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Kana and Sisters (1)

Posted by Fisal on Jan 16, 2012 in Arabic Language, Grammar, Vocabulary
Kana and Sisters (1)
كان و أخواتها

The Nominal sentence consists of two parts; the subject (Mubtada) and the predicate (Khabar).
Both parts of the nominal sentence are always in the Nominative (Marfo’) Case حالة الرفع .
The Nominative Case means that the noun often has a Dammah or a Damm Tanween on its ending.
Today, we will learn some special verbs that change the noun case in the nominal sentence.
Kana and its sisters are a group of thirteen (13) verbs that come with the nominative sentence.
What was Mubtada in the nominative sentence becomes the Noun (Ism اسم) of Kana and its sisters.
What was Khabar in the nominative sentence becomes the Khabar of Kana and its sisters.
Kana and its sisters are called Incomplete Verbs أفعال ناقصة because they always need a predicate; (Khabar), to complete the meaning.
Kana and sisters are also called أفعال ناسخة because they change the Khabar’s case from nominative (Raf’e) حالة الرفع to accusative (Nassb) حالة النصب . So, the predicate of Kana and sisters always has a Fat’ha (or Tanween) on its ending.

These verbs are:
كانَ / أصبحَ / أضحى / ظلَّ / أمسى / باتَ / صارَ / ليسَ / ما زالَ / ما برحَ / ما انفكَّ / ما فتئَ / ما دامَ

Ex. – كان الجوُ جميلاً بالأمس = The weather was beautiful yesterday.

– كانَ : A past verb Mabni on the Fat’h.

– الجوُ : Ism of Kana Marfo’ with a dammah.

– جميلاً : Khabar of kana mansoub with a Fat’ha.

– الباء : a preposition.

– الأمسِ : Ism Majroor by the Kasrah.

Types of the Predicate of Kana and Sisters
أنـــــــواع خــــبـــر كـــــان و أخــــواتـــهـــــــــــــــــــا
The Khabar (Predicate) of Kana and Sisters can be any of the following types:

1) A Singular Predicate (Mofrad) خــــــبــر مـُــفــــــــرد :

The Khabar of Kana and sisters can be a singular noun (or adjective); not a sentence or a semi-sentence.

Ex. – كــان ابـن ســيـنـــا عــبــقـــــريـــّــــاً = Ibn Sina was a genius.

– كـــان الـــكــتـــــــابُ مــُــفـــيـــداً = The book was useful.

– صــَــار الـلـــَّـــبــنُ جــُـــــبــنــــــاً = The milk turned to cheese.

– ظــل الــحــَــــارســــان يــقـــظـــيـــْــــن = The two guards remained awake.

– أصــبــحــــت الــطـــيــــورُ جـــائـــعــــــةً = The birds were hungry in the morning.

2) A Sentence (Jomlah) جـُــمــــلـــة :

The Khabar of Kana and Sisters can – by itself – be a sentence.

This sentence of the Khabar has two types:

a) A Nominal Sentence (Jomlah Ismiyah)جـمــلـة اســمــيـــة

The predicate of Kana and sisters can be a nominal sentence. The subject of this sentence must have a pronoun that refers back to the first subject; (the Ism of Kana and sisters).

Ex. – مــا زال الــشــِـــعـــْـــرُ أســاســُـــهُ الــعــاطــفـــــة = Still, the essence of poetry is emotion.

– مـا زالـت الــســيـــارةُ سـِـعــرُهـــا مـُــرتــفــــعٌ = The Price of the car is still high.

b) A Verbal Sentence (Jomlah fi’liyyah) جملة فعلية

The predicate can be a Verbal sentence. Thus, it can be a sentence that starts with a verb and a pronoun that must refer back to the first subject; (the Ism of Kana and sisters).

Ex. – أصــبــح الــنـــــاسُ يـشــتـرون كــل شـــــيء = People got used to buying everything.

– كــان الــولـــدُ يــلــعـــــبُ الـــكـــُــــرَةَ = The boy was playing football.

– مـا زال الــمــِــصـــريـــُّـــون يـصـنــعـــون الــتـاريــــــخ – The Egyptians are still making history.

3) A Phrasal Predicate (Khabar Shib’h Jomlah) خــبـر شــــبـه جــمــلــة :

This type of predicate with Kana and sisters contains a preposition or an adverb.

Ex. – صـــارت الـــطـــائــــرةُ فــــوق الــســـحـــــاب = the Plane became above the clouds.

– و كـــان الــرُّكــَّـــابُ فــي أمــنِ و اطــمـئــنـــان = The passengers were in safety and peace.

– لــيـــْـــسَ فــي الــبــيــــت أحــَــــدٌ = There is no one in the house.

– كــان بــيـــن الــجــُـــمـــهــــُــور جــاســُـــــوسٌ = There was a spy among the audience.

(Note: The predicate of Kana and sisters can precede their noun (Ism) if this predicate is a phrasal one and the noun is indefinite like the last two examples above.)

The types of مع

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Sentences analysis