Ultimate Arabic

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته,

The مَفَوْل مِنْ أجْلِهِ (also called مَفْعُوْل لَهُ by grammarians) is the 10th of the 15 types of nouns in نَصْب and tells why an action was done.  We might call it the “object of reason”, for lack of better words.  First, its definition:

وَهُوَ: الاِسْمُ، الْمَنْصُوْبُ، الَّذِيْ يُذْكَرُ بَياناً لِسَبَبِ وُقُوْعِ الفِعْلِ، نَحْوُ قَوْلِكَ: “قامَ زَيْدٌ إجْلالاً لِعَمْرٍو” وَقَصَدْتُكَ ابْتِغاءَ مَعْرُوْفِكَ

It (the reason for the action) is the nasb-ized ism that is mentioned to clarify the cause of the action’s occurrence, like your saying قامَ زَيْدٌ إجْلالاً لِعَمْرٍو (“Zayd stood out of respect for ‘Amr”) and قَصَدْتُكَ ابْتِغاءَ مَعْرُوْفِكَ (“I set out to you desiring your goodness”)

The object of reason must be a noun and it has to meet 5 conditions: [Read more…] about الْمَفْعُوْل مِنْ أجْلِهِ (The cause for the action)

السلام عليكم

The 9th of the 15 types of nouns in نَصْب, is the مُنادى (vocative).  In the language, a مُنادى (munaada) is someone you want to approach you in the general sense.  In grammar, it’s when you want someone to come nearer and you use يا or one of its siblings to call them.  Other members of the يا family are

• the letter أَ in أزَيْدُ أقْبِلْ (“O Zayd, come closer”)
• أَيْ as in أَيْ إبْراهِيْمُ تَفَهَّمْ (“O Ibrahim, try to understand!”)
• أيا as in أيا عَبْدَ اللهِ تَعَالَ (“O Abdallah, come!”)
• هَيا as in هَيا مُحَمَّدُ تَعالَ (“O Muhammad, come!”)
• Sometimes you’ll see يَاأيُّهَا (for a masculine) or يَاأَيَّتُهَا (for feminine) followed by a word that starts with ال, which you’ll see in the Quranic examples

The 5 Kinds of مُنَادى

المُنادى خَمْسَةُ أنْوَاعٍ: المُفْرَدُ العَلَمُ، وَالنَّكِرَةُ الْمَقصُوْدَةُ، وَالنَّكِرَةُ غَيْرُ الْمَقْصُوْدَةِ، وَالْمُضافُ، وَالشَّبِيْهُ بِالْمُضافِ

The vocative is 5 kinds, the مُفْرَدُ عَلَم (single word that is a proper name), the intended indefinite noun, the unintended indefinite noun, the mudhaaf, and الشَبِيْهُ بِالْمُضاف (what resembles a mudhaaf).

So, the vocative can be one of 5 things ( We already talked about what the مُفْرَد and the شَبِيْه بِالْمُضاف are when we did the  noun negated by لا, so they should be familiar): [Read more…] about الْمُنَادَى (The vocative)

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)