السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

When we talked about نَعْت (description) in النَّعْت (The adjective), we mentioned definite and indefinite nouns a lot because we were trying to show how the نَعْت (description) and the مَنْعُوْت (what you are describing) have to match in being definite or indefinite.

To keep it straight, all nouns are either definite or indefinite.  First the definite nouns:

The kinds of definite nouns

وَالْمَعْرِفَةُ خَمْسَةُ أشْياء: الِاسْمُ المُضْمَرُ نَحْوُ أَنَا وَأَنْتَ وَالاِسْمُ العَلَمُ نَحْوُ زَيْدٌ وَمَكَّةُ, وَالاسْمُ المُبْهَمُ نَحْوُ هّذا وَهَذِهِ وَهَؤُلاءِ وَالاِسْمُ الَّذِيْ فِيْهِ الأَلِفُ وَاللامُ نَحْوُ: الرَّجُلُ وَالْغُلامُ, وَما أُضِيْفَ إلى وَاحِدٍ مِنْ هَذِهِ الأرْبَعَةِ

… and the definite noun is [one of] five things: The pronoun, like أنا (“I”) and أنْتَ (“you”), the proper noun, like زَيْدٌ (Zayd) and مَكَّةُ (Makkah), the vague pronoun, like هَذا (“this”), هَذِهِ (“this [f.]”) and هَؤُلاءِ (“these”), the noun that has ال in it, like الرَجُلُ (“the man”) and الْغُلامُ (“the boy”), and whatever is mudhaaf to one of these four.

The definite noun is a word that is used for a specific entity or entities, and there are five kinds of definite nouns (with the explanation to follow):

1. The pronoun
2. The proper name
3. The demonstrative pronoun
4. A noun that has ال added to the beginning of it
5. Whatever has been added to one of these to make an Idhafah (the possessive phrase)

[Read more…] about Definite and Indefinite Nouns

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

Today we’re going to start looking at التَابِعُ لِلْمَرْفُوْعِ (the grammatical follower of a word that’s in raf’).

There are four kinds of grammatical followers  (i.e. they come after a word and follow it in status).

This post is going to cover the نَعْت, and the rest will come in later sections إنْ شاء الله

 

باب النَعْتِ (The chapter on the adjective)

النَعْتُ: تَابِعٌ لِلْمَنْعُوْتِ فِيْ رَفْعِهِ وَنَصْبِهِ وَخَفْضِهِ, وَتَعْرَيْفِهِ وَتَنْكِيْرِهِ, قَامَ زَيْدٌ الْعَاقِلُ, وَرَأَيْتُ زَيْدًا الْعَاقِلَ وَمَرَرْتُ بِزَيْدٍ الْعاقِلِ

The adjective is a follower of the described word in its raf’, nasb and khafdh (jarr) and in its being a definite and indefinite noun. [You would say]:  قَامَ زَيْدٌ الْعَاقِلُ (“Zayd, the intelligent, stood”), رَأَيْتُ زَيْدًا الْعَاقِلَ (“I saw Zayd, the intelligent”), and مَرَرْتُ بِزَيْدٍ الْعاقِلِ (“I passed by Zayd, the intelligent”).

The word نَعْتُ (na’t) means “a description”, and the word it’s describing is called the مَنْعُوْت (the “described word”).  We can say it’s like an adjective in English except that in Arabic, it will come after the word it’s describing, and not necessarily right after it.  “A big house” would be “بَيْتٌ كَبِيْرٌ” (Which is بَيْتٌ – “house”, followed by كَبَيْرٌ – “big”).

Now, there are two kinds of na’t:

1. نَعْت حَقِيْقِيّ (“true description”) – Used for an attribute in the described entity
   • جاءَ مُحَمَّدٌ الْعاقِلُ (“Muhammad, the intelligent, came”) – العاقِلُ describes مُحَمَّدٌ
2. نَعْت سَبَبِيّ (“causal description”) – The attribute isn’t actually in who/what we’re describing, but is in something else related to it.  This “something else” is the real reason why we’re mentioning the trait (intelligence, beauty, size, etc.) and is called the sabab (cause).  This sabab will have a pronoun going back to the مَنْعُوْت
   • جَاءَ مُحَمَّدٌ الْفاضِلُ أبُوْهُ (“Muhammad, whose father is honorable, came”) – We are describing Muhammad, but his father (أبُوْهُ)  is the sabab for why we’re saying الْفَاضِلُ (“the honorable”).   The pronoun هُ (“his”) in أبُوْهُ refers back to مُحَمَّدٌ

[Read more…] about النَّعْت (The adjective)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

We’ve seen how a جُمْلُة اسْمِيَّة (nominal sentence) will have a subject called the مُبْتَدَأ (mubtada’) and some information about that subject called the خَبَر (khabar), along with the fact that they are both going to be in the state of رَفْع (raf’).  These are the third and fourth of the 7 types of nouns in رَفع.

We’ll look at the the fifth and sixth of these seven together, because they both come under the heading of “cancellers of the mubtada’ and khabar” (which we’ll get to in just a moment):

• “the ism of كانَ” and its siblings
• “the khabar of إِنَّ” and its siblings

كانَ and إنَّ are two of the influences that can come and cancel the original rule of a nominal sentence (that the mubtada’ and khabar are both in raf’) and replace it with something else, and that’s what we’re going to look at more closely now: [Read more…] about نَوَاسِخُ الْمُبْتَدَأِ وَالْخَبَرِ (Influences that cancel the mubtada’ and khabar)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله,

We’ve talked about the two of the seven reasons why a noun will be in رفع (raf’).  Today we’re going to talk about two more at the same time, because they come together.  They are called the مُبْتَدَأ (mubtada’) and the خَبَر (khabar).

When you have a جُمْلة فِعْلِية (a verbal sentence), the sentence will start with a fi’l (verb) and will have a doer (or its substitute) after the verb or inside it.  In other words:

Verb (فِعْل) + Doer (فاعِل) + Object (مَفُعُوْل) = Verbal sentence (جُمْلَة فعْلِيَّة) 

Now, instead of starting with a verb, if you start with a noun, it’s not a verbal sentence anymore.  It’s called a nominal sentence (جُمْلَة اسْمِيَّة) because it starts with a noun.  The structure would be:

Beginning (مُبْتَدَأ) + Information (خَبَر) = Nominal sentence (جُمْلَة اسْمِيَّة)

To illustrate further, I’ll give you two sentences with the same information that are built completely differently from each other, both telling us that “Muhammad rejoiced”.  One starts with a verb, and the other starts with a noun.

• فَرِحَ مُحَمَّدٌ – Verb followed by its doer.  This is the normal way to express it.
• مُحَمَّدٌ فَرِحَ – It gives us the same information, but stresses that it’s Muhammad who rejoiced.  We cannot say that ٌمُحَمّد is the doer of فَرِحَ because we have learned that the doer always comes after the verb.  Instead we say that مُحَمَّدٌ is the mubtada’ (subject/topic of the sentence), and that فَرِحَ (“he rejoiced”) is the khabar (the information or news about that subject).

Having said that, the definition of the mubtada’ and khabar:

المُبْتَدَأُ: هُوَ الاِسْمُ المَرْفُوْعُ العَارِيْ عَنِ الْعَوَامِلِ اللَفْظِيَّةِ, وَالْخَبَرُ هُوَ الاِسْمُ الْمَرْفُوْعُ الْمُسْنَدُ إِلَيْهِ, نَحْوُ قَوْلِكَ “زَيْدٌ قائِمٌ وَ”الْزَيْدَانِ قَائِمَانِ” وَالزَيْدُوْنَ قَائِمُوْنَ

The mubtada’ is the raf’-ized noun that is bare of any utterable influences, and the khabar is the raf’-ized noun that refers back to it, like your saying زَيْدٌ قائِمٌ (“Zayd is standing”),  الْزَيْدَانِ قَائِمَانِ (“The 2 Zayds are both standing”), and الزَيْدُوْنَ قَائِمُوْنَ (“The Zayds are all standing”).

So, three things to remember for a mubtada’:

1. It’s a noun (so it can’t be a verb or particle)
2. It’s in raf’ (so it can’t be in nasb or jarr)
3. Nothing is affecting it, such as:
   • a verb before it that would make it the doer, or
   • some special verb from the كانَ family before it .  In that case, it wouldn’t be a mubtada’ anymore.  It would be called the ism of كان instead (there is a whole section on that later)

As for the khabar:

1. It’s also a noun,
2. also in raf’,
3. that refers back to the mubtada’ and is carried by it, so that the sentence is complete

Let’s look a very basic nominal sentence:

مُحَمَّدٌ حاضِرٌ (“Muhammad is present”)
حاضِرٌ Khabar (“present”)	مُحَمّدٌ Mubtada’ (“Muhammad”)

[Read more…] about The مُبْتَدَأ and the خَبَر

السلام عليكم ورَحمة الله وبركاته,

We’re looking at the seven situations when a noun will be in the state of رَفْع (raf’), and this is the second one: the نائب الفاعِلِ (substitute for the doer).  You’ll know what that means after we explain it…

بابُ المَفْعُوْلِ الَّذِيْ لَمْ يُسَمَّ فاعِلُهُ: وَهُوَ الاسْمُ الْمَرْفُوْعُ الَّذِيْ لَمْ يُذْكَرْ مَعَهُ فاعِلُهُ

The section on the “object whose doer is not named”, and it is the noun in raf’ whose doer is not mentioned with it.

Sometimes a sentence will have a verb, a doer and an object.  In the examples below, you have a verb, followed by a doer in رَفْع (raf’), followed by an object in نَصْب (nasb).  This is the normal way to have a verb in a sentence, and it’s called مَعْرُوْف (active), because the doer is mentioned.

• قَطَعَ مَحْمُوْدٌ الغُصْنَ (“Mahmood cut the branch”)
• حَفِظَ خَلِيْلٌ الدَرْسَ (“Khaleel memorized the lesson”)
• يَقْطَعُ إبراهِيْمُ الغُصْنَ (“Ibrahim is cutting the branch”)
• يَحْفَظُ عَلِيٌّ الدَرْسَ (“Ibrahim is memorizing the lesson”)

Other times, someone will leave out the doer, and he’ll just mention the verb and the object.  When you leave out the doer this is called مَجُهُوْل (passive), and the verb and the object will have to change form.  We’ll talk about how the verb will change in a little bit, but first let’s see how the object will change.

The object, which should normally be in nasb, will have to be put in raf’ and follow the same rules that the doer would follow.  It’s going to step up and fulfill the rules that the doer was going to meet.  We covered these rules in The فاعل (Doer), but I’ll repeat them here:

1. It has to be a noun
2. In the state of raf’
3. Comes after the verb (doesn’t necessarily have to be immediately after)

That’s why “the object whose doer is not named” is also called “the substitute for the doer”, because if the doer isn’t there, something has to step up and assume its place.  Now let’s see how the verb will change …

[Read more…] about The نائب الفاعِلِ (substitute for the doer)

 

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله

In 7 types of nouns in رفع, we learned that they are 7 situations when an Arabic noun will be in raf’.  Today we’re going to look at the first one: the فاعل (or doer) of a sentence

The فاعل (doer)

الفاعِلُ هُوَ: الاسْمُ المَرْفْوْعُ المَذْكُوْرُ قَبْلَهُ فِعْلُهُ

The فاعِل (doer) is: The raf’-ized noun whose verb is mentioned before it.

The word فاعِل has two meanings, one that goes back to the normal meaning in the language and one that is specifically when we’re talking about grammar.  In the language, it just means “whoever made the فِعْل (action) happen”.  When we’re talking about grammar, the meaning is exactly what’s above: “The raf’-ized noun whose verb is mentioned before it”.

That means three things when we’re looking for what could be the doer in a sentence:

1. It has to be a noun (so it can’t be a verb or a particle).  It can be:
   • an outright noun, as in قالَ نُوْحٌ (“Noah said”) and وَإذْ يَرْفَعُ إبراهِيمُ (“And when Abraham raised”)
   • something that’s not a noun, but can be interpreted as one.  Three quick examples:
     • أوَلَمْ يَكْفِهِمْ أنَّا أنْزَلْنا (“Hasn’t it sufficed them that we sent down…?”  – The word أنَّا (“that we”) together along with the verb أنْزَلْنا (“We sent down”) could be understood as the verbal noun إنْزالُنا (“our sending down of …”).  If we set that as the doer, then the we can understand it to mean “Hasn’t our sending down sufficed them?”  If you don’t understand this one fully, just move on because we’ll be talking more about the إنََ family more when we talk about the situations when a noun will be nasb-ized.
     • يَسُرُّنِيْ أنْ تَتَمَسَّكَ بِالْفَضائِلِ (“It makes me happy that you adhere to virtues”) – We see the nasb-izer أنْ along with the verb تَتَمَسَّكَ (“you adhere”).  Together they are understood as the noun تَمَسُّكُكَ (“your adherence”), and that will be the doer.  The meaning can be “Your adherence to virtues makes me happy”.
     • أعْجَبَنِيْ ما صَنَعْتَ (“What you manufactured amazed me”) – We can take ما (“what”) and صَنَعْتَ (“you manufactured”) together to mean صُنْعُكَ (“your manufacturing”) and set that as the doer.  The meaning can be “Your manufacturing amazed me”.
2. It has to be in raf’ (i.e. it can’t be in nasb or jarr)
3. Its verb has to be before it (i.e. the doer has to come after the verb) – If you find a raf’-ized noun before the verb, then you’re not looking at a verbal sentence.  It’s a nominal sentence, which has a mubtada` (or whatever modifies it) and a khabar.

The intent of “verb” here also includes whatever resembles a verb such as the:

• اسم الفعل (noun that acts like a verb), like هَيهاتَ العَقِيق (“how far off is the canyon!”) and شتّانَ زَيدٌ وَعَمْروٌ (“How different are Zayd and `Amr!”) – The words العقيق and زيد (along with عمرو who’s connected to زَيد) to it are all doers.
• اسم الفاعل (noun with the meaning of the doer of an action), like أقادِمٌ أبُوكَ (“Is your father standing?”) – The word أبوك is the doer of قادِمٌ (“one who stands”)

[Read more…] about The فاعل (Doer)