You need to be able to recognize that a new word may already be plural so that you can discern the root, make a good guess at what the singular is, and therefore be able to find the word in the dictionary.

Again, remember that adjectives as well as nouns have broken plurals.

How would you say “the correspondents of the newspaper” in Arabic? What YOU would probably do is what most American students of Arabic usually do: they would say مراسلون الجريدة. Tsk tsk.
Don’t do that.

Masculine sound plurals in an idaafa as any term except the last term, loose the ن. You must drop the ن. So instead you will say and see: مراسلو الجريدة

 

The same holds true if the noun is in the genitive/accusative case. For example “I saw the reporters of the newspaper” is: شاهدتُ مراسلي الجريدة

 

Most students would see the word مراسلي in this sentence and immediately assume that it means “my correspondent.” Furthermore, upon reading the entire sentence they would maintain that assumption despite the fact that with that interpretation the sentence would not make any sense at all. They would do so for two reasons. The first is that their grammar is weak. The second is even more important: they have not learned to read things in context. As you will see constantly in Part II of this book, Arabic must be read in context.

 

As I said above, the v of the sound plural will drop if that plural is any term of the idaafa except the last one. For example:

تكلمتُ مع مدير موظفي الشركة المصرية.

 

In this sentence there is a three-term idaafa. The second term is a masculine sound plural with the ن dropped. Why is that plural spelled with a ي and not و

 

We also drop the ن of the sound plural when we attach a pronoun suffix. Look at the examples below.

 

١. موظفوكَ العراقيون انصرفوا.

٢. استقبل رئيس الجامعة مدرسيهِ الجُدُدَ.

 

In the first sentence we have dropped the ن from the subject of the sentence and added كَ, which is the possessive pronoun انتَ. Do you understand the rest of the grammar of the sentence? What word modifies the subject? Is it definite? Is it plural? What case is it in? What about the verb? Does it agree with the subject?

In the second sentence the word مدرس is made plural in the accusative case. We have dropped the ن because we always do when we add a pronoun suffix to a masculine sound plural. The suffix we have chosen here belongs to the category of suffixes that has its vowel change from a dhamma to a kasra when it is preceded by either the letter ي or a kasra. This word is
modified by an adjective. The adjective is the plural form for جديد. This tells us that .جديد does not have a masculine sound plural. It has a broken plural instead. Why is الجدد in the accusative case in this sentence? What are the cases of the other nouns?

So remember to drop the ن of the masculine sound plural whenever you add a pronoun suffix to it. Just one more thing. How would you say “my” reporters or employees, etc.? You need to combine the sound plural ending with the ي , indicating first person singular possession. For example, we want to say “my employees.” So we combine ي with the word موظفون. When we do this, the result is as follows: موظفِيَّ. This word is pronounced “muwththafiyya.” You will use the same word for all three cases.
Thus you may see a sentence such as the following.

موظفي ذهبوا الى المطار.

 

The plural verb tells you that the subject is not “my employee” but is instead “my employees.” Sometimes a text may include the shadda over the ي to give a clue; sometimes not. So it is context that tells you what is going on.

 

Feminine sound plurals are completely regular in this regard. The ending ات never looses the ت. So nothing happens to them in an idaafa or when a pronoun suffix is attached. Nothing. For example, “his female students” is طالباتُهُ. “The female students of the university” is طالباتُ الجامعةِ

 

It is only with the masculine sound plurals that these things happen.

You will like this. This is easy. The typical Arabic sentences begins with a verb. In Arabic such a sentence is known as جملة فِعليّة verbal sentence.” The subject, if included in the sentence, normally comes after the verb. Here are two examples.

 

1. The student studied his Arabic book.	١.درس الطالبُ كتابَهُ العربيّ.
2. The student (f) studied her Arabic book.	٢. درسَت الطالبةُ كتابها العربيّ.

 

You will notice that in both sentences the verb agrees with the subject in number and gender. In both sentences, if we wished, the subjects could be left out. No other changes would be made in these sentences if we did so. By the way, I hope I do not have to explain the case endings for the words in the two sentences. Also, what case do you think the last word of each sentence should take?

 

Now look at the two sentences below.

 

١.درس المدرسون كتابَهم العربيّ.

٢. درسَت المدرسات كتابهن العربيّ.

The subject of each sentence is now plural. Notice that the verbs are still singular but they agree with the subjects in gender. IN A SENTENCE WHICH BEGINS WITH A VERB FOLLOWED BY A PLURAL SUBJECT, THE VERB WILL ALWAYS BE SINGULAR AND WILL AGREE WITH THE SUBJECT ONLY IN GENDER. If we were to drop the subjects from these two sentences, then the verbs would indicate the number as well as the gender. That is, the verbs would become plural. Our two sentences would then be:

 

١.درسوا كتابَهم العربيّ.

٢. درسَن كتابهن العربيّ.

So far, so good. Now look at the following three sentences.

 

١. ذهب ياسر عرفات وسميرة الى المطعم العراقي.

٢. ذهبت سميرة وياسر عرفات الى المطعم العراقي.

٣. ذهبت الى المطعم العراقي سميرة وطلابها.

٤. ذهب الى المطعم العراقي سميرة وطلابها.

 

In each sentence the subject is made up of more than one individual. Each individual is mentioned in the sentence. Sentences 1 and 2 show that the verb will agree in gender with the subject which comes immediately after it.

In sentence 3 we have a situation which occurs sometimes in Arabic. Here, the subjects (or subject as the case may be) are separated from the verb by one or more words. When this happens, if the subject is feminine, the verb can be feminine singular. Alternatively, the verb can be made masculine singular even when the subject is feminine. In sentence 3, the normal agreement would be feminine singular, since سميرة is the first subject. However, since سميرة is separated from the verb by one or more words, the verb can be made masculine singular. Sentence 4 illustrates this point. Note that the option of using either a feminine singular verb or a masculine singular verb does not depend on the presence of more than one subject in the sentence. For example, you could easily see the following:

After years of effort, the employees (f.) obtained their rights. حصل بعد سنوات من الجهد الموظفات على حقوقهن.

 

 

Now we come to verbal sentences which begin with a noun. Any sentence which begins with a noun is known in Arabic as a جملة اسمية (a “nominal sentence”). Whenever the subject precedes the verb the verb agrees with the subject in number and gender. Look at the examples below.

١. المراسلون المصريون كتبوا المقالة.

٢. المراسلات المصريات كتبن المقالة.

٣.سمير ومحمد وفريد كتبوا المقالة.

٤. سميرة ونادية وفريدة كتبن المقالة

٥. سمير ونادية وفريدة كتبوا المقالة

The situations in sentences 1-4 should be clear. Sentence 5 reminds us that the presence of one man in a group renders the group masculine for grammatical purposes. The only exception to that rule is when you have two or more subjects all of which follow the verb, as I have outlined above.

 

Review of the Verb-Subject Agreement Rules

 

Here is a quick run down of the rules.

 

1. If the subject comes before the verb, then the verb agrees with the subject completely (gender and number).

2. If the subject is not included in the sentence, then the verb will again show full agreement.

3. If the verb precedes a plural subject, then the verb agrees in gender, but is always singular.

4. If the verb is followed immediately by two or more subjects, the verb agrees with the first of those subjects. If the first of those subjects is plural, the verb will remain singular and agree with it only in gender.

5. If a feminine subject following a verb is separated from that verb by one or more words, then the verb may be either masculine or feminine singular.

Below is one example for each of the five rules above. The number for each example corresponds to the number for the rule.

 

١. المديرون السخفاء حضروا اجتماعات كثيرة.

٢. حضروا اجتماعات كثيرة.

٣. حضر المديرون السخفاء اجتماعات كثيرة.

٤. حضرت المديرات الحكيمات و المديرون السخفاء اجتماعات كثيرة

٥. حضرت (حضر) هذه الاجتماعاتِ الكثيرةَ المديراتُ الحكيمات.

A sound plural is a suffix which is added to the end of the word in order to indicate the plural. The suffixes reflect gender and case as well. First we will deal with masculine sound plurals and then with feminine ones.

 

Masculine sound plurals have the suffix ونَ attached to them in order to indicate the plural in the nominative case. In the genitive and accusative cases the ending is ينَ For example, the plural of مدير is مديرونَ in the nominative case and مديرينَ if the word is in the accusative or genitive cases. Look at the two sentences below.

 

The directors are in their office. المديرونَ في مكتبِهِم

This memo is from the directors. هذه المذكرة من المديرينَ

 

In the first sentence, the plural of ,المدير is written in the nominative case to indicate that it is the subject, whereas in the second sentence we see the genitive case because of the preposition. Remember that the accusative form will be the same as the genitive form.

Many students think that the fatha which is written over the ن in these plurals (ونَ , ينَ) is itself a case ending. The fatha is not a case ending. It is just a part of the plural and is really only functional as a helping vowel. Indeed, the fatha is usually dropped in pausal form. The و and the ي, in addition to being integral parts of the plural, are the indicators of the case of the word.

Sound plurals are also used with many adjectives. For example مُمتاز takes a sound plural ending. So do almost all nisba adjectives. For example, we wish to say that “The Egyptian directors are superb.” In Arabic we get:

المديرونَ المصريّونَ ممتازونَ.

 

المديرونَ is nominative because it is the subject of the equational sentence. المصريّونَ agrees with the word it modifies in every way. It is definite, it is nominative, and it is plural. Also NOTE THE SPELLING OF المصريّونَ. Many students seem to think the يّ of the nisba adjective disappears in the plural. This is not the case. The يّ of the nisba adjective never disappears when the sound plural suffix is added. This is true even when the sound plural suffix is in the accusative/genitive case. المصريّونَ when written in the accusative or genitive is المصريّينَ So do not ever drop the يّ of the nisba adjective when you make a sound plural.

Finally, note that ممتازونَ is plural and nominative as it is the predicate of an equational sentence with a masculine plural subject.

Masculine sound plurals are only used for words which refer to male human beings. In other words, a non-human noun such as بيت can never have a masculine sound plural. However, not all masculine nouns which do refer to human beings have sound plurals. For example, the plural of مدرس is مدرسون but the plural of أستاذ is اساتِذة . Basically, you never can be sure what the plural of any word is in Arabic (though you can learn to make educated guesses), so you must learn the plural of each word when you learn its singular form. With respect to masculine sound plurals, however, you may generally assume that any active or passive participles of derived verbs will take a masculine sound plural if they refer to male human beings. If this last sentence is Greek to you, do not worry; you will see what I mean in later chapters.

 

In order to form a feminine sound plural, we drop the ‘o from the word and then add the suffix اتٌ. For example, the plural of مُدَرِّسة is مُدَرِّساتٌ For the genitive and accusative cases we use only the two kasras. So the accusative or genitive case form of the word in question is مُدَرِّساتٍ If we make a feminine plural definite, it loses the nunation. Do not forget that, just like the masculine, the feminine sound plural uses the same case markers in the accusative as it does in the genitive. اتٍ for the feminine and ين for the masculine.

 

Feminine sound plurals are used for almost all nouns which refer to female human beings, for many other feminine nouns which do not refer to human beings, and for some masculine nouns which also do not refer to human beings. In addition, adjectives which are made feminine with the addition of a ة will also take feminine sound plurals when the need arises.

Here are some examples. طاوِلة is a non-human feminine noun. It takes a regular feminine sound plural طاولاتٌ. مطار (airport) is a masculine non-human noun. Its plural is مطاراتٌ “. Thus, although مطارis masculine in the singular, it takes a feminine sound plural. You must try to learn the plural of each word as you learn its singular.

 

Most adjectives are made feminine by adding a ة. For example جديد becomes جديدة and عراقيّ becomes عراقية ّ. All of these adjectives will take a feminine sound plural. So in order to say that the Iraqi (f) teachers are in their office we say المدرساتُ العراقياتُ في مكتبِهِنَّ .

 

One final note. Look out for nouns which are feminine and end in ة but do not have feminine sound plurals. Instead they have broken plurals. There are many of them. For example, the plural of جريدة (newspaper) is جَرائد and the plural of مدرسة (school) is مَدارِس

 

You cannot always tell by looking at a word what its plural will be. You will need to learn the plurals of new words as you learn their singulars – as I have already said.

In Chapter One we briefly discussed what is known as the “pausal form“. We noted that the case endings of words at the end of a sentence, or any other natural pause, are usually not pronounced. There is one exception to this. If the word in question is in the accusative case with the alif and the two fathas, then the first fatha is usually pronounced. This makes the word sound as if it were feminine singular. For example:

I studied a book. درستُ كتاباً

would be pronounced “darastu kitaba”. Whereas:

I studied a new book. درستُ كتاباً جديدًا .

would be pronounced “darastu kitaban jadiida”. The first accusative has its nunation pronounced, but for the second accusative, the one being read in pausal form, we only hear the first fatha.

That is it, for now, for the three cases. You now know much of what you need to know about case. There is more, but you are now ready to handle the rest.

We have covered so far two of the three cases in Arabic. Now we come to the last case, the accusative. The accusative is primarily used for the direct object of the verb but appears in other situations as well. These other situations will be discussed in other parts of this book. The information on the accusative below is crucial, essential, and fundamental. If you learn the material on the accusative presented in this lesson, you will know much of what you will ever need to know about case in Arabic and will have the foundation to be able to understand easily the remaining material concerning case in the other parts of this book. If you don’t learn the material in this lesson, go study Spanish.

The accusative is easy, but first we will look at some simple verbs so that we can apply the accusative in actual Arabic sentences.

The verb system in Arabic is thought by most, including myself, to be the core of the language. Part Two of this text will concentrate on the verb system of Arabic. Here you will review just enough about verbs (and that’s not much) to enable you to understand the accusative case.

You will now learn (relearn) how to conjugate some basic Arabic verbs in the past tense. There is no infinitive form of the verb in Arabic. Instead the conjugation for the third person masculine singular is normally used as the base for conjugations. For example دَرَسَ is translated as “to study” when it appears at the head of a verb chart, but it actually means “he studied.” The root of the verb is made up of the three consonants. The fatha placed over the س is the conjugation for هو. In other words, دَرسَ is the stem or the root, we add the fatha over the last letter of the word and we get  دَرَسَ , which really means “he studied.”

Arabic verbs are conjugated in the past tense by adding suffixes to the stem of the verb. A nice thing about Arabic is that the same suffixes are added to every verb in the language when we conjugate in the past tense. Basically, if you can conjugate one Arabic verb in the past tense, you can conjugate them all. Isn’t this an easy language?

Below is a conjugation chart for the verb دَرَسَ in the past tense. No doubt it will look familiar to you if you have studied Arabic before, as most Arabic texts (including this one) are filled with conjugation charts. Take a look at it and then read the comments which follow.

 

 

Let’s examine these conjugations a little. For انا the suffix تُ is added to the root دَرَس and we get  دَرَسْتُ  Another way to look at it is that we are replacing the final fatha in دَرَسَ with a sukuun and we are then adding the suffix تُ. This suffix is used for the first person singular conjugation in the past tense on every verb in the language.

For the pronouns أنتَ and أنتِ we add the suffixes تَ and تِ respectively in the same way we added the suffix تُ for the first person. Again, these suffixes will be used on every verb in the language.

For هي we add تْ to the stem. Another way to look at it is that we are just adding a ت with a sukuun to the conjugation for the pronoun هو. We will do this for every verb in the language.

I won’t belabor this by going over every single plural conjugation above, but do note that the conjugation for هم is not phonetic. The conjugation consists of a waw and an alif  – وا. The waw is pronounced as a long vowel and the alif is not pronounced at all. The verb would be read “darasu”. Other than this one, all of the conjugations are phonetic.

Now when Arabic is written, as you are no doubt aware, the short vowels are almost always not written in the text. Thus دَرَسْتُ  “I studied,” will appear as درست Three of the other conjugations will look exactly the same. It is the context that tells you how to read the conjugations.

Also, the internal vowels of verbs like دَرَسَ  will not always be only fathas. For example شَرِبَ  means “to drink.” Here one of the vowels is a kasra. That vowel will always be a kasra, but the conjugations of this verb will otherwise be exactly like those for دَرَسَ  . Likewise, the verb كَرُمَ  “to be generous” has a dhamma for its stem vowel. It will keep the dhamma in all of its past tense conjugations.

Memorize the conjugations above for دَرَسَ  so you can apply them to the other verbs which will be used in the drills at the end of this chapter. Since you have had Arabic before, this should only take you a minute or two. Then go on to the next part of this chapter.

 

 

The Accusative Case

The accusative case is applied to the direct object of the verb. For example “I studied the book” is rendered in Arabic as درستُ الكتابَ Notice several things about this sentence.

First, the pronoun for “I,” أنا is not used in the sentence. Such pronouns are usually not used, since the verb conjugation tells us who the subject is. These pronouns are used sometimes for emphasis.

Second, notice that I left most of the verb unvowelled. The only vowel I used is the vowel that tells you for which person the verb is being conjugated. Sometimes you may see such a vowel included in an authentic Arab text if there is a chance of ambiguity. However, usually the verb, like all words, will be completely unvocalized.

Notice that the verb ends in a vowel and that the vowel will elide the hamza on the definite article.

Fourth, the direct object of the verb, الكتابَ ends in a fatha. The fatha is the accusative case marker.

Look at this sentence: درستُ وثيقة “I studied a document.” Notice that two fathas are used here. The second fatha gives us the nunation. This is just like the other two cases, nominative and genitive where the second dhanuna and second kasra provide the nunation. So, we use one fatha if the word is definite and two fathas if the word is indefinite. But there is just a little bit more. Look at the following: درست كتاباً

This is “I studied a book.” Here the indefinite direct object ends in two fathas but we have also added an alif. What is this?

Here is the rule. An indefinite word which does not end in a ة will have an alif attached to it in addition to the two fathas when that word is in the accusative. The alif is not pronounced The alif must be written.

Let’s look at the rule carefully. “An indefinite word that does not end in a ة ,” means words like كتاب , طالب and سلام These words will all have the two fathas attached to them when they are accusative. But after you do that, you add an alif. The alif is a spelling convention and will not be pronounced. However, you must write the alif. As you know, the short vowels in Arabic, including the case endings, are almost never written. However, the alif of the accusative case must be. Thus, the sentence above would appear in a newspaper like this: درست كتاباThe fathas often will not be there, but the alif will.

If a word ends in a ة then we do not add the alif. The word طالبة is an example. If we make it accusative we will write two fathas over the o but we will not write the alif – طالبة.

Since you have had Arabic before, you know that some words have what are called “broken plurals”.

The broken plural of طالب is طلابThe rule about adding the alif applies to broken plurals as well.

Therefore the indefinite accusative of طلاب is طلاباً Many students believe that the alif is not added to broken plurals. But it is added to them unless they belong to a category of words called diptotes (won’t you diptote, through the tulips…). Some diptotes are singular, some are plural. They have different rules for their case endings. They are discussed in detail in Part III of this book. For now, you have no need to deal with diptotes.

 

Remember, the alif is only used for the indefinite accusative and only for words which do not end in a ة. Any word ending in ة will not have the alif. That means, do not write the alif on such a word