Lesson 71 – الدَّرْسُ الحادِي والسَّبْعونَ

The status - الْحَال

The status - الْـحَــالُ

  • We are still in lesson seventy one of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • The Arabic status is an accusative dispensable noun (supplement), occurring in the Arabic verbal sentence, to describe the aspect of the concerned noun.
  • From the above mentioned definition we understand that the status has to be as follows:

1-    It has to be a describing noun, because it describes the concerned noun. However the status is not a descriptive noun (adjective), which is one of the Arabic four followers (we studied the descriptive (adjective) structure in lesson 9). To clarify this point we make here a comparison between the descriptive noun (adjective) and the status. Consider the following examples:

Status

Descriptive noun (adjective)

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

Muhammad came happy

جاءَ مُحَمَّدٌ سَعِيدًا

/ĵā’a muħammadun saξīdan/

This is a big home

هَذَا بَيْتٌ كَبِيرٌ

/hādhā baytun kabīrun/

  • From the above mentioned examples we can compare between the descriptive noun (adjective) and the status as follows:

a-    The descriptive noun (adjective) indicates a permanent quality of the described noun, while the status describes the concerned noun in the time of the action of the verb only. Therefore the descriptive in the above mentioned example(كَبِيرٌ) means that the house is always big, while the status in its sentence (سَعِيدًا) means that Muhammad was happy when he came (not always).

b-    The status is always an accusative noun whatever the concerned noun is, while the descriptive is a follower, i.e. it follows the described noun in the grammatical case. Therefore the status in the above mentioned sentence (سَعِيدًا) is in the accusative case although the concerned noun is in the nominative case, while the descriptive (كَبِيرٌ) is in the nominative case because it follows the described noun.

2-    The status has to be a supplement (dispensable part).

This is unlike the essential parts of the sentence (the doer, the verb, the subject and the predicate) which none of them, originally, can be omitted from the sentence as follows:

Nominal sentence

Verbal sentence

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

Muhammad is happy

مُحَمَّدٌ سَعِيدٌ

/muħammadun saξīdun/

Muhammad came

جاءَ مُحَمَّدٌ

/ĵā’a muħammadun/

  • In the above mentioned examples we cannot omit any of the words because they are all indispensable parts, while we can omit the status from the verbal sentence and it remains correct verbal sentence as follows:

The sentence without the status

The sentence with the status

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

Muhammad came

جاءَ مُحَمَّدٌ

/ĵā’a muħammadun/

Muhammad came happy

جاءَ مُحَمَّدٌ سَعِيدًا

/ĵā’a muħammadun saξīdan/

3-    The status falls originally in the verbal sentence, because it describes the concerned noun in the time of the action of the verb. You can notice that in all the above mentioned examples.

4-    The status originally answers the question (how?), because it describes how the concerned is when the verb happens. Consider the following examples:

Picture

Status

Example

English

Arabic

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

مُسْرِعًا

My father came hurrying

حَضَر أَبِي مُسْرِعًا

/ħađara abī musriξan/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

هادِئًا

The child slept tranquil

نامَ الطِّفْلُ هادِئًا

/nāma aŧ ŧiflu hādi’an/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

فَزِعًا

The child woke up frightened

اِسْتَيْقَظُ الوَلَدُ فَزِعًا

/istayqađha al waladu faziξan/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

بَاكِيًا

The child is born crying

يُولَدُ الطِّفْلُ بَاكِيًا

/yuladu aŧ ŧiflu bākiyan/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

صافِيَةً

The sun rose clear

طَلَعَتِ الشَّمْسُ صافِيَةً

/ŧalaξat ash shamsu ŝâfiyatan/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

يَقْرَأُ القُرْآنَ

I saw the student reading the Quran

رَأيْتُ الطَّالِبَ يَقْرَأُ القُرْآنَ

/ra’aytu aŧ ŧâliba yaqra’u al qur’āna/