INTRODUCTION

Forms are tools for the westerners to learn the derived verbs of the Arabic language easily. They are invented by the western teachers of the Arabic language to facilitate teaching. There are fifteen forms but only ten of them are used commonly. Despite the fact that Arabic only has two tenses, i.e., present (imperfect) and perfect (past), it is a rich language. History tells us that Arabic language reached its zenith during the time of Prophet Muhammad (May peace and blessings be upon him.) During his time, poets yearly would come to the Macca and read their poems and compete for the prize. The best poem would be selected and posted to the wall of big Mosque there until the next year. The arabs of that era were preoccupied with writing and talking poetry. This was due to the richness of the Arabic language and poet's using this richness to express his abilities. There is a saying in the Turkish language, it goes like this, "The tool does the work, but the hand brags about it." For example, one drives a nail with the hammer. The hand says that the hand drove the nail but I want to see that hand driving the nail without the hammer! A poet might have all the superior qualities but if the tool, i.e., the language does not possess the necessary richness, the poet cannot show his superior qualities. Why am I laboring about this is that the richness of the Arabic language comes from the tool called derived verbs and other derived words. Derived verbs enrich the Arabic language. As I mentioned elsewhere in this tutorial Arabic verbs mostly are represented by three root letters. There are also many four letter root verbs but I will concentrate on the three letter root verbs. English language also has many derived words, e.g., nouns derived from the verbs, e.g., "accomplishment" derived from the verb "accomplish" or prefixes and suffixes are attached to the verbs to give some additional meaning. Similarly, this concept of deriving other words from the verbs reaches its extreme richness in Arabic language. For example, there are verbs exclusively used for describing a group interaction or expressing a meaning of one person's interaction with another person or object. So it is very important to learn the derived verbs and forms enable us for this purpose. Anyway, I think this much of an introduction is good enough and let's get to the heart of the subject. Please click on the verbs in the left frame to see the conjugation of the FORM 1 verbs.


NOTE

Copyright (C) 10/28/2000 geckil@geckil.com
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Since: 10-28-2000
Since: 08-10-97