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

لَيْسَ الْمَنْزِلُ بَعِيدًا

/laysa al manzilu baξīdan/

The house is far

الْمَنْزِلُ بَعِيدٌ

/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

مَعَنا الدَّرسُ سَهْلٌ

/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

جاءَ القَومُ إلاَّ خالِدًا

/ğā’a al qaumu illā khâlidan/

/illā/

جاء القَومُ لَيْسَ خالِدًا

/ğā’a al qaumu laysa khâlidan/

/laysa/

جاء القوْمُ لايكونُ خالِدًا

/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

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

I ate the bread except one loaf

أَكَلْتُ الخُبْزَ لَيْسَ رَغِيفًا

/akaltu al khubza laysa raghīfan/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

The guests attended except the doctor

حَضَرَ الضُّيُوفُ لَيْسَ الطَّبِيبَ

/ħađara ađ đuyūfu laysa aŧ ŧabība/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Everyday the students attend except Khalid

يَحضُرُ الطُّلاَّبُ كُلَّ يَوْمٍ لا يكون خالِدًا

/yaħđuru aŧ ŧullābu kulla yawmin lā yakūnu khâlidan/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

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.