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Chapter 37

Verbs of wonder, the negative

copula َل ْي َس laysa, verbs

with special uses and some

special uses of the

preposition ِ بـ.. bi...

37.1 Verbs of wonder, (^) ج ِبُّ ت َعََّأ ْف َعا ُل ل
Exclamatory phrases such as ‘How beautiful!’, ‘How tall!’, ‘How black
he/she/it is!’, ‘What a rich man he is!’, etc., are expressed by using the
interrogative pronoun َما ma ̄ ‘what?’, followed by a verb form which
looks like the derived verb form IV in the perfect tense third person
singular masculine (pattern: َأ ْف َع َل


af

ala) and a noun in the accusative
case or a suffixed pronoun, e.g.
َأ ْج َم َل ْل ِب ْن َتَما َما َأ ْج َمَل َها
ma ̄


ag ̆mala l-binta! ma ̄


ag ̆mala-ha ̄!
How beautiful the girl is! How beautiful she / it is!
ر ُج َلَّه َذ َا ل
ا
َما َأ ْك َذ َب َما َأ ْك َذ َب ُه
ma ̄


akd
̄
aba ha ̄d
̄
a ̄ r-rag ̆ula! ma ̄


akd
̄
aba-hu!
What a liar this man is! What a liar he is!
ْل َغ ْي َم ِة
3
(^) ه ِذ ِه
ا
َس َوا َد
2
(^) دََّأ َش
1
َما د َس َوا َد َهاََّما َأ َش
ma ̄


asˇadda sawa ̄da ha ̄d
̄
ihi l-g ̇aymati! ma ̄


asˇadda sawa ̄da-ha ̄!
What a black cloud this is! How black it is!
(lit. How
1
strong is the
2
blackness of this
3
cloud! OR
What
1
a strength of
2
blackness this
3
cloud has!)