Arabic: An Essential Grammar

subjunctive mood of the verb. The meaning of this expression is ‘so that,

in order to’:

ِفـي  ِْلا ْم ِت َحا ِنتى َي ْن َج َح ََّي ْد ُر ُس َح

yadrusu h

̇

atta ̄ yang ̆ah

̇

a fı- l-imtih

̇

a ̄ni.

He studies so that he should succeed in the examination.

(= He studies in order to succeed in the examination.)

تىََّحـ h

̇

atta ̄ can be followed by the negative particle َلا la ̄, i.e. تى َلاََّح ,

meaning ‘so that... not, in order not to.. .’. It is quite commonly used

nowadays, e.g.

َعَل ْي ِه ْل َو َس ُختى َلا َي ْظ َه َر َّظ َف ْل َق ِمي َص َحَّ َن

nad

̄ ̇

d

̄ ̇

afa l-qamı

• s
  ̇

a h

̇

atta ̄ la ̄ yad

̄ ̇

hara



alay-ha ̄ l-wasah

̆

u.

He cleaned the shirt so that the dirt would not show on it.

28.8 Imperfect jussive (apocopatus)

The imperfect jussive mood is also called apocopatus (‘cut from the

end’) in Arabic َأْلـ ُم َضا ِر ُع ْلـ َم ْج ُزو ُم. With some exceptions, it is formed

from the subjunctive mood simply by dropping the last short vowel. (See

the conjugations in Appendix 2.) The jussive mood is employed after the

negative particles

and after the exhortative particle ِلـ... li....

(a) َلا la ̄ ‘not, no, don’t’, is the most common negative particle, called

نـا ِهـ َيـ ُةََّألـ. Together with a jussive verb of the second person (sing.,

du., pl.; masc. and fem.), it expresses a prohibition or negative

command, e.g.

!َلا َت ْش َر ْب َخ ْم ًرا la ̄ tasˇrab h

̆

amran! Don’t drink wine! (masc. sing.)

!َتـ ْجـِلـ ِسـي ُهـ َنـاَلا la ̄ tag ̆lisı

• huna ̄! (not: َتـ ْجـِلـ ِسـيـ َ ن...َلا la ̄ tag ̆lisı
  
  
  • na...)
  
  
  
  

Don’t sit here! (fem. sing.)

َلا la ̄ َل ْم lam ماََّلـ lamma ̄

212

Moods:

subjunctive,

jussive

(apocopa-

tus),

imperative