Lesson 62 – الدَّرْسُ الثّانِي والسِّتُّونَ

/kāda/ and its sisters - كَادَ وَأخَوَاتُها

Introduction - مُقَدِّمَةٌ

  • This is lesson sixty two of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In the previous lesson we learnt that the annuller verbs (الأفْعال النَّاسِخَة /al afξāl an nāsikhah/) intervene in the Arabic nominal sentence and make changes in its meaning, naming and declension. We also learnt that the annuller verbs are divided into three categories. We have already studied the first category, /kāna/ and its sisters (كانَ وأخَوَاتُها /kāna wa akhawātuhā), in the previous lesson.
  • In this lesson we will learn another category of the annuller verbs, which is called /kāda/ and its sisters In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing).
  • /kāda/ and its sisters are known as verbs of approximation, hope, or initiative. These annuller verbs, unlike the normal verbs, do not have an agent (doer) in their sentence. Their sentence is a nominal sentence although it starts with a verb.
  • /kāda/ and its sisters are divided into three groups as follows:
     1-Verbs of approximation (
    أفْعال الْمُقارَبَة /afξāl al muqârabah/).
    These verbs mean the approximation of the action of the verbal predicate, as shown in these examples:

Picture

Example

Verb of approximation

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

The book was just about to fall in the water

كَادَ الكِتابُ يَسْقُطُ فِي المَاءِ

/kāda al kitābu yasquŧu fī al mā’i/

To be (just) about to (To be on the point of)

كَادَ

/kāda/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

The spring is about to finish

أَوْشَكَ الرَّبِيعُ أَنْ يَنْتَهِي

/awshaka ar rabīξu an yantahī/

أَوْشَكَ

/awshaka/

2-Verbs of hope (أفْعال الرَّجاء /afξāl ar raĵā’/)

  These verbs mean that the action included in the verbal predicate sentence is hopped and excepted. Let’s see the examples:

Example

Verb of hope

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

It is hoped (I hope) that it (the sky) rains.

عَسَى السَّمَاءُ أن تُمْطِرَ

/ξasā as samā’u an tumŧira/

It is hoped that (I hope that)

عَسَى

/ξasā/

حَرَى السَّماءُ أَنْ تُمْطِرَ

/ħarâ as samā’u an tumŧira/

حَرَى

/ħarâ/

  • Nb.: the second verb of the above mentioned table (حَرَى/ħarâ/) is rarely used in modern standard Arabic.

3-Verbs of initiative (أفْعال الشُّروع /afξāl ash shurūξ)

  These verbs mean that the subject started doing the action of the verb which in the predicate. Please look at these examples:

Picture

Example

Verb of hope

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

The boy started to write (started writing)

بَدَأَ الوَلَدُ يَكْتُبُ

/bada’a al waladu yaktubu/

To start, or to begin to do

بَدَأ

/bada’a/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

It (the sky) started to rain

شَرَعَتِ السَّمَاءُ تُمْطِرُ

/sharaξat as samā’u tumŧiru/

شَرَعَ

/sharaξa/