Arabic The Declinable and the non-Declinable الْمُعْرَبُ وَالْمَبْنِيُّ

The declinable and the indeclinable verbs – الأَفْعَالُ الْمُعْرَبَةُ والأَفْعَالُ الْمَبْنِيَّةُ

• The general rule is that the verb should be indeclinable and the declinable verbs are an exception to the rule.
• The verbs in Arabic are divided into three types; past, present and imperative.
• The past and the imperative verbs are always indeclinable. The present verbs are generally declinable except for two situations; when the verb is attached to the /nūn/ of the feminine plural نُونُ النِّسْوَةِ or attached directly to the /nūn/ of confirmation (the emphatic suffix); in these two situations the present verb is indeclinable.
• Let’s now study each of the three types of verbs:

1-  The past verb الْفِعْلُ الْمَاضِي (will be studied in detail in lesson 39):

• Originally, the past verb is indeclinable with a fatħah on its end, e.g.: (كَتَبَ he wrote – وَصَلَ he arrived – تَحَدَّثَ he talked). If the past tense verb is ended with a vowel, we consider it indeclinable on a virtual (supposed) fatħah on its end, e.g.: رَمَى he threw, دَعَا he invited.
• When the past verb is attached to a pronoun, it may be indeclinable on another sign according to the suffixed pronoun as follows:
  • Indeclinable on sukūn when attached to the following pronouns:

a)   The tā’ of the doer تَاءُ الْفَاعِلِ:

• E.g. كَتَبْتُ I wrote – كَتَبْتَ you (masculine) wrote – كَتَبْتِ you (feminine) wrote – كَتَبْتُمْ you (plural) wrote – كَتَبْتُنَّ you (feminine plural) wrote.

b)   The nā of the (first person) doers نَا الْفَاعِلِينَ:

• E.g.: كَتَبْنَا we wrote.

c)   The /nūn/ of the feminine third person plural نُونُ النِّسْوَةِ:

• E.g.: كَتَبْنَ they (feminine) wrote.
• Indeclinable on đammah when attached to wāw of the plural masculine وَاوُ الْجَمَاعَةِ:
  • E.g.: كَتَبُوا they wrote.
• Other than the above mentioned situations, the past verb should be indeclinable with a fatħah.
• Consider the following examples:

2-   The imperative verb فِعْلُ الأَمْرِ (will be detailed in lesson 40):

• The imperative verb is always indeclinable. The imperative verb is to be addressed only to the second person (i.e. أَنْتَ – أَنْتِ – أَنْتُمَا – أَنْتُمْ – أَنْتُنَّ). The ending sign on which the imperative is indeclinable depends on the attached pronoun which is suffixed to the verb as follows:
  • If the imperative is addressed to (أَنْتَ) it will not be suffixed to a doer pronoun, so it will be indeclinable on sukūn, e.g. اكْتُبْ write.
  • If the imperative is addressed to (أَنْتِ you feminine), (أَنْتُمَا you both) or (أَنْتُم you plural), it will be indeclinable on the elimination of the final nūn مَبْنِيٌّ عَلَى حَذْفِ النُّونِ, e.g.: اكْتُبِي – اكْتُبَا  – اكْتُبُوا respectively.
  • If the imperative is addressed to the feminine plural (أَنْتُنَّ) it will be indeclinable on the sukūn مَبْنِيٌّ عَلَى السُّكُونِ, e.g.: اكْتُبْنَ.
• The Arabic grammarians says that in order to memorize these signs of the indeclension of the imperative you have to match them with the ĵazm case of the present conjugation (see lesson 36 part 6).
• Consider the following examples:

3-   The present verb الْفِعلُ الْمُضَارِعُ:

• As a rule the present verb is declinable. Exceptionally, it is indeclinable in two following situations:
  • When it is attached to the /nūn/ of the feminine plural نُونُ النِّسْوَةِ.
  • When it is attached directly to the /nūn/ of comfirmation نُونُ التَّوْكِيدِ.
• Therefore we will learn the declinable present verb first and then its two indeclinable cases:

a-   The declension of the present verb إعْرَابُ الْفِعْلِ الْمُضَارِعِ

(this topic will be detailed in lesson 36)

• The present verb is originally declinable, i.e. its vowel ending is changeable according to its position in the sentence as follows:
  • If it is not preceded by an accusative or jussive article, it should be in the indicative case حَالَةُ الَّرفْعِ.
  • If it is preceded by an accusative article أَداةُ نَصْبٍ as (أَنْ to – لَنْ not) it will be in the accusative case حَالَةُ النَّصْبِ.
  • If the present verb is preceded by a jussive article أدَاةُ جَزْمٍ such as (لَمْ not – لا النَّاهِيَةُ don’t), it will be in the jussive case حَالَةُ الْجَزْمِ.
• Consider the following examples:

• As you notice in the above mentioned examples, there are three cases for the present declinable verb; the indicative (nominative), the accusative, and the jussive case. For each case there is a main sign (vowel ending); the đammah for the indicative, the fatħah for the accusative, and the sukun for the jussive case. These original signs should be replaced by secondary signs if the verb is attached to some pronouns (as detailed in lesson 37 named the five verbs). Consider the secondary signs in the following examples of the so-called five verbs:

• In the above mentioned table we notice that the five verbs are those that are attached to the pronoun of the plural masculine third person, the plural masculine second person, the dual third person, the dual second person, and the feminine second person. In the indicative case they are signed with the firmness of the final /nūn/, and in the accusative and jussive case they are signed with the elimination of the /nūn/. Again we remind you that this will be repeated with more details and examples in lesson 37 In-Shaa’-Allaah (God willing).

b-   The indelension of the present verb بِنَاءُ الْفِعْلِ الْمُضَارِعِ:

• We learnt earlier that the present verb is indeclinable in two situations:

1-   The first situation of the indeclinable present verb is when it is attached to the /nūn/ of the feminine plural نُونُ النِّسْوَةِ. In this situation the present verb will be indeclinable on the sukūn regardless ofthe grammatical case or the preceding articles. Consider the following examples:

• In the above mentioned examples, you may notice the equality of the form of the present verb in the three cases. This is because it is indeclinable, i.e. it has a constant ending.

2-   The second situation in which the present verb is indeclinable is that when it is attached directly to the /nūn/ of confirmation (emphatic article) نُونُ التَّوْكِيدِ. In this situation the present verb is indeclinable on fatħah. This will be detailed in lesson 97 In-Shaa’-Allaah (God willing). Consider the following examples:

• In the above mentioned examples, you may notice that the present verb is indeclinable with a fatħah (regardless of whether it is in the indicative, accusative or jussive case).
• To apply this rule on the the present verb, the attachment to the emphatic /nūn/ has to be a direct attachment (i.e. without separation). If there is a separating pronoun in the middle, the verb returns back to its original declension (as detailed in lesson 97).