Asking, rather, and the words that work like inna

Lesson 5 taught a-, which turns a sentence into a question. This lesson teaches more ways to ask, and bal, "rather". It also teaches the words that work like inna from lesson 4, which put the noun or pronoun after them in the accusative, and laysa, "is not".

The new words

Asking

Hal asks a question that is answered "yes" or "no".

Kayfa is "how".

Am is "or" inside a question: "is it this, or that?". It can also open a question of its own after what was said before: "or …?".

Rather

Bal is "rather": it turns from what was said before to what is said in its place, or to something further. The corpus calls it a particle of retraction.

Like inna

Lākin, "but", is most often said with a single n. Then the corpus marks it as a particle of amendment, and it does not change the ending of what follows. Said with a doubled n, lākinna works like inna; the corpus counts most of those as a word of its own, not as this one.

Laʿalla, "perhaps" or "so that", works like inna: the noun after it is in the accusative, and a pronoun is joined to it. The corpus counts it with inna's kind.

Laʿallahu is laʿalla and hu, "he": "perhaps he".

Is not

Laysa, "is not", works like kāna, "was", from lesson 6: what is said of its subject is in the accusative. It has a past form only, but means "is not".

Lasta is laysa with ta, "you": "you are not". Before ta, laysa is shortened to las-. The corpus marks it as a verb of kāna's kind. What is said of "you" here has bi- in front, bi-muṣayṭirin, and so is in the genitive: bi- is often set before what laysa says.

In a sentence

This sentence was written for practice. Hal hādhā qalamuka?: hal, then "this is your pen", and it is a question.

Laysa l-baytu baʿīdan: "far" is in the accusative, baʿīdan, after laysa.

Reading

الكلمات التي تعرفها كاملةً بعد هذا الدرس مُعلَّمة.

Recall

• What kind of question does hal ask?
• What case is the noun after laʿalla in?
• How does laysa change what is said of its subject?

Answers: one answered "yes" or "no"; the accusative; it puts it in the accusative, as kāna does, unless bi- stands before it.

Next

The next lesson teaches eight common verbs, and what happens to a verb whose root has a weak letter or a hamzah.