Lesson 88 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّامِنُ والثَّمانون

The Style of Request - أُسلوبُ الطَّلَبِ

The Forms of Imperative – طُرُقُ الأَمْرِ

  • We are still in lesson eighty eight of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • We learnt in lesson 28 that the verb in Arabic is divided into three types (the past, the present, and the imperative). We also learnt that the Arabic imperative is always indeclinable (i.e. it has a fixed case ending, and doesn’t change according to the position in the sentence). We also learnt that the doer of the imperative verb is the spoken to, as in the following examples (for revision purpose):

Latent pronoun

Imperative

English

Arabic

أنتَ

اِذْهَبْ

Go to the airport

اِذْهَبْ إلى الْمَطَارِ

أنتَ

اِسْتَعْلِمْ

And ask about the time of the plane

واِسْتَعْلِمْ عَنْ مَوْعِدِ الطَّائِرَةِ

أنتَ

اِرْجِعْ

Then return to me again

ثُمَّ اِرْجِعْ إلَيَّ مَرَّةً أُخْرَى

أنتَ

أَخْبِرْ

And tell me the time

وَأَخْبِرْنِي بالْمَوْعِدِ

  • We are still in lesson eighty eight of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In the above mentioned examples the verbs are conjugated in the imperative form and the doer is a latent pronoun related to the spoken to.
  • There are other two ways to express the imperative as follows:

-          Expressing the imperative by using the imperative verbal noun اسْمُ فِعْلِ الأمْرِ, as we studied in lesson 50.

-          We learnt that the verbal noun is a noun which has the meaning and function of verb, but it is a noun in form. Consider the following examples (for revision purpose):

Explanation

Example

Meaning

Verbal noun

English

Arabic

Let’s – come on– quick!

هَيَّا

Let’s have a walk in the city

هَيَّا بِنا نَتَجَوَّلْ فِي المَدِينَة

Let’s – come on– quick!

هَيَّا

let’s cooperate in goodness (to do the good)

هَيَّا نَتَعَاونْ عَلَى الْخَيْر

Shut up

صَهٍ

Shut up and do not debate with Khalid

صَهٍ وَلا تُناقِشْ يا خَالِدُ

Come on

حَيَّ

Come on, Tariq, to the good work

حَيَّ عَلَى خَيْرِ الْعَمَلِ يا طَارِقُ

Leisurely

رُوَيْدًا

Leisurely with Aisha, because she is weak

رُوَيْدًا عَائِشَةَ فَإِنَّها ضّعِيفَةٌ

Give me

هاتِ

Give me your health and take my money

هاتِ صِحَّتَكَ وَخُذْ أَمْوَالِي

Stop – leave

دَعْ

Stop smoking

دَعْ التَّدْخِينَ

Come on

هَلُمَّ

Come on to the mosque

هَلُمَّ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ

In this structure we use the present verb preceded by (lām) signed with kasrah called (lām) of the imperative لامُ الأمْرِ. This (lām) puts the present verb in the jussive case (i.e. signed originally with sukūn).

  • Consider the following examples, and compare between the normal imperative conjugation and the imperative formed by the (lām) and the jussive present (please read from right to left):

أَخْبِرْنِي

اِرْجِعْ

اِسْتَعْلِمْ

اِذْهَبْ

Normal imperative conjugation

لِتُخْبِرْنِي

لِتَرْجِعْ

لِتَسْتَعْلِمْ

لِتَذْهَبْ

Jussive present preceded by the lām of imperative

Tell me!

Return!

Ask!

Go!

English meaning

  • And now, let’s see the above mentioned verbs in the sentences:

Verb

English

Arabic

لِتَذْهَبْ

Go to the airport

لِتَذْهَبْ إلى الْمَطَارِ

لِتَسْتَعْلِمْ

And ask about the plane

ولِتَسْتَعْلِمْ عَنْ الطَّائِرَةِ

لِتَرْجِعْ

Then return again

ثُمَّ لِتَرْجِعْ إلَيَّ مَرَّةً أُخْرَى

لِتُخْبِرْنِي

And tell me the time

وَلِتُخْبِرْنِي بالْمَوْعِدِ