Lesson 75 – الدَّرْسُ الخَامِسُ والسَّبْعونَ
The exclusion (3 of 3) - الاِسْـتِـثْـنَـاءُ (٣مِن٣)
The exclusion with /laysa/ and /lā yakūnu/ – الاستثناء بـ" لَيْسَ ، ولا يَكُونُ "
- We are still in lesson seventy five of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
- We learnt /laysa/ and /lā yakūnu/ in lesson 59, as Arabic annuller verbs. We learnt that the annuller verbs (/kāna/ and its sisters) do not need a doer and a direct object like the regular verbs, rather they fall at the beginning of the Arabic nominal sentence and change the declension of the predicate to the accusative case, and change the subject to be called the noun of the annuller, and the predicate to be called its predicate.
- Consider the following examples: (for revision purpose)
Example | Annuller | |||
After annuller | Before annuller | |||
English | Arabic | English | Arabic | |
The house is not far | /laysa al manzilu baξīdan/ | The house is far | /al manzilu baξīdun/ | /laysa/ |
With us, the lesson is not difficult | مَعَنا لا يكونُ الدَّرسُ صَعْبًا /maξanā lā yakūnu ad darsu ŝaξban/ | With us, the lesson is easy | /maξanā ad darsu sahlun/ | /yakūnu/ |
- In the above mentioned examples we notice that each of /laysa/ and /lā yakūnu/ is an annuller verb meaning not be, and it falls in the beginning of the nominal sentence, and changes the declension of the predicate.
- In this lesson we will study that /laysa/ and /lā yakūnu/ can also be used as exclusion articles, i.e. with the meaning of except. consider the following examples:
Example | Exclusion article | |
English | Arabic | |
The people came except Khalid | /ğā’a al qaumu illā khâlidan/ | /illā/ |
/ğā’a al qaumu laysa khâlidan/ | /laysa/ | |
/ğā’a al qaumu lā yakūnu khâlidan/ | /lā yakūnu/ |
- You may notice from the above mentioned examples that each of /laysa/ and /lā yakūnu/ can do the same function and meaning of the article /illā/, i.e. they can be exclusion articles meaning except.
- The excluded after /laysa/ and /lā yakūnu/ is always in the accusative case, because it is the predicate of any of them (as annuller verbs), while the noun (the subject) of the annuller verb here is a latent pronoun referring the included.
- More examples:
Picture | English meaning | Arabic example |
| I ate the bread except one loaf | أَكَلْتُ الخُبْزَ لَيْسَ رَغِيفًا /akaltu al khubza laysa raghīfan/ |
| The guests attended except the doctor | حَضَرَ الضُّيُوفُ لَيْسَ الطَّبِيبَ /ħađara ađ đuyūfu laysa aŧ ŧabība/ |
| Everyday the students attend except Khalid | يَحضُرُ الطُّلاَّبُ كُلَّ يَوْمٍ لا يكون خالِدًا /yaħđuru aŧ ŧullābu kulla yawmin lā yakūnu khâlidan/ |
| My family lives in Egypt except my father | تَعِيشُ أُسْرَتِي فِي مِصر لا يَكُونُ أَبِي /taξīshu usratī fī miŝra lā yakūnu abī/ |
- It is important here to mention that these two exclusion articles are not commonly used in Modern Standard Arabic.