Lesson 70 – الدَّرْسُ السَّبْعونَ
The concomitant object - الْمَفْعُول مَـعَـهُ
The conditions of the concomitant object -شُرُوط الْمَفْعُول معه
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- We learnt earlier that the Arabic concomitant object is an accusative dispensable noun that confirms its companionship, after the particle (و /wāw/) of concomitance (meaning with).
- From the above mentioned definition we can understand the conditions of the Arabic concomitant object as follows
1- It has to be a dispensable noun: this means that it is not one of the indispensable parts of the verbal sentence (the verb and the doer). Consider the following examples:
| Picture | English meaning | Arabic example |
|
| Muhammad walked along the Nile | /sāra Muħammadun wan nīla/ |
|
| Ali woke up at the dawn | اِسْتَيْقَظَ عَلِيٌّ والْفَجْرَ /istayqađha ξaliyyun wal faĵra/ |
|
| I studied in the light of the lamp | /dhākartu wal miŝbāħa/ |
- In the above mentioned examples the concomitant objects are as respectively as follows:
| Concomitant object | |||
| Meaning | The Nile | The dawn | The lamp |
- These above mentioned object are dispensable parts. None of them is a doer of the verb or participates in the action of the verb.
- If we omit any of the concomitant objects the sentence remains complete verbal sentence, as in the following table:
| English meaning | Example |
| Muhammad walked | /sāra muħammadun/ |
| Ali woke up | /istayqađha ξaliyyun/ |
| I studied | /dhākartu/ |
- You may notice that the sentence remains after omitting the concomitant object, because it is dispensable part, while we cannot omit the verb or the doer in the regular situation.
2- The concomitant object has to be in a verbal sentence: consider the following examples:
| Picture | English meaning | Arabic sentence |
|
| Ali went out at sunrise | خَرَجَ عَلِيٌّ وَشُرُوقَ الشَّمْسِ /kharĵa ξaliyyun wa shurūqa ash shamsi/ |
|
| Ibrahim played in the rain | /laξiba ibrâhimu wal maŧara/ |
|
| The child slept in the cold | /nāma aŧ ŧiflu wal bardu/ |
|
| I woke up at the call of the dawn | اِسْتَيْقَظْتُ وَأَذَانَ الفَجْرِ /istayqađhtu wa adhāna al faĵri/ |
- We now clearly understand that the concomitant object has to be a part of a verbal sentence. If the noun falling after /wāw/ is not a part of a verbal sentence, it cannot be concomitant object; rather it is coordinated noun which has the same case of the preceding noun, as in the following examples:
| Explanation | English meaning | Example |
| In these two sentence the noun after the /wāw/ is not a concomitant object, it is not accusative noun, rather it is a follower, i.e. it has the same case of the preceding noun | Ahmed and Muhammad are two friends | /aħmadu wa muħammadun ŝadīqâni/ |
| Summer and winter are two different seasons | الصَّيْفُ والشِّتاءُ فَصْلانِ مُخْتَلِفَانِ /aŝ ŝayfu wash shitā’u faŝlāni mukhtalifāni/ |
3- The concomitant object has to fall after a /wāw/ of concomitance (meaning with).
- In Arabic there are many types of /wāw/. These different types are to be studied in many lessons. The following table shows some of the types of /wāw/:
| The meaning of the /wāw/ | Example | |
| English | Arabic | |
| The /wāw/ is a particle of oath, and the following noun is in the genitive case | (I swear) by Allah, I will not do it again | واللَّهِ لا أَفْعَلُ هَذَا ثَانِيَةً /wa Allâhi lā afξalu hādhā thāniatan/ |
| The /wāw/ of the status, it precedes a complete sentence. The noun after it is a subject (mubtada’) in the nominative case | The father returns while the children is asleep | يَرْجِعُ الأَبُ والأَوْلادُ نائِمُونَ /yarĵiξu al abu wal awlādu nā’imuna/ |
| The /wāw/ is a coordination particle, its following noun has the same case of its preceding noun | The teacher and the students went out | /kharaĵa al ustādhu waŧ ŧulābu/ |
| /wāw/ of concomitance, the noun after it is in the accusative case | I will travel with the sunrise | سَأُسافِرُ وَشُرُوقَ الشَّمْسِ /sa’usāfiru wa shurūqa ash shamsi/ |
4- The concomitant object has to be placed after the verb of the sentence. Therefore we cannot say (والنِّيلَ سارَ مُحَمَّدٌ) because the /wāw/ of concomitance cannot be in the beginning of the sentence (only the /wāw/ of oath, and the /wāw/ of status can be in the beginning of a sentence).