Lesson 83 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّالِثُ والثَّمانون

The style of astonishment - أُسْلُوبُ التَّعَجُّبِ

The first verbal pattern of astonishmentفِعْلُ التَّعَجُّبِ الأَوَّلُ(ما أَفْعَلَ)

  • We are still in lesson eighty three of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • This pattern of Arabic astonishment consists of three words as follows (please read from right to left):

3

2

1

(اسم متعجب منه)

أفْعَلَ

ما

A noun which is the object of astonishment

Verb of the transitive pattern (afξala) conjugated in the past tense with the singular masculine

 

  • Examples:

English

Arabic

How beautiful is the sky!

السَّماءَ

أَجْمَلَ

ما

How delicious is the food!

الطَّعَامَ

أَلَذَّ

ما

  • In the above mentioned examples you may notice that the first pattern of astonishment consists of the following:

1-    Mā (ما):

2-    The verb (أَجْمَلَ):

  • It is of the transitive pattern (أفْعَلَ), as أَخْرَجَ which means to make someone or something exit, and أَدْخَلَ which means to make someone or something enter. Therefore أَجْمَلَ here means to make something beautiful.
  • In this astonishment pattern, the verb has to be conjugated always with the third person masculine singular (هو), and the doer of this verb is always a latent pronoun related to the preceding mā which is considered here subject of nominal sentence. The predicate of mā is the entire verbal sentence (the verb and its latent pronoun).

3-    The noun (السَّماءَ):

  • This noun is the object of astonishment, i.e. the speaker expresses that he admires something that made the sky so beautiful.
  • The object of astonishment is considered a direct object to the verb of astonishment, so it is always in the accusative case (i.e. signed originally with fatħah on its last letter).
  • The object of astonishment has to be a definite noun.
  • More examples:

Picture

Example

English

Arabic

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How cheap are the clothes!!

ما أَرْخَصَ الأَثْوابَ

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How good is the honey!!

ما أَجْوَدَ الْعَسَلَ

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How delicious is the sweet!!

ما أَلَذَّ الْحَلْوَى

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How clever is the teacher!!

ما أَمْهَرَ الأُسْتَاذَ

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How thin is that woman!!

ما أَنْحَفَ الْمَرْأَةَ

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How courageous is the soldier!

ما أَشْجَعَ الْجُنْدِيَّ

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How fair is the judge!!

ما أَعْدَلَ القاضِي

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How merciful are the parents!!

ما أَرْحَمَ الأَبَوَيْنِ

 

Structure

Object of astonishment

Verb of astonishment

Article

الأَثْوابَ

أَرْخَصَ

ما

الْعَسَلَ

أَجْوَدَ

ما

الْحَلْوَى

أَلَذَّ

ما

الْمَرْأَةَ

أَنْحَفَ

ما

الْجُنْدِيَّ

أَشْجَعَ

ما

الأَمِيرَ

أَعْدَلَ

ما

الأَبَوَيْنِ

أَرْحَمَ

ما