Lesson 62 – الدَّرْسُ الثّانِي والسِّتُّونَ
/kāda/ and its sisters - كَادَ وَأخَوَاتُها
Verbs of approximation /afξāl al muqârabah/– (أفْعال الْمُقارَبَة: كَاد، كَرُبَ، أَوْشَكَ)
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- The Arabic annuller verbs /kāda/ and its sisters (كادَ وأخَوَاتُها) are divided into three groups. We will study in this part the first group In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing).
- The verbs in this first group are called Verbs of approximation (أفْعال الْمُقارَبَة /afξāl al muqârabah/). These verbs add to the nominal sentence a meaning that the subject is just about to do the action of the verbal predicate sentence.
- Note that the approximation verbs are three (كَادَ /kāda/), (كَربَ /karaba/), and (أوْشَكَ /awshaka/). All of them have nearly the same meaning.
- Note also that the verb in the predicate sentence is always in the present tense, even if it expresses a past tense.
Study the following examples:
| Picture | Example | Verb | |
| English | Arabic | ||
|
| The car was about to hit me | كَادَتِ السَّيَّارَةُ تَصْدِمُنِي /kādat as sayyāratu taŝdimuny/ | /kāda/ |
|
| My tears was about to fall | /kādat dumūξī tasquŧu/ | |
|
| The patient starts to heal (restore) | /karaba al marīđu yushfā/ | /karaba/ |
|
| The situation starts to be fixed | /karaba al ħālu yanŝaliħu/ | |
|
| The rain is about to fall | /awshaka al maŧaru yasquŧu/ | /awshaka/ |
|
| The summer is about to finish | /awshaka aŝ ŝayfu yantahī/ | |
- As you may notice in all the above mentioned examples, the subject has not made the action of the predicate yet, instead he is just about to do it within a very few time.
- The predicate in all the examples is a verbal sentence which contains a present verb. We remind you that the present verb is originally in nominative case, and it is originally signed with /đammah/ on its last letter.
- There is another way to express the same meanings of the above mentioned examples, using the verb of the predicate in accusative case preceded by (أَنْ /an/) the accusative particle meaning (that). See the same examples again with (أَنْ /an/):
| Example | Verb | |
| English | Arabic | |
| The car was about to hit me | كَادَتِ السَّيَّارَةُ أنْ تَصْدِمَنِي /kādat as sayyāratu an taŝdimany/ | /kāda/ |
| My tears was about to fall | /kādat dumūξī an tasquŧa/ | |
| The patient starts to heal (restore) | /karaba al marīđu an yushfā/ | /karaba/ |
| The situation starts to be fixed | /karaba al ħālu yanŝaliħa/ | |
| The rain is about to fall | /awshaka al maŧaru an yasquŧa/ | /awshaka/ |
| The summer is about to finish | أَوْشَكَ الصَّيْفُ أنْ يَنْتَهِيَ /awshaka aŝ ŝayfu an yantahiya/ | |
- You may notice that the verbs of the predicate in this table are accusative, i.e. signed originally with /fatħah/ on their last letters, because of the particle (أَنْ /an/). The same verbs in the first table are in the nominative case, i.e. they are signed originally with /đammah/, and the meaning is nearly the same.
- The annuller verb (كَربَ /karaba/) can only be in the past verb, while the other two annuller verbs (كَادَ /kāda/), and (أوْشَكَ /awshaka/) can be in the past or in the present tense (يَكادُ /yakādu/) and (يوشِكُ /yushiku/). As follows:
| Example | Verb | |
| English | Arabic | |
| The house is about to fall down | يَكَادُ البَيْتُ أَنْ يَسْقُطَ /yakādu al baytu an yasquŧa/ | /yakādu/ |
| The train is about to arrive. | /yūshiku al qiŧâru an yaŝila/ | /yūshiku/ |
- Nb.: The verb (كَربَ /karaba/) is rarely used in modern standard Arabic, and it is also not commonly used in ancient texts.