Lesson 66 – الدَّرْسُ السَّادِسُ والسِّتُّونَ
The direct object - الْمَـفْـعُـول بِـه
The order of the direct object in the verbal sentence –تَرْتِيب المفعول به في الجملة
- Let's Continue to learn Arabic through our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course contains Arabic grammar, Arabic syntax, Arabic morphology and more.
- The original order of the Arabic verbal sentence is as follows:
الفِعْل + الفاعِل + المفْعول بِهِ The verb + the agent + the direct object |
- So the original place of the direct object is after the agent (the doer) as in the following examples:
The object | The doer | The verb | Example | |
English | Arabic | |||
The student attended the lesson | /ħađara aŧ ŧâlibu ad darsa/ | |||
Ali made the prayer of evening | /ŝallā ξaliyyun al ξishā’a/ |
- The direct object can be facultatively placed before the doer, on condition that the meaning of the object does not confuse with the doer.
- Let’s see firstly the possible advance of the object, and then we will see the cases in which it is not allowed to place the object before the doer:
Allowed situation:
The object | The doer | The verb | Example | |
English | Arabic | |||
Attended the lesson, the student | /ħađara ad darsa aŧ ŧâlibu/ | |||
Made the prayer of evening, Ali | /ŝallā alξishā’a ξaliyyun |
- In these examples the meaning is clear, because the object is signed with the /fatħah/ on its last letter, while the doer is signed with /đammah/.
Not allowed situation:
The object | The doer | The verb | Example | |
English | Arabic | |||
Muses helped Jesus | /sāξada ξīsā mūsā/ | |||
Huda visited Sueda | /zārat hudā suξdā/ |
- In these examples each of the doer and the object ends with a long vowel, so there is no evident grammatical sign, and we cannot distinguish the doer or the object if the order is changed.
- There are three cases in which the object is obligatorily advanced as follows:
1- When the direct object is a pronoun attached to the verb as in the following examples:
The object | The doer | Example | |
English | Arabic | ||
My friend helped me | /sāξadanī ŝadīqī/ | ||
the professor drove us out of the lecture | أَخْرَجَنَا الأُسْتَاذُ مِنَ الْمُحَاضَرَةِ /akhraĵanā al ustādhu min al muħāđarati / |
- In the above mentioned examples it is obligatory to place the object before the doer because the object is an attached pronoun, and it cannot be isolated.
2- When the object is an evident noun, and the doer is connected to a pronoun referring the object as follows:
The object | The doer | Example | |
Arabic | Arabic | ||
Taught the girl, her father | /ξallama al binta abūha/ | ||
Built the house, his owner | /banā al bayta ŝâħibahu/ | ||
Sold the company, its manager | /bāξa ash sharikata mudīruhā/ |
- In the above mentioned examples the doer is respectively as follow: (from right to left)
- Each of these doers is connected to an attached pronoun which refers to the direct object. It is well known in Arabic that the pronoun must refer to a preceding noun (not to a following noun), so the direct object has to be obligatorily advanced.
3- When the doer is bracketed between (ما......إلا) or by (إنَّما). The bracketed noun in Arabic has to be placed after the non-bracketed noun, so the direct object is obligatorily advanced. Consider the following examples:
The direct object | The bracketed doer | Example | |
English | Arabic | ||
Only one student understood the lesson | ما فَهِمَ الدَّرْسَ إلا طَالِبٌ /mā fahima ad darsa illa ŧâlibun/ | ||
Only Khalid travelled to Egypt | إِنَّما سَافَرَ مِصْرَ خَالِدٌ /inmā sāfara miŝra khâlidun/ | ||
Only I who paid the bill | /mā dafaξa al ħisāba illā anā/ |
- In the above mentioned examples the doer is bracketed, so the object must be advanced. By the same way, if the direct object is bracketed it has to be placed after the doer. Compare the following two examples:
The doer is bracketed | The direct object is bracketed |
Only one student understood the lesson | The student understood only one lesson |
- In the sentence on the right the direct object is bracketed, so the doer is obligatory advanced. In the sentence on the left the doer is bracketed, so the direct object is obligatory advanced.