Lesson 40 – الدَّرْسُ الأرْبَعونَ

Indeclension of the Imperative Verb – بِنَاءُ فِعْل الأَمْر

Imperative verb indeclension on the omission of the defective letter - بِنَاء فِعْل الأَمْر عَلَى حَذْف حَرْف العِلَّة

  • We are still in lesson forty of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In Lesson 32, we learnt the Arabic Sound Verb الفِعْل الصَّحِيح and the Arabic Defective Verb الفِعْل المُعْتل. We also learnt the types of defective verbs, according to the place and number of the defective letter/s in the verb:
    • A defective verb with one defective letter:

مُضارِع

ماض

مَكان حرْف العلة

Verb

الفعل

Present

Past

Place of the defective letter

يَعِدُ

يَقِفُ

يَزِنُ

وَعَدَ

وَقَفَ

وَزَنَ

A past-form verb beginning with a defective letter. It is always in the past form, because the present form verb may begin with the letter ي, such as يَكتب. The ي letter here is not a defective letter, but it just indicates the present form of the verb.

Modal (mithāl)

المِثال

يَقُولُ

يَبِيعُ

يَنَامُ

قالَ

بَاعَ

نَامَ

A past- or present-form verb including a defective letter in the middle

Hollow (aĵwaf)

الأَجْوَف

يَدْعُو

يَهْدِي

دَعَا

هَدَى

A past- or present-form verb ending with a defective letter

Deficient (nāqiŝ)

 

الناقص

    • A defective verb with two defective letters:

أمْثِلَةٌ

مَكان حرْف العلة

الْفِعْلُ

Examples

Place of the defective letters

Verb

وَقَى

وَعَى

A verb including two defective letters separated by another sound letter

Mixed Separated

(lafīf mafrūq)

اللَّفِيفُ المَفْرُوق

هَوَى

نَوَى

A verb including two joined defective letters

Mixed joint

(lafīf maqrūn)

اللَّفِيف المَقْرُون

  • In this lesson we will focus on the third type, Deficient (nāqiŝ) Verb الفعل الناقص, which ends with a defective letter, such as the following:

بَدَا

هَدَى

بَقِيَ

دَعَا

Verb

Badā

Hadā

Baqiya

daξā

Transliteration

to seem

to guide

to remain

to call, pray

Meaning

  • To make the imperative form of these verbs we omit the last defective letter from the present form and then we add Alif at the beginning if the defective verb is three or six lettered verb, but if it is 4 or 5 lettered verb we don’t add the initial Alif to the defective verb.
  • Note that the vowel on the penultimate letter will indicate the omitted defective letter, i.e. the Fatħah means that the omitted letter is Alif (ا), the đammah indicates the omission of the Wāw (و) and the Kasrah indicates that the omitted letter is Yā' (ي).

دَعَا

هَدَى

نَوَى

سَعَى

Past

invite

Guide

intend

make effort

Transliteration

يَدْعُو

يَهْدِي

ينوي

يَسْعَى

Present

اُدْعُ

اِهْدِ

انوِ

اِسْعَ

Imperative

  • As you see the vowel on the last letter on the imperative form indicates the omitted defective letter. Here are some more examples:

Translation

Sentence

Invite all your friends to the party, Masoud!

يا مَسْعُود اُدْعُ كُلَّ أَصْدِقَائِكَ إلى الحَفْلَةِ.

Walk every day to preserve your heath!

اِمْشِ كل يومٍ حتى تحافظ على صحتك.

Run for an hour every day in order not to be fat!

اِجْرِ ساعَةً كُلَّ يَومٍ حَتَّى لا تَكُونَ سَمِينًا.

Oh God, guide people to Your Right Path!

يا اللَّهُ اِهْدِ النَّاسَ إلَى صِراطِكَ المُسْتَقِيم.

Oh Allah, reinforce our nation to do the good deeds!

يا اللهُ قَوِّ أُمَّتَنَا عَلَى فِعْلِ الْخَيْر.