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Intermediate Topics in Masdar
By ArabicTree | April 19, 2008
When we discussed the masdar–the “verbal noun“–we mentioned that it’s a noun, it can take any case, depending on how it’s used; and that the masdar takes the pattern of fu’ool.
One of the difficulties of the masdar is the pattern. The masdar falls on the pattern of fu’ool (فُعُول), but it can also fall on other patterns. So the question arises, how do you know which pattern the masdar for a given verb falls on?
The answer is, you learn it and memorize it. There is no pattern that determines which verb has which masdar–just like there’s no pattern that tells you which past-tense verb follows which form in the present-tense for three-letter roots. It’s just something you memorize and know through frequent use.
The second issue is “how do you translate the masdar?” You can translate it on the pattern of “verb-ing”–so if the masdar is “dukhool,” you can translate it as “entering.” Or if it’s “khurooj,” you can translate it as “exiting.”
But does this really make sense? Take a look at the following Arabic sentence:
Translation: I saw the entering of the principal.
Now, this sentence makes perfect grammatical sense in Arabic; but what about English? Not really. It’s a bit awkward and clumsy.
What if you translate it as “I saw the entrance of the principle?” It makes more sense. The masdar doesn’t mean the place of the verb, but the action itself, so be careful and make sure you don’t get confused.
What if you translate it as “I saw the principle enter”? That makes sense too–and, in fact, if you read Arabic translations, they often translate the masdar as the verb. And that’s fine–eloquent, even.
But why would they do this? Because the masdar, in Arabic, is intrinsically related to the verb. In fact, the two are perfectly interchangeable.
Like the sentence above–we originally started with:
What if we, instead, wrote it as:
You can translate that as “I saw the principle enter.” It makes sense in English, and it makes sense in Arabic.
But you might notice we slipped in an “an” there. Why? Because the following formula holds true:
In other words: the masdar is equivalent to its verb plus the particle “an.” You can replace the masdar with its verb plus the particle, or you can replace the verb with the particle with the equivalent masdar.
If you’re interested in even more advanced topics in the masdar, check the related posts.
Topics: Grammar, Intermediate |