Arabic: An Essential Grammar

(a) ِ بـ.. bi... preceding a direct object

Certain triliteral transitive verbs, such as َس ِم َع sami



a ‘to hear’

and َب َع َث ba



at

̄

a ‘to send’, may take the preposition ِ بـ.. bi... before

the direct object, which then appears in the genitive case. This

construction is merely a stylistic alternative to the regular con-

struction with an accusative direct object, e.g.

Compare:

ش ْو َك ِةَّ ل ْح َم ِبˆلََّأ َك َل ل




akala l-lah

̇

ma bi-sˇ-sˇawkati. He ate the meat with the fork.

(b) ِ بـ.. bi ... before the complement of a negative predicate

After the negative copula َل ْي َس laysa ‘is not’, and after the nega-

tive particle َما ma ̄ ‘not’, the predicative complement may take

the preposition ...بـ ِ bi.. (+ genitive). Again, this construction is

merely a stylistic alternative to the regular construction with an

accusative predicative complement, e.g.

َس ِم ْع ُت ِبˆ ْلـ َخ َب ِر OR َس ِم ْع ُت ْلـ َخ َب َر

sami



tu bi-l-h

̆

abari. I heard the piece of

news / about the news.

sami



tu l-h

̆

abara.

َب َع َث ِإَل ْي ِه ِب ِر َساَل ٍة OR َب َع َث ِإَل ْي ِه ِر َساَل ًة

ba



at

̄

a

ilay-hi bi-risa ̄latin. He sent him a

letter.

ba



at

̄

a

ilay-hi

risa ̄latan.

َل ْس ُت ِب َق ِصي ٍر OR َل ْس ُت َق ِصي ًرا

lastu bi-qas

̇

ı

• rin. I am not short. lastu qas
  ̇

ı

• ran

َل ْي َس ِب َق ِبي ٍح OR َل ْي َس َق ِبي ًحا

laysa bi-qabı

• h
  ̇

in. He / it is not ugly. laysa qabı

• h
  ̇

an

نا ِب َنا ِئ ِمي َنََّما ُك OR نا َنا ِئ ِمي َنََّما ُك

ma ̄ kunna ̄ bi-na ̄

imı

• na. We were not

sleeping.

ma ̄ kunna ̄ na ̄

imı

• na

َما ُه َو ِب َب ِخي ٍل OR َما ُه َو َب ِخي ًلا

ma ̄ huwa bi-bah

̆

ı

• lin. He is not stingy. ma ̄ huwa bah
  ̆

ı

• lan

294

Verbs of

wonder, the

negative

copula,

special verbs

and uses