Lesson 32– الدَّرْسُ الثَّانِي وَالثَّلاثُونَ

Sound Verb and Defective Verb – الفِعْلُ الصَّحِيحُ والمُعْتَلُّ

Making Defective Verbs Negative

  • We are still in lesson thirty two of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In Lesson 17 (Making the Arabic Verb Negative) we learnt some Arabic negative particles that precede verbs, such as (لا، لَنْ، لَمْ، ما) and knew that some of these particles change the short vowel-ending of the verb from a đammah to fatћah such as لن. For example:

مُحَمَّدٌ لَنْ يَدْرُسَ فِي مِصر

Muhammad will not study in Egypt

مُحَمَّدٌ سَيَدْرُسُ فِي مِصْرَ

Muhammad will study in Egypt

  • Some of these negative articles change the ending short vowel of the present verb from a đammah to sukūn, such as لمْ. For example:

مُحَمَّدٌ لَمْ يَدْرُسْ أَمْس ِ

Muhammad did not study yesterday

مُحَمَّدٌ دَرَسَ أَمْس ِ

Muhammad studied yesterday

  • Some of them do not change the ending short vowel of the present verb, such as /laa/ and /maa/. For example:

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عَمَّارٌ لا يُحِبُّ المانْجُو

ξAmmah does not lide mango

عَمَّارٌ يُحِبُّ المانْجُو

ξAmmar likes mango

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وَهُوَ لا يَأْكُلُ العِنَبَ

He does not eat grapes

وَهُوَ يَأْكُلُ العِنَبَ

He eats grapes

  • Now we will study the effect of these articles on the defective verbs, especially the first three types: modal (mithāl), hollow (aĵwaf) and nāqiŝ (deficient) verbs. Consider the following examples:

1-  modal verb / mithāl - الْفِعْلُ الْمِثَالُ

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مُحَمَّدٌ يَقِفُ أَمامَ القِطارِ

الفِعْلُ المثال

مُحَمَّدٌ  لا يَقِفُ  أمام القطارِ

مُحَمَّدٌ  لَنْ يَقِفَ  أمَامَ القِطَارِ

مُحَمَّدٌ  لَمْ يَقِفْ  أَمَامَ القِطارِ

مُحَمَّدٌ  مَا وَقَفَ أمَامَ القِطَارِ

  • We notice here that the negative form of the modal verb (mithāl), which begins with a defective letter, is like the negation of the sound verb.

2-  hollow verb / aĵwaf - الفعل الأَجْوَف

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أَبِي يَزُورُ مِصْرَ كُلَّ عَامٍ

الفعل الأجوف

لا يَزُورُ أَبِي مِصْرَ كَثِيرًا

لَنْ أَزُورَ مِصْرَ العَامَ القادِمَ

لَمْ أَزُرْ مِصْرَ مُنْذُ عَامٍ

مَا يَزُورُ أبِي مِصْرَ كَثِيرًا

  • We notice here that the hollow verb (aĵwaf) does not change with the articles لا and ما. With the negative article لن its ending short vowel changes into fatћa. But after article لم the verb form changes from أزُورُ to أزُرْ – what occurred here is that we omitted the defective letter و because it is sākin (quiescent / without vowel) and followed by another sākin (quiescent) letter رْ because it is preceded by the negative article لمْ. The original Arabic language rule says: if two sākin (quiescent / without vowel) letters follow each other, the defective letter of which is omitted. This occurs with all modal (nāqiŝ) verbs. For example:

يَضيعُ

يَكُونُ

يَهُونُ

يَنَامُ

يبيعُ

يقولُ

لَمْ يَضِعْ

لَمْ يَكُنْ

لَمْ يَهُنْ

لَمْ يَنَمْ

لَمْ يَبِعْ

لَمْ يَقُلْ

3-  deficient verb / nāqiŝ - الفعل الناقص

الإسْلامُ يَدْعَو إِلَى السَّلامِ

Islam promotes peace

 

الفعل النَّاقِصُ

والإسْلامُ لا يَدْعُو إلى الإرْهاب

Islam does not promote terrorism

والإسلامُ لَنْ يَنْتَهِيَ مِن الأَرْض ِ

والإسْلامُ لَمْ يَدْعُ إلى الحَرْبِ

فما يَسْمُو الإسلامُ إلا بِتَعَالِيمِهِ السَّمْحَاء

  • We notice the changes that occur to the deficient (nāqiŝ) verb (which ends with a defective letter), as follows:

a.    Negative articles لا and ما do not affect it, but the đammah never appear on the deficient (nāqiŝ) verb. For example:

معتل بالألف

Ending with ى / ا

معتل بالياء

Ending with ي

معتل بالواو

Ending with و

أداة النفي

Negative particle

يَسْعَى

يَمْشِي

يَدْعُو

بدون نفي

Without negation

لا يَسْعَى

لا يَمْشِي

لا يَدْعُو

بَعْد  " لا "

After لا

ما يَسْعَى

ما يَمْشِي

ما يَدْعُو

بعد  " ما "

After ما

b.    When using the negative article لن, we notice a fatћa appears on the defective letter if it is a و or ي, but not ا / ى because this is not possible. For example:

معتل بالألف

Ending with  ا / ى

معتل بالياء

Ending with ي

معتل بالواو

Ending with و

أداة النفي

Negative article

يَسْعَى

يَمْشِي

يَدْعُو

بدون نفي

Without negation

لَنْ يَسْعَى

لَنْ يَمْشِيَ

لَنْ يَدْعُوَ

بَعْد  " لنْ "

After لنْ

c.    In case the verb is negated with the negative article /lam/, the defective letter at the end of the verb is always omitted and a short vowel sign appears on the letter before it to indicate that a defective letter is omitted. We put fatћa if the omitted defective letter is alif or alif maqsura; Kasrah if the omitted defective letter is yaa’; and đammah if the omitted defective letter is waaw. For example:

معتل بالألف

Ending with ا / ى

معتل بالياء

Ending with ي

معتل بالواو

Ending with و

أداة النفي

Negative article

يَسْعَى

يَمْشِي

يَدْعُو

بدون نفي

Without negation

لَمْ يَسْعَ

لَمْ يَمْش ِ

لَمْ يَدْعُ

بَعْد  " لمْ "

After لمْ