Isnad Fi'l madi - Durusul Lughah book 2 - lesson 4

 The lesson we are discussing today is verb. 

Verb in Arabic is فِعْلٌ. There are three verb, they are:

1. فِعْلُ المَاضِى (fi'l madi)

2. فِعْلُ المُضَارِع (fi'l mudari')

3. فِعْلُ الأَمر (fi'l amr)

This time, we are only focusing on fi'l madi with it's conjugation.

Basic concept of fi'l madi

1. We may similize فعل الماضي with past tense in English. 

Example: 

ذَهَبَ is fi'l madi.

We can translate it with "went"

2. Fi'l madi is the basic form in Arabic. 

Example :

ذَهَبَ is fi'l (verb) for subject pronoun "he", so we can translate it with "he went".

This fi'l madi is the basic form, in other word this is the root verb.

3. ذَهَبَ refers to subject pronoun "he"

Subject pronoun of ذَهَبَ is pronoun that refers to "he" (هُوَ)

In Arabic we call this subject pronoun with "fa'il" (فَاعِلٌ)

The pronoun "he" in verb ذَهَبَ is called ضَمِيْر مُسْتَتِر (damir mustatir) or "hidden pronoun"

In simple word : Fa'il of ذَهَبَ is damir mustatir that refers to هُوَ

4. ذَهَبَتْ refers to subject pronoun "she"

Subject pronoun (فَاعِلٌ) of ذَهَبَتْ  is damir mustatir (ضَمِيْر مُسْتَتِر) that refers to "she" (هِيَ)

In other words : Fa'il of ذَهَبَتْ is damir mustatir that refers to هِيَ

Note:

تْ in ذَهَبَتْ is called التَّاءُ تَأْنِيث (ta ta'nith). It means تْ is the sign of its being feminine.

5. Some suffixes are added to the basic form (root verb) to indicate the other pronouns.

Examples :

root verb (basic form) = ذَهَبَ  (he went)

If we want to refer another pronoun, let say "I", we have to add "تُ"  to basic form.

Therefore "I went" is ذَهَبْتُ 

You can add another suffix for referring another pronoun. This process is called isnad (إِسْنَاد)

Isnad of the verb in madi to the pronouns

In this chapter, we learn isnad of fi'l madi to the following pronouns:

هُوَ (he), هُمْ (they-masculine), هِيَ (she), هُنَّ (they-feminine), أَنْتَ (you-masculine), أَنَا (I)

 -  ذَهَبَ , the subject pronoun (فاعل) is damir mustatir that refers to هُوَ => he went

-  ذَهَبُوا, the subject pronoun (فَاعِلٌ) is الواو الجماعة (waw jama'ah) => they went

they => masculine

- ذَهَبَتْ , the fa'il is damir mustatir that refers to هِيَ => she went

- ذَهَبْنَ , the fa'il is nun niswah (نون النسوة) => they went

they => feminine

- ذَهَبْتَ , the fa'il is تَ => you went

- ذَهَبْتُ , the fa'il is تُ => I went

Summary

Observe the picture to make you easier to memorize the verb conjugation in madi.

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Recommended lessons related :

Arabic verb and sentence examples

Part of speech in Arabic

Word classification in Arabic

List of Verbs (activities in the classroom)