Learn Arabic in Hundred Step- Arabic Grammar
83. The Nominalizer إنَّ& her Sisters (لعلَّ ، أنَّ ، کأنَّ ، لکنَّ ، لأنَّ ) change the subject nominative case marker to the accusative but they leave the predicate in its nominative case. By the way, أنَّ / إنَّare called “Nominalizers” because they introduce nominal sentences.
إنَّ الأکلَ لذيذ ٌ.
In fact, the food is delicious.
قالتْاُختي أنَّ الأکلَ لذيذ ٌ.
My sister said that the food was delicious.
لکنَّ الأکلَ لذيذ ٌ.
… but the food was delicious.
إنَّ is only used in the initial position of a sentence, and following any form of قالَ. Anywhere else you have to use أنَّ. Its meaning, therefore, changes from “indeed/in fact” to “that”. Remember that all these particles should be followed by nouns or attached pronoun suffixes. Also notice that إنَّand her sisters should be followed by the subject or its corresponding attached pronoun.
84. Adjectives. We learned earlier that adjectives in Arabic are usually placed after the noun they modify, and therefore, they agree in terms of number, gender, definiteness/indefiniteness, and case with that noun. The comparative and superlative degrees of the adjectives are formulated following the pattern [Af’alu] ( أفعَلُ ). They should be treated as Diptotes (no Nunation & accusative marker for genitive case).
Therefore, قَريبٌ——–> أقربُ
and جَميلٌ ——–> أجملُ
a. With comparative adjectives, you need to use the preposition (مِنْ) to compare the two nouns, as in:
My house is smaller than hers. بَيتي أصغرُ مِنْ بَيتِها
b. In superlative, the most common method is to place the adjective before the noun, as in:
بَيتي أصغرُ بُيتٍ في القريةِ.
My house is the smallest (house) in the village
Please remember that the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are gender blind. Therefore, أصغرُcan be used for feminine and masculine nouns as well.
85. کانَ& her Sisters (Revisited). We said earlier that کانَ& her Sisters are used with equational sentences. However, they can tolerate the use of verbs after them. That verb has to be in the present indicative form, as in:
کانـَتْ تـَعملُ في مَکتـَبـِها.
She was working in her office.
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If the subject is expressed, it should be placed between کانَ& her sisters and the verb.
کانـَتِ الأستاذةُ تـَعملُ في مَکتـَبـِها.
The professor was working in her office.
An exception to this rule is when you want to topicalize the subject, and that simply means that you want to emphasize it.
الأستاذة ُ کانـَتْ تـَعملُ في مَکتـَبـِها.
86. Phony/Fake Idaafa. You might have noticed that the noun which follows the adjective that is in the superlative form structure is in the genitive case.
بَيتي أصغرُ بَيتٍ في القريَةِ.
The reason is that this combination creates the Syntactical Environment for Idaafa. Because the components of this structure are not limited to the usual nouns (the first term is in fact an adjective) Arab Grammarians tend to call this Phony/Fake Idaafa.
87. If the Perfect Particle قدis used with a verb in the past tense, then both are translated as a Present Perfect (has/have + Participle).
She has worked in this factory. قد عَمِلتْ في هذا المَصنع ِ.
When this particle is used with کانَand a verb, then the whole phrase is translated as a Past Perfect (had+participle).
کانَ صديقي قد زارَني قـَبلَ سَنـَةٍ.
My friend had visited me a year ago.
88. The Verbal Noun المَصدَر is a noun that is derived from a verb. Therefore, it acts like a noun, as in the following examples:
a. a subject العَمَلُ في هذهِ الشرکةِ صَعبٌ.
b. an object اُحِبُّ القراءَةَ.
c. a first term of Idaafa بِناءُ المَدارس ِ شيءٌ جَيِّدٌ.
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d. a second term of Idaafe کِتابُ القراءَةِ جَديدٌ.
e. a predicate هوايَتي هي الطـَّبخُ.
A verbal noun derived from a transitive verb does sometimes act like that verb and would take an object.
أعجَبَني تـَدريسُ الأستاذِ العربيَّة َ.
Arabic Forms Of Verbal Nouns
89. Forms of Verbal Nouns. Action/activity is expressed by verbs and verbal nouns. Like other languages, the verbal nouns in Arabic indicate that action/activity, and behave like regular nouns. The
following chart shows the various ways of derivation according to the forms:
Verb Form Verbal Noun Verb Example Verbal Noun Example
I. فـَعَلَ unpredictable any verb unpredictable
II. فـَعَّلَ تـَدريسٌ دَرَّسَ تـَفعيلٌ
III. مُشاهَدَة ٌ شاهَدَ مُفاعَلـَة ٌ فاعَلَ
IV. إعجابٌ أعجَبَ إفعالٌ أفعَلَ
Vتـَحَدُّثٌ تـَحَدَّثَ تـَفـَعُلٌ تـَفـَعَّلَ .
VI. تـَراسُلٌ تـَراسَلَ تـَفاعُلٌ تـَفاعَلَ
VII. إنصِرافٌ إنصَرَفَ إنفِعالٌ إنفـَعَلَ
VIII. إستِلامٌ إستـَلـَمَ إفتِعالٌ إفتـَعَلَ
IX. إحمِرارٌ إحمَرَّ إفعِلالٌ إفعَلَّ
X. إستـِخدامٌ إستـَخدَمَ إستِفعالٌ إستـَفعَلَ
90. The Dropping of the Shadda of إنَّand her sisters لکنَّ ، کأنَّ ، أنَّ. Arab grammarians call this تـَخفيفُ النون. It was mentioned earlier that these particles change the subject’s vowel marker from nominative to accusative case. When the Shadda is eliminated, the subject maintains its nominative case marker (a). Furthermore, these particles will tolerate the use of verbs (b) after them.
سَمِعتُ أنَّ الأستاذة َ قادِمَة ٌ.
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(a) سَمِعتُ أنْالأستاذة ُ قادِمَة ٌ.
I heard that the professor (f) is coming.
سافـَرَتْ جارتي إلی بغدادَ لکنَّ زَوجَها سافـَرَ إلی القاهِرَةِ.
(b) سافـَرَتْ جارتي إلی بغدادَ لکنْ سافـَرَ زَوجُها إلی القاهِرَةِ.
My neighbor travelled to Baghdad, but her husband travelled to Cairo.