Arabic: An Essential Grammar

َجا َء ْلـ َم ْب ُعو ُث َو ْح َد ُه

g ̆a ̄

a l-mab



u ̄t

̄

u wah

̇

da-hu. The delegate came alone (by himself).

38.13 The wa ̄w of h

̇

a ̄l, (^) َوا ُو ْلـ َحا ِل
The conjunction َو ‘and’ can be used to introduce a h
̇
a ̄l clause based
on an active participle (which then remains in the nominative case). This
َو is called the wa ̄w of h
̇
a ̄l, َوا ُو ْلـ َحا ِل , and can be translated as ‘while,
as’. The wa ̄w of h
̇
a ̄l can be connected to a personal pronoun or a noun
in the nominative (referring to a separate subject), e.g.
ل َم َو ُه َو َوا ِق ٌفََّت َك
takallama wa-huwa wa ̄qifun. He spoke while (he was) standing.
َه َر َب َوْلـ َحا ِر ُس َنا ِئ ٌم
haraba wa-l-h
̇
a ̄risu na ̄


imun. He escaped while the guard was sleeping.
38.14 H
̇
a ̄l, َحا ٌل , may replace the participle with a finite verb in the
imperfect tense, preceded by the wa ̄w of h
̇
a ̄l (^) َو and a pronoun, e.g.
َذ َه َب َو ُه َو َيـ ْب ِكي
d
̄
ahaba wa-huwa yabkı

• . He left weeping. (He was weeping as he left.)

38.15 Ta m yı ̄z (accusative of specification)

The word tamyı ̄z, َت ْم ِيـي ٌز, means ‘specification, discrimination, clarifica-

tion’. In grammar it refers to a nominal attribute in the accusative

indefinite form that expresses the substance or content after measure

words, or the item counted after the cardinal numbers 11–99. In

addition, it is used after the elative form in periphrastic comparative

and superlative expressions. Examples:

ِإ ْش ُت ِر َي ِل ْت ٌر َز ْي ًتا

isˇturiya litrun zaytan.

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Adverbs

and

adverbials,

absolute

object, h
̇

a ̄l,

tamyı

• z