Arabic: An Essential Grammar

30.3 In some verbs, such as َأ َخ َذ

ah

̆

ad

̄

a, ‘to take’, and َأ َك َل

akala ‘to

eat’, the initial hamzah is elided in the imperative, e.g.

30.4 Assimilation process

If the initial radical of the basic verb form is َأ

a, as َأ َخ َذ

ah

̆

ad

̄

a ‘to take’,

then the initial hamzah in verb form VIII is assimilated to the infix /-t-/,

producing a doubled تـ...َّ.ـ /-tt-/, e.g.

ت َخ َذَِّإ^

ittah

̆

ad

̄

a, to take up, to adopt (instead of ِإ ْأ َت َخ َذ

i

tah

̆

ad

̄

a)

30.5 Verbs with hamzah as the middle radical

(a) The medial hamzah, َأْل ِف ْع ُل ْلـ َم ْه ُمو ُز ْل َو َس ِط, can be written on

alif

(..أ..), wa ̄w (..ـؤ..) or ya ̄

(..ـئـ..). (Follow the rules for writing

hamzah provided in chapter 20.) These verbs are conjugated on

the same principle as the regular verbs, with the exception of the

two verbs َسـ َأ َل sa

ala ‘to ask’ and َر َأى ra

a ̄ ‘to see’, which lose

their medial hamzah. (See the conjugation of the verb َر َأى ra

a ̄

(A2.16 in Appendix 2) and chapter 33.)

(b) The irregular verb َسـ َأ َل sa

ala ‘to ask’ can drop its medial hamzah

in the imperfect jussive and imperative. Thus it has two alternative

Imperative

Singular Dual Plural

Form I Masc. Fem. Masc. and Fem. Masc. Fem.

ُخ ْذ َأ َخ َذ ُخ َذا ُخ ِذي ُخ ْذ َن ُخ ُذوا




ah

̆

ad

̄

ah

̆

ud

̄

, take! h

̆

ud

̄

ı

• h
  ̆

ud

̄

a ̄ h

̆

ud

̄

u ̄ h

̆

ud

̄

na

ُك ْل َأ َك َل ُك َلا ُكِلي ُكْل َن ُكُلوا




akala kul, eat! kulı

• kula ̄ kulu ̄ kulna

Perfect Imperfect Imperative (rare)

َب ُؤ َس ba

usa, to be brave َي ْب ُؤ ُس yab

usu ُأ ْب ُأ ْس

ub

us!

َس ِئ َم sa

ima, to be weary َي ْس َأ ُم yas

amu ِإ ْس َأ ْم

is

am!

225

Verbs with

hamzah