Lesson 66 – الدَّرْسُ السَّادِسُ والسِّتُّونَ

The direct object - الْمَـفْـعُـول بِـه

Omitting the direct object and the verb – حذف المفعول به وَالفِعْل

  • Let's Continue to learn Arabic through our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course contains Arabic grammar, Arabic syntax, Arabic morphology and more.
  • Originally, the Arabic direct object has to be mentioned after the doer, and sometimes it can be advanced facultatively or obligatory. In some situations we can omit the direct object if it is understandable from the context. E.g.: when you ask someone: (هَلْ قَرَأْتَ الكِتابَ اليَوْمَ؟) and he answers:

(نَعْمْ ، قَرَأْتُ)

Yes I read (it)

  • The direct object is understood from the context, as the answer is supposed to be (نَعَمْ، قَرَأتُ الكِتابَ) or (نَعَمْ، قَرَأْتُهُ). But because the direct object is well known from the context, it is possible to be omitted.
  • In some other situations we omit the verb and the doer, and keep the direct object in the sentence. These situations will be studied in following lessons In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing). Now we can see some examples of these situations in which we omit the verb and the doer:

English meaning

Supposed meaning

Example

The lion, the lion.  (be cautious of the lion)

اِحْذَرِ الأَسَدَ

الأَسَدَ، الأَسَدَ.

Hardworking, hardworking. (keep hardworking)

اِلْزَم الاجْتِهادَ

الاجْتِهاد، الاجْتِهادَ.

We – Arabs (I mean Arabs) – like all people.

أَخُصُّ العَرَبَ

نَحْنُ – العَرَبَ – نُحِبُّ الجَمِيعَ.

  • These situations will be studied in detail in following lessons In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing).