Standing tall with نصب, Part 4: ي

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله,

Welcome to the fourth installment of our series on the indicators of when a word is in نَصب (nasb).  We’ve covered فتحة (fathah), the letter ا, and كسرة (kasrah) already.  Now we’re going to look at when ي will be used to show nasb.

When ي substitutes for فتحة  as the sign of نصب

ِوَأمّا الياءُ فَتَكُوْنُ عَلامَةً لِلنَصْبِ فِي التَثْنِيَةِ وَالجَمْع

As for the ي, it is a sign of nasb in the dual and the masculine plural

We already know what dual nouns (from Going high with رفع, Part 3: ا ) and the masculine plural (from Going high with رفع, Part 2: و) are, so there’s no need to go into that again.

To recap: in the status of raf’, the dual will use ا (so that you’d see it ending with انِ) and the masculine plural will use و (so that you’d see وْنَ at the end).

In the status of nasb however, the dual and the masculine will both use ي.  When we go over how ي can be an indicator of جرّ/خفض, we will see that this is also true when they are in that state as well.

• The dual would switch from ا to ي and end with يْنِ (with a fathah on the letter before the ي and a kasrah on the ن).  You’d be going from an “aani” sound at the end to “ayni”.
• The plural would switch from a و to ي and end with يْنَ (with a kasrah on the letter before the ي and a fathah on the ن).  Here you’d be going from an “oona” sound at the end to “eena”.

The dual noun

Some examples:

• نَطَرْتُ عُصْْفُوْرَينِ فَوْقَ الشَجَرَةِ (“I saw two sparrows over the tree”) – the word was originally عُصْفُرانِ
• اشتَرى أبِيْ كِتابَينِ أحَدُهما لي وَالآخَرُ لِأخِيْ (“My father bought two books, one of them for me and the other for my brother”) – the word was originally كِتابانِ

Each of the words ِعُصْفُوْرَيْن and ِكِتابَيْن is in nasb because it’s the object of an action, and the sign is the ي that has a fathah before it and a kasrah after it. The ن in these dual nouns substitutes for the tanwin that we normally see at the end of a singular noun.

The sound masculine plural

Some examples:

• إنَّ المُتَّقِينَ لَيَكْسِبُونَ رِضا ربِّهِمْ (“Indeed the God-conscious will earn the pleasure of their Lord”) – the word was originally المُتَّقُونَ
• نَصَحْتُ المُجْتَهِدينَ بالانْكِبابِ عَلى المُذاكَرةِ (“I advised the ones who strive to apply themselves to memorization”) – the word was originally المُجْتَهِدُوْنَ

Each of the words َالمُتَّقِيْن and َالمُجْتَهِدِيْن is in nasb because it is the object of an action (first example) or influence by إنَّ (second example). The sign of nasb is the ي that has a kasrah before and a fathah after, as it is a sound masculine plural.  Just like with the dual nouns, the ن is a substitute for the tanwin that we would normally see in the singular noun.

From the Quran

Below is Surah 33:35.  It looks familiar because we also looked at it for feminine plurals.  This time, I’ve highlighted the masculine plurals that are showing their nasb using ي.  They are all in nasb because each one of them is connected by وَ (“and”) to a word that is already in nasb.  The very first word in the chain is المُسلِمِينَ, and it is in nasb because of our old friend إنَ which nasb-izes nouns.  All the other words follow it using وَ.  Originally, all these words ended in َون (e.g. المُسلِمُونَ), but the و became a ي when their status changed.

Below are some duals showing their nasb using ي from 2:282:

• شَهِيدَينِ (“two witnesses) is in nasb because it’s the object of the command اسْتَشْهِدُوا (“seek testimony”)
• رَجُلَيْنِ (“two men”) is in nasb because it is affected by كان (“to be”).  Later on we’ll see more on how the كان family affects words إن شاء الله
• These word originally ended in انِ (i.e. سَهِيدانِ and رَجُلانِ), but the ا became a ي when they switched status

Next up: The fifth and last indicator of nasb, dropping of the final ن.

Exercise

The following words are singular nouns.  Make duals (using ان) out of them, and for the ones that make sense to, make masculine plurals (using وْنَ) out of them

1. مُحَمَّدٌ (Muhammad)
2. فاطِمَةُ (Fatimah)
3. بَكْرَ (Bakr)
4. السَبْعُ (“the seven”)
5. الكاتِبُ (“the writer”)
6. الْنَمِرُ (“the tiger”)
7. القَاضِيْ (“the judge”)
8. المُصْطَفَى (“the chosen one”)

Until next time, السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

 

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