Lesson 81 – الدَّرْسُ الحادِي والثَّمانون

The followers (4) The confirmative - التَّــوَابِع (٤) الـتَّـوْكِيد

The rules of the confirmative – أحكام التوكيد

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  • Following are the rules related to the Arabic confirmative:

1-  The confirmative is a follower, i.e. it follows the confirmed part in the declension case (nominative, accusative, or genitive) as all followers.

2-  The confirmative mustn’t be separated from the confirmed noun, i.e. it has to be placed after the confirmed noun directly. Therefore it is wrong to say:

Wrong

جَلَسَ مُحَمَّدٌ عَلَى الْكُرْسِيِّ مُحَمَّدٌ

Rather the correct is as follows:

Correct

جَلَسَ مُحَمَّدٌ، مُحَمَّدٌ عَلَى الْكُرْسِيِّ

Muhammad, Muhammad sat on the chair

  • The moral confirmative also cannot be separated from the confirmed noun, and so it is wrong to say:

Wrong

الكِتابُ في الْحَقِيبَةِ نَفْسُهُ

While the correct is to say:

Correct

الكِتابُ نَفْسُهُ فِي الْحَقِيبَةِ

The book itself is in the bag

  • The above mentioned sentence is correct because the confirmative is placed after the confirmed noun directly (the confirmed here is الكِتاب). Therefore it is also correct to say:

Correct

الكتابُ فِي الحَقِيبَةِ نَفْسِها

The book is in the bag itself

  • The above mentioned sentence is correct, but the meaning is different, because the confirmed in this sentence is (الحَقِيبة).

3-  The confirmed noun cannot be indefinite noun, rather it has to be definite (if it is a noun), as it is clearly noticed in all previous examples.

4-  The moral confirmative has to be attached to a genitive pronoun related to the confirmed noun. The genitive attached pronoun has to match the confirmed noun in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular, dual, or plural). Consider the following examples:

Structure

Example

Attached pronoun

Confirmative

Confirmed

English

Arabic

Number

Gender

Noun

ـه= هو

نَفْسُه

Singular

Masculine

الطَّالِبُ

The student came in person

حَضَرَ الطَّالِبُ نَفْسُه

ها = هي

نَفْسَها

Singular

Feminine

الْبِنْتَ

The girl, married in person

تَزَوَّجْتُ الْبِنْتَ نَفْسَها

هما

كِلاهُما

Dual

Masculine

الطَّالِبان

The students went out, both of them

خَرَجَ الطَّالِبان كِلاهُما

هُمْ

جَمِيعُهُم

Plural

Masculine

الأَوْلادُ

The boys slept, all of them

نامَ الأَوْلادُ جَمِيعُهُم

5-  The moral confirmative has different form for each of  the singular, dual and plural, as follows:

a-    The moral confirmative of the singular noun is formed of the singular noun (نَفْس - عَيْن) attached to the proper singular genitive pronoun, as in the following examples:

English

Arabic

The player won, himself

فازَ اللاَّعِبُ نَفْسُهُ | عَيْنُهُ

The female player herself lost

خَسِرَتِ اللاَّعِبَةُ نَفْسُهَا | عَيْنُها

b-     The confirmative of the plural noun is one of the plural words (أَنْفُسأَعْيُنُجَمِيع - عامَّة) attached to the proper genitive plural pronoun, as in the following examples:

Confirmative

English

Arabic

أَنْفُسُهُم

The thieves escaped themselves

هَرَبَ اللُّصُوصُ أَنْفُسُهُم

أَعْيُنُهُم

The officers themselves went behind (after) them

خَرَجَ الضُّبَّاطُ أَعْيُنُهُم وَرَاءَهُم

جَمِيعُهُم

The students lived in a hotel, all of them

عاشَ الطُّلاَّبُ جَمِيعُهُم فِي الْفُنْدُقِ

c-    The confirmative of the dual noun is formed of one of the dual nouns (كِلا - كِلْتا) attached to a dual genitive pronoun, as in the following examples:

Confirmative

English

Arabic

كِلاهُمَا

The two players clashed with each other

اِصْطَدَمَ اللاَّعِبانِ كِلاهُمَا

كِلْتَيْهِما

I ate the two chicken, both of them

أَكَلْتُ الدَّجَاجَتَيْنِ كِلْتَيْهِما

كِلَيْهِما

The child kissed his parents, both of them

قَبَّلَ الطِّفْلُ أَبَوَيْهِ كِلَيْهِما

كِلْتَاهُمَا

The two years passed, both of them

مَرَّتِ السَّنَتانِ كِلْتَاهُمَا

6-  We learnt earlier that the confirmed noun can be an attached pronoun or a latent pronoun, and in these cases the confirmative has to be a separate pronoun. Let’s study more examples of this with the declension of the pronoun (the confirmative):

Declension of the confirmative

The pronoun

الضمير

Examples

The confirmative

The confirmed

English

Arabic

Indeclinable in place of nominative

أَنْتَ

تَ

You came to Egypt

حَضَرْتَ أَنْتَ إلى مِصْرَ

Indeclinable in place of nominative

نَحْنُ

ـنا

We went out of Egypt

خَرَجْنَا نَحْنُ مِنْ مِصْرَ

Indeclinable in place of nominative

هُوَ

ضمير مستتر

He returned to his house

عَادَ هُوَ إِلَى بَيْتِهِ

Indeclinable in place of accusative

هُم

ـهم

I forgave them, them not you

سامَحْتهُم هُمْ لا أَنْتُم

Indeclinable in place of genitive

أَنْتُم

ـكم

I came to visit you

حَضَرْتُ لِزِيارَتِكُم أَنْتُم

Indeclinable in place of genitive

هُوَ

ـه

I will live with him

سَأَسْكُنُ مَعَهُ هُوَ

  • We now clearly understand that the pronoun can be a confirmative of another pronoun. But the noun cannot be a confirmative of a preceding pronoun. Therefore it is wrong to say:

Wrong

حَضَرَ هُوَ مُحَمَّدٌ

  • Also, the pronoun cannot be a confirmative of a preceding noun as follows:

Wrong

حَضَرَ مُحَمَّدٌ هُوَ

  • Therefore the correct is to confirm a noun by a noun, or a pronoun by a pronoun as we learnt earlier.
  • N.B.: the following sentence includes two pronouns:

Correct

حَضَرَ هُوَ

  • The first pronoun is a latent pronoun, and it is confirmed noun, while the second (هُوَ) is a confirmative indeclinable noun in place of nominative because it is a confirmative of the doer of the verb.