Lesson 39 – الدَّرْسُ التَّاسِعُ وَالثَّلاثُونَ
Indeclension of the Past Verb – بِنَاءُ الْفِعْلِ الْمَاضِي
Introduction - مُقَدِّمَةٌ
- This is lesson thirty nine of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
- In this lesson we will learn the Arabic past verb in more detail than we did in Lesson 28 and Lesson 29. We will learn the cases of the Arabic past verb indeclension.
- In Lesson 25, "Declinable and Indeclinable Words" we learnt that the original rule about the verb is indeclension – that is, verbs, except for the present verb, are often indeclinable.
- We also learnt in Lesson 38 the indeclension cases of the present verb and how its case-ending changes from đammah (ـُ) to fatħah (ـَ) or sukūn (ـْ).
- We also learnt in Lesson 38 that the present verb may be indeclinable by a fixed sukūn when it is suffixed by the feminine plural pronoun نُونُ النِّسْوَةِ (nūn an-niswah) such as خَرَجْنَ (kharaĵ-na) or when it is suffixed by the emphatic nūn نُونُ التَّوْكِيد (or nūn at-tawkid) such as لَنَخْرُجَنَّ (lanakhruĵa-nna).
- As we leant before in Lesson 25, ""Declinable and Indeclinable Words," that there are signs for declension, namely:
| (ـْ) Sukūn | (ـِ) Kasrah | (ـَ) Fatħah | (ـُ) Đammah | Sign |
| Ĵazm The jussive | Ĵarr The genitive | Naŝb The accusative | Rafξ The nominative | Case |
- There are also signs for indeclension. However, indeclension has conditions that should be met. This will be clearer when we will discuss the signs of indeclinable past verb later in this lesson. So we will learn the following:
- The indeclinable past verbs ending with a fixed fatħah (ـَ), as shown in the following examples:
| Picture | Meaning | Example |
|
| The director attended the annual conference on environment. | حَضَرَ الْمُدِيرُ الْمُؤْتَمَرَ السَّنَوِيَّ لِلْبِيئَةِ. /ħađara al-mudīru al-mu'tamar al-sanawī lilbī'ah/ |
|
| The female director attended the school meeting. | حَضَرَتِ الْمُدِيرَةُ اِجْتِمَاعَ الْمَدْرَسَةِ. /ħađarat al-mudīratu iĵtimāξa al-madrasati/ |
|
| The two students attended the lesson in the class. | الطَّالِبَانِ حَضَرَا الدَّرْسَ فِي الْفَصْلِ. /aŧ-ŧâlibani ħađarā al-darsa fi al-faŝli/ |
- The indeclinable past verbs ending with a fixed sukūn (ـْ), as in the following examples:
| Picture | English meaning | Example |
|
| Have you written the homework, Marwan? | هَلْ كَتَبْتَ الْوَاجِبَ يَا مَرَوَانُ ؟ /hal katabta al-wāĵiba ya Marawan?/ |
|
| Have you drunk milk, Fatimah? | هَلْ شَرِبْتِ الْحَلِيبَ يَا فَاطِمَةُ ؟ /hal sharibti al-ħalība ya Faŧimah?/ |
|
| I gave my brother a gift. | أَنَا أَعْطَيْتُ أَخِي هَدِيَّةً. /ana aξŧaytu akhī hadiyatan/ |
|
| We studied Arabic in Yemen. | نَحْنُ دَرَسْنَا الْعَرَبِيَّةَ فِي الْيَمَنِ. /Naħnu darasna al-ξarabiya fi al-yaman/ |
- The indeclinable past verbs ending with fixed đammah ضَمَّةٌ (ـُ), as shown in the following examples:
| Picture | Meaning | Example |
|
| Students got out of the class. | الطُّلابُ خَرَجُوا مِنَ الْفَصْلِ. /Aŧ-ŧullābu kharaĵū min al-faŝl/ |
|
| Employees completed their work. | الْمُوَظَّفُونَ أَكْمَلُوا الْعَمَلَ. /Al-muwađhaffūn akmalū al-ξamal/ |
