أجرى is a high-frequency support verb for organized activities and procedures. Doctors يجرون فحوصا “perform examinations,” researchers يجرون تجارب “conduct experiments,” officials يجرون محادثات “hold talks,” and institutions تجري انتخابات “hold elections.” English changes among conduct, perform, carry out, hold, and make; Arabic repeatedly uses أجرى with an established event noun.
The construction belongs especially to professional, scientific, news, and institutional MSA. It is productive, but not empty: speakers do not attach أجرى to any noun that English can follow with do. The event noun identifies a bounded, organized activity and controls its own further prepositions.
The principal parts are أَجْرَى — يُجْرِي — إِجْرَاءً (Form IV, root ج-ر-ي, final-weak). The finite verb carries tense, mood, and agreement. The following event noun is normally a direct object and therefore accusative when its case ending is pronounced.
The direct-object frame
The core pattern is:
أجرى + direct event noun + the event noun's complements
Unlike قام بـ, support أجرى does not require بـ before the event noun.
أجرى الطبيب فحصا دقيقا للمريض قبل وصف الدواء
ʾajrā ṭ-ṭabību faḥṣan daqīqan lil-marīḍi qabla waṣfi d-dawāʾ
The doctor performed a thorough examination of the patient before prescribing the medicine.
فحصا is the direct object of أجرى. للمريض identifies the person examined. English makes patient the object of examine; nominal packaging changes the surface syntax in Arabic without changing who underwent the examination.
أجرى المختبر اختبارين على العينة للتأكد من النتيجة
ʾajrā l-mukhtabaru khtibārayni ʿalā l-ʿayyinati lit-taʾakkudi mina n-natīja(h)
The laboratory ran two tests on the sample to verify the result. (scientific)
The dual اختبارين is accusative because it is the direct object. Its ـين ending is not agreement with المختبر; it belongs to the dual noun itself.
The substitution network
The noun slot is productive within a recognizable semantic field. Its continuation is not supplied by أجرى: each event noun keeps its own valency.
| Collocation | Typical continuation | Natural English | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| أجرى فحصا / تحليلا | فحصا لـ؛ تحليلا لـ | perform an examination / conduct an analysis | medical, technical, academic |
| أجرى اختبارا / تجربة | اختبارا على؛ تجربة على | run a test / conduct an experiment on | scientific, technical |
| أجرى مقابلة | مقابلة مع | conduct an interview with | professional, news |
| أجرى محادثات / مفاوضات | مع ... بشأن ... | hold talks / negotiations with ... about ... | diplomatic, news |
| أجرى انتخابات | انتخابات لـ / في | hold an election for / in | institutional, news |
| أجرى عملية | عملية جراحية لـ | perform an operation on | medical |
| أجرى تعديلات | تعديلات على | make changes to | formal, administrative |
| أجرى اتصالا | اتصالا بـ | make a call / contact | formal; اتصل بـ is leaner |
أجرت الباحثة مقابلة مع ثلاث معلمات حول التعليم عن بعد
ʾajrati l-bāḥithatu muqābalatan maʿa thalāthi muʿallimātin ḥawla t-taʿlīmi ʿan buʿd
The researcher conducted an interview with three teachers about distance education. (academic)
The pairing is مقابلة مع شخص. The topic can be introduced by حول or عن according to the noun phrase and style. Do not ask English interview whom? and then turn the person into a second direct object after the already transitive support construction.
أجرى الوزيران محادثات مع ممثلي النقابة بشأن الأجور
ʾajrā l-wazīrāni muḥādathātin maʿa mumaththilī n-niqābati bishaʾni l-ʾujūr
The two ministers held talks with union representatives about wages. (formal/news)
This gives two complements around one head collocation: مع introduces the other participants, while بشأن introduces the topic. The verb is singular masculine before the overt dual subject in neutral verb-first order.
Elections and institutional procedures
With انتخابات, أجرى presents an institution as organizing and administering the electoral event. English normally says hold rather than conduct.
أجرت الجامعة انتخابات إلكترونية لمجلس الطلاب في نهاية الفصل
ʾajrati l-jāmiʿatu ntikhābātin ʾiliktrūniyyatan limajlisi ṭ-ṭullābi fī nihāyati l-faṣl
The university held an electronic election for the student council at the end of the term. (institutional)
The nonhuman plural انتخابات takes feminine singular إلكترونية. The university is the organizer, not necessarily a candidate or voter. If the sentence needs to foreground voting by individuals, use صوّت “vote.”
Medical عملية is another established partner. The noun may name the procedure more precisely, and the participant is often introduced with لـ.
أجرى الجراح عملية عاجلة للمصاب فور وصوله إلى المستشفى
ʾajrā l-jarrāḥu ʿamaliyyatan ʿājilatan lil-muṣābi fawra wuṣūlihi ʾilā l-mustashfā
The surgeon performed an emergency operation on the injured person as soon as he reached the hospital.
عملية alone depends heavily on context: it can mean an operation, process, or operation in a broader organizational sense. Precise formal prose names the type when ambiguity matters.
Changes, inquiries, and nonliteral English equivalents
أجرى تعديلات على is highly productive: the direct object is the plural event/result noun تعديلات, and على introduces what is modified.
أجرت هيئة التحرير تعديلات طفيفة على عنوان المقال ومقدمته
ʾajrat hayʾatu t-taḥrīri taʿdīlātin ṭafīfatan ʿalā ʿunwāni l-maqāli wa-muqaddimatih
The editorial board made minor changes to the article's title and introduction. (formal; English does not normally say ‘conduct changes’)
This is a nonliteral equivalence. Choosing English make does not turn تعديلات into an unrestricted “make + noun” pattern in Arabic. It remains the conventional أجرى تعديلات على frame.
For an official investigation, both أجرى تحقيقا في and the direct verb حقق في are available. The nominal version readily accepts modifiers that classify the process.
أجرت اللجنة تحقيقا مستقلا في أسباب انقطاع الكهرباء
ʾajrati l-lajnatu taḥqīqan mustaqillan fī ʾasbābi nqiṭāʿi l-kahrabāʾ
The committee conducted an independent investigation into the causes of the power outage. (formal)
Agreement, tense, and final-weak mood
Because أجرى is finite, it agrees with its subject according to ordinary word-order rules. Subject-first plural and dual subjects trigger full agreement:
المراقبون أجروا فحوصا مفاجئة في المصانع الثلاثة
al-murāqibūna ʾajraw fuḥūṣan mufājiʾatan fī l-maṣāniʿi th-thalātha(h)
The inspectors carried out surprise inspections at the three factories. (subject-first full agreement)
The imperfect is final-weak. After لم, the jussive deletes the written final ي, producing يجر; the pronunciation still ends in -i.
لم يجر الفريق الاختبار النهائي لأن الجهاز كان معطلا طوال اليوم
lam yujri l-farīqu l-ikhtibāra n-nihāʾiyya liʾanna l-jihāza kāna muʿaṭṭalan ṭawāla l-yawm
The team did not run the final test because the device was out of order all day. (لم + jussive يجر)
After لن, the subjunctive final vowel is pronounced even though the spelling remains يجري.
لن تجري الهيئة الانتخابات قبل نشر قائمة المرشحين
lan tujriya l-hayʾatu l-intikhābāti qabla nashri qāʾimati l-murashshaḥīn
The authority will not hold the election before publishing the list of candidates. (formal; لن + subjunctive تجريَ)
Choosing أجرى, قام بـ, or a direct verb
قام بـ presents an explicit agent undertaking an action and requires بـ + verbal noun: قام الفريق بتحليل البيانات. أجرى directly selects established procedural nouns: أجرى الفريق اختبارا. Neither is a general word for do.
A direct lexical verb is often clearer when the noun package adds nothing. اتصل المدير بالمورد is usually leaner than أجرى المدير اتصالا بالمورد. By contrast, أجرى اتصالا عاجلا ومطولا is useful because the noun carries substantial modification. The قام بـ collocations page gives the contrasting prepositional support frame in full.
قال المتحدث: أجرينا محادثات مطولة، لكننا لم نتوصل إلى اتفاق
qāla l-mutaḥaddith: ʾajraynā muḥādathātin muṭawwalatan, lākinnanā lam natawaṣṣal ʾilā ttifāq
The spokesperson said, ‘We held lengthy talks, but we did not reach an agreement.’ (formal/news dialogue)
The talks are not the agreement. أجرى محادثات names the process; توصل إلى اتفاق names its possible result. Precise collocations keep that conceptual distinction visible.
Common Mistakes
Importing بـ from قام بـ
❌ أجرى الباحث بفحص العينات
Incorrect frame—أجرى takes the event noun directly; بـ belongs to قام بـ.
✅ أجرى الباحث فحصا أوليا للعينات
ʾajrā l-bāḥithu faḥṣan ʾawwaliyyan lil-ʿayyināt
The researcher conducted a preliminary examination of the samples.
Replacing an established election collocation with عمل
❌ عملت الجامعة انتخابات لمجلس الطلاب
Broken formal collocation—عمل is not the neutral MSA support verb for holding an election.
✅ أجرت الجامعة انتخابات لمجلس الطلاب بحضور مراقبين مستقلين
ʾajrati l-jāmiʿatu ntikhābātin limajlisi ṭ-ṭullābi biḥuḍūri murāqibīna mustaqillīn
The university held a student-council election in the presence of independent observers.
Giving the event noun the wrong complement
❌ أجرى الصحفي مقابلة المسؤول الجديد
Incorrect nominal valency—مقابلة takes مع before the interviewee in this frame.
✅ أجرى الصحفي مقابلة مع المسؤول الجديد بشأن خطة النقل
ʾajrā ṣ-ṣaḥafiyyu muqābalatan maʿa l-masʾūli l-jadīdi bishaʾni khuṭṭati n-naql
The journalist interviewed the new official about the transport plan.
Keeping the indicative weak stem after لم
❌ لم يجري المختبر الاختبار الثاني
Incorrect mood spelling—after لم, final-weak يجري becomes jussive يجر.
✅ لم يجر المختبر الاختبار الثاني بسبب نقص المواد
lam yujri l-mukhtabaru l-ikhtibāra th-thāniya bisababi naqṣi l-mawād
The laboratory did not run the second test because of a shortage of materials.
Using a heavy administrative shell without a register purpose
تم القيام بإجراء عملية تعديل للموعد
tamma l-qiyāmu bi-ʾijrāʾi ʿamaliyyati taʿdīlin lil-mawʿid
A process of modifying the appointment was carried out. (grammatical but needlessly bureaucratic and agentless)
غيرت الإدارة الموعد وأبلغت المشاركين فورا
ghayyarati l-ʾidāratu l-mawʿida wa-ʾablaghati l-mushārikīna fawran
The administration changed the appointment and informed the participants immediately. (clear formal MSA)
Key Takeaways
- أجرى directly governs an accusative event noun; do not insert بـ from قام بـ.
- Established partners include فحص، اختبار، تجربة، مقابلة، محادثات، انتخابات، عملية، تعديلات، تحقيق.
- The event noun controls later prepositions: مقابلة مع، محادثات مع ... بشأن، تعديلات على، تحقيق في.
- Tense, agreement, and mood remain on final-weak أجرى / يجري / يجر.
- The construction is useful formal MSA, but a direct verb is usually better when nominal packaging adds neither precision nor useful modification.
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