Measure VII


 Measure VII is related in meaning to Measure I. It almost always has a passive meaning of Measure I.

Passive- Indicates that the the subject of a Measure VII verb is receiving the action of the Measure I meaning. There is an important distinction between Measure VII passive and the regular Measure I passive.


Passive of I - Indicates that there definitely was a doer of the action, but the doer is either unknown or is left ambiguous on purpose.

Measure VII Passive Meaning - Indicates that the received the action of the verb without a doer, or it happened on its own.

Look at these examples to contrast:

الولد كَسَرَ المرآة - The boy broke the mirror.
كُسِرَتْ المرآة - The mirror was broken. (someone did it, but we don't know who)
إِنْكَسَرَتْ المرآة - The mirror broke. (M7 - Nobody broke it, it just fell apart on its own.)


Conjugation

Now let's take a look at how to conjugate the Measure VII verb.

We will use the measure VII verb إِنْكَسَرَ (to break, become broken) as an example. The M7 is very simple to form, and all other M7 verbs are conjugated exactly the same way. The most noticeable characteristic of M7 is the stem prefix إِنْ .

Perfect (Past) -إِنْكَسَرَ Imperfect (Present) - يَنْكَسِرُ


Look at the image below for a visual description (conjugated for singular male):






The chart below has full conjugations for both Perfect and Imperfect for Measure VII. All of the verbs are conjugated in the Indicative.
The Subjunctive and Jussive are not shown.





Imperative

The imperative (الأمر) for Measure VII is regular and easy to form. We can form the Imperative by follow the traditional method. For example, يَنْصَرِفُ (to turn away, go away from) becomes إِنْصَرِفْ.



This form of the imperative is used when talking to a single male. We add suffixes to this stem to indicate number and gender of who we are talking to.


Look at the following chart:





Passive



Since Measure VII is passive by nature, it does not have a passive voice.

Verbal Noun



The Verbal Noun (المصدر) is basically the verb functioning as a noun. Another grammatical term that has the same meaning is gerund. However, this term is not used in Arabic grammar. The verbal noun carries the meaning of performing the action of the verb. In English, words such as eating, dancing, singing, sleeping, running, etc. are basic equivalents to the verbal noun in Arabic.

The Verbal Noun for Measure VII is regular.



Here are some common Measure VII verbal nouns:



Warning: Do not confuse the Verbal Noun with the English progressive tense. You would not use the verbal noun to indicate an ongoing progressive action, such as "I am eating", "I am writing", "I am reading", etc. You might use a verbal noun to say things like "I like reading", "I hate writing", "Eating is fun", etc. In these three examples, the -ing words all function as nouns.



Active & Passive Participle



The Active Participle is the noun which is the "doer" of the verb or the person/thing that performs the action of the verb. Some examples in English are writer, runner, baker, teacher, student, etc. The active participle for measure VI is fairly regular in Arabic.

The Passive Participle for Measure VII is not used. Since M7 is Passive by nature, it is not possible to have something doubly passive.

إِنْكَسَرَ \ يَنْكَسِرُ (to break, be or become broken)
Active Participle (Doer) - مُنْكَسِرٌ -broken, something that has been broken




Passive Participle

There is no passive participle for M7 since M7 is already passive in nature.

Plurals

The plural for active and passive participles that denote a person is formed by suffixing ون for masculine and ات for feminine.

The plural for participles that denote inanimate objects use ات regardless of gender.





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