37.7 The verb َدا َم da ̄ma ‘to last, to continue, to go on’ can be used in
temporal clauses meaning ‘as long as... (something is happening or
going on)’. It is then preceded by the conjunction َما ma ̄ ‘as long as’ and
followed by a verb in the imperfect tense or a participle in the accusative
case, e.g.
َما َدا َم َجاِل ًسا
ma ̄ da ̄ma g ̆a ̄lisan, as long as he is sitting
َما َدا َم َي ْجِل ُس
ma ̄ da ̄ma yag ̆lisu, as long as he sits
37.8 The verb لَّ َق qalla ‘to be little, to diminish, to be rare’ can take
the suffix ...ـ َما /...ma ̄/, as ل َماََّق qallama ̄ meaning ‘seldom’, e.g.
ل َما َنْل َت ِقيََّق
qallama ̄ naltaqı-. We seldom meet.
37.9 Verbs with the meaning ‘to start, to begin’
In addition to the verb َب َد َأ bada
a ‘to start, to begin’ there are a few
other verbs which have this same meaning as well as their major
meaning. The following are the most common of them: َصا َر s
̇
a ̄ra ‘to
become’, َقا َم qa ̄ma ‘to stand up’, َأ َخ َذ
ah
̆
ad
̄
a, ‘to take’, e.g.
َب َد َ أ / َأ َخ َذ َي ْر ُك ُض
bada
a /
ah
̆
ad
̄
a yarkud
̇
u. He began to run.
َقا َم َي ْم ِشي
qa ̄ma yamsˇı
- . He rose/began to walk.
َصا َر َي ْض َح ُك
s
̇
a ̄ra yad
̇
h
̇
aku. He began to laugh.
37.10 Some special uses of the prefixed preposition ِ بـ.. bi...
The preposition ِ بـ.. bi..., which normally means ‘by, with’, etc., can
also be used in certain types of complements:
293
Verbs of
wonder, the
negative
copula,
special verbs
and uses