Measure X


 Measure X is generally related to Measure I. It has two common shifts in meaning.

Causative Reflexive - Measure X generally means to seek out or aspire for the meaning of Measure I onto ones self.

M1 فَهِمَ to understand
M10 إِسْتَفْهَمَ to inquire, ask (to seek understanding)

M1 رَجَعَ to return, come back
M10 إِسْتَرْجَعَ to retrieve, reclaim (to seek to make something return)



Another common use of M10 is to consider something to be the meaning of M1.

M1 سَهُلَ to be easy, convenient
M10 إسْتَسْهَلَ To consider or deem something to be easy; to underestimate.

M1 صَعُبَ to be difficult
M10 إِسْتَصْعَبَ to consider something difficult; to overestimate

Often the difference between Measure I and Measure X is muddied and only becomes apparent when exploring common usage.

Conjugation

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

We will use the measure X verb إِسْتَرْجَعَ (to reclaim, retrieve) as an example. All other M10 verbs are conjugated exactly the same way. The most noticeable characteristic of M10 is the prefix إِسْتَ . .

Perfect (Past) - إِسْتَرْجَعَ Imperfect (Present) - يَسْتَرْجِعُ Many students of Arabic often have some difficulty distinguishing whether the س in a word is part of the root or if it belongs to the Measure X stem.

إِسْتَحَقَّ \ يَسْتَحِقُّ - to deserve
This verb is a Measure X verb with a geminate (doubled) root. The root is حقّ or حقق. Often, students will confuse this with Measure VIII of the root سحق Fortunately, Measure VIII does not exist for the root سحق . The best clue that you have a M10 doubled verb is the shadda over the second root letter. However, this shadda is not always present in texts; so the student must rely on experience and usage to determine the measure, root, and meaning.


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 VIII. All of the verbs are conjugated in the Indicative.
The Subjunctive and Jussive are not shown.





Imperative

The imperative (الأمر) for Measure X is regular and very easy to form. Follow the same method as all other measures.

For example, يَسْتَقبِلُ (to welcome, greet) becomes إِسْتَقْبِلْ .



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; the imperative for a defective verb is included:





Passive



The formation of the Measure X Passive is similar to other measures. For more information on using the passive, visit the Passive Voice page.

Perfect (Past) -

Imperfect (Present) -



**Note: The following information, which is written using Measure I verbs, applies to Passive verbs in ALL measures. It is a characteristic of the passive voice, not a characteristic of the measure. Therefore, apply it regularly.

When the verb is transitive, the verb is conjugated by gender and number according to the object of the verb.
كُتِبَ المقال - The article was written. مقال is masculine, so the verb is masculine.
كُتِبَتْ الجريدة - The newspaper was written. جريدة is feminine, so the verb is feminine.


Whenever the verb is intransitive (when the object of the verb is also the object of the preposition associated with that verb), then the verb is conjugated in the singular male.
بُحِثَ عن السيارة - The car was searched for.
Since the object ( السيارة ) is the object of a preposition عن, the verb is conjugated in the singular male.

عُزِمَ على القرارات - The decisions were determined/resolved.
Even though القرارات is plural and therefore feminine, it is the object of a preposition and the verb is conjugated in the singular male.

**Note: These may not be perfectly usable examples in Arabic, but they illustrate the point.


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 X is regular.



Here are some common Measure X 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 X is regular.

The Passive Participle is the noun that receives the action of the verb. These words are often equivalent to English words that end with -ed or -en. Some examples are written, studied, eaten, covered, beaten, etc.

أِسْتَثْمَرَ \ يَسْتَثْمِرُ (to invest)
Active Participle (Doer) - مُسْتَثْمِرٌ - investor


أِسْتَثْمَرَ \ يَسْتَثْمِرُ (to invest)
Passive Participle - مُسْتَثْمَرٌ - invested



As you can see, the only difference between the Active and Passive is the vowel on the second root letter.







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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