Arabic: An Essential Grammar

َم َتى mata ̄ can be preceeded by the particle َأ ْي^

ay, as َأ ْي َم َتى

aymata ̄,

without any change of meaning, e.g.

38.4 Adverbs of time often have the definite article َأْ لـ... and take

the accusative or, rarely, nominative case, e.g.

With article:

Without article:

Note: Adverbs ending in d

̇

ammah, like َب ْع ُد and َق ْب ُل, may take a preposition.

Nevertheless they do not change the ending into kasrah, e.g. ِم ْن َب ْع ُد min ba



du

‘afterwards’.

Examples:

َما َجا َء ْل َيو َم ma ̄ g ̆a ̄

a l-yawma. He did not come today.

َما َجا َء َب ْع ُد ma ̄ g ̆a ̄

a ba



du. He has not come yet.

َسا َف َر َأ ْم ِس sa ̄fara

amsi. He travelled yesterday.

Note: The kasrah in َأ ْم ِس

amsi ‘yesterday’ is not an indication of the genitive

case, but is only used for smoothing the pronunciation. Observe also that َأ ْم ِس




amsi ‘yesterday’ has definite reference, although lacking the article. The noun

َأْ َلأ ْم ُس^

al-

amsu, which is definite, means ‘the past’ (not: ‘yesterday’). Similarly,

َغ ًدا g ̇adan ‘tomorrow’ has definite reference but indefinite form. Compare the

prepositional expression ِفي ْل َغ ِد fı ̄ l-g ̇adi ‘in the future’ (not ‘tomorrow’).

38.5 Certain nouns in the accusative without the article َ ألـ... are used

as adverbs when followed by a year, e.g.

َم َ تى ِج ْئ َت؟^ mata ̄ g ̆i

ta? OR َأ ْي َم َ تى ِج ْئ َت؟

ay mata ̄ g ̆i

ta?

When did you come?

ل ْيَل َة َأْلآ َن َأْلـ ُج ْم َع َة َأْل َي ْو َمَّسا َع َة َألَّ َأل س َن َةَّ َأل




al-yawma

al-g ̆um



ata

al-

a ̄na

al-laylata

as-sa ̄



ata

as-sanata

today on Friday now tonight now, at this time in this year

َب ْع ُد َق ْب ُل ِحي َن َغ ًدا َأ ْم ِس

ba



du qablu h

̇

ı

• na

amsi g ̇adan

afterwards, still, yet before, earlier when (conj.) yesterday tomorrow

300

Adverbs

and

adverbials,

absolute

object, h
̇

a ̄l,

tamyı

• z