Lesson 74 – الدَّرْسُ الرَّابِعُ والسَّبْعونَ
The exclusion (2of3) - الاِسْـتِـثْـنَـاءُ (٢مِن٣)
The exclusion with /ghayr/ and /siwā/– الاِسْتِثْناء بـ "غَيْر، وسِوَى"
- We are still in lesson seventy four of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
- The Arabic exclusion articles /ghayr/ and /siwā/ are nouns, so they occupy a position in the Arabic sentence, and they have their own declension cases as all nouns. In the previous lesson we didn’t study the declension of the exclusion article /illā/ because it is an Arabic particle. We learnt in lesson (4) that the Arabic particles are all indeclinable, so they do not change whatever their positions in the sentence are.
- Therefore we will study the grammatical declension of the exclusion articles (غَيْر - سِوى) and the declension of the excluded noun after each of them.
- Each of /ghayr/ and /siwā/ means except or but, especially when the exclusion sentence is negative, as in the following examples:
| English meaning | Arabic example |
| Nobody came except (but) Muhammad | لَمْ يَأتِ أحدٌ غَيْرُ مُحَمَّدٍ /lam ya’ti aħadun ghayru muħammadin/ |
| I like nobody but you | /lā uħibbu siwāka/ |
- Sometimes we translate /ghayr/ and /siwā/ by the English words (other or other than) especially when the exclusion sentence is affirmative, as in the following examples:
| English meaning | Arabic example |
| A man other than Zayd came | /ĵā’a raĵulun ghayru zaydin/ |
| A person other than her met me | /qâbalanī shakhŝun siwāha/ |
| Someone other than Muhammad ate the food | أكَلَ الطَّعامُ غَيْرَ مُحَمَّدٍ /akala aŧ ŧaξāma ghayra muħammadin/ |
- This means that somebody else ate the food, but we cannot determine who exactly ate the food, because the noun /ghayr/ remains vague even if it is annexed to a definite noun.
The declension of the excluded after (غَيْر - سِوى):
- Each of /ghayr/ and /siwā/ falls as an annexing noun, and the noun after each of them is always in the genitive case because it is annexed noun (muđâf ilaihi).
The declension of (غَيْر - سِوى):
- The two exclusion articles /ghayr/ and /siwā/ always follow the rules of declension of the excluded after /illā/, which we studied in the previous lesson.
- E.g. if we want to know the declension of /ghayr/ in the following example:
| No one came except an engineer | /mā ĵā’a ghayru muhandisin/ |
- We have to make the following steps:
1- To imagine the sentence with /illā/ instead of /ghayr/, as follows:
| No one came except an engineer | /mā ĵā’a illā muhandisun/ |
2- To know the declension of the excluded after /illā/ according to the rules that we studied in the previous lesson.
In this example, the structure is emptied negative, so the excluded will be declined as its position in the sentence (as if there is no exclusion), so it is here an agent of the verb, i.e. it is in the nominative case, signed with the /đammah/.
3- To apply the declension of this excluded in the imagined structure on the article of the real structure /ghayr/, i.e. it will be in the nominative case (doer of the verb), signed with the /đammah/. While the excluded after /ghayr/ is annexed noun in the genitive case, signed with /kasrah/.
More examples:
| Picture | Type of exclusion | Example | |
| English | Arabic | ||
|
| Complete affirmative | The players returned except one player | رَجَعَ اللاَّعِبُونَ غَيْرَ لاِعِبٍ /raĵaξa al lāξibūna ghayra lāξibin/ |
|
| Emptied negative | Nobody likes to study except the hardworking people | لا يُقبِلُ على الدِّراسَةِ غَيْرَ/غَيْرُ المُجْتَهِدِينَ /lā yuqbilu ξala ad drâsati ghayra, ghayru al muĵtahidīna/ |
|
| Emptied negative | Nobody sleep much except the lazy | لا يَنَامُ كَثِيرًا غَيْرُ الكَسْلانِ /lā yanāmu kathīran ghayru al kaslāni/ |
|
| Emptied negated | I didn’t understand other than one lesson | ما فَهِمْتُ غَيْرَ دَرْسٍ واحِدٍ /mā fahimtu ghayra darsin wāhidin/ |
|
| Detached negative | The house was not burned (except) but the books | ما اِحْتَرَقَتِ الدَّارُ غَيْرَ الكُتُبِ /mā iħtaraqat ad dāru ghayra al kutubi/ |
|
| Emptied negative | Nobody failed other than the dictator | ما خابَ سُوى الْمُسْتَبِدِّ بِرَأيِهِ /mā khâba siwā al mustabiddi bi ra’yihi/ |
|
| Emptied negative | I didn’t see in the club other than Khalid | ما رَأَيْتُ فِي النَّادي سُوى خالِدٍ /mā ra’aytu fī an nādī siwā khâlidin/ |
- In the above mentioned examples we notice the following:
- The excluded after /ghayr/ and /siwā/ is always in the genitive case, because it is an annexed noun (muđâf ilaihi).
- The exclusion article /siwā/ is ended with long vowel (ā), so the declension signs cannot appear on its ending, rather it is always declinable with virtual signs as we studied lesson 53 (al maqŝūr noun).
- In the example no. 1, the noun /ghayr/ is in the accusative case, because the exclusion structure is linked complete affirmative. The excluded in a similar structure with /illā/ is obligatorily accusative.
- In the example no. 2, the noun /ghayr/ is facultatively accusative or nominative, because the excluded after /illā/ in this type (complete negative) can be accusative by the exclusion or it follows the included by the substitution.
- In the examples no. 3 and 4 the exclusion is of the emptied type, so the noun /ghayr/ is declined as its normal position in the sentence before the exclusion (as if there is no exclusion), as we studied in the previous lesson about the declension of the excluded after /illā/. Therefore the noun /ghayr/ in the example no. 3 is a doer of the verb, and it is nominative signed with the /đammah/ on its last letter, while it is in example 4 a direct object, accusative, signed with the /fatħah/ on its last letter.
- In the example no. 5 the exclusion is of the detached type, in which the excluded after /illā/ is obligatorily accusative, so this declension is applicable on the exclusion article /ghayr/, so that it is signed with the /fatħah/ on its last letter.