Arabic: An Essential Grammar

is changed to fath

̇

ah or kasrah, in order to avoid having three consonants fol-

lowing each other, thus smoothing the pronunciation, e.g.

Note c: In certain idioms words such as those below with a suffixed personal

pronoun have the preposition ِبـ... bi..., e.g.

(See more about ِبـ.. bi... in chapter 37.)

Examples:

1

ىَلِإ ِةَرا يََّّ سلˆِب َبَهَذ

2

ِحَبْسَمـْل

3

َعَم

4

ٍقيِدَص

5

يِل

d

̄

ahaba bi-s-sayya ̄rati

ila ̄ l-masbah

̇

i ma



a s

̇

adı

• qin l-ı
  
  
  • .
    1
    He went by car to
    2
    the swimming pool
    3
    with
    4
    a friend
    5
    of
    5
    mine.
  
  
  
  

(ِلي l-ı

• is a combination of ِلـ... li... and ي..ِ. ...ı
  
  
  • , ‘mine’, see chapter 15.)
  
  
  
  

1

يِف ُريِف َّ سل َتاَم

2

ِةَمِصاَعْل

3

ُذْنُم

4

ٍرْهَش

ma ̄ta s-safı-ru fı- l-



a ̄s

̇

imati mund

̄

u sˇahrin.

4

One month

3

ago the ambassador

1

died in

2

the capital (city).

11.8 تىََّح h

̇

atta ̄ as a preposition

When تىََّح functions as a preposition with the meaning ‘until, till, up to,

as far as’, the following noun must be in the genitive, e.g.

َلَكَأ

1

ِسْأ َّ رل ى َّ تَح َةَكَم َّ سل




akala s-samakata h

̇

atta ̄ r-ra

si. (genitive)

He ate

1

the fish as far as (i.e. except) the head.

Note: Because of the many uses of تىََّحـ , the father of Arabic grammar, ِسي َب َو ْي ِه

Sı ̄bawayhi, made the following immortal statement:

ِم َن ْلـ ُم ِدي ِر َع ِن ْلـ َح ْر ِب

mina l-mudı

• ri, from the director



ani l-h

̇

arbi, about the war

ِب َأ ْج َم ِع ِه ْم ِب َأ ْس ِر ِه ْم

bi-

ag ̆ma



i-him, all together bi-

asri-him, all together

نا ُس ِب َأ ْج َم ِع ِه ْمََّأل نا ُس ِب َأ ْس ِر ِه ْمََّأل




an-na ̄su bi-

ag ̆ma



i-him, all of the people

an-na ̄su bi-

asri-him, all of the

people

54

Conjunc-

tions,

preposi-

tions and

the particle

تىََّح h

̇

atta ̄