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Fi’l Amr: The Imperative
By ArabicTree | May 10, 2008
When you study fi’l mudaari, one of the things teachers always place emphasis on the harakah of aynul-kalimah, the vowel on the second letter of the root word. It’s yasalu, not yasulu or yasilu.
And this is important because it comes into play in fi’l amri. Fi’l amri–commands, or the imperative–are for second-person.
Let’s look at the verb kataba/yaktubu. The second-person (anta) is taktubu.
To convert a mudaari‘ verb to an amr, you need to:
- Delete the ta (harf-ul-mukhaatabah, the letter of second-person). So taktubu تَكتُبُ becomes ktubu كتُبُ.
- Put sukoon on the last letter. Ktubu becomes ktub كتُب.
- Add a hamzatul-wasl to the front. Because you can’t pronounce a word with sukoon on the first letter. So it becomes uktub اُكتُب.
And why uktub and not aktub or iktub? Because of the harakah on aynul-kalimah–damma!
Let’s take another example–jalasa/yajlisu. So starting with tajlisu تَجلِسُ, we:
- Slash the ta–jlisu جلِسُ
- Add sukoon to the end–jlis جلِس
- Add alif to the front–ijlis اِجلِس
Got it? No, wait! Let’s try fataha/yaftahu (starting with تَفتَحُ:
- Slash the ta–ftahu فتَحُ
- Add sukoon to the end–ftah فتَح
- Add alif to the front–aftah? No! Not aftah–it looks like aftuhu (the mudaari‘ for waahid mutakallim). It becomes iftah! اِفتَح
And the harakah on the hamza? It depends on the harakah on aynul-kalimah in mudaari. Kasra in mudaari becomes kasra in amr; damma in mudaari‘ becomes damma in amr; and fatha in mudaari‘ becomes kasra in amr.
So it’s easy–just follow the three steps. And once you get practiced at it, your brain will fil in the three steps for you, and you can jump straight from mudaari‘ to amr.
What about for pronouns other than anta? Compare them to anta, and see the additions.
- Anta: if’al إفعَل.
- Antum: if’aluw إفعَلُو. The addition is waw-u-jam’aah, which is also the fa’il.
- Anti: if’aliy إفعَلِي. The addition is yaa-u-mukhaatabah, which is also the fa’il.
- Antunna: if’alna إفعَلنَ. The addition is noon-u-niswaa, which is also the fa’il.
And that’s fi’l amri, the imperative form!
Topics: Grammar, Intermediate |