Introduction To Nahw Part 3 - The Verbal Sentence

We last looked at the جملة إسمية, the problem of determining where the subject ends and the predicate begins, and the solution Nahw provides for that problem. In this lesson, we will take a look at the other type of sentence, the جُمْلَة فِعْلِيَّة, its problem, and how Nahw solves that.

The Verbal Sentence -

Recall that in Arabic, sequence does not determine the subject and object of a verb like in English. In English, if we change 'Zaid hit Amr' to 'Amr hit Zaid', we change the meaning completely by swapping the subject and object of the verb. In fact, not only can we change the order of Zaid and Amr in the sentence in Arabic without changing who is doing the verb and whom is experiencing the verb, we can also put the verb first (in fact, this is the standard way). This gives rise to the following combinations:

From the Nominal Sentence lesson, you know that a sentence is made up of a مُسْنَد إْلَيْه (Subject) and a مُسْنَد (Predicate). For the Nominal Sentence, the مُسْنَد إْلَيْه was called the مُبْتَدَأ, and the مُسْنَد the خَبَر. For the Verbal Sentence, the مُسْنَد إْلَيْه is the subject of the verb, the one doing the action, and we call that the فَاعِل. The مُسْنَد is the verb itself, which you know is called the فِعْل. We translate them as Subject and Verb, respectively.

Now, in Arabic, there is a very important rule when it comes to verbs. It's one of the few rules that has no edge cases or exceptions and must always be satisfied without exception.

Let's take زَيْدٌ دَخَلَ الْبَيْتَ (Zaid, he entered the house). What is the مُسْنَد إْلَيْه here? It's Zaid since Zaid is the entity we are talking about, the entity we want to convey some information about. The next question is: What role is the word "Zaid" playing in the sentence? Is it the فاعل? If it is the فاعل, then from our table above, we can see that this sentence will be a Verbal Sentence. Or is it مبتدأ, in which case it will be a Nominal Sentence?

We see that the sentence contains the verb دَخَلَ, and notice that Zaid is the one doing the verb (the subject - فاعل). The temptation is to therefore conclude that this is a Verbal Sentence. But this would be wrong. That is because of our rule: Every فعل needs a فاعلcoming after it, either in the form of a noun or a pronoun. Zaid is not coming after the verb but before it, and therefore, he cannot be the فاعل grammatically. In concept, yes, Zaid is the فاعل as he is the one carrying out the action, but in Arabic grammar, he cannot be called the فاعل; he cannot occupy the slot of فاعل.

With the grammatical state of فاعل not being valid, what else is left? The only thing left is to say that Zaid is مبتدأ, and دَخَلَ الْبَيْتَ is خبر. Therefore, this sentence is a Nominal Sentence.

The Problem with the Verbal Sentence

The problem with the Verbal Sentence is determining what is the subject and object of a verb.

Take a look at all of the Zaids and all of the Amrs in our 6 examples. You will notice that all of the Zaids end in Dammah, and all of the Amrs end in Fathah. This is because in Arabic, the subject and object of a verb are recognized by the Ism's grammatical state, which is reflected at the end of the Ism. This should already be familiar to you from the Grammatical States lesson.