Lesson 64 – الدَّرْسُ الرَّابِعُ والسِّتُّونَ

The doer - الفاعِل

Types of the doer – أَنْواع الفاعل

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  • We now clearly understand that the doer is who did the action of the verb, e.g.

كَتَب الطَّالِبُ الدَّرْسَ

The student wrote the lesson

 

  • Or who is characterized by the verb, e.g.

سَقَطَ البَيْتُ بِسبَبِ الزِّلْزَالِ

The house fell down because of the earthquake

 

  • It is now clearly noticed that the doer is a noun. The noun is divided into many types, so the doer can be divided to the same types of the noun as follows:

Picture

The type of the doer

The doer

Example

No.

English

Arabic

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Explicit noun

السَماءُ

The sky (it) rained

أَمْطَرَتِ السَماءُ

/amŧarat as samā’u/

1

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البَيْتُ

The house fell down because of the earthquake

سَقَطَ البَيْتُ مِن الهِزَّةِ

/saqaŧa al baytu min al hizzati/

2

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Attached pronoun

 

واو الجماعة

Do you like football?

هَلْ تُحِبُّونَ كُرَةَ القَدَمِ؟

/hal tuħibbūna kurata al qadami/

3

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تاء الفاعل

Did you travel to Egypt?

هَلْ سافَرْتَ إلَى مِصْرَ ؟

/hal sāfarta ilā miŝra/

4

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Latent pronoun

 

(هُو)

Said visited Egypt a year ago.

سَعِيدٌ زَارَ مِصْرَ قَبْلَ عامٍ

/saξīdun zāra miŝra qabla ξāmin/

5

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(هِي)

Saida wrote her homework

سَعِيدَةُ كَتَبَتْ وَاجِبَها

/saξīdatu katabat wāĵibahā/

6

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Explicit original noun

فَوْزُكَ

Your win of the prize pleases me (I’m happy that you won the prize)

يُسْعِدُنِي فَوْزُكَ بالجائِزَةِ

/yusξidunī fawzuka bil ĵā’izati/

7

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Implicit noun

أَنْ أَرَاكَ

Seeing you (to see you) frustrated makes me sad

يَحْزُنُنِي أَنْ أَرَاكَ يائِسًا

8

  • In the above mentioned table we find the possible five types of the doer in Arabic.
  • Let’s study these five types in detail:
    1-Explicit noun:
    It is the evident noun that comes after the verb as in the examples number 1 and 2 in the table above. The doer in the first sentence is (
    السَماءُ), and in the second sentence is (البَيْتُ)
    2-Attached pronoun:
    The doer can also be an attached pronoun (in place of nominative) as shown in examples number 3 and 4. The doer is the /wāw/ of the plural (
    واو الجماعة) and the /tā’/ of the doer (تاء الفاعل) respectively.
    3-Latent pronoun:
    Sometimes the doer is not seen after the verb, neither as an evident noun, nor as a prominent pronoun. In this case it must be a latent pronoun, because the doer is an essential part of the sentence, and it cannot be removed.
    *When the doer is a latent pronoun it has to refer to an evident noun mentioned before the verb. See examples number 5 and six in the above mentioned table where the doer is (
    هُوَ) and (هِيَ) as latent pronouns.
    4-Explicit original noun:
    The original noun is the noun which indicates an action without notion of time, like the noun (eating) in English. It indicates the action without being past, present, or future.
    The explicit original noun is that noun which is a /Maŝdar/ noun without any preceding particle. This type can be a doer of the verb as in example number 7 (
    فَوْزُكَ).
    5-The implicit original noun:
    The last type of the doer is a phrase that can be interpreted by an original noun as the phrase (to go) in English it equals (going), and so in Arabic (
    أنْ تَذْهبْ) equals (الذَّهاب).
    This implicit original noun can be a doer of the verb as in the example number 8 in the table above (
    أَنْ أَرَاكَ) it means (to see you). It also can be interpreted by the explicit original noun (رؤيتُكَ) which means (seeing you).