Arabic Verbs 3

Verbs

Imperfective Structures

 

Conjugation of Irregular Verbs (continued)

 

For description of irregular verb types, you may go here

3) Hollow Verbs

Hollow verbs are verbs whose second original letter is a weak letter.

Unlike the perfective hollow verbs, imperfective hollow verbs will not always transform the middle weak letter (the w or y) into a weak ‘alif. As was explained before, this transformation happens only when the short vowel preceding the weak letter is a short A. Whereas this is always the case in the perfective, in the imperfective this vowel is changeable and thus the weak letter will not be always transformed into a weak A.

 

►Form I

Form I hollow verbs have a displaced-back short vowel in the imperfective. This vowel is the changeable green short of the imperfective verbs. Thus, these verbs will have a changeable middle long vowel depending on the green vowel of the verb.

Example:

قَاْلَ

qaal(a)

 

(He) said

The root is : ق و لQ W L

By applying the root to the imperfective formula of form I, we get:

 

As we said when we defined the hollow verbs in this page, the combination -CCvC becomes -CvCC in the hollow and doubled verbs. So form I imperfective verbs belong to the second type of those verbs, in which the short vowel following the weak letter will be displaced back rather than omitted. This is different from the perfective form I hollow and doubled verbs which are ones with an omitted short vowel.

 

So the verb will become:

 

The verb has a long U vowel in the middle, corresponding to the green vowel u.

The full conjugation:

 

Notice that the middle long vowel (uw = oo) becomes the corresponding short vowel (u) in the feminine plural conjugations. This will happen with all the imperfective hollow verbs when are in these conjugations.

 

Another example:

بَاْعَ

baa“(a)

 

(He) sold

The root is: B Y “ بي ع

By applying the root to the imperfective formula of form I, we get:

 

By displacing the i backward, we get:

The verb has a long I vowel in the middle, corresponding to the green vowel i.

Full conjugation:

The middle long vowel (iy = ee) becomes the corresponding short vowel (i) in the feminine plural conjugations.

Now we will take an a verb:

خَاْفَ

khaaf(a)

 

(He) feared

The root is: KH W F خ و ف

By applying the root to the imperfective formula of form I, we get:

By displacing the a backward, we get:

 

We mentioned before the rule of aw→ aa , ay→ aa. By applying this rule here, we get:

 

 

So whether the original weak letter is w or y, we will always get a long A (aa) in the middle of an a imperfective hollow verb.

The full conjugation:

 

The middle long vowel (aa) becomes the corresponding short vowel (a) in the feminine plural conjugations.

Imperfective hollow verbs whose middle weak letter is w are always verbs u or a verbs, but not i verbs. Imperfective hollow verbs whose middle weak letter is y are always verbs i or a verbs, but not u verbs.

 

 

 

 

 

Now let us conjugate the rest of the verb forms. The verb forms other than form I that can be hollow verbs are forms IV, VII, VIII & X. To conjugate those, one will need to keep in mind the differentiation between the forms with an omitted short vowel (-CvCvC → -CvCC) and the forms with a displaced-back short vowel (-CCvC → -CvCC).

 

 

►Forms VII & VIII

Example,

اِنْقَاْدَ

‘inqaad(a)

(he) was/became led

The root is: Q W D ق و د

By applying the root to the imperfective formula of form VII, we get:

By omitting the i, we get:

 

By applying the rule of aw→ aa, we get the final form:

 

The same would be true for ay→ aa. Thus, these verbs will always have a middle long A instead of the weak letter and the green vowel following it. The same process will be applied to form VIII hollow verbs.

The full conjugation:

As it is always, the middle long vowel (aa) becomes the corresponding short vowel (a) in the feminine plural conjugations.

 

►Forms IV & X

Example,

أَرَاْدَ

 

‘araad(a)

(he) wanted

The root is : ر و دR W DI

By applying the root to the imperfective formula of form IV, we get:

By displacing the a backward, we get:

Knowing that iw becomes iy in hollow verbs, we get the final from:

Thus, these verbs will always have a middle long I in their middles. The same is true for form X hollow verbs.

The full conjugation:

 

 

 

Extra Note: Modern vs. Classical Arabic

“Classical Arabic” refers to the dialects of Arabic that were spoken from about the 6th to the 9th century. Modern formal or standard Arabic is a modernized form of Arabic that is primarily derived from classical western Arabian Arabic; it began during the Arab renaissance era in the 19th century and was called then اللُّغَةُ الْعَرَبِيَّةُ الْفُصْحَىْ = “the most eloquent Arabic language.”

Classical Arabic is much more diverse and rich in vocabulary than modern Arabic. One example of this appears in verb conjugation.

For the example, the verb:

مَاْتَ

maat(a)

(He) died

Root: M W T م و ت

This is an u verb in Modern Arabic. The imperfective is:

يَمُوْتُ

yamuwt(u)

(He) dies

 

However, in Classical Arabic, this same verb could also be an i or a verb, so it had three variant forms:

 

4) Defective Verbs