Arabic: An Essential Grammar

37.7 The verb َدا َم da ̄ma ‘to last, to continue, to go on’ can be used in

temporal clauses meaning ‘as long as... (something is happening or

going on)’. It is then preceded by the conjunction َما ma ̄ ‘as long as’ and

followed by a verb in the imperfect tense or a participle in the accusative

case, e.g.

َما َدا َم َجاِل ًسا

ma ̄ da ̄ma g ̆a ̄lisan, as long as he is sitting

َما َدا َم َي ْجِل ُس

ma ̄ da ̄ma yag ̆lisu, as long as he sits

37.8 The verb لَّ َق qalla ‘to be little, to diminish, to be rare’ can take

the suffix ...ـ َما /...ma ̄/, as ل َماََّق qallama ̄ meaning ‘seldom’, e.g.

ل َما َنْل َت ِقيََّق

qallama ̄ naltaqı-. We seldom meet.

37.9 Verbs with the meaning ‘to start, to begin’

In addition to the verb َب َد َأ bada

a ‘to start, to begin’ there are a few

other verbs which have this same meaning as well as their major

meaning. The following are the most common of them: َصا َر s
̇

a ̄ra ‘to

become’, َقا َم qa ̄ma ‘to stand up’, َأ َخ َذ

ah

̆

ad

̄

a, ‘to take’, e.g.

َب َد َ أ / َأ َخ َذ َي ْر ُك ُض

bada

a /

ah

̆

ad

̄

a yarkud

̇

u. He began to run.

َقا َم َي ْم ِشي

qa ̄ma yamsˇı

• . He rose/began to walk.

َصا َر َي ْض َح ُك

s

̇

a ̄ra yad

̇

h

̇

aku. He began to laugh.

37.10 Some special uses of the prefixed preposition ِ بـ.. bi...

The preposition ِ بـ.. bi..., which normally means ‘by, with’, etc., can

also be used in certain types of complements:

293

Verbs of

wonder, the

negative

copula,

special verbs

and uses