Lesson 3a:
Division of the Verb with Regard to its Time
(1)
The Past Tense Verb (Al-fi’lu al-Maadee)
Al-qaa’idah:
(4) Al-fi’lu al-maadee: Huwa kullu
fi’lin yadullu ‘alaa husooli ‘amalin fee al-zamani al-maadee.
The
Rule:
(4) Al-fi’lu
al-maadee: It is any verb/action that indicates the occurrence
of an action in the past.
Al-amthilah:
The examples:
1.
The dog ran.
2.
The man stopped.
3.
The book was lost.
4.
The clock rang.
5.
The girl came.
6.
The hen laid eggs.
Explanation:
As
we know, in the English language, we have three major types of tenses. In the
Arabic language, however, the equivalent to these English tenses are also
three, but are somewhat different. In the English language we have the past
tense, the present tense, and the future tense to indicate the time of
occurrence of an action. In the Arabic language we have the ‘past tense’ (al-fi’lu al-maadee) as an
equivalence for the English past tense. Al-fi’lu
al-maadee is a verb that
signifies an action that was completed in the past. In these types of verbs,
everything indicates that the action was perfectly completed in the past.
If we look at the
examples provided under al-fi’lu al-maadee above, we will see that
every action was a completed one. In the first example, ‘Jaraa al-kalbu’
(‘The dog ran’), we see that the running action of the dog was perfected
completely in the past. In the second example, ‘Waqafa
ar-rajulu’ (‘The man stopped’) we will see that the stopping
action of the man was done in the past. In the third example, ‘Daa’a
al-kitaabu’ (‘The book was lost’), we will see that the loss of
the book happened in the past. In the fourth example, ‘Daqqat as-saa’atu’
(‘The clock rang’) we will see that the ringing of the clock took place during
a time that has passed. In the fifth example, ‘Jaa’at
al-bintu’ (‘The girl came’), we will see that the time for
the girl’s coming was in the past. In the sixth and last example, ‘Baadat ad-dajaajatu’
(‘The hen laid eggs’). As we can see, all the actions in the six examples
completely took place in the past. Such a verb is called al-fi’lu al-maadee (the past tense verb).
Even though it is
allowed to call al-fi’lu al-maadee
the past tense, care should be taken because the past tense (as per as the
English language is concerned) may have some elements of continuation in the
present time, whereas the Arabic fi’lu al-maadee gives
no room for such present-time elements. For this reason, many choose to call al-fi’lu al-maadee ‘the
perfect tense’ to indicate that it was absolutely completed and to dispel all
likely confusions or doubts.
Vocabulary from
the examples:
Jaraa = He ran.
Kalb=Dog
Waqafa = He stopped.
Rajul = Man
Kitaab = Book
Daa’a = It became lost, or it was lost.
Daqqat = She/It rang, or she/it tolled, or she/it
chimed.
Saa’ah = Clock.
Jaa’at = She came.
Bint= Girl.
Baadat = It laid an egg or eggs.
Dajaajah = Hen
[Remember: The
prefix ‘al-’ on some of the nouns in the examples is only used to
indicate definiteness and it is not part of the noun. E.g Kalb =
Dog, and Al-kalb = The dog.]
Any
question, comment, observation, correction, or suggestion? Don’t hesitate to
say it out! Use the contact page, or email us at Arabicbeginners2020@gmail.com
I
ask Allah to guide us and make it easy for all of us in our quest for
knowledge and other affairs. Aameen!
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