ALI139 – Arabic Grammar I

1. ALI139 – Arabic Grammar I Week 7

2. Outline • The Verbal Sentence (الفِعْلِيّةالجُمْلَة)

3. The Verbal Sentence(الفِعْلِيّةالجُمْلَة) • الفِعْلِيّةالجُمْلَة is a sentence that begins with a verb. You have learnt that a nominal sentence (الإسميّةالجُمْلَة) begins with a noun or pronoun and is made up of a subject (المبتدأ) and a predicate (الخبر). A verbal sentence is made up of a subject (الفاعِل) and an object (المَفعُول). • Sometimes the subject of a verb is contained in the verb itself and sometimes it is expressed as a noun following the verb. Look at the following examples:

4. The Verbal Sentence (الفِعْلِيّةالجُمْلَة) • Examples: نيويوركمدينةفيأسكن التليفزيونيُشاهدلا كبيرمكتبفيفاطمةوالديعمل لغاتثلاثوالدتهاتتكلّم • All the above are verbal sentences. But in the first two, the subject is contained in the verb itself. In the last two, the subject is also expressed outside the verb as a noun.

5. الفِعْلِيّةالجُمْلَةSubject-Verb Agreement • In aالفِعْلِيّةالجُمْلَة, if the subject is expressed outside the verb, then the verb is never conjugated into plural. It is always in singular, though it continues to be conjugated as masculine/feminine and 1st/2nd/3rd person. For example: المدرسةفيالطلابدخل or المدرسةفيابراهيمورشيدوسميريدخل • Note the verbs are singular though they refer to plural noun(s). المدرسةفيدخلوا or المدرسةفييدخلون • Note that now the verbs are conjugated into plural (as normal) because the subject is contained in the verb and not expressed separately.

6. الفِعْلِيّةالجُمْلَةConverting Sentences from Nominal to Verbal and vice versa • Most sentences can be expressed as eitherالفِعْلِيّةالجُمْلَة or الإسميّةالجُمْلَة. The difference is in the word order but it does not affect the meaning. Nominal sentences are more common when there is more than one topic in a sentence. Verbal sentences are more common in a narration of events. • When a verbal sentence does not have an explicit subject (noun) mentioned and the subject is contained in the verb, you can make it into a nominal sentence by adding a pronoun at the start. And if the subject is mentioned outside the verb, you simply move the subject before the verb, and it becomes a nominal sentence. E.g. أصدقائهمإلىرسائليكتبون→أصدقائهمإلىرسائليكتبونهم أصدقائهاإلىرسائلأختيتكتب→أصدقائهاإلىرسائلتكتبأختي • And you do the opposite to change a nominal sentence to a verbal sentence i.e. delete the pronoun or move the verb before the subject. E.g. لغاتثلاثيتكلّمهو→لغاتثلاثيتكلّم البنايةهٰذهفييسكنزينبوالد→البنايةهٰذهفيزينبوالديسكن

7. Qur’anic Language Made Easy Hafiza Iffath Hasan Review of Lesson 2.11 (p. 147) The Verbal Sentence الفِعْلِيّةالجُمْلَة