Lesson 91 – الدَّرْسُ الحَادِي وَالتِّسْعُونَ

The Morphologic Measurement - الْمِيزانُ الصَّرْفِيُّ

Measuring weak verbs – وَزْنُ الأَفْعَالِ المُعْتَلَّةِ

  • We are still in lesson ninty one of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • We have learned earlier that the Arabic morphological measure helps us knowing the original letters and distinguishing them from the augmented letters.
  • Generally, we put the letters of the Arabic measure (فَعَلَ), (فَعْلَلَ), etc. in the place of the original letters of the word with their diacritic signs (vowels) and move the augmented letters in the same order.
  • Similarly, as we put any augmentation in the morphological measurement, we have to remove any omission from the original letters. E.g. the imperative form of the verb (قَالَ he said) is. There is an omitted original letter (for grammatical purpose), so the morphological pattern, we say that the imperative verb (قُـلْ Say!) is on the pattern (Ful فُل) as we have to omit the original letter (Ɛ ع) from the measure.
  • To explain the reason of omitting the medial letter from the weak verb for grammatical purpose, we have to compare it with sound verbs as يشْرَب drinkيكْتُب write. We say for the imperative (اشْرَب Ishrab) and (اكْتُب Uktub). But in the weak verb (يقول), the Arabic language doesn’t accept the voice of (Uqwul), so it tends to delete the weak vowel and take its diacritic (dhammah) to the preceding letter. Therefore, the verb should be (قُل).
  • Actually there are three types of weak verbs according to the position of the vowel:

1-    The model verbالْفِعْلُ المِثالُ: is the verb which the weak letter comes in the beginning of the verb. In the modal verbs, we omit the weak letter in the imperative case (or in indicative present
form). Consider the following examples:

Past form

Present form

Imperative form

Meaning

Example

Pattern

Example

Pattern

Example

Pattern

وَزَنَ

فَعَلَ FaƐal

يَزِنُ

يَـعِلُ YaƐil

زِنْ

عِلْ Ɛil

Weigh

وَعَـدَ

فَعَلَ FaƐal

يَعِدُ

يَـعِلُ YaƐil

عِـدْ

عِلْ Ɛil

Promise

وَهَبَ

فَعَلَ FaƐal

يَهَبُ

يَـعَلُ  YaƐal

هَبْ

عَلْ Ɛal

Grant

وَقَفَ

فَعَلَ FaƐal

يَقِفُ

يَـعِلُ YaƐil

قِفْ

عِلْ Ɛil

Stand

2-    The hollow verb الفِعْلُ الأَجْوَفُ: is the verb which the weak letter comes in the middle of the verb. In the hollow verbs, we omit the weak letter in the imperative form صِيغَةُ الأَمْرِ or in the jussive case حَالَةُ الجَزْمِ. Consider the following imperative examples:

Past

Present

Imperative

Meaning

Example

Pattern

Example

Pattern

Example

Pattern

قَـالَ

فَـعَلَ FaƐal

يَقُـولُ

يَفْـعُـلُ YafƐul

قُـلْ

فُـلْ Ful

Say

صَـامَ

فَـعَلَ FaƐal

يَصُـومُ

يَفْـعُـلُ YafƐul

صُـمْ

فُـلْ Ful

Fast

نـامَ

فَـعَلَ FaƐal

يَنَـامُ

يَفْـعَلُ YafƐal

نَـمْ

فَـلْ Fal

Sleep

خَـافَ

فَـعَلَ FaƐal

يَخَـافُ

يَفْـعَلُ YafƐal

خَـفْ

فَـلْ Fal

Fear

بـاعَ

فَـعَلَ FaƐal

يَبيـعُ

يَفْـعِلُ YafƐil

بِـعْ

فِلْ Fil

Sell

سَـارَ

فَـعَلَ FaƐal

يَسِـيرُ

يَفْـعِلُ YafƐil

سِـرْ

فِلْ Fil

Walk

  • Now, consider the following jussive case examples:

Indicative form (normal form)

Jussive form

Verb

Pattern

Verb

Pattern

يَـقُـولُ Say

يَـفْعُـلُ YafƐul

لَمْ يَـقُـلْ

يَـفُـلْ Yaful

يَـنـامُ Sleep

يَـفْـعَـلُ YafƐal

لَمْ يَـنَـمْ

يَـفَـلْ Yafal

يَـبِـيـعُ Sell

يَـفْـعِـلُ YafƐal

لَم يَـبِـعْ

يَـفِـلْ Yafil

3-    The deficient verb الفِعْلُ النَّاقِصُ: is the verb which the weak letter comes in the end of the verb. In the deficient verbs, we omit the weak letter in the imperative form صِيغَةُ الأَمْرِ or in the jussive case حَالَةُ الجَزْمِ. Consider the following examples:

Indicative form (normal form)

Jussive form

Verb

Pattern

Verb

Pattern

يَسْعَى Run

يَـفْـعَـلُ YafƐal

لَمْ يَسْعَ

يَـفْعَ YafƐa

يَهْوَى Like

يَـفْـعَـلُ YafƐal

لَمْ يَهْوَ

يَـفْعَ YafƐa