Lesson 66 – الدَّرْسُ السَّادِسُ والسِّتُّونَ

The direct object - الْمَـفْـعُـول بِـه

The direct object and its types – المَفْعُول به وَأنْوَاعُهُ

  • We are still in lesson sixty six of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • The Arabic direct object is the dispensable part which undergoes the verb of the sentence. When we say for example:

كَتَبَ مُحَمَّدٌ الدَّرْسَ

Muhammad wrote the lesson

  • The direct object (الدرسَ) indicates the object undergoing the action of writing which is in the verb (كَتَبَ).
  • We learnt in lesson 33 that the direct object falls only after a transitive verb, otherwise the intransitive verb doesn’t need a direct object. As in the following example:

جَلَسَ مُحَمَّدٌ على الكُرْسِيِّ

Muhammad sat on the chair

  • The verb in the above mentioned sentence does not need a direct object; instead it is completed by the prepositional phrase.
  • The direct object is originally a noun. We studied in many lessons that the noun can be in many types, and so is the direct object, it also can be shown in different types as in the following table:

Picture

Type of direct object

Direct object

Example

No.

English

Arabic

 

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Explicit noun

الاجْتِماعَ

The engineers attended the meeting

حَضَرَ المُهَنْدِسُونَ الاجْتِماعَ

/ħađara al muhandisūna al iĵtimāξa/

1

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Explicit noun

الطَّعامَ

The boy ate the food

أَكَلَ الْوَلَدُ الطَّعَامَ

/akala al waladu aŧ ŧaξāma/

2

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Explicit verbal noun

قِرَاءَةَ

I prefer reading stories

أُفَضِّلُ قِرَاءَةَ القِصَصِ

/ufađđilu qirâ’ata al qiŝaŝi/

3

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Explicit noun

دِرَاسَةَ

I want to study Arabic

أُرِيدُ دِرَاسَةَ العَرَبِيَّةِ

/urīdu drâsata al ξarabiyyati/

4

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Implicit noun

أَنْ أُشَاهِدَ

I like to watch the TV

أُحِبُّ أَنْ أُشَاهِدَ التَّلْفازَ

/uħibbu an ushāhida at tilfāza/

5

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Implicit noun

أَنْ أَزُورَ

I wish to visit Mecca

أَتَمَنَّى أَنْ أَزُورَ مَكَّةَ

/atamannā an azūra makkata/

6

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Attached pronoun

ـي

The teacher asked me a question

سَأَلَنِي الأسْتَاذُ سُؤالاً

/sa’alanī al ustādhu su’ālan/

7

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Attached pronoun

نا

Our teacher taught us the self respect

عَلَّمَنا اُسْتاذُنا الاِحْتِرَامَ

/ξallamanā ustādhuna al iħtrâma

8

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Detached pronoun

إيَّاكَ

It is you, we worship, and it is you we ask for help

إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإياكَ نَسْتَعِينُ

/iyyāka naξbudu wa iyyāka nastaξīnu/

9

  • From the above mentioned table we notice that the direct object can be one of the following:
    1-An explicit noun:
        - As in example number 1 and 2: (
    الطَّعامَ - الاجْتِماع).
    2-Explicit original noun:
        -We learnt earlier that the original noun is the noun which indicates an  action but without (notion of) time.
        - In the examples 3 and 4, the direct objects are explicit original nouns: (
    دِرَاسَةَ) which means (study) of the verb (دَرَسَ), and (قِرَاءَة) which means (reading) from the verb (قَرَأَ).
    3- Implicit original noun:
      - This is not an absolute noun, instead it is a phrase consisting of (
    أنْ /an/) meaning (that), and a present verbal sentence. This phrase can be interpreted by an original noun.
      - In the examples 5 and 6 the two implicit original nouns can be interpreted as follows: (Read from right to left)

Meaning

Explicit original noun

Meaning

Implicit original noun

No.

Watching

مُشَاهَدَة

To watch

أَنْ أُشَاهِدَ

5

Visiting

زِيارَة

To visit

أَنْ أَزُورَ

6

  • Attached pronoun:

-          We learned the attached pronouns in lessons 45, 46, and 47. We understood that the attached pronoun can be nominative, accusative or genitive pronoun. In this lesson we only study the accusative pronoun attached to a verb as a direct object.

-          The above mentioned examples number 7 and 8, contain attached accusative pronouns as follows:

The attached pronoun

Meaning

Example

No.

نِي

Asked me

سَأَلَنِي

7

نا

Taught us

عَلَّمَنا

8

  • Detached pronouns:

-          We studied the detached pronoun in lesson 44. We learnt that it is divided into two types; the nominative detached pronoun and the accusative detached pronoun.

-          Here, we are just dealing with the accusative pronoun, because the direct object is originally in the accusative case. The example number 9 contains the accusative detached pronoun (إِيَّاكَ) which is a direct object.