D: Assimilated Verbs, Form I

This section deals with verbs whose first radical is a waaw. These verbs are often referred to as assimilated verbs because the waaw assimilates to a ت in Form VIII, and assimilates into a ي in Forms IV and X when the verbal nouns are generated. This chapter, as whole, only deals with Form I verbs. Therefore, this section will only deal with assimilated verbs in Form I. The derived forms of these verbs will be dealt with in the chapters treating Forms IV and X.

Assimilated verbs in Form I are very common. All you have to do is look under the waaw in your copy of Hans Wehr to see that they are indeed numerous. They can be divided into several sub-classes based upon the behavior of the stem and the waaw. However, the needs of the American student do not necessitate any sort of complicated division. Here they will be treated in much the same way that we treated sound verbs. For a more detailed analysis (that is, if you are a nut about grammar and morphology as I am) see Wright starting at the bottom of page 77. In fact, the explanation below will make Wright’s more meaningful to you.

First of all, assimilated verbs in the past tense conjugate exactly like sound verbs. There is no difference whatsoever. Therefore you will be expected to conjugate them with no problem.

In the present tense and in the jussive, however, the waaw of the stem is dropped from the conjugations. For example, the verb وَجَدَ is يَجِدُ in the present tense. It may have something to do with the stem vowel in the imperfect which is usually, but not always, a kasra. (For some Form I assimilated verbs in which the imperfect stem vowel is a fatha, the waaw remains, as in وَحِلَ, يَوْحَلُ) It may just be that the diphthong was just dropped for easier pronunciation. In any event, the initial waaw is dropped in the present tense for the vast majority of these verbs. Any exception will be noted in this text. As a practical matter, you will rarely see such exceptions in use today.

Below are the conjugations for the verb وَجَدَ, يَجِدُ in the present tense.

 

Plural

Dual

Singular

نَجِدُ

نَحْنَ

تَجِدانِ

أنتُما

أَجِدُ

أنا

تَجِدونَ

أنتُم

يَجِدانِ

هما (m)

تَجِدُ

أنتَ

تَجِدونَ

أنتُنَّ

تَجِدانِ

هما (f)

تَجِدينَ

أنتِ

يَجِدونَ

هم

يَجِدُ

هو

يَجِدْنَ

هنَّ

تَجِدُ

هي

Note that the stem vowel for this verb is a kasra in the imperfect. This will be the case for most verbs of this type. In fact, many of these verbs have a kasra for the stem vowel in the past tense and maintain the kasra for the stem vowel in the present tense. Examples of such verbs are يَثقَ , وَثِقَ , يَرِثُ , وَرِثَ and يَفقُ , وَفَقَ This breaks the general rule used with sound verbs such as َرِبَ With sound verbs, if the kasra is the stem vowel in the past tense, a fatha will be the stem vowel in the present tense almost invariably.

 

A few verbs of this type have a fatha for the stem vowel in the imperfect. For example يَقَعُ , وَقَعَ  and يهبُ , وَهَبَ 

 

 There are also a few verbs, those with an imperfect stem vowel of dhamma and some with a fatha, which do not lose the waaw in the imperfect. For example, there is يوجعُ , وَجعَ . As I said above, these verbs occur only rarely today. We will not be dealing with them in this text.

 

You should also be aware of Form I assimilated verbs which are also defective such as يَفي , وفى  and يَعى , وعى These verbs tend to have a present tense conjugation like that of the verb يَجري , جرى regardless of their past tense vowel pattern. For example  وَليَ is يَلي in the present even though it has the same past tense pattern as يَلقى , لَقيَ I love verbs which are both assimilated and defective.

 

Aside from the dropping of the waaw in the imperfect, the conjugations for assimilated verbs are completely regular for the imperfect and the jussive. For the sake of completeness, below are the jussive conjugations for يَجِدُ , وَجَدَ .

Plural

Dual

Singular

نَجِدْ

نَحْنَ

تَجِدا

أنتُما

أَجِدْ

أنا

تَجِدوا

أنتُم

يَجِدا

هما (m)

تَجِدْ

أنتَ

تَجِدْنَ

أنتُنَّ

تَجِدا

هما (f)

تَجِدي

أنتِ

يَجِدوا

هم

يَجِدْ

هو

يَجِدْنَ

هنَّ

تَجِدْ

هي

 

Also for the sake of completeness, here are the jussive conjugations for the assimilated and defective verb يَفي , وَفى (“to fulfill s.th.”).

Plural

Dual

Singular

نَفِ

نَحْنَ

تَفِيا

أنتُما

أَفِ

أنا

تَفوا

أنتُم

يَفِيا

هما (m)

تَفِ

أنتَ

تَفينَ

أنتُنَّ

تَفِيا

هما (f)

تَفي

أنتِ

يَفوا

هم

يَفِ

هو

يَفينَ

هنَّ

تَفِ

هي

Note that the conjugations for the above defective verb are perfectly regular for a defective verb, with the exception that the first radical, the waaw, is also dropped. Note also, that for this type of verb, one that is assimilated and defective in Form I, the imperfect conjugations are those of يَجري , جرى regardless of the voweling pattern of the past tense.

Now you can see why I like verbs of this type.

Comments

One response to “D: Assimilated Verbs, Form I”

  1. Jacob Avatar

    Hi, great page, thanks, but I think there is a mistake in the انتن form of the present indicative

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