The first form: the vowels of the past and the present

Nearly two thirds of the Qur’ān's verbs are of the first form. In the past it adds no letter to the root, but its vowels are not fixed: the middle letter takes one vowel in the past and often another in the present. This lesson teaches how to read that, with seven common verbs.

The new words

One of them, ḍaraba, is given no meaning by the course: its use in the Qur’ān is read in the verses, with the edition's meaning beside them.

The past

In the past, with "he" as the doer, a verb of three plain letters (not one like qāla or jarā, whose w or y changes) has a on the first and third letters. The middle letter has a in most verbs, and in some it has i: ḍaraba, but ḥasiba. In a few it has u.

Ḍaraba, with a on the middle letter. The corpus marks it perfect, third person, masculine, singular.

Balagha, with a on the middle letter.

The present

In the present of such a verb the first letter of the root has no vowel, and the middle letter has one of three. No rule gives it for certain: a verb is learned with its present.

Yaḍribūna: ya-, then the root ḍ-r-b with i on the middle letter, then ūna, "they". So ḍaraba has a in the past and i in the present.

Yanṣurukum: ya-, then the root n-ṣ-r with u on the middle letter, then kum, "you", the one the action reaches. So naṣara has a and u.

Tadhhabūna: ta-, then the root dh-h-b with a on the middle letter, then ūna, "you". So dhahaba has a and a. Its middle letter, h, is one of six: hamzah, hā’, ʿayn, ḥā’, ghayn and khā’. A verb with a and a usually has one of the six as the middle or last letter of its root. The reverse does not hold: balagha ends in ghayn and dakhala has khā’ in the middle, and their presents are yablughu and yadkhulu, with u.

Yaḥsabu: ya-, then the root ḥ-s-b with a on the middle letter. So ḥasiba has i in the past and a in the present, as ʿalima from lesson 6 has: yaʿlamu.

In the past with its doer

The past takes the same endings on all of them, as lesson 6 taught.

Wa-taraknā is wa, then tarak, then nā, "we". Before nā the k, the root's last letter, has no vowel.

The command

The command takes its vowel from the present, as lesson 11 taught.

Idhhab comes from yadhhabu: without ya- it would begin with two consonants, so an alif is put in front. The corpus marks it imperative. Where the present's vowel is u, as in yadkhulu, the alif takes u: udkhul; otherwise it takes i. After fa or wa the alif is not sounded, as lessons 11 and 26 said.

A verb that ends in a long vowel

Tajrī is the present of the verb the table writes as the corpus does, jaray; with "he" as the doer its past is jarā, "flowed". Ta- in front is for a feminine doer: the corpus marks it third person, feminine, singular. Its root ends in y and its present in a long ī, as yaqḍī does in lesson 26. Not every such verb goes this way: that lesson also showed yasʿā.

In a sentence

This sentence was written for practice. Yaḥmilu, the present of ḥamala from the last lesson, has i on the middle letter.

Reading

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Recall

• In the present of a verb like ḍaraba, which vowel has the first letter of the root?
• Which vowels has ḍaraba on its middle letter, in the past and in the present?
• Which vowel does the alif of the command take where the present has u?

Answers: none; a and i; u.

Next

The next lesson teaches the nouns built on verbs of form IV, and more of its verbs.