Brief
Grammar Summary (2)
The
Present Tense
We
continue with a brief summary of grammar terms and explanations. The
first lesson is now located in the archived tidbit lessons.
Present
tense verbs are not “built”
; instead they are
conjugated. It is to be noted
that there is no separate future tense, instead the future is formed by adding
a letter
on the
beginning of a present tense verb, or by inserting the word
before
a present tense verb. The endings
of the present tense verbs can be affected by certain letters before the verb. For example:
or
(called
letters) cause the present
tense verb to have a fat-h on the last letter, or if it is a form of verb that
has an extra
added on the end of
the verb, the extra
on
the end is dropped. Other letters
such as
or
, (called
letters)
cause the last letter on the verb to have sukoon, or if it is a form of the
verb that takes an extra noon, the extra
on
the end of the verb is dropped, or if is a verb with a
،
or
, as part of the
essential make up of the verb, the alif, wow, or ya’ would be dropped (for
example:
changes
to
and
becomes
. The following is
the different present tense forms of the root
.
The
Command Tense
The
command tense is always “built” or
.
It is built on the changes the present tense “jazm” (
)form takes. This is either
a sukoon on the last letter, a dropping of the extra noon that some verb forms
have, or the dropping of the
,
,
if
they are part of the essential make up of the verb.
The
lesson of
will explain
that in Arabic, a word must start with a vowel.
If a sukoon is present as the first letter, then
enters the
beginning of the verb so that if a reader wants to begin with that word,
he/she will begin with a hamzah with the appropriate accompanying vowel.
This will be explained in the next chapter, but the idea is introduced
here, so there will be an understanding of the chart of the command form of
the verb. The following explains
the forms the root
takes
in the command form.
Essential
make up of verbs
1.
Three letter essential make up
These are verbs that have just three letters in the third person singular past
tense form, as in
.
2.
Four letter essential make up
These are verbs that have four letters in the third person singular past tense
form, as in
. Do not forget that the shaddah equals two letters, so the
in
the word
counts
twice.
3.
Five letter essential make up
Verbs in this category have five essential letters in the third person
singular past tense form, as in
.
4.
Six letter essential make up
Verbs in this category have six essential letters in the third person singular
past tense form, as in
.
We
will continue, insha' Allah, next lesson with nouns.
