Lesson 60 – الدَّرْسُ السِّتُّونَ
Annuller particles (/inna/ and its sisters)- الحـُرُوفُ النَّاسِخَـةُ (إنَّ وأَخواتُها)
The sentence of /inna/ and its sisters – جُمْلَة إنَّ وَأخَواتها
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- We now clearly understand that /inna/ and its sisters are Arabic annuller particles.We also learnt their meanings. Now we will study the changes that these particles make in the Arabic nominal sentence In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing).
- Firstly we remind you that /inna/ and its sisters are only used in the nominal sentence. We learnt earlier that the nominal sentence consists of two essential parts: The subject (المبتدأ /al mubtada’/) and the predicate (الخبر /al khabar/) as in the following examples:
Picture | Predicate | Subject | The nominal sentence | |
English | Arabic | |||
| The farm is beautiful | /al mazraξatu ğamīlatun/ | ||
| The farmer is active | /al fallāħu nashīŧun/ | ||
| The trees are green | /al ashğāru khađrâ’u/ | ||
| The sparrows are beautiful | /al ξŝâfīru ğamīlatun/ | ||
Its voice is beautiful |
- When any of /inna/ and its sisters precedes the nominal sentence it makes the following changes:
1- The subject will be called the noun of /inna/ or one of its sisters, and the predicate will be called its predicate.
2- The noun of /inna/ or any of its sisters will be accusative, i.e. signed originally with the /fatħah/ on its last letter, while the predicate remains in nominative case.
3- /inna/ and its sisters add an additional meaning to the sentence as we study later in this lesson. - Let’s see the same sentences shown above when they are preceded by the annuller particles /inna/ and its sisters:
The predicate of the annuller | The noun of the annuller | The sentence with /inna/ and its sisters | |
English | Arabic | ||
Indeed, the farm is beautiful | /inna al mazraξata ğamīlatun/ | ||
Indeed, the farmer is hardworking | /inna al fallāħa nashīŧun/
| ||
But the trees are green | /lākinna al ashğāra khađrâ’a/ | ||
The birds may be beautiful | لَعَلَّ العَصَافِيرَ جَمِيلَةٌ | ||
If only its voice is beautiful | /layta ŝawtahā ğamīlun/ |
- You may notice that /inna/ and its sisters make the opposite function of /kāna/ and its sisters. We studied that /kāna/ and its sisters make the predicate accusative, i.e. signed originally with /fatħah/ on its last letter (lesson 44) whereas /inna/ makes the subject accusative. Please complete the exercises below for revision purpose:
Picture | The predicate of /kāna/ | The noun of /kāna/ | The sentence with /kāna/ | |
English | Arabic | |||
| The war was hard | /kānat al ħarbu shadīdatan/ | ||
| The war is still continuing | وَما زَالَتْ الحَرْبُ مُسْتَمِرَّةً /mā zālat al ħarbu mustamirratan/ | ||
| And the peace became an important matter | وَأَصْبَحَ السَّلامُ أَمْرًا مُهِمًّا /wa aŝbaħa as salāmu amran muhimman/ |
- For more clarity, let’s compare the nominal sentence in the three situations:
- Without an annuller,
- With /inna/ and its sisters,
- With /kāna/ and its sisters, in the following table:
With /kāna/ and its sisters | With /inna/ and its sisters | Normal nominal sentence | |||
English | Arabic | English | Arabic | English | Arabic |
The farm was beautiful | كَانَتْ المَزْرَعَةُ جَمِيلَةً /kānat al mazraξatu ğamīlatan/ | Indeed, the farm is beautiful | /inaa al mazraξata ğamīlatun/ | The farm is beautiful | /al mazraξatu ğamīlatun/ |
The door is not open | /laysa albābu maftūħan/ | I wish that the door is open | /laξalla al bāba maftūħun/ | The door is open | /al bābu maftūħun/ |