Arabic: An Essential Grammar

َق ْت ٌل qatlun, ‘killing, murder’ is derived from the verb َق َت َل qatala,

‘to kill’; similarly, ُح ْس ٌن h

̇

usnun ‘beauty’, is derived from َح ُس َن

h

̇

asuna ‘to be handsome’. The Arabic verbal noun corresponds

to the English gerund ending in ‘-ing’ (e.g. ‘playing, going’), or to

action nouns like ‘departure’, ‘arrival’, ‘treatment’, etc.

The patterns for forming verbal nouns from the different verb

forms (I–X) are given below:

(See also table A1.1 (fa



ala) in Appendix 1.)

Note a: The verbal nouns of forms IV–X have only one pattern, but forms

II and III may have two.

Note b: The initial hamzatu l-qat

̇



i ِإ and ُأ in the verbal nouns of verb

forms VII–X is subject to the rule of hamzatu l-was

̇

li (was

̇

lah), in the same

way as the corresponding hamzah in the perfect and imperative forms.

b) There are dozens of patterns for the verbal noun of a triliteral verb

in form I. They can only be learned from more advanced Arabic

grammar books or by consulting the dictionary. The following

are some examples:

(I) II III IV V VI VII VIII

(َف ْع ٌل) َت ْف ِعي ٌل

َت ْف ِعَل ٌة

ِف َعا ٌل

ُم َفا َعَل ٌة

ع ٌل ِإ ْف َعا ٌلُِّإ ْف ِت َعا ٌل ِإ ْن ِف َعا ٌل َت َفا ُع ٌل َت َف

IX X

ٍإ ْس ِت ْف َعا ٌل ِإ ْف ِع َلا ٌل

Verbal noun (mas

̇

dar) Verb form I

َق ْت ٌل qatlun, killing َق َت َل qatala, to kill

ُد ُخو ٌل duh

̆

u ̄lun, entering َد َخ َل dah

̆

ala, to enter

ُش ْر ٌب sˇurbun, drinking َش ِر َب sˇariba, to drink

َس ْم ٌع sam



un, hearing َس ِم َع sami



a, to hear

ُح ْس ٌن h

̇

usnun, beauty َح ُس َن h

̇

asuna, to be handsome

َس َه ٌر saharun, sleeplessness َس ِه َر sahira, to stay awake (at night)

163

Participles,

verbal

nouns,

nouns of

place, time,

instrument