Verbal-Noun Iḍāfa and Argument Roles | Arabic (Levantine) Grammar

A verbal noun packages an event as a noun: وصول “arrival,” زيارة “visit,” تصليح “repair,” رفض “rejection.” Because it is a noun, it can head an iḍāfa: وصول رامي “Rami’s arrival,” تصليح السيارة “repairing the car.” But the following noun is not always an owner. It may be the doer, the affected participant, or the theme of the underlying event.

This flexibility makes verbal-noun iḍāfa efficient in professional and explanatory speech, but also genuinely ambiguous. Everyday Beirut conversation often prefers a finite clause—لما وصل رامي “when Rami arrived”—because verb agreement and clitics identify the roles more transparently.

One noun, several argument roles

Phrase	Role of second noun	Paraphrase
وصول رامي	arriving theme	رامي وصل
تصليح السيارة	affected patient	حدا صلح السيارة
قرار المدير	decision-maker/source	المدير قرر
زيارة رامي	agent or visited person	رامي زار / حدا زار رامي

وصول رامي بكير ساعدنا نبلش عالوقت.

woṣūl Rāme bkīr sēʿadna nballesh ʿal-waʾt.

Rami’s early arrival helped us start on time. (neutral conversation; Rami is the arriving participant)

تصليح السيارة أخد يومين.

taṣlīḥ es-sayyāra akhad yawmēn.

Repairing the car took two days. (neutral speech; السيارة is the affected patient)

قرار المدير فاجأ كل الموظفين.

ʾarār el-mdīr fēzhaʾ kill el-mwaẓẓafīn.

The manager’s decision surprised all the employees. (neutral professional speech; المدير is the decision-maker)

The syntax says that the nouns form a close relation; lexical meaning says which event role is plausible. There is no universal rule that “the second noun is always the subject” or “always the object.”

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Turn the verbal noun back into a clause. وصول رامي becomes رامي وصل; تصليح السيارة becomes صلحوا السيارة. The position occupied in that paraphrase reveals the noun’s argument role.

Agent versus patient ambiguity

With a transitive event noun, one bare dependent can correspond to either participant if the vocabulary and context permit it. زيارة رامي can mean “Rami’s visit” (Rami visited) or “a visit to Rami” (someone visited him).

زيارة رامي كانت قصيرة.

ziyāret Rāme kēnet ʾṣīra.

Rami’s visit / the visit to Rami was short. (neutral speech; structurally ambiguous without context)

Use a finite clause when the direction matters:

لما رامي زارنا، قعد نص ساعة.

lamma Rāme zārna, ʾaʿad noṣṣ sēʿa.

When Rami visited us, he stayed for half an hour. (informal; Rami is explicitly the agent)

لما زرنا رامي، قعدنا نص ساعة.

lamma zorna Rāme, ʾaʿadna noṣṣ sēʿa.

When we visited Rami, we stayed for half an hour. (informal; Rami is explicitly the patient/goal of the visit)

The same ambiguity can survive with a suffix: زيارته may be “his visit” or “visiting him.” English possessive his visit strongly favors the agent reading, so English speakers often miss the second Lebanese possibility.

Expressing two participants

When a verbal noun names both an agent and another participant, Lebanese commonly keeps one in the iḍāfa and introduces the other with the preposition licensed by the noun or its related verb. Dense versions are common in professional, journalistic, and formal-leaning speech.

رفض الإدارة للطلب سبب مشكلة.

rafḍ el-idāra laṭ-ṭalab sabbab mishkle.

The administration’s rejection of the request caused a problem. (formal-leaning professional speech; agent in iḍāfa, patient with لـ)

تغيير الشركة للأسعار ضايق الزباين.

taghyīr esh-shirke lil-asʿār ḍāyaʾ ez-zabāyen.

The company’s change to the prices annoyed the customers. (professional speech; source plus لـ-marked affected domain)

In casual conversation, a finite clause is lighter:

الشركة غيرت الأسعار، وهالشي ضايق الزباين.

esh-shirke ghayyarit el-asʿār, w-hal-she ḍāyaʾ ez-zabāyen.

The company changed the prices, and that annoyed the customers. (informal; finite-clause alternative)

Nominal style is not “more correct.” It is useful when the event itself is the topic, especially in reports, agendas, and institutional discussion. Finite clauses are usually easier in rapid conversation.

Prepositional arguments keep their preposition

Some event nouns inherit a lexical preposition from their verbal family. اعتماد على means “reliance on”; حكي عن means “talking about.” Iḍāfa does not erase that frame.

اعتماد الشركة على نظام واحد فيه مخاطرة.

iʿtimēd esh-shirke ʿala niẓām wāḥad fī mkhāṭara.

The company’s reliance on one system carries a risk. (formal-leaning Beirut professional speech; agent/source in iḍāfa, complement after على)

حكي المدير عن المشكلة طول كتير.

ḥake l-mdīr ʿan el-mishkle ṭawwal ktīr.

The manager’s talk about the problem went on too long. (neutral conversation; colloquial event noun plus عن complement)

There is no reliable English shortcut for these prepositions. Learn the event noun together with its frame, just as you learn a verb with its preposition. See lexical preposition frames.

Definiteness and adjective placement still apply

The verbal noun is an iḍāfa head, so it does not take الـ inside the chain: تصليح السيارة, not التصليح السيارة. A final adjective can attach to the event noun or a later noun, depending on agreement and context.

زيارة مدير الشركة الجديدة تأجلت.

ziyāret mdīr esh-shirke l-zhdīde tʾazhzhālet.

The visit to the new company’s manager was postponed / the new visit to the company manager was postponed. (formal-leaning; feminine الجديدة has competing attachment sites)

This is a real ambiguity: زيارة and شركة are both feminine singular. If the visit is new, say الزيارة الجديدة تبع مدير الشركة. If the company is new, say زيارة مدير الشركة يلي فتحت جديد or explicitly مدير الشركة الجديدة in a context where that grouping is already established.

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Agreement can rule out impossible attachment, but it cannot choose between two feminine singular nouns. When the distinction matters, use tabaʿ, a relative clause, or a finite event clause.

Strategy	Lebanese	What it says
verbal-noun iḍāfa	وصول رامي woṣūl Rāme	packages Rami’s arrival as an event noun
possessive suffix	وصوله woṣūlo	retrieves his arrival
تبع	الزيارة تبع رامي ez-ziyāra tabaʿ Rāme	associates a known visit with Rami, without resolving his role
existential possessor	عند رامي زيارة بكرا ʿind Rāme ziyāra bokra	says Rami has a visit/appointment tomorrow

Notice that تبع does not magically label agent versus patient. It creates a clearer noun-phrase boundary, but association remains semantically broad. The existential clause changes the assertion: it says what is on Rami’s schedule.

Clarifying a visit in dialogue

زيارة رامي تأكدت لبكرا؟

ziyāret Rāme tʾakkadet la-bokra?

Maya: Was the Rami visit confirmed for tomorrow? (neutral office conversation; deliberately ambiguous event role)

قصدك زيارته لإلنا ولا زيارتنا إله؟

ʾaṣdak ziyārto la-ilna walla ziyārtna ilo?

Nour: Do you mean his visit to us or our visit to him? (neutral office conversation; suffixes plus goal phrases disambiguate roles)

هو عنده زيارة عنا. وصوله عالخمسة، والموعد تبع زيارته مسجل.

huwwe ʿindo ziyāra ʿinna. woṣūlo ʿal-khamse, wil-mawʿed tabaʿ ziyārto msazhzhil.

Maya: He has a visit at our office. He arrives at five, and the appointment for his visit is recorded. (neutral office conversation; existential possession, suffix, and تبع)

Common Mistakes

Assuming the dependent is always the agent

❌ تصليح السيارة يعني السيارة صلحت شي.

Incorrect analysis — السيارة is the affected patient, not the repairer.

✅ تصليح السيارة أخد يومين.

taṣlīḥ es-sayyāra akhad yawmēn.

Repairing the car took two days. (neutral speech; patient dependent)

Treating a suffix as automatically agentive

❌ زيارته دايما يعني هو زار.

Incorrect — زيارته can also mean a visit to him when context supports that patient reading.

✅ لما زرناه، كانت زيارتنا إله قصيرة.

lamma zornēh, kēnet ziyārtna ilo ʾṣīra.

When we visited him, our visit to him was short. (neutral speech; roles stated explicitly)

Dropping a required lexical preposition

❌ اعتماد الشركة نظام واحد خطر.

Incorrect for ‘reliance on one system’ — اعتماد keeps its على complement.

✅ اعتماد الشركة على نظام واحد خطر.

iʿtimēd esh-shirke ʿala niẓām wāḥad khaṭar.

The company’s reliance on one system is risky. (formal-leaning professional speech; على retained)

Adding الـ to the verbal-noun head

❌ التصليح السيارة غالي.

Incorrect iḍāfa — the first noun cannot carry الـ.

✅ تصليح السيارة غالي.

taṣlīḥ es-sayyāra ghāle.

Repairing the car is expensive. (informal; article only on the definite patient)

Combining a direct “have” calque with ambiguous modification

❌ رامي يملك زيارة مدير الشركة الجديدة.

Unnatural ordinary speech and multiply ambiguous — the formal ownership verb does not express a scheduled visit, and الجديدة has unclear scope.

✅ عند رامي زيارة جديدة مع مدير الشركة.

ʿind Rāme ziyāra zhdīde maʿ mdīr esh-shirke.

Rami has a new meeting/visit with the company manager. (neutral conversation; existential possession and explicit participant phrase)

Key Takeaways

A noun after a verbal noun may represent an agent, patient, theme, or source. Lexical meaning and context determine the role, and forms such as زيارة رامي or زيارته can remain genuinely ambiguous. Preserve any required prepositional argument, recognize dense nominal style as professional or formal-leaning, and prefer a finite clause when conversational clarity matters more than compression.

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