Lesson 33– الدَّرْسُ الثَّالِثُ وَالثَّلاثُونَ

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs – الفِعْلُ المُتَعَدِّي والْفِعْلُ اللازِمُ

Nominal and verbal sentences

  • We are still in lesson thirty three of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • The Arabic verbal sentence has two main components that must be there for it to be verbal. These components are:
    1. The verb
    2. The doer
  • The order is vital in this regard. This means that a verbal sentence must start –originally- with a verb.
  • Study the following verbal sentences:

Images

Translation

Sentence

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Ahmad met his lecturer at the university

قَابَلَ أَحْمَدُ أُسْتَاذَهُ فِي الجَامِعَة

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Sa’id slept early

نَامَ سَعِيدٌ مُبَكِّرًا

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The car hit Tariq’s leg

صَدَمَتِ السَّيَّارَةُ طَارِقًا فِي رِجْلِهِ

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Khalid learnt Arabic quickly

تَعَلَّمَ خَالِدٌ اللُّغَةَ العَرَبِيَّةَ بِسُرْعَةٍ

  • On the other hand, if a sentence begins with a noun, then it becomes a nominal sentence. The examples above of verbal sentences can be transformed into nominal ones if we placed the doer at the beginning of the sentence as follows:

Verbal Sentence

Nominal Sentence

قَابَلَ أَحْمَدُ أُسْتَاذَهُ فِي الجَامِعَة

أَحْمَدُ قَابَلَ أُسْتَاذَهُ فِي الجَامِعَةِ

نَامَ سَعِيدٌ مُبَكِّرًا

سَعِيدٌ نَامَ مُبَكِّرًا

صَدَمَتِ السَّيَّارَةُ طَارِقًا فِي رِجْلِهِ

السَّيَّارَة صَدَمَتْ طَارِقًا فِي رِجْلِهِ

تَعَلَّمَ خَالِدٌ اللُّغَةَ العَرَبِيَّةَ بِسُرْعَةٍ

خَالِدٌ تَعَلَّمَ اللُّغَةَ العَرَبِيَّةَ بِسُرْعَةٍ

  • Consequently, the verbal sentence is the one that starts –originally- with a verb; and the nominal sentences is the one that starts –originally- with a noun.

Transitive and intransitive verbs

  • Arabic verbs are divided into two types:
    1. The first type is the transitive verb “الفِعْلُ الْمُتَعَدِّي”. This kind of verbs require a direct object to complement the meaning of the sentence as the meaning of the sentence cannot be complete without this object. Consider the verbs in the following passage:

English

Arabic

The teacher read many English books. He translated some of them into English. He taught us one of them. And we understood this book well

قَرَأَ الأُسْتَاذُ كُتُبًا كَثِيرَةً بِاللُّغَةِ الإنْجِلِيزِيَّة، وَتَرْجَمَ بَعْضَها إلى العربيةِ، وَدَرَّسَ لَنا مِنْها كِتَابًا، وَفَهِمْنَا هَذا الكِتابَ جَيِّدًا

It is noteworthy that the verbs (قَرَأ، تَرْجَمَ، دَرَّسَ، فَهِمَ) require a direct object. This type of Arabic verbs is called transitive verbs; that is the verb that needs a direct object for the meaning of the sentence to be complete. Without this direct object, the meaning will remain uncompleted.

    1. On the other hand, some verbs do not need a direct object, and the meaning can be complete without this object. This type of verbs is called intransitive verbs “الْفِعْلُ اللازِمُ”. Consider the verbs in the following passage:

English

Arabic

Tamir sat on the bed. Then he slept for half an hour. Later he woke up at 6 o’clock. Then he went to the university

جَلَسَ تَامِرٌ عَلَى السَّرِير، ثُمَّ نَامَ بَعْدَ نِصْفِ ساعةٍ، ثُمَّ اِسْتَيْقَظَ السَّاعَةَ السَّادِسَة، ثُمَّ ذَهَبَ إلى الجَامِعَةِ

From the examples above, we note that there is no direct object, and that the meaning of the sentence is complete without the object. These verbs [جَلَسَ، نَامَ، اِسْتَيْقَظَ، ذَهَبَ] are called intransitive verbs أَفْعَالٌ لازِمَةٌ.