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.