Verbal Sentences in Arabic

In the previous lesson you learned about sentences in Arabic. In this lesson we will dwell a little more on verbal sentences in Arabic.

A verbal sentence is one which begins with a verb.

The verb is followed by the subject and object.

If there is no subject mentioned, then the pronoun present in the verb acts as the subject.

Let's discuss this inherent pronoun within a given verb in detail. Recall our sentence from the previous lesson:

قَام زيدٌ

Zaid stood.

In this sentence Zaid is the subject. It is in the Marfoo (nominative) case. However, if we omitted the subject and simply wrote

قَام
He stood

Note that in this case, when a subject is not mentioned, the pronoun "He" becomes the subject. Verbs in Arabic have forms. These forms indicate which pronoun is present in the verb. Let's look at the form for Qaama to give you an idea of this concept of forms.

قَام

Qaama

He stood

قاما

Qaamaa

They (two males) stood

قَامُوا

Qaamoo

They stood

Look a the forms above carefully. The first form, Qaama is used for a singular male in the third person. 

The second form Qaamaa has an added Alif to the Meem and is used for two males in the third person. Arabic has special forms when talking about two people. This is known as the dual form. 

Finally, the third form, Qaamoo is used when referring to more than three males in the third person. Note that in this form the Meem takes a Dammah and has Waw and Alif attached to its end. 


Now lets look at another example. 


The verb 


نَامَ


Naama


This verb means to sleep. The form above is just like that of Qaama. 


You have a constant, namely Meem followed by fatha and Alif just like in Qaama you have Qaaf - a constant - followed by fatha and Alif. 


Then you have another constant Meem which has fatha on it. In Qaama you also have another constant, which is Meem, with fatha on it. 


Thus, Qaama, as you have learned, means He stood. Similarly, Naama means He slept. 


The inherent pronoun in this form is He. 


Now you learned how Qaama when changed to Qaamaa meant They (two males) stood and Qaamoo meant They (more than two males) stood. 


Just like that when Naama is changed to the form Naamaa


نَامَا


They (two men) slept


And when it is changed to Naamoo, which is like Qaamoo:


نَامُوا


They (more than two men) slept

Recall that you learned that Qaama was actually

قَوَمَ

Qawama

But since the Arabs found pronouncing the Waw with a fatha in the middle of the verb difficult, they replaced it with a Alif.

Similarly, Naama, as you have probably already guessed, is in actuality Nawama

نَوَمَ

These verbs which have a substituted Alif as the middle letter are known as hollow verbs.

A hollow verb has Waw, as you have seen in the above examples, or Yaa as the middle radical. But this Waw or Yaa is replaced by a Alif.

Below is an example of a verb which has Yaa as the middle letter

سارَ  

Saara

He travelled

This verb is actually

سَيَر

Sayara

An Alif takes the place of the Yaa because of pronunciation issues as mentioned above.

Complete Sentences in Arabic

A complete sentence in Arabic consists of two words which provide the listener with enough information so that he understand completely what has been said and remain silent.

For example, consider the following

قَامَ زَيْدٌ

Qaama Zaidun

Zaid stood

This is  a verbal sentence in Arabic. It consists of two words - namely Qaama and Zaid(un). Both words give enough information to the listener that he understands what has been said and remains silent. This is opposed to if one simply said:

زَيْدٌ

Zaid

Here the the listener would say upon hearing this 'What about Zaid?" That is because complete information has not been provided about Zaid.

Verbal Sentences in Arabic

Sentences in Arabic are either

• Verbal Sentences 
• Nominal Sentences 

Let's concentrate on Verbal Sentences as the one in the above example.

A verbal sentence begins with a verb. Anytime you see a sentence beginning with a verb, in Arabic, you know it is a verbal sentence.

The verb in our sentence is Qaama

Qaama, as you can see, is composed of three letters which are Qaaf Alif Meem The vowels which make up this word are

• Fatah which is on the Qaaf
• Fatah which is on the Meem

The interesting thing to note is that these are not actually the root words of this verb. The actual root words of this verb are

• Qaaf
• Waw
• Meem

The word is actually

قَوَمَ

Qawama

But since the Arabs found this hard to articulate, the replaced the Waw with a Alif!

The verb literally means "He stood." However, if it has a subject which follows it, the inherit pronoun "he" disappears and the following subject becomes the subject of the verb.

Zaid(un)

This is the second word of this verbal sentence. This word is a proper name of a person. It is a noun.

Note that the last letter of this word has a vowel sign on it which is written twice. The vowel sign is Dammah and it is written twice and pronounced "un." This is known as Tanween.

The last letter could also have kasrah or fatha - the other two vowel signs- written on it as:

• Zaid(in)
• Zaid(an)

This change in the vowel sign on the last letter of a word is what constitutes Arabic grammar. 

The vowels on the other letters of Zaid remain constant as do in every word. It is the vowel on the last letter of the word which changes, and the grammar of the Arabic language depends on these vowels.

• When the last letter of a word has Dammah (single or double) it is said to be Marfoo or in the nominative case
• When the last letter of a word has Fatha (single or double) it is said to be Mansoob' or in the accusative case
• When the last letter of a word has Kasrah (single or double) it is said to be Majroor or in the genitive case

Since Zaid(un) has two Dammah on the last letter it is in the nominative case. It is Marfoo. 

The subject of a verbal sentence is always in the nominative case. It is always Marfoo. It has a single or double dammah on the last letter.

Thus, when you have these rules in mind, you know that Qaama is the verb and its subject (the noun which performed) the action is Zaid. We have the complete sentence

Zaid stood.

Another thing to note is the order of words in Arabic. In English the Subject comes first followed by the Verb.

But in Arabic, the verb comes first followed by the Subject.

Summary of what you learned

In this lesson you have learned

• Arabic consists of two types of sentences: Verbal and Nominal
• A verbal sentence is one which begins with a verb
• The grammar of Arabic depends on the vowel sign on the last letter of a word
• A word can be Marfoo, Mansoob, or Majroor
• A word which has dammah on the last letter is Marfoo
• A word which has fatha on the last letter is Mansoob
• A word which has kasrah on the last letter is Majroor
• Marfoo means nominative case, Mansoob means accusative case, and Majoor means genitive case
• The subject of a verbal sentence is in the nominative case
• In Arabic the word order is Verb, Subject, and if present Object

Do not feel overwhelmed by all of the information you have to digest. In subsequent lessons these rules will be reiterated by means of examples. Unlike print books, which have limited space, online resources such as this one enable the teacher to provide countless examples to help students better understand concepts. 

Types of words in Arabic

Words in Arabic are divided into

• Nouns
• Verbs
• Particles

Nouns

In Arabic a noun is called an 'ism.

A noun is a word which has within itself a complete meaning and does not require any other word to explain what it means.

It does not have any reference to time such as past, present or future.

It refers to a place, thing, person, animal, or abstract idea.

Examples include

رَجُلٌ - rajulun

A man

حَامِدٌ - Haamidun

A proper name of a person

ضَرْبٌ - Darbun

hitting

طَيِّبٌ - Tayyibun

pure


Note that if a word expresses an action, like the word "hitting", but does not give any indication of when this action took place, i.e. in the past, present, or future, then the word is considered to be a noun.


Verb

A word which indicates an action and the time when the action took place.

A verb is called a fa'l in Arabic.

ضَرَبَ

Daraba

He hit

Here the action is that of hitting and the time is that in the past.

ذَهَبَ

Dhahaba

He left

Here the action is of leaving and the time is that in the past. 

يَذْهَبُ

Yadhhabu

He goes or will go

Here the action is of going and the time is that of the present or future.


Particle

A particle is any word, the meaning of which cannot be understood unless it is attached to a noun or verb.


مِنْ

min

from

اِلى

'ilaa

towards, to

عَلى

'alaa

on, on top of

فِى

fi

in, inside