Lesson 38 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّامِنُ وَالثَّلاثُونَ
Indeclension of the present Verb – بِنَاءُ الْفِعْلِ الْمُضَارِعِ
Introduction - مُقَدِّمَةٌ
- This is lesson thirty eight of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
- We learnt in Lesson 25 that the declinable words are those words whose endings are changeable according to their function/position in the sentence. Consider the following examples related to declinable words:
Function/ Grammatical position | The sign of the last letter | Declinable word | Sentence | |
English | Arabic | |||
Doer in the nominative case | Dhammah | The boy attended the lesson. | ||
Direct object in the accusative case | Fatħah | The mother likes (her) child. | ||
Genitive noun after preposition | Kasrah | The mother takes care of (her) child. |
- We also learnt in lesson 36 that the present verb is, originally (mostly), declinable, and it either comes in indicative (nominative) case, or in accusative case or in jussive case. When it comes in indicative case (rafξ) it should be, originally, signed with dhammah, while in the accusative case (Naŝb) it should be signed with fatħa, and it is signed, originally, with Sukoon, when it is in the jussive case. We also learnt the reason of each case: i.e. the verb comes in the indicative case (rafξ) when it is not preceded by any of the accusative or the jussive particles, and it comes in the accusative case (Naŝb) or jussive case (ĵazm) when it is preceded by an accusative or jussive article respectively. We have had an idea about some accusative articles (أنْ، لَنْ) and some jussive articles (لَمْ، لا النَّاهِيَة). The following revision examples may refresh what you learnt in that lesson:
Reason | Sign | Grammatical case | Verb | Sentence | |
English | Arabic | ||||
There is not any accusative or jussive article preceding the verb. | Dhammah | Indicative | Adel lives in Egypt | ||
The verb is preceded by the accusative article (أنْ) | Fatħah | Accusative | Adel will not live in Egypt | ||
The verb is preceded by the jussive article (لَمْ) | Sukoon | Jussive | Adel did not live in Egypt |
- On the other hand, we learnt also in lesson 25 that the indeclinable words are those words coming with constant endings regardless their function/grammatical position in the sentence.
- Consider the word (مَنْ) meaning (who or whom) in the following examples (for revision purpose):
Explanation | English | Arabic |
The word (مَنْ) here is nominative subject, but it is indeclinable on Sukoon | Who is this? | |
The word (مَنْ) here is an accusative object, but it is indeclinable on Sukoon | Whom did you visit? | |
The word (مَنْ) here is a genitive Mudhaaf Ilayh (annexed noun), but it is indeclinable on Sukoon | Whose book is this? |
- In our current lesson we will learn the cases in which the present verb is indeclinable. We have already learnt that the present verb is, originally, declinable. We have studied and practiced its three cases of declension in lesson 36. In this lesson we will learn the few cases of indeclension of the present verb, In-Shaa’-Allaah (god willing).
- We will learn that there are only two cases in which the present verb is indeclinable.
- The first case when it is attached to a pronoun of feminine plural, when it has a constant ending of (Sukoon) regardless its position/grammatical case. Consider the following examples:
English | Arabic |
The believers treat their husbands with kindness | الْمُؤْمِنَاتُ يُعَامِلْنَ أَزْوَاجَهُنَّ مُعَامَلَةً كَرِيْمَةً |
The girls play with the ball in the sporting club | |
The (female) doctors examine the patients |
- The second case in which the present verb is indeclinable, is when it is attached directly to the Noon of confirmation. In this case the present verb is indeclinable on the Fatħa on its ending, regardless it position or grammatical case.
Indeed, the student have to write the lesson | |
Indeed, the student have to get up early | |
Indeed, the child have to follow (listen) the advice of his father |