Lesson 85 – الدَّرْسُ الخامِسُ والثَّمانون

The style of praise and blame - أُسْلُوبُ الْمَدْحِ وَالذَّمِّ

The syntax of the sentence of the praise and the blame – تحليل جملة المدح والذم

  • We are still in lesson eighty four of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In this part we will learn the components of the Arabic sentence of praise and blame In-Shaa’-Allaah (God willing). The sentence in these two Arabic styles consists of three parts as follows:

The specified noun

The doer

The verb of praise or blame

Components

طارِقٌ

الرَّجُلُ

نِعْمَ  / بِئْسَ

Arabic

Example

Is Tariq

Man

How a good/bad

English

  • We are still in lesson eighty four of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In this part we will study the rules of the above mentioned parts as follows:

-          The rules of the verbs (نِعْمَبِئْسَ - ساءَ).

-          The rules of the verbs (حَبَّذَا - لا حَبَّذَا).

-          The rules of the specified noun.

  • Following are the details of each point of them:

1-            The rules of the verbs (نِعْمَبِئْسَ - ساءَ).

a-    These verbs are only used in the past form, otherwise it may not be specific to praise and blame. I.e. in order to mean the praise or blame, these verbs should be in the past, indeclinable on the fatħah.

b-    The doer of these verbs has three cases:

  • To be definite by (al); in such case it is supposed to be in the nominative case. Consider the following examples:

The doer

English

Arabic

الغُلامُ

What an excellent boy, Zaid.

نِعْمَ الغُلامُ زَيْدٌ

الْخُلُقُ

How bad manner is the anger

بِئْسَ الْخُلُقُ الْغَضَبُ

  • To be annexing to a noun definite by (al); it is also here supposed to be in the nominative case, as in the following examples:

The doer

English

Arabic

فُصُولُ العامِ

How good season (of the year) is the spring!

نِعْمَ فُصُولُ العامِ الرَّبِيعُ

فُصُولُ السَّنَةِ

How bad season (of the year) is the winter!

بِئْسَ فُصُولُ السَّنَةِ الشِّتاءُ

  • The doer can also be a latent pronoun (هو), which is explained by the indefinite accusative distinctive afterwards. Consider the following examples:

Structure

Example

Specified

Distinctive

Doer

Verb

English

Arabic

الْخَوْفُ

حِمْلاً

هُو

ساءَ

How a bad load is the fear

ساءَ حِمْلاً الْخَوْفُ

بَيْتُ

بَيْتًا

هو

نِعْمَ

How a good house is the house of my family

نِعْمَ بَيْتًا بَيْتُ أُسْرَتِي

نِعْمَ حُرَّاس العَقَارِ طَارِقٌ

طَارقٌ نِعْمَ حُرَّاسُ العَقَارِ

How excellent guard (of the building) is Tariq

  • It is possible to omit the specified noun from the sentence of (نِعْمَ - بِئْسَ) only, under a condition that the meaning of the omitted noun is understood from the context. Consider the following example:

Explanation

English

Arabic

The meaning is: what an excellent young man is Khalid, but the specified noun (Khalid) is omitted, because we understand it from the context.

Do you know Khalid?

س : هَلْ تَعْرِفُ خَالِدًا ؟

Yes, I do.

ج : نَعَمْ أَعْرِفُهُ .

What’s your opinion about him?

س : مارَأْيُكَ فِيهِ ؟

What excellent youth!!

ج : نِعْمَ الشَّبَابُ.

2-            The rules of the verbs (حَبَّذَا - لا حَبَّذَا).

The specified noun

Doer

Verb of praise or blame

Components

الصِّدْقُ

ـذَا

حَبَّـ

Arabic

Example

The sincerity

 

How good !

English

  • We now clearly understand that (حبَّ) in this structure is a verb in the past, and it is indeclinable on the fatħah. While the doer is the demonstrative noun (ذا).
  • We also understand that the specified noun is also in the nominative case, because it is a delayed subject, which its predicate is the advanced verbal sentence.
  • The demonstrative doer (ذا) can also be followed by a distinctive in the accusative case. In such structure the nominative specified noun falls after the distinctive. Consider the following examples:

Structure

Example

Verb

Doer

Distinctive

Specified

Arabic

English

حَبّ

ـَذَا

رَجُلاً

خالِدٌ

حَبَّذَا رَجُلاً خالِدٌ

How good (as a man) is Khalid!

حَبّ

ـَذَا

طالِبًا

طارِقٌ

حَبَّذَا طالِبًا طارِقٌ

How good (as a student) is Tariq!

حَبّ

ـَذَا

عَمَلاً

الْغِشُّ

لاحَبَّذَا عَمَلاً الْغِشُّ

How bad (as an act) to cheat!

  • In the above mentioned structure, the demonstrative (ذا) is always in the singular masculine, even if the specified noun is in different gender and number. Consider the following structures:

English

Arabic

How good is that man!

حَبَّذَا الرَّجُلُ

How bad are these two men!

لا حَبَّذَا الرَّجُلانِ

How good are these men!

حَبَّذَا الرِّجالُ

How good is that woman!

حَبَّذَا المَرْأَةُ

How bad is these two women!

لاحَبَّذَا الْمَرْأَتانِ

How good are these women!

حَبَّذَا النِّسَاءُ