Hi everyone!

A few posts ago we looked at how to conjugate the perfective. In this post, as promised there, we’re going to look very briefly at its semantics. For the most part, these are exactly the same as they are in fuS7a. Bit since how the perfective differs from the English past is often not very well explained to learners, in this post I’ll be trying to give you a sense of what exactly this means.

Meaning

The most basic use of the perfective is to talk about events in the past (thus its Arabic name, ماضي). In this sense it corresponds either to the present perfect or the past in English, depending on context:

شفت الفيلم
shift ilfilem
I’ve seen the film
I saw the film

رحتي ع ألمانيا؟
ri7ti 3a 2almaanya?
have you been to Germany?
did you go to Germany?

It’s very common for a verb of becoming (‘get bigger’, ‘get closer’, ‘get tired’ etc but also ‘come to like’, ‘fall in love with’, ‘come to realise’ etc) to be used in the perfective in a meaning that generally idiomatically translates as an English adjective. This is a straightforward extension of the present perfect meaning:

تعبت ولو
t3ibt wlo
I’m so worn out! [= I’ve got tired]
I got so tired!

حبيتو؟
7abbeeto?
do you like it? [= have you come to like it]
did you like it?

اي عرفتو
2ee 3rifto
right, I remember who he is! [= I have recognised him]
yeah, I recognised him

The perfective is not the English past tense

So far, so straightforward. But there are some important ways in which the perfective is not the same as its English equivalent. As I’ve talked about elsewhere on this blog, Arabic is more sensitive than English to the distinction between states and drawn out/repeated actions on the one hand and ‘snapshots’ of action on the other. In linguistics, these two categories are themselves known as ‘imperfective‘ and ‘perfective‘.

As the similar terminology might suggest, the former category of actions can’t generally be expressed with a perfective. Instead, for states and repeated past actions, we use an imperfective form combined with kaan, a structure we’ll look at in more detail next time. This is similar to the distinction between ‘imperfect’ and ‘past’ in Romance languages (French, Spanish and Italian for example):

PERFECTIVE

STATE

عرف
3iref
he found out

كان يعرف
kaan ya3ref
he knew
قدر
2ider
he managed to do it

كان يقدر
kaan yi2der
he was able to

ضحكني
Da77akni
he made me laugh
[once]

كان يضحكني
kaan yDa77ikni
he made me laugh
[consistently, as a trait]

It’s also worth noting here that although in isolation the perfective always refers to the past, it can sometimes have non-past meaning when combined with various particles:

ولو متت؟
w law mitet?
and if you died?

بركي رجع بكير؟
birki rije3 bakkiir?
what if he comes back early?

Although the perfective doesn’t have past meaning here, however, it’s still subject to the same constraint on states and repeated actions. We’ll see this in more detail when we talk about conditional structures.

 

Hi everyone!

Last time we looked at the uses of the ‘imperfective’, formed by attaching the prefix b- to the base form we learned how to conjugate a few posts ago. As you will probably know, however, the base form itself also occurs quite commonly in Syrian sentences. In this post we will briefly introduce the uses of this form, often called the subjunctive.

Most of the places that the subjunctive is used have an obvious trigger word or structure. There are a few cases, however, where it can be used on its own to give a specific meaning. For ease of organisation, we’re going to look at these independent and triggered uses separately.

The triggered subjunctive

The subjunctive is triggered by a huge range of different structures. It commonly, although not always, corresponds to an infinitive (‘to X’) in English. It behaves very similarly to structures with أن and a manSuub in fuS7a:

بحب آكل موز
b7ibb 2aakol mooz
I like to eat bananas

إن شاء الله يجي
nshaLLa yiji
I hope he comes

يا دوب تلحق
yaa doob tla77e2
you’ll only just make it

إجو منشان يشوفوكي
2iju minshaan yshufuuki
they came to see you

There is no One Easy Trick to learn what structures will trigger a subjunctive – you just have to learn them by exposure. We’ll talk a bit more about various subjunctive structures later on.

Independent subjunctive

Occasionally the subjunctive is used on its own. There are a whole range of specialised idiomatic uses, but here we can briefly summarise the most common:

روح معكن؟
ruu7 ma3kon?
should/shall I go with you?

نمشي؟
nimshi?
shall we go?

Subjunctive forms also provide a sort of third-person equivalent to the imperative. In the following structures the subject is (formally) third person. Although English can use a normal imperative here, in Arabic the second person forms would sound wrong and we use a subjunctive instead:

حدا يحكيلو كلمة
7ada yi7kiilo kilme!
someone say something!

الكل ينبطح
ilkill yinbiTe7!
everyone get down!

This imperative form can be used in broader contexts as well, but it often sounds rude or aggressive. If someone warns me that Sami is out to get me, I can say:

اي يجي يجرب حظو
2ee yiji yjarreb 7aZZo!
he can come and try his luck!

It also occurs in lots of religious expressions and invocations. Here it is commonly negated with لا laa:

يعطيك العافية
ya3Tiik il3aafye
excuse me (lit. God give you strength)

الله لا يردك
2aLLa laa yriddak
may God not bring you back

That’s it for now. Next time we’ll look briefly at the semantics of the perfective (the ماضي), as previously promised.

In the last few posts we’ve looked at how to form the perfective and the imperfective (‘base form’). But if you know anything about Levantine Arabic, you probably know that most of the time an imperfective form in fuS7a will correspond to a structure with a b- prefix in Levantine:

fuS7a

Syrian

أحب
2u7ibbu
I love

بحب
b7ibb
I love
أعتقد
2a3taqidu
I think

بعتقد
bi3ti2ed
I think

In this post we’ll briefly discuss how this prefix works.

The b- prefix

Last time we saw that there are two sets of imperfective prefixes: one used with stems beginning with a consonant cluster and one used with stems beginning with a single consonant. As you might expect, there are also two corresponding sets of b- prefixes. Note that the b- generally becomes m- before the ‘we’ prefix:

Cluster

Single consonant

بشرب
b-i-shrab
I drink

بقول
b-2uul
I say
بتشرب
b-ti-shrab
you (m.) drink

بتقول
bi-t-2uul
you (m.) say

بتشربي
b-ti-shrab-i
you (f.) drink

بتقولي
bi-t-2uul-i
you (f.) say
بيشرب
b-yi-shrab
he drinks

بقول
b-i-2uul
he says

بتشرب
b-ti-shrab
she drinks

بتقول
bi-t-2uul
she says
منشرب
m-ni-shrab
we drink

منقول
mi-n-2uul
we say

بتشربو
b-ti-shrab-u
you (p.) drink

بتقولو
bi-t-2uul-u
you (p.) say
بيشربو
b-yi-shrab-u
they drink

بقولو
b-i-2uul-u
they drink

Semantics of the b- form

As the examples I gave above suggest, the b- form mostly corresponds to the English simple present or to the fuS7a indicative imperfective (مضارع). It has three core functions. The first is to express repeated or characteristic action. Note that sometimes this translates to an English adjective (we’ll discuss this more in a later post):

بروح ع ألمانيا كل سنة
bruu7 3ala 2almaanya kill sine
I go to Germany every year

بضحك هالفيلم
biDa77ek halfilem
This film is funny [lit. ‘makes (one) laugh’]

بحب التفاخ
b7ibb ittiffaa7
I love apples

 

Note that like the English simple present, but unlike its fuS7a counterpart, this form is not usually used for continuous action (in North Levantine dialects, i.e. Syrian and Lebanese), which is expressed with the particle 3am (discussed in this post) or a participle (discussed here).

Its second main use is to describe the future. The meaning here usually corresponds broadly to English ‘will’ and contrasts with the explicitly marked future with رح ra7- , which we’ll discuss in a later post:

برجع السنة الجايه
birja3 issine ijjaaye
I’ll come back next year

بشوفك بكرا
bshuufek bukra
I’ll see you tomorrow

Its third main use, which is related closely to the future, corresponds to English ‘would’. This meaning is sometimes explicitly signposted by the presence of لو law ‘if’, but not always. Often it has to be derived from context:

أنا ما بروح على هيك حفلة
2ana maa bruu7 3ala heek 7afle
I wouldn’t go to that sort of party

لو معي مصاري بعطيك
law ma3i maSaari ba3Tiik
if I had money I’d give you some

That’s all for today. Next time we’ll look briefly at the semantics of the base form (subjunctive clauses).

Hi everyone!

In this final (إن شاء الله) conjugation post, we’re going to look at Forms IX (f3all) and X (staf3al) and the two quadriliteral (four-letter) patterns, fa3lal and tfa3lal. As in previous posts, I’ll start by looking at the stems used in the perfective and imperfective. I’ll then briefly give some examples of how these stems interact with affixes.

Stem shapes

Form IX is the simplest of all. There is only one possible stem shape:

احمر
7marr
went red

يحمر
yi-7marr
he goes red

Form X is more complicated as there are variants for all the different kinds of root. Note though that the basic alternation of a in the perfective and i in the imperfective is the same throughout. Note that for some common hollow and doubled forms, the a can be dropped in the imperfective (يستفيد yi-stfiid ‘he benefits’):

استغرب
staghrab
was surprised

يستغرب
yi-staghreb
he’s surprised
استشار
stashaar
consulted

يستشير
yi-stashiir
he consults

استغنى
staghna
did without

يستغني
yi-staghni
he does without
استحب
sta7abb
thought X was nice

يستحب
yi-sta7ibb
he thinks X is nice

The two types of quadriliteral (four-letter) verbs look very similar to Form IIs and Vs respectively. They have only sound and defective variants:

بهدل
bahdal
told off

يبهدل
y-bahdel
he tells off
فرشى
farsha
brushed

يفرشي
y-farshi
he brushes

تبهدل
tbahdal
got told off

يتبهدل
yi-tbahdal
he gets told off
تفرشى
tfarsha
got brushed

يتفرشى
yi-tfarsha
he gets brushed

Conjugation

Assuming you’ve internalised the rules we’ve looked at so far, these forms should present no problems for you. As elsewhere, the main question in the imperfective is whether the stem begins with a doubled consonant or a single consonant, which determines which set of prefixes it uses (the y- set or the yi- set in the examples above). As in every other form, adding suffixes causes deletion of a short e or o (but not a) in the stem, often triggering addition of a helping vowel:

يبهدلو
y-bahidl-u
they tell off

يتبهدلو
yi-tbahdal-u
they get told off
تستغرب
ti-staghreb
you (m.) are surprised

تستغربي
ti-staghirb-i
you (f.) are surprised

As usual, imperfective suffixes also cause a defective final vowel to drop:

يفرشي
y-farshi
he brushes

يفرشو
y-farsh-u
they brush
يستغني
yi-staghni
he does without

يستغنو
yi-staghn-u
they do without

In the perfective all the normal concerns apply. Sound verbs simply attach the suffixes straightforwardly, while all other types distinguish between suffixes beginning with consonants and suffixes beginning with vowels. Hollow forms have a short stem (with a) used before consonant-initial suffixes:

استفاد
stafaad
he benefited

استفدتي
stafad-ti
you (f.) benefited

The final stem -a of defective forms is lost when vowel-initial suffixes are added and becomes -ee- when consonant-initial suffixes are added:

فرشى
farsha
he brushed

فرشينا
farshee-na
we brushed
فرشيتو
farshee-tu
you (p.) brushed

فرشو
farsh-u
they brushed

Stems ending in doubled consonants (note that this includes all Form IX verbs!) gain an -ee- when consonant-initial suffixes are added:

احمر
7marr
he went red

احمريت
7marree-t
I went red

استحب
sta7abb
he considered (it) good

استحبيتي
sta7abbee-ti
you went red

With that, you should know how to conjugate almost all the common types of verbs in the perfective and the (base) imperfective. We can now move on to something a bit more interesting: how the different tense forms work in practice.

Hi everyone!

Today we’re going to talk about how to conjugate Forms VII (nfa3al) and VIII (fta3al). As in the previous posts, we’ll start by looking at stem shapes and then talk about how these stems combine with prefixes and suffixes.

Stem shapes

The common stem shapes for Form VII (which almost always has passive meaning) are as follows. Note the irregular stress on the middle i in the imperfective (and the fact that it’s i, not a as fuS7a would suggest):

انضرب
nDarab
got hit

ينضرب
yi-nDireb
gets hit
انزار
nzaar
got visited

ينزار
yi-nzaar
gets visited

انشرى
nshara
got bought

ينشري
yi-nshiri
gets bought
اندق
nda22
got tapped

يندق
yi-nda22
gets tapped

You may occasionally encounter passive imperfective forms with ayi-nDarab or yi-nshara. These are not common in Damascene, but frequent in some other Syrian dialects and in Lebanon, so they’re worth being aware of.

The common shapes for Form VIII are very similar, with the same irregular stress:

اختلف
khtalaf
differed

يختلف
yi-khtilef
he differs
اختار
khtaar
choose

يختار
yi-khtaar
he chooses

اشترى
shtara
bought

يشتري
yi-shtiri
he buys
اهتم
htamm
takes an interested in

يهتم
yi-htamm
he takes an interest in

As with the passive, you may encounter a handful of defective imperfectives with a. The only one that’s really common in Damascene is يلتقى yi-lta2a ‘be found’.

Suffixes and prefixes

By this point you know the drill. The imperfective forms are entirely regular. Since all possible stems here begin with consonant clusters, they use the same set of imperfective prefixes. When one of the imperfective suffixes is added (-i or -u), it causes deletion of the final short vowel of a sound stem in accordance with the usual rule. It also causes a defective stem vowel (whether or i) to drop:

تختلف
ti-khtilef
you (m.) differ

تختلفي
ti-khtilf-i
you (f.) differ

يلتقى
yi-lta2a
he’s found

يلتقو
yi-lta2-u
they’re found
يشتري
yi-shtiri
he buys

يشترو
yi-shtir-u
they buy

The perfective forms map almost perfectly onto their Form I counterparts. Sound verbs lose their final a when the suffix -et ‘she’ is added, just like in كتب katab:

اكتتب
ktatab
he subscribed

اكتتبت
ktatb-et
she subscribed
انشرب
nsharab
it (m.) got drunk

انشربت
nsharb-et
it (f.) got drunk

Otherwise, their behaviour is exactly what you’d expect. Hollow verbs’ short stem usually has an a (although you may also hear i):

اختار
khtaar
chose

اخترت
khtaret
I chose
انشاف
nshaaf
was seen

انشفنا
nshaf-na
we were seen

The defective forms act exactly as we’d expect them to. They lose their final vowel before vowel-initial suffixes and change it into -ee- before consonant-initial suffixes:

اشترى
shtara
he bought

اشتريت
shtaree-t
I bought

اكترى
ktara
he rented

اكترو
ktar-u
they rented

انطوى
nTawa
it (m.) got folded

انطوو
nTaw-u
they got folded

Doubled forms also act as we’d expect. They add an -ee before consonant-initial suffixes:

انجر
njarr
he got dragged

انجريت
njarree-t
I got dragged
اهتم
htamm
he took an interest

اهتمينا
htammee-na
we took an interest

That’s all for today. Next time we’ll look at the rest of the forms. Then we’ll be able to move on to something a bit more interesting than conjugation!

Hi everyone!

In the last couple of posts, we looked at how to conjugate so-called ‘Form I’ verbs of various kinds. In this post we will look at how to conjugate derived verbs on Forms II (fa33al),  III (faa3al), V (tfa33al) and VI (tfaa3al). We’ll ignore Form IV (2af3al) for now.

Stem shapes

All four of the forms we’re looking at here are fairly straightforward. They don’t have distinct doubled or hollow shapes – as in fuS7a, these take exactly the same form as their sound equivalents (for example Form II نوم nawwam ‘put to sleep’ and دقق da22a2 ‘be precise’, which have exactly the same shape as شرب sharrab ‘give to drink’). Their only significant variants are sound and defective. Moreover, their internal vowelling is more or less what you would expect it to be from fuS7a.

The sound stem shapes are as follows:

II

شرب
sharrab
caused to drink
يشرب
y-sharreb
causes to drink
III قاتل
2aatal
fight

يقاتل
y-2aatel
he fights

V

تعلم
t3allam
learn
يتعلم
yi-t3allam
he learns
VI تقاوم
t2aawam
be resisted

يتقاوم
yi-t2aawam
he’s resisted

Their defective counterparts are as follows:

II

خلى
khalla
made (s.o.) do

يخلي
y-khalli
makes (s.o.) do

III

ساوى
saawa
did
يساوي
y-saawi
he does

V

تخلى
tkhalla
abandon

يتخلى
yi-tkhalla
he abandons

VI تقاوى
t2aawa
overpower

يتقاوى
yi-t2aawa
he overpowers

Conjugation

You might be surprised that I’m not giving over more space to address conjugation. A traditional approach would be to give you full conjugation tables for all eight possible shapes, in the imperfective and the perfective. But in fact, all we need to do is apply the rules that we learnt for Form I verbs in the last post to these stem shapes and we can easily produce whatever form we need.

The sound forms are the most straightforward. As you can see with the verb 3allam below, the prefixes and suffixes simply attach to the relevant stem straightforwardly. The only (very small) change, in red, is the deletion of final predicted by the normal deletion rule:

علمت
3allam-et
I taught

علم
3allem
I teach
علمت
3allam-et
you (m.) taught

تعلم
t-3allem
you (m.) teach

علمتي
3allam-ti
you (f.) taught

تعلمي
t-3allm-i
you (f.) teach
علم
3allam
he taught

يعلم
y-3allem
he teaches

علمت
3allam-et
she taught

تعلم
t-3allem
she teaches
علمنا
3allam-na
we taught

نعلم
n-3allem
we teach

علمتو
3allam-tu
you (p.) taught

تعلمو
t-3allm-u
you (p.) teach
علمو
3allam-u
they taught

يعلمو
y-3allm-u
they teach

With Form V and Form VI forms, of course, this deletion doesn’t take place (short a can’t be deleted). Note as well that these stems now begin with a consonant cluster, so they use the other set of imperfective prefixes:

تعلمتي
t3allam-ti
you (f.) learned

تتعلمي
ti-t3allam-i
you (f.) learn
تعلمو
t3allam-u
they learned

يتعلمو
yi-t3allam-u
they learn

The stem of the defective forms changes more. But it changes in exactly the same ways that Form I verbs do. Suffixes beginning with vowels (either in the perfective or the imperfective) cause the final vowel of the stem to drop (in green), and suffixes beginning with consonants (in the perfective only) cause the final vowel to become -ee (in red):

ساويت
saawee-t
I did

ساوي
saawi
I do
ساويت
saawee-t
you (m.) did

تساوي
t-saawi
you do

ساويت
saawee-ti
you (f.) did

تساوي
t-saaw-i
you (f.) do
ساوى
saawa
he did

يساوي
y-saawi
he does

ساوت
saaw-et
she did

تساوي
t-saawi
she does
ساوينا
saawee-na
we did

نساوي
n-saawi
we do

ساويتو
saawee-tu
you (p.) did

تساوو
t-saaw-u
you (p.) do
ساوو
saaw-u
they did

يساوو
y-saaw-u
they do

Again, the only difference with Forms V and VI is that their final imperfective vowel is -a and that the stem begins with a consonant cluster:

تقاوى
t2aawa
he overpowered

يتقاوى
yi-t2aawa
he overpowers

تقاويتي
t2aawee-ti
you (f.) overpowered

تتقاوي
ti-t2aaw-i
you (f.) overpower

تقاوو
t2aaw-u
they overpowered

يتقاوو
yi-t2aaw-u
they overpower

That’s all for today! Next time we’ll be looking at Forms VII, VIII and X.

Hi everyone!

Today we’re going to look at how to conjugate the second of the two big ‘tense’ forms: the imperfective (the مضارع). A range of other tense-type constructions are derived from this form, and in the next few posts we’ll look at some of these (the b- prefix, the 3am continuous, the future and the imperative). But for today we’re going to look at the basic form without any prefixes. As we will see, this is most commonly used in subjunctive structures.

As in the last post, I won’t be providing full tables of every single combination of stem type and suffix. Instead, I’ll start by setting out the common imperfective stem shapes and then briefly go over the rules that explain how the different prefixes combine with these shapes.

Stem

We saw in the last post that there are six possible Form I stem shapes in the perfective. In the imperfective, there are ten common possibilities: three sound, three hollow, two defective and two doubled (there are a few extra shapes that I might discuss in a later post, but these cover the vast majority of verbs). As in fuS7a, there are some common associations (i-e perfectives often correspond to a imperfectives, for example) but the imperfective stem generally has to be learnt with its perfective counterpart.

Sound

شرب
shireb
drank

يشرب
yi-shrab
he drinks
كتب
katab
wrote

يكتب
yi-ktob
he writes

مسك
masak
pick up

يمسك
yi-msek
he picks up

Hollow

نام
naam
slept

ينام
y-naam
he sleeps
قال
2aal
said

يقول
y-2uul
he says

دار
daar
turned

يدير
y-diir
he turns

Defective

دري
diri
found out

يدرى
yi-dra
he finds out
حكى
7aka
spoke

يحكي
yi-7ki
he speaks

Doubled

دق
da22
knock

يدق
y-di22
he knocks
تم
tamm
stay

يتم
y-tamm
he stays

How do we conjugate these forms for person and number? As in fuS7a, we add a combination of prefixes and suffixes.

Prefixes

As you can see from the examples above, there are two third person prefixes: yi- and y-. These correspond to two full sets of distinct prefixes. The first set is used when the stem begins with a consonant cluster (note that the vowel is all the way through, not a):

اشرب
2i-shrab
I drink

نشرب
ni-shrab
we drink
تشرب
ti-shrab
you (m.) drink

تشربو
ti-shrab-u
you (p.) drink

تشربي
ti-shrab-i
you (f.) drink

يشرب
yi-shrab
he drinks

يشربو
yi-shrab-u
they drink
تشرب
ti-shrab
she drinks

The second set is used when the stem begins with a single consonant. Consider the following hollow verb example. Note the lack of any visible prefix for ‘I’:

قول
2uul
I say

نقول
n-2uul
we say
تقول
t-2uul
you (m.) say

تقولو
t-2uul-u
you (p.) say

تقولي
t-2uul-i
you (f.) say

يقول
y-2uul
he says

يقولو
y-2uul-u
they say

تقول
t-2uul
she says

 

Suffixes

The two suffixes (-i and -u) behave straightforwardly. They cause deletion of stem o and i (and not a), sometimes with insertion of a helping vowel, as predicted by the deletion rule:

اكتب
2i-ktob
I drink

نكتب
ni-ktob
we drink
تكتب
ti-ktob
you (m.) drink

تكتبو
ti-kitb-u
you (p.) drink

تكتبي
ti-kitb-i
you (f.) drink

يكتب
yi-ktob
he drinks

يكتبو
yi-kitb-u
they drink

تكتب
ti-ktob
she drinks

The only other complication is that defective stems (those ending in vowels) drop that vowel when these suffixes are added:

احكي
2i-7ki
I speak

نحكي
ni-7ki
we speak

تحكي
ti-7ki
you (m.) speak

تحكو
ti-7k-u
you (p.) speak
تحكي
ti-7k-i
you (f.) speak

يحكي
yi-7ki
he speaks

يحكو
yi-7k-u
they speak
تحكي
ti-7ki
she speaks

That’s all for today!

 

Hi everyone!

Today we’re going to talk about a distinctively Arabic construction, the 2iDaafe (إضافة)The broad outlines of the Syrian system are more or less the same as they are in fuS7a. But as usual there are some differences in forms and usage that you need to be aware of.

What is an 2iDaafe?

The 2iDaafe is used to express all sorts of relationships between different nouns and translates most uses of the possessive ‘s, ‘of’ and juxtaposition of nouns in English. I won’t spend too long talking about the general semantics here because they’re more or less the same as their fuS7a counterparts. Note that only the last noun can carry the definite article, and that this makes the whole structure definite or indefinite:

كتاب أحمد
ktaab 2a7mad
Ahmad’s book

غرفة النوم
ghirfet innoom
the bedroom

آخر الشارع
2aakhar ishshaare3
the end of the road

كيس نايلون
kiis naaylon
plastic bag

عاصمة الأردن
3aaSmet il2irdon
the capital of Jordan

مكتب بريد
maktab bariid
post office

Form of the noun

The absence of case markings and tanwiin means that most nouns have exactly the same form whether they are in 2iDaafe or not. The feminine suffix ـة, however, becomes -et (not -at as in fuS7a). Note that both -e and -a become -et:

مكتبة
maktab-e
bookcase

مكتبة بابا
maktab-et baaba
dad’s bookcase
ضيعة
Dee3-a
village

ضيعة ام الطنافس
Dee3-et 2imm iTTanaafes
the village of Umm al-Tanafis

There are two exceptions to this. With مرة mara ‘woman, wife’, the form is -t, and with words with only two root consonants, it is -at:

مرة
mar-a
woman

مرت محمد
mar-t im7ammad
Muhammad’s wife
لغة
lugh-a
language

لغة الأم
lugh-at il2umm
mother tongue

Note as well that the words for ‘father’ and ‘brother’ usually lose their double b and gain an -u in 2iDaafe (the other three of the ‘five nouns‘ aren’t really used):

أخ
2akhkh
brother

أخو أحمد
2akh-u 2a7mad
Ahmad’s brother
أب
2abb
father

أبو سامية
2ab-u saamiya
Samia’s dad

Stacked 2iDaafe

A string of possessors can be stacked:

بيت أبو أحمد
beet 2abu 2a7mad
Ahmad’s dad’s house

باب بيت أخو سامية
baab beet 2akhu saamiya
the door of Samia’s brother’s house

When the second noun isn’t really a possessor but has a more adjective-like function (a material, for example), stacking is not usually possible: speakers feel that a structure like *kiis naaylon 2a7mad for ‘Ahmad’s plastic bag’, for example, implies an independent connection between Ahmad and the plastic. The easiest way of solving this dilemma is to use the word تبع taba3 to attach a possessor to a definite 2iDaafe:

الكيس النايلون تبع أحمد
ilkiis innaaylon taba3 2a7mad
Ahmad’s plastic bag

شهادة السواقة تبع مريم
shahaadet liswaa2a taba3 maryam
Mariam’s driving licence

2iDaafe and the demonstrative

The 2iDaafe presents a bit of a problem for demonstrative structures, as we briefly noted last time. هالـ hal- ‘this’ typically replaces الـ. For many (although not all!) speakers, however, this is impermissible in the middle of an 2iDaafe structure. For these speakers, the solution is generally to prefix hal- to the whole 2iDaafe, which is made definite as usual:

هالكيس النايلون
halkiis innaaylon
this plastic bag

هاللغة الأم
hal-lughat il2umm
this mother tongue

That’s all for now! Next time we’ll (finally) move on to the most important part of speech: verbs.

Hi everyone! Another fuS7a to shaami redux post. Today we’ll be talking about demonstratives: ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘those’.

While in some respects the Syrian system here resembles that of fuS7a, it diverges enough that it probably needs to be looked at piece by piece. We’ll start with the demonstrative pronouns, which will look fairly familiar, and then move on to other things that have no fuS7a counterpart.

Demonstrative pronouns

The independent demonstrative pronouns are as follows:

Masculine

Feminine

Plural

هاد
haad
this one (m.)

هاي
hayy
this one (f.)
هدول
hadool
these ones
هداك
hadaak
that one (m.)
هديك
hadiik
that one (f.)

هدوليك
hadoliik
those ones

These forms are most commonly used on their own, and typically (although not exclusively) translate structures of the kind ‘X one‘. Note that they can refer to people (in which case the translation usually requires an extra noun: ‘this guy’, ‘that woman’ etc):

هادا مجنون
haada majnuun
this guy’s mad!

هي غريبة
hayy ghariibe
this one’s weird

Hal-

The usual way of expressing ‘this X’ or ‘that X’ with a noun is to use the prefix هالـ hal-, whose l- assimilates like the definite article. It has no distinct gender or number forms:

هالبيت
hal-beet
this/that house

هلمرة
hal-marra
this time
هلزلمة
haz-zalame
this guy

هالناس
han-naas
these people

Note that unlike il-hal- can attach to the beginning of an 2iDaafe construction, a number or some other expression of quantity:

هالشوية الفرش
hash-shwayyt ilfaresh
this bit of furniture

هلتلت أشخاص
hat-tlatt 2ashkhaaS
these three people
هالغرفة النوم
hal-ghirfet innoom
this bedroom

Independent forms + a noun

Occasionally the full pronoun forms are used after a noun marked with hal- or – like fuS7a – used before or after a plain definite noun. All these structures are usually used for emphasis or contrast:

هالبيت هاد
hal-beet haad
this
house

هاد البيت
haad ilbeet
this house
هاي المرة
haay ilmarra
this time

هالناس هدولة
hannaas hadoole
these people

heek

Syrian also has a form هيك heek, usually meaning ‘like this’ or ‘like that’, which corresponds to fuS7a هكذا. This is a very widely used form:

مشيت هيك
mshiit heek
I walked like this

رفاع ايدك هيك
rfaa3 2iidak heek
lift up your hand like this
ما تحكي هيك
maa ti7ki heek
don’t talk like that

راحت هيك
raa7et heek
she went like that

Occasionally heek means ‘this’, usually in reference to a situation. Note the difference between the following:

أحسن من هيك
2a7san min heek
better than that/this [situation]

أحسن من هداك
2a7san min hadaak
better than that one

heek can be used with an indefinite singular or plural noun to mean ‘such Xes’, ‘Xes like this/that’:

هيك ناس
heek naas
people like that

هيك شغل
heek shighel
work like that

That’s all for today. Next time we’ll be looking at the 2iDaafe construction.

Hi everyone!

Continuing today with our fuS7a to shaami reboot, I’d like to briefly introduce the independent pronouns. If you’ve studied fuS7a, the distinction between independent and attached pronouns (which we’ll cover in another post) will not be new to you.

The system

Syrian has eight distinct pronouns. Their independent versions are as follows:

Singular

Plural
أنا
2ana
I, me

نحنا
ni7na
we, us

انتي
2inti
you (f.)

انت
2inte
you (m.)
انتو
2intu
you (p.)
هو
huwwe
he, him
هي
hiyye
she, her

هنه
hinne
they, them

This is a simpler system than fuS7a. As I noted in the post on singular and plural, there are no distinct dual forms to worry about: the plural covers any number other than ‘one’. Syrian also makes no gender distinctions in the plural, with straightforward second person and third person plural forms.

Uses

The functions of these pronouns are much the same as they are in fuS7a. For the most part, they serve to express contrast. For example, when the topic changes in an exchange like the following:

كيفك؟
kiifak?
how are you?

أنا منيح. انت كيفك؟
2ana mnii7. 2inte kiifak?
I’m good. How are you?

More broadly, they are used after suffixed pronouns or verb suffixes to emphasise the identity of the suffix, with stress placed on the pronoun:

بحبني أنا
bi7ibbni 2ana!
he loves me (not you)!

سرك انتي!
sirrek 2inti!
it’s your secret (not mine)
رحت أنا
ri7et 2ana
I went

بشتغل أنا
bishtighel 2ana
I
’ll get a job (as well as you)

In final position, they can also be used in a trailing way, giving a sort of afterthought feel:

بحبك أنا
b7ibbak 2ana
I love you, I do

مجنون هو
majnuun huwwe
he’s mad, he is

They are also used in various contexts where English also uses a pronoun on its own. For example:

مين راح؟
miin raa7?
who went?

أنا
2ana
me