Arabic: An Essential Grammar

“تىََّأ ُمو ُت َو ِ في َن ْف ِسي َش ْي ٌء ِم ْن َح”

amu ̄tu wa-fı

• nafsı
  
  
  • sˇay
  
  
  
  

un min h

̇

atta ̄

I shall die and still have some h

̇

atta ̄ left in my soul.

11.9 The secondary prepositions are formed from (verbal) nouns by

means of the accusative ending -a. The following are the most common

of them:

Examples:

ظ ْه ِرُّ َق ْب َل ل^ qabla d

̇ ̄

-d

̄ ̇

uhri, before noon

ظ ْه ِرُّ َب ْع َد ل ba



da d

̄ ̇

-d

̇ ̄

uhri, in the afternoon

Note: The above ُدو َن du ̄na and ِب ُدو ِن bi-du ̄ni have the same function and may

replace each other, e.g.

1

َيِقَب

2

اًعوُبْسُأ

3

/ َنوُد

3

ِنوُدِب

4

ٍلْكَأ

baqiya

usbu ̄



an du ̄na / bi-du ̄ni

aklin.

1

He stayed

3

without

4

food for

2

one week. (i.e. He didn’t eat for a week.)

11.10 Preposition used in the sense of ‘to have’

Arabic has no verb comparable to the English verb ‘to have’. However,

the same sense of owning or possessing can be expressed in nominal

َأ َما َم َب ْعـ َد َب ْي َن َت ْح َت َف ْو َق




ama ̄ma ba



da bayna tah

̇

ta fawqa

in front of after between,

among

under above,

over

َح ْو َل ُدو َن ِب ُدو ِن دَِّضـ ِعـ ْنـ َد

h

̇

awla du ̄na bi-du ̄ni d

̇

idda



inda

around, about without,

under

without against by, with

َقـ ْب َل دا َمَُّقـ َلـ َدى َنـ ْحـ َو َو َرا َء

qabla qudda ̄ma lada ̄ nah

̇

wa wara ̄

a

before before, in

front of

with, at, by towards,

approximately

behind

55

Conjunc-

tions,

preposi-

tions and

the particle

تىََّح h

̇

atta ̄