The command, and seven common verbs

You have met the past form of a verb and its present form. This lesson teaches the third: the command, the form that tells someone to do something. With it come seven common verbs.

The new words

Two of them, dhakara and aṭāʿa, carry the religion in the Qur’ān's use of them: the course gives no meaning of its own for either, and you read them in the verses, with the edition's meaning beside them.

The command

The command is made from the present form. Take away the letter in front that says who acts, and drop its last vowel. Where what is left would begin with two consonants, an alif is put in front. The corpus marks it as imperative.

Qul, "say!", is the command of qāla, from lesson 6. The present is yaqūlu; without its ya- and its last vowel it is qūl, and the long vowel is then made short: qul.

A command to a woman

The command also changes for who is told. Said to a woman, it ends in ī, which the corpus divides off as the pronoun "you", feminine.

Fa-dkhulī is fa, "so", then udkhul, the command of dakhala, "enter", then ī, "you" said to a woman. The present is yadkhulu: without ya-, dkhul would begin with two consonants, so the command is udkhul. After fa that alif is not sounded: fa-dkhulī.

Let him

A command to someone not spoken to is made with li- before the present form, and the verb loses its last vowel. The corpus marks this li- as the lām of command. After fa or wa it loses its vowel and is said l-.

Fa-l-yanẓur is fa, then l-, then yanẓur, "he looks", the present of naẓara, with its last vowel dropped: "so let him look". In the verse it ends in a short i only because al- follows, as in the sentence below.

In a sentence

This sentence was written for practice. Udkhuli l-bayta, "enter the house": the command, then al-bayt in the accusative. The command's last letter takes a short i before al-.

Reading

الكلمات التي تعرفها كاملةً بعد هذا الدرس مُعلَّمة.

Recall

• How is the command made from the present form?
• What does ī at the end of a command say?
• How does Arabic say "let him look"?

Answers: the letter in front is taken away and the last vowel dropped, with an alif added where the word would otherwise begin with two consonants; that a woman is told; with li- before the present form, fa-l-yanẓur.

Next

The next lesson teaches how Arabic says "he has" and "for you", with the pronouns written after li and bi.