Lesson 49– الدَّرْسُ التَّاسِعُ وَالأرْبَعُونَ
The Conditional Sentence -أُسْلُوب الشَّرْط
Components of the Conditional Sentence - أُسْلوب الشَّرْطِ ومُكَوِّناتُه
- We are still in lesson forty nine of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
Picture | Translation | Conditional sentence |
| If you work hard, people (will) respect you. | |
| Wherever you study, you (will) learn quickly. | |
| No matter how long you sleep, you (will) wake up late. | |
| If my father visits Turkey, he would love it much. | |
| If you want your money, I (can) give you. |
- When we analyze the conditional sentence above, we will find that the conditional sentence in Arabic is made up of three main parts:
First: The conditional article:
- The conditional articles in the above examples are:إنْ، أَيْنَما، مَهْمَا، إذا . The most conditional articles are nouns, a few of them are particle لَوْ – لَوْلا – إِنْ – أَمَّا – إِذْما. They are also indeclinable on their vowel ending, except for “Ayyu أَيُّ” it is declinable. (See Lesson 25 for more on indeclinable words).
Second: The conditional verb:
- The conditional verbs are those in the sentence following directly the conditional article. In the examples above, the following are the conditional verbs: تَعْمَلْ - تَدْرُسْ - تَنَمْ - تُرِيدُ.
- As we notice, the conditional verb is a present verb in the jussive (ĵazm) case. Even the verb زَارَ in the third example, although it is an indeclinable past verb with a fatħah vowel-ending, it is virtually in the jussive case, especially that the conditional article is one of the ĵazm particles that turns the present verb into the jussive.
- Some of the conditional articles do not turn the present verb into the jussive. In this case, the verb is declinable as in the following example: إذا تُريدُ مَالاً أُعْطِيكَ.
- The conditional article إذا is an article that does not turn the verb into jussive. We notice that the conditional verb has a đammah vowel-ending, not a sukūn as in the jussive case. This also applies to the other three sentences.
The answer to the condition:
- which is the result depending on the condition. The verb in this part of the conditional sentence comes also in the jussive case with a sukūn vowel-ending when the conditional article is one of the ĵazm ones. This is clear in the following three examples, as the verbs in the answer to the condition are:
Verb | |||
(you) wake up | (you) learn | (people) respect you | Meaning |
- The verbs above are in the jussive case because the conditional articles are ĵazm ones.
- In the forth examples, the conditional article is not a ĵazm one. This is why the verbs of the conditional sentences أَمْنَحُكَ - تُرِيدُ have a đammah vowel-ending.
- N.B.: many of the conditional particles give the present or the future meaning to the past verbs, so we translate them in present or in future verbs as follows:
If angels come, devils (will) go. | إذا حضرتِ المَلائِكَة، ذهبتِ الشَّيَاطِين . //Idhā ħadarat il-malā’ikatu, dhahabat ish-shayāŧīnu// |
If my father visits Turkey, he would love it much. | إنْ زَارَ أَبِي تُرْكِيا فَسَيُحِبُّها كَثِيرًا //in zara abī turkiyā, fa-sayuħibbuhā kathīran// |
Who visits Egypt (will) enjoys its fine weather. | مَنْ زارَ مِصْرَ، اِسْتَمْتَعَ بَجَوِّها الجَمِيلِ . //man zāra miŝra, istamtaξa bi-ĵawwihā al-ĵamīl-i// |