Elementary Arabic Morphology 3

Preterite, Aorist, and Imperative Verbs

5. What is a verb and how many types of verbs are there?

6. What is a preterit tense verb?

7. What is an aorist tense verb?

8. How are aorist tense verbs formed?

9. Is the state of the preterit tense changed if it is a triliteral verb?

10. Is the state changed if it is not a triliteral verb?

11. What is an imperative verb and how many types of imperative verbs are there?

12. What is the difference between an imperative by form and an imperative by a lām?

13. How are imperative verbs formed?

14. How is the vowel sign of the alif added to the beginning of imperative verbs determined?

15. A verb is a word that indicates a state, for example حَسُنَ or an action, for example: یأخُذُ in the past, present, or future. There are three types of verbs: preterit, aorist, and imperative.

16. A preterit tense verb is a verb that indicates a state or action that happened in the past, for example: کَرُمَ

17. An aorist tense verb is a verb that indicates a state or action that is happening in the present or will happen in the future. For example: یَحسُنُ

Point: an aorist tense verb is specifically used for the future when a sīn or سوف is added to the beginning of it, for example: سأکتُبُ

Point: It indicates the past when it comes after the jussive لَم or لَمَّا , for example: زُُرتُکَ و لم تکن في البیتِ

8. An aorist tense verb is formed from the preterite form by adding an aorist letter to the beginning of it. This letter has a dummah if it is quadriliteral, for example: یُزَخرِفُ and it has a fathah in any other case, for example: یَلمَعُ

9. If the preterite form is triliteral, the first root letter is given and sakūn and the second root letter is given a dummah, fathah, or kasrah. For example: یَنصُرُ ، یَفتَحُ ، یَجلِسُ

10. If the preterite form is not triliteral and it has an additional tā' added to the beginning, it will remain the same, for example: یَتَعَلَّمُ. If this is not the case the glottal stop at the beginning will be erased and the letter before the last letter will be given a kasrah, for example: یُرسِلُ

11. The imperative tense verb is a verb that asks for a state or action in the future. For example: اُکتُب. There are two types of imperatives: imperative by form and imperative by lām.

12. The imperative by form is only used with the second person in the active voice, for example: اِجتَهِد. The imperative by lām is used with everything else in the active or passive voice, for example: لِیُکافإ المُجتهِدُ

13. The imperative form is formed from the aorist tense by erasing the aorist letter from the beginning. Then, if the letter after the erased aorist letter has a vowel sign this will be the form, for example: تَعَلَّم. But, if the letter after the erased aorist letter has a sakūn a glottal stop will be added to the beginning of the word, for example: اِنتَبِه

14. The added glottal stop in the imperative form is given a dummah when the aorist tense verb is triliteral and the second root letter has a dummah, for example: اُنظُر. It is given a fathah when the verb is quadriliteral, for example: أکرِم. It is given a kasrah when any other case, for example: اِعلَم. So, when the verb is quadriliteral the glottal stop is a qat‛ glottal stop and in every other case it is a wasl glottal stop.