Arabic Grammar

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

Today we’re looking at the 8th of the 15 types of nouns in نَصْب, which is اسْمُ لا (the noun that is negated by لا).  There are several scenarios here, so you’ll have to pay attention to this one!

Negation using لا

اعْلَمْ أَنّ “لا” تَنْصِبُ النَّكِراتِ بِغَيْرِ تَنْوِيْنٍ إذا باشَرَتِ النَّكِرَةَ وَلَمْ تَتَكَرَّرْ “لا” نَحْوُ: لا رَجُلَ فِي الدّارِ

Know that لا nasb-izes indefinite nouns without tanwin if it is immediately before the indefinite noun and is not repeated, as in لا رَجُلَ فِي الدّارِ (“there is no man in the house”).

The categorical لا (used for negating the information in the khabar for an entire category) has the same effect as the إنّ family on a sentence (i.e. it nasb-izes a noun and makes it its ism and leaves the khabar in raf’).  It is different from a لا that simply negates the truthfulness of the sentence.  If these four conditions are present, it’s mandatory for this لا to have this effect: [Read more…] about اسْمُ لا (The noun negated by لا)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله,

Today we’re going to do the 7th of the 15 types of nouns in نَصْب, which is الاسْتِثْناء (the exception).

Words used to make exceptions

حُرُوْفُ الاسْتِثْناءِ ثَمانِيَةٌ، وَهِيَ: إِلاّ، وَغَيْرٌ، وَسِوَى، وَسُوَى، وَسَواءٌ، وَخَلا، وَعَدَا، وَحَاشَا

The particles of exception are eight in number, and they are إِلاّ (illaa), غَيْرٌ (ghayr), سِوًى (siwan)، سُوًى (suwan), سَواءٌ (sawaa’un), خَلا (khalaa), عَدَا (‘adaa) and حَاشَا (haashaa)

الاسْتِثْناء (the exception) means إخراج (“to take something out”) and in grammar it mean to take something out (using إلا or another tool) that would otherwise have been part of what’s before the tool.

Note: I’m using the word “tool” here because not all of these eight are actually “particles” (حُرُوْف).  As you’ll see later, some of them are actually nouns, so we can refer to this mixed bag of nouns and particles as أدَوات (instruments/tools).

An example to consider: نَجَحَ التّلامِيْذُ إلاّ عَامِراً (“The students passed except Amir”).  You used إلاّ (“except”) to remove one of the students (Amir), and if you hadn’t made this exception, Amir would have been included in the students who succeeded.

There are a lot of tools used to make exception.  Eight are mentioned in الآجُرُّوْمِيَّة, and they fall into three groups: [Read more…] about الاِسْتِثْناء (The exception)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله,

Today we’re going to do the 6th of the 15 types of nouns in نَصْب, the تَمْيِيْز (distinction):

التَّمْيِيْزُ هُوَ: الاسْمُ، الْمَنْصُوْبُ، المُفَسِّرُ لِما انْبَهَمَ مِنَ الذَّوَاتِ، نَحْوُ قَوْلِكَ: “تَصَبَّبَ زَيْدٌ عَرَقاً” وَ”تَفَقَّأَ بَكْرٌ شَحْماً” وَ”طابَ مُحَمَّدٌ نَفْساً” وَ”اشْتَرَيْتُ عِشْرِيْنَ كِتاباً” وَ”مَلَكْتُ تِسْعِيْنَ نَعْجَةً” و”زَيْدٌ أكْرَمُ مِنْكَ أباً” و”أجْمَلُ مِنْكَ وَجْهاً

The تَمْيِيْز (distinction) is a nasb-ized noun that clarifies what is vague about entities, like (your saying) تَصَبَّبَ زَيْدٌ عَرَقاً (“Zayd poured out sweat”), تَفَقَّأَ بَكْرٌ شَحْماً (“Bakr burst out in fat”), طابَ مُحَمَّدٌ نَفْساً (“Muhammad was content in spirit”),  اشْتَرَيْتُ عِشْرِيْنَ كِتاباً (“I bought 20 books”), مَلَكْتُ تِسْعِيْنَ نَعْجَة (“I owned 90 ewes”), and زَيْدٌ أكْرَمُ مِنْكَ أباً وَأجْمَلُ مِنْكَ وَجْهاً (“Zayd is nobler than you [in regard to his] father and more beautiful than you [in regard to his] face”)

The word تَمْيِيْز (tamyiz) has two meanings in the language: (1) explanation in the general sense and (2) to separate part of something from it.  مَيَّزْتُ القَوْمَ (“I distinguished the people”) would mean that I separated some of them from others.

From this we can understand how in grammar the tamyiz is: [Read more…] about التَمْيِيْز (The distinction)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله,

The 5th of the 15 types of nouns in نَصْب is the حال (condition/situation).

الحالُ هُوَ: الاسْمُ، المَنْصُوْبُ، المُفَسِّرُ لِما انْبَهَمَ مِنَ الهَيْئاتِ، نَحْوُ قَوْلِكَ: “جاءَ زَيْدٌ راكِباً” وَ”رَكِبْتُ الفَرَسَ مُسْرَجاً” وَ”لَقِيْتُ عَبْدَ اللهِ رَاكِباً” وَما أشْبَهَ ذَلِكَ

The حال (condition) is a nasb-ized noun that clarifies what is vague about situations, like your saying: جاءَ زَيْدٌ راكِباً (“Zayd came riding”), رَكِبْتُ الفَرَسَ مُسْرَجًا (“I rode the horse, saddled”), لَقيْتُ عَبْدَ اللهِ راكِبًا (“I met Abdullah riding”) and what resembles that.

The word حال (haal) refers to what kind of state something is in, whether good or bad.  In grammar, it is: [Read more…] about الحَال (The condition)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

The third and fourth of the 15 types of nouns in نَصْب, are the ظَرْفُ الزَّمانِ (frame of time) and ظَرْفُ الْمَكانِ (frame of space).  The word ظَرْف means “container” or “envelope” and in grammar it’s known as the مَفْعُوْل فِيْهِ (when/where an action was done).  There are two kinds of frames, one of time and one of space:

ظَرْفُ الزَّمانِ (The frame of time)

ظَرْفُ الزَّمانِ هُوَ: اسْمُ الزَّمانِ المَنْصُوْبُ بِتَقْدِيْرِ “فِيْ” نَحْوُ الْيَوْمَ، وَالَّليْلَةَ، وَغُدْوَةً، وَبُكْرَةً، وَسَحَراً، وَغَداً، وَعَتَمَةً، وَصَبَاحاً، وَمَسَاءً، وَأبَدًا، وَأَمَداً، وَحِيْناً، وَما أشْبَهَ ذَلِكَ

The frame of time: It is a noun of time that is in nasb with the implied meaning of فِيْ (“in”), like الْيَوْمَ (day), الَّليْلَةَ (tonight/nighttime), غُدْوَةً (early in the morning), بُكْرَةً (early in the day), سَحَراً (late night), غَداً (tomorrow), عَتَمَةً (early night), صَبَاحاً (morning), مَسَاءً (afternoon/evening), أبَدًا (infinite future), أَمَداً (future), حِيْناً (time/anytime) and whatever resembles that.

The “frame of time” is a nasb-ized noun that indicates time using a word that denotes the time period that an event happened in, noting the meaning of فِيْ (“in”) that indicates “in-ness”.

In صُمْتُ يَوْمَ الاثْنَيْنِ (“I fasted Monday”), يَوْمَ الاثْنَيْنِ (“the day of Monday”) is added to note that the action happened on that day or in that time (i.e. your fasting happened on Monday).

On the flip side, if you say يَخافُ الْكَسُوْلُ يَؤمَ الامْتَحانِ (“The lazy one fears the day of examination”), يَومَ الامْتِحانَ (“the day of examination”) is added, to say that the day itself is what is being feared, not when the fear happens.

A time period can be either: [Read more…] about ظَرْفُ الزَّمانِ وَظَرْفُ الْمَكانِ (The frame of time and the frame of space)

السلام عليكم and welcome back!

We’re doing the second of the 15 types of nouns in نَصْب, which is the مَصْدَر (infinitive) when it comes as the مَفْعُوْل مُطْلَق (the absolute object) of a verb.  Read on for more!

The infinitive

المَصْدَرُ هُوَ: الاسْمُ، المَنْصُوْبُ، الّذِيْ يَجِيْءُ ثالِثاً فِيْ تَصْرِيْفِ الْفِعْلِ، نَحْوُ: ضَرَبَ يَضربُ ضَرْباً

The masdar (infinitive) is the noun in nasb that comes third in the conjugation of the verb, like ضَرَبَ (“he hit”), يَضْرِبُ (“he hits”), ضَرْبًا (“hitting”)

What’s meant by the masdar being “third in the conjugation” is that if someone tells you to conjugate the verb ضَرَبَ (“he hit”), you would first give the past tense as ضَرَبَ (“he hit”), followed by the present tense as يَضْرِبُ (“he hits”), then the masdar as ضَرْبًا (“hitting”).  It kind of makes sense to translate the masdar as the “infinitive” because it is a noun and is not tied to a finite period of time (past, present or future) like verbs are.

This conjugation (past/present/infinitive) is something that should be memorized for any new verb you encounter, but I won’t go further into that because that’s a morphology issue and this series is focusing on grammar. [Read more…] about المَصْدَر (The absolute object)