Lesson 62 – الدَّرْسُ الثّانِي والسِّتُّونَ
/kāda/ and its sisters - كَادَ وَأخَوَاتُها
Introduction - مُقَدِّمَةٌ
- This is lesson sixty two of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
- In the previous lesson we learnt that the annuller verbs (الأفْعال النَّاسِخَة /al afξāl an nāsikhah/) intervene in the Arabic nominal sentence and make changes in its meaning, naming and declension. We also learnt that the annuller verbs are divided into three categories. We have already studied the first category, /kāna/ and its sisters (كانَ وأخَوَاتُها /kāna wa akhawātuhā), in the previous lesson.
- In this lesson we will learn another category of the annuller verbs, which is called /kāda/ and its sisters In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing).
- /kāda/ and its sisters are known as verbs of approximation, hope, or initiative. These annuller verbs, unlike the normal verbs, do not have an agent (doer) in their sentence. Their sentence is a nominal sentence although it starts with a verb.
- /kāda/ and its sisters are divided into three groups as follows:
1-Verbs of approximation (أفْعال الْمُقارَبَة /afξāl al muqârabah/).
These verbs mean the approximation of the action of the verbal predicate, as shown in these examples:
| Picture | Example | Verb of approximation | ||
| English | Arabic | English | Arabic | |
|
| The book was just about to fall in the water | كَادَ الكِتابُ يَسْقُطُ فِي المَاءِ /kāda al kitābu yasquŧu fī al mā’i/ | To be (just) about to (To be on the point of) | /kāda/ |
|
| The spring is about to finish | أَوْشَكَ الرَّبِيعُ أَنْ يَنْتَهِي /awshaka ar rabīξu an yantahī/ | /awshaka/ | |
2-Verbs of hope (أفْعال الرَّجاء /afξāl ar raĵā’/)
These verbs mean that the action included in the verbal predicate sentence is hopped and excepted. Let’s see the examples:
| Example | Verb of hope | ||
| English | Arabic | English | Arabic |
| It is hoped (I hope) that it (the sky) rains. | /ξasā as samā’u an tumŧira/ | It is hoped that (I hope that) | /ξasā/ |
| /ħarâ as samā’u an tumŧira/ | /ħarâ/ | ||
- Nb.: the second verb of the above mentioned table (حَرَى/ħarâ/) is rarely used in modern standard Arabic.
3-Verbs of initiative (أفْعال الشُّروع /afξāl ash shurūξ)
These verbs mean that the subject started doing the action of the verb which in the predicate. Please look at these examples:
| Picture | Example | Verb of hope | ||
| English | Arabic | English | Arabic | |
|
| The boy started to write (started writing) | /bada’a al waladu yaktubu/ | To start, or to begin to do | /bada’a/ |
|
| It (the sky) started to rain | /sharaξat as samā’u tumŧiru/ | /sharaξa/ | |
