Lesson 67 – الدَّرْسُ السَّابِعُ والسِّتُّونَ

The absolute object - الْمَفْعُـولُ الْمُـطْـلَـقُ

The pro- absolute object – نائِب المَفْعول المُطلق

  • We are still in lesson sixty seven of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • We now clearly understand what the Arabic absolute object is, what its rules are. We also learnt that the verb before the absolute object can be omitted, if the absolute object shows nature or number. This occurs in answering a question as follows:

Question

كَيْفَ جَلَسْتَ؟

How did you sit down?

Answer

جُلُوسَ الأُمَرَاءِ

As princes

  • In this part we will learn another structure in which we can omit the absolute object itself, and replace it with another accusative noun called (نائِب المَفْعول المُطلق /nā’ib al mafξūl al muŧlaq/) pro-absolute object. The pro-absolute object has the same rules, and take the same grammatical case of the absolute object, i.e. it is also in the accusative case (signed originally with /fatħah/ on its last letter). The pro-absolute object makes us understand the omitted noun (the absolute object) from the context, e.g.:
  • When someone says:

أُسافِرُ كَثِيرًا

I travel much

 

  • We understand that he wants to say:

أُسافِرُ سَفَرًا كَثِيرًا

  • We also understand that the noun (كَثِيرًا) is an adjective to the omitted original noun (سَفَرًا), which is supposed to be the absolute object, so that we call the noun (كَثِيرًا) a pro-absolute object.
  • This means that the absolute object which is an original noun (مَصْدَر) can be replaced with another noun which is not original noun. The following table shows the types of nouns which can be a pro-absolute object.

The supposed sentence

Example

Type of noun

No.

English

Arabic

نِمْتُ نَوْمًا طَوِيلاً

I slept a long time

نِمْتُ طَوِيلاً

/nimtu ŧawīlan/

Adjective (of the omitted original noun)

1

أُحِبُّ بِلادِي حُبًّا كَثِيرًا

I like my country so much

أُحِبُّ بِلادِي كَثِيرًا

/uħibbu biādi kathīran/

ضَرَبْتُهُ ضَرْبًا بالسَّوْطِ

I hit him with the whip

ضَرَبْتُهُ سَوْطًا

/đarabtuhu sawŧan/

The instrument (of the omitted original noun)

2

ضَرَبْتُهُ ضَرْبًا بالكَفِّ

I hit him with the hand

ضَرَبْتُهُ كَفًّا

/đarabtuhu kaffan/

أَنْذَرْتُكَ ثَلاثَةَ إنْذَاراتٍ

I warned you three times

أَنْذَرْتُكَ ثَلاثًا

/anthartuka thalāthan/

The number of times (of the omitted original noun)

3

طَلَّقَ زَوْجَتَهُ ثلاثَ طَلَقَاتٍ

he divorced his wife three times

طَلَّقَ زَوْجَتَهُ ثَلاثًا

/ŧallaqa zawĵatahu thalāthan/

فَهِمْتُ فَهْمًا كُلِّيًا

 

I understand totally (all)

 

فَهِمْتُ كُلَّ الفَهْمِ

/fahimtu kulla al fahmi/

When (بَعْضَكُلَّ) With annexing to another noun

4

سَعَيْتُ سَعْيًا جُزْئِيًا

I attempted partially (somehow)

سَعَيْتُ بَعْضَ السَّعْي

/saξaytu baξđ as saξyi/

  • In the above mentioned table there are four types of the nouns that can replace the absolute object, and make its function as follows:

1-   The adjective:

2-   The instrument:

3-   The number:

4-   After (كُلَّبَعْض) while being annexing nouns: