Day 8: PART 1: SUMMARY OF THE ENTIRE SESSION: 1. The identifiers for present tense 2. The normal vs. light vs. lightest present tense 3. The Light Harf & The Lightest Harf Groups ضار ع PART 2: INTRODUCTION TO PRESENT TENSE م الف عل ال The past tense is processed by the Arabic student by paying attention to changes that occur at the end of the word. These endings were studied on Day 6. The standard endings were learned by means of using نصر as a sample on page 33 and then applied using the examples on pages 34 37. The study of the present tense is an entirely different concept. Here are a few introductory points we noted about the present tense in Arabic: a. Each present tense contains within it a doer pronoun. To discover that pronoun, students must pay attention to the clues at the beginning of the ف ع ل first. This is drastically different from the approach we took when studying the past tense where we gave exclusive emphasis to the ending. The bottom line is: for past tense, pay attention to the ending & for present tense, pay attention to first the beginning, then the ending. b. The present tense conjugations serve to deliver the meanings of both present and future. I only refer to them as the present tense for conciseness. The present tense conjugation is sometimes translated in the present, other times in the future and sometimes may be translated as either or both simultaneously depending on the context. c. While the past tense tends to allude to an event that occurred once, the present tense tends to imply an act that occurred continuously. In other words when I say present tense in Arabic, I m really saying present continuous tense. He helped, probably just once whereas He helps probably over and over again. PART 3: THE IDENTIFIERS FOR PRESENT TENSE In class we listed 12 identifiers for the present tense. In these notes you will see 14 identifiers. The additional two that are being in these notes are logical additions but you don t necessarily have to concern yourself with them too much as they aren t common occurrences and even if they do occur, they re not so hard to figure out. We noted that the present tense can only begin with one of four letters. These four letters are ي,ن, أ, or.ت We also noted that these beginning (ض م ة) u letters can only have either the or a (فتح on them. Whether the sound should be u or a is a case by case ة) thing that is pre determined for the فعل and is not something you have the right to change for a given word. For example if the Arabic word is ر,ي you do not have the right to change the ي in ي ر to.ينصر That would be نص نص wrong.
أ The list of identifiers is a logical flow of items and should be organized in your mind into four groups. The first group is and.ن The second group is the four kinds of.ي The third group is the four kinds of ت and then finally the two additional. s ت beginning = I أ or أ 1. help. means I أنص ر 2. 3. or ن beginning = We ن or ي beginning = He ي help. means We ن نص ر helps. means He ي نص ر 4. 5. 6. or beginning + means Both of them help ي ران ending = Both of them آن ي ي نص or ي beginning + ي ending = They ون ي ر (women) or beginning + ending = They نص ن ي ي help. means They ينصر ن و help. means They (women) ن 7. or ت beginning = You ت means You help ت نص ر 8. or ت means Both of you help تنصران ending = Both of you آن + beginning ت 9. or ت ending = All of you ون + beginning ت 10. or ت ending = You women ن + beginning ت 11. or ت Fem. ending = You sing. ين + beginning ت 12. or ت 7) beginning = She (in addition to meaning you in ت means All of you تنصر ن و means You women help ت ر ن نص ن ي Sing.) mean You help (fem. تنص ر means She helps ت نص ر 13. or ت means Both of you (fem.) help تنصران 11) ending = Both of you fem. (based on آن + beginning ت 14. or ت (fem.) means Both of them تنصران 12) ending = Them Both fem. (based on آن + beginning ت help The fourteen items listed above seem like a lot of information. First of all, concern yourself with 12 of them. The tips on how to construct twelve conjugations in your mind are as follows:.ن or أ or ت or ي, that is يتان a. Remember that the present tense can only begin with
b. The أ is for I and the ن is for we. c. The ي is actually used four ways. ي by itself (he), ي with آن (both of them) ي with ون (they) and ي with ن (those women) d. The ت is used at least in the same four ways as ت.ي by itself (you), ت with آن (both of you), ت with و ن (all of you), ت with ن (you women). e. The ت is used in two additional ways: ت could also mean she and ت with ين is you fem. We applied these identifiers to the examples on pages 40 and 41. Make sure you understand each case covered in class on those two pages. PART 4: THE LIGHT & LIGHTEST PRESENT TENSES: The present tense chart on page 39 can be divided into three parts: صر or ي ر a. Words that end with the u sound like.تن نص ن, ي ران like ن b. Words that end with the نص ر نص ي.تنصر ن or ت و ن and ي ر ن feminines; c. The two plural نص.تنص ر First of all, don t confuse the term light here with the same term we used under اسم study. Here we mean something else by it. The basic idea is that the present tense occurs in its normal state on page 39. The normal endings are changed to light endings under special circumstances. There are two things to learn about this topic. (i) What do the light versions of each present tense look like and (ii) what causes the present tense to be light. ن The first column going down on page 39 has a bunch of words that end with an u (skipping and including تنص ر ي, ي on the bottom left). The few words that end with u, then, are نص ر ننص ر ص, ر These.ننصر and أن ر,تنص ر,ت ر, ي ر words, when converted to their light form, become نص نص,ت ر نص صر صر and أن respectively. So the light نن ت نص version is simply a change from the u ending to the a ending for these words. As for the words with ن at the end & ينصران be removed. So ن (point b above), the light version demands that the نصرا ن and ي ر ن forms. in their light ت و نص would be تنصر و and ينصرا would be تنصرا ن وا and ينص is a ا in their light forms (the تنصر وا ر
ن formality). writing نص ر ي ي would be ت in its light form. The two words that I skipped on purpose because they تنص ر ن and ي ر ن are unchanged (point c above). These are the plural feminines نص ص ر. These two words look the same تن whether normal or light. The following chart is a light rendering o the normal chart on page 39. وا light) is removed when ن )ي ر نص light) is removed when ن )ينصرا light) ( u changes to a when ي نص ر light) is removed when ن )ت را light) Fem. Doesn t change when ر ن نص. Pl )ينص وا light) is removed when ن )ت ر نص light) is removed when ن )تنصرا light) is removed when ن )ت را light) Fem. Doesn t change when ر ن نص. Pl )تنص light) u )ن changes to a when نص ر light) u )ت changes to a when نص ر light) u )ت changes to a when نص ر light) is removed when ن )تنص ر ي light) u )أنص changes to a when ر By comparison, the lightest version is only different from the light version in one respect. It enforces a س كو ن instead of an u ending for the few words that have an u in their normal state. As for the rest of the chart, it looks identical to the light version. Here s the lightest chart in comparison to the normal one on page 39: وا lightest) is removed when ن )ي ر نص lightest) is removed when ن )ي را نص lightest) ( u changes to sukoon when ينص ر lightest) is removed when را lightest) Doesn t change when ر ن lightest) u )ت changes to sukoon when ر. F.Pl )ينص نص ن )تنص وا lightest) is removed when ن )ت ر نص lightest) is removed when ن )ت را نص lightest) is removed when ن )ت را lightest) Doesn t change when ر ن. F.Pl )تنص نص lightest) u )تنص changes to sukoon when ر lightest) is removed when ن )تنص ر ي lightest) u )ن changes to sukoon when ر نص lightest) u )أنص changes to sukoon when ر PART5: WHAT MAKES THE PRESENT TENSE LIGHT OR LIGHTEST? THE LIGHT GROUP: There is a small group of حرف that we spoke about in class yesterday whose job is to make sure that the present tense coming after them is light. means to أن means so that ل ك ي or كي or ل means will not لن means in that case إ ذا means until حت ى
ل ب ة.ينصر The words above have the effect of making the present tense light. Here are some examples using صر ا help. means He will not ر لني نص ن to make ن (I took off the ل ي و ن help. light here) means So that they ينصر و include: may mean Until she helps or Until you help. Some examples from the Qur an ح ت ىتنص ر (يل ج يل ج الجم, the normally is changed to حت ى (because of حت ىي ج ل في الخ يا ط س م لن نو من ج هر رىاالله ت ى,لن (because of ح ن (نو م ن is changed to نو م ن the normally كث ير ا ح, the normally كي (because of كي س ح ك ب is changed to س ح س ( ب و م نات والم و م ن ين د خ ل the normally,ل (because of ل يد خ لالم ن ا ج ت (يد خ ل is changed to ي THE LIGHTEST GROUP: Another small group of words ensures that the present tense occurring after them is in its lightest state. The حرف that enforce the lightest state are as follows: means if إن means not yet لم ا means didn t لم means and.should و ل means should ل means then.should فل نص إ ني ر examples: Here are some ص ر you), (if he helps اينصر ا help), (I didn t لم أن yet), (they haven t helped لم و help). (then he should فلي ر نص Here are some examples from the Qur an: ص (notice the normally إني ر changes to the lightest ي كم االله نص ر ن نص because of ي ر you. If Allah helps.(إ ن (notice the normally لم ي دل دل changes to the lightest ي beget. He didn t.(لم because of يدل ب د و ا (notice the normally فليع ر ن ب دو ت هذا البي worship the Lord of this house. ب in this lightest form due to the ن loses its يع Then they should (فل
PART5: SOME ADDITIONAL POINTS THAT DIDN T GET COVERED IN CLASS 1. The س كو ن in the lightest form can appear to be a كرسة sometimes. This is only done in Arabic to connect a word phonetically to the following words. Here s an example: get: is clearly a case of the lightest present tense. If we add another word to the sentence, we لم ا يدخل الا يمان the word لم ا يد خ يد خل but rather speak in flow having مان pour into the word ي دخل ي So.كرسة with كون phonetically? We do so by replacing the الا س. How are we to read this if we don t want to stop at ل the way to read in flow would be: مان ي كون as students of Arabic we know that it is actually a,كرسة. Even though we see a لم ا يد خل الا س and the كرسة is just there allowing for better flow in reading/ pronunciation. group.. It has come up again when we are studying the light حرف came up when we were studying ح 2. ت ى الجر How is one to distinguish which group حت ى belongs to at a given instance. You will notice that on page 27 و ف ر الج when we listed the 11 twice. I did so because it occurs حت ى that occur in the Qur an, I mentioned ح ر as a حر ف الجر in those two textual instances in the entire Qur an (though one of them is repeated more than once). As for the rest of the instances of حت ى in the Qur an, assume that they belong to this, the light group for present tense.