VERBS
What is a verb?
A verb is an action word in relation to time that is past, present and future.
So in simple words a verb is a word that shows us an action and the time this action was performed.
According to tenses, verbs can be divided into:
PAST TENSE VERBS ( الْأَفْعَالُ الْمَاضِي ) – here the action has been completed, therefore it is past tense.
PRESENT TENSE VERBS ( الْأَفْعَالُ الْمُضَارِعُ ) – which is also called IMPERFECT TENSE because the action is incomplete, i.e. it is being done in the present or will be done in the future.
Right now, we will not deal with the PRESENT TENSE VERBS, we will do it later on, but rather we will learn today about the PAST TENSE VERBS in sha’a Allah.
PAST TENSE VERBS ( الْأَفْعَالُ الْمَاضِي )
In the Arabic Language, verbs are mostly trilateral ( three-lettered), which means that the root consists of 3 letters, and in rare cases some verbs consist of 4 letters.
In the Arabic language there are 10 main patterns of the verb ( how the verb looks like ) and every form of the verb carries a meaning. We are going to focus now on the first form of the verbs which consist of 3 letters as their base/ root.
The tri- literal verbs are of 2 kinds:
a. CONSONANT/ SOUND VERBS الْأَفْعَالُ الصَّحِيحَةُ – which are based on 3 sound consonants ( and this is what we will be learning about today in sha’a Allah )
b. WEAK VERBS الْأَفْعَالُ الْمُعْتَلَّةُ – These verbs are called weak verbs and may have 1 or more of the vowels و ا ي in their trilateral formation.
These vowels ا و ي are called HUROOFU- L- ‘Illah حُرُوفُ الْعِلَّةِ , where الْعِلَّةُ in a literal sense means ‘the disease’, which means that there is something different in the way we deal with them in relation to verbs.
Examples PICTURE 1
CONSONANT/ SOUND VERBS الْأَفْعَالُ الصَّحِيحَةُ
The basic, or root, of a verb consists of 3 letters in most cases and is based on the verb fa’ala فَعَلَ ( root ف ع ل ) , giving the meaning ‘he did’. So we have 3 radicals:
first radical is ف
second radical is ع
third radical is ل
NOTE: The reason why the above mentioned verbs are translated as ‘ he did’, ‘he promised’, ‘he went’ etc. is because THE ROOT VERB IS ALWAYS MASCULINE-THIRD PERSON-SINGULAR.
Some other examples are:
ضَرَبَ he hit
فَتَحَ he opened
نَصَرَ he aided ( helped )
The i’raab الاِعْرَابُ , i.e. َ ِ ُ , of the letters ف and ل is not variable ( does not change in past active verbs ) in root, but the i’raab of the ع is variable, i.e. it can carry a fathah َ , a kasrah ِ or a dammah.See examples on PICTURE 2.
How do we know who is the doer of the action?
We know that wherever is an action then there is also a doer of that certain action. In the Arabic language, related to the Past Tense Verb, the doer of the action, with exception to the 3rd person masculine, is recognized by certain suffixes which are added to the verb.
In every verb, there is a corresponding noun hidden in the word. Therefore, we do not need to use explicit pronouns to specify the doer.
PICTURE 3 shows the conjugation of the verbs.
The ‘taa’ in fa’alaT, third person singular feminine is not a pronoun, but rather it is called ‘taau-t-taaneethi’ تَاءُ التَّانِيثِ ( taa of feminine ). The alif in third person masculine plural- فَعَلُوا – is called ‘alifu-l- wiqaayah’ أَلِفُ الْوِقَايَةِ ( alif of protection ). It protects the و from being mistaken for the conjunction وَ ( and ). It is written but not pronounced.
These suffixes go for all 3 forms of the first group of verbs, so all you need to do is to pay attention on the last letter of the root of the verb.
Let’s look at some examples from the Qur’an for the conjugation:
أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصْحَابِ الْفِيلِ
Have you not considered, [O Muhammad], how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant? ( 105: 1 )
وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ اسْجُدُوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ أَبَىٰ وَاسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ
And [mention] when We said to the angels, “Prostrate before Adam”; so they prostrated, except for Iblees. He refused and was arrogant and became of the disbelievers. ( 2: 34 )
Sometimes in 2nd person masculine plural و is added for the flow of pronunciation. It does not imply any meaning to the word, i.e.:
وَلَقَدْ جِئْتُمُونَا فُرَادَىٰ كَمَا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَتَرَكْتُم مَّا خَوَّلْنَاكُمْ وَرَاءَ ظُهُورِكُمْ
[It will be said to them], “And you have certainly come to Us alone as We created you the first time, and you have left whatever We bestowed upon you behind you. ( 6: 94 )
If the 3rd person masculine plural فَعَلُوا comes with an attached pronoun ( which we will learn in sha’a Allah ), then the alif after the و will be dropped, i.e.:
كَانُوا لَا يَتَنَاهَوْنَ عَن مُّنكَرٍ فَعَلُوهُ
They used not to prevent one another from wrongdoing that they did. ( 5: 79 )
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