Lesson 73 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّالِثُ والسَّبْعونَ

The exclusion (1of3) - الاِسْـتِـثْـنَـاء (١مِن٣)

Introduction - مُقَدِّمَةٌ

  • This is lesson seventy three of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In this lesson and the following two lessons we will cover the last accusative noun in the Arabic grammar, which is the excluded, In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing).
  • We will study the exclusion in three lessons as follows:

1-    Lesson 73: introduction, the exclusion terminology, types of exclusion, and the exclusion article (إلا/illā/).

2-    Lesson 74: the exclusion articles (غَيْرسِوَىخَلاعَدَا - حاشا)

3-    Lesson 75: the exclusion articles (لَيس - لا يكونلاسِيَّما - بَيْدَ)

  • In this lesson we will learn the meaning of the exclusion, which is “to exclude the noun placed after /illā/ (meaning except) or one of its sisters, from the rule of the words placed before”. E.g. when we say:

All the students attended except one student

حَضَرَ الطُّلابُ إِلَّا طالِبًا

/ħađara aŧ ŧullābu illā ŧâliban/

  • This means that we exclude one student (which placed after the article /illā/) from the rule of the words before the article, i.e. from the attendance (placed before the article /illā/).
  • We will also learn about the noun placed before the exclusion article, from which we subtract the excluded noun. This noun is called in Arabic (الْمُسْتَثْنى مِنْهُ/ al mustathnā minhu) meaning the included.
  • The included (الْمُسْتَثْنى مِنْهُ) is mostly a definite noun, because we cannot exclude one or more items from unknown group. If the included noun is indefinite it has to be specified or well-known. Therefore it is mistaken to say (جَاءَ رِجَالٌ إِلَّا رَجُلاً) meaning (Men came except one), while the correct sentences are those which contain the included as definite noun, or as a specified indefinite noun, as in the following examples:

Explanation

Example

English

Arabic

The included noun is definite by being annexed to a definite noun

The policemen came except one

حَضَرَ رِجالُ الشُّرْطَةِ إلا رَجُلاً

/ħađara riĵālu ash shurŧati illā raĵulan/

The indefinite included noun is specified by an adjective

Good people came except Khalid

حَضَرَ رِجالٌ صالِحُونَ إِلَّا خالِدًا

/ħađara riĵālun ŝâliħūna illā khâlidan/

The included noun is specified by its generality

Nobody came except for Said

ما جاء أَحَدٌ إِلَّا سَعِيدًا

/māĵā’a aħadun illā saξīdan/

  • We will also learn in this lesson the components of the exclusion structure, its types and articles, and we will study the article /illā/ in detail, and the rules of the excluded noun after it, In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing).