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 |
| Go to the airport | |||
| And ask about the time of the plane | |||
| Then return to me again | |||
| And tell me the time |
- 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! | Let’s have a walk in the city | ||
| Let’s – come on– quick! | let’s cooperate in goodness (to do the good) | ||
| Shut up | Shut up and do not debate with Khalid | ||
| Come on | Come on, Tariq, to the good work | ||
| Leisurely | Leisurely with Aisha, because she is weak | ||
| Give me | Give me your health and take my money | ||
| Stop – leave | Stop smoking | ||
| Come on | Come on to the mosque | ||
- Forming the imperative with the (lām) of imperative لامُ الأمْرِ:
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):
| Normal imperative conjugation | ||||
| 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 |
| Go to the airport | ||
| And ask about the plane | ||
| Then return again | ||
| And tell me the time |