منع — prevent with من + maṣdar and take a direct person object | Arabic (Modern Standard) Grammar

مَنَعَ covers two related ideas: stopping someone or something from acting, and officially prohibiting an activity. In the central personal frame, the person affected is a direct object and the blocked action follows من + verbal noun: منعه من الدخول “he prevented him from entering.” English uses from in the same broad place, but Arabic still requires careful control of what is direct and what follows the preposition.

This is a sound Form-I verb from root م-ن-ع. Its final ع favors the فَعَلَ يَفْعَلُ pattern: مَنَعَ يَمْنَعُ. It conjugates regularly, and its passive forms are particularly common in news, law, security, and public notices; see the passive overview for the voice system beyond this verb.

Lookup card and principal parts

Item	Verified form	Use
root and Form	م-ن-ع، Form I	sound verb, فَعَلَ يَفْعَلُ
perfect	مَنَعَ	he prevented / prohibited
imperfect indicative	يَمْنَعُ	he / it prevents
imperative, 2 m.sg.	اِمْنَعْ	prevent! / stop!
verbal noun	مَنْعٌ	prevention, prohibition, ban
active participle	مَانِعٌ	preventing; obstacle or deterrent
passive	مُنِعَ — يُمْنَعُ	was / is prevented or prohibited
passive participle	مَمْنُوعٌ	prohibited; barred

The principal-parts chain is مَنَعَ — يَمْنَعُ — اِمْنَعْ — مَنْعًا. The command's initial alif is hamzat al-waṣl: imnaʿ initially, but وامنع is pronounced wamnaʿ after و. Do not confuse Form-I منع with Form-VIII امتنع عن “refrain from / abstain from,” where the subject voluntarily or inherently does not act.

منع الحارس الزوار من دخول المنطقة المغلقة.

manaʿa l-ḥārisu z-zuwwāra min dukhūli l-minṭaqati l-mughlaqa.

The guard prevented visitors from entering the closed area. (Formal neutral.)

يمنع هذا الغطاء تسرب الماء إلى الجهاز.

yamnaʿu hādhā l-ghiṭāʾu tasarruba l-māʾi ʾilā l-jihāz.

This cover prevents water from leaking into the device. (Formal technical register.)

💡

With an affected person, memorize the complete frame مَنَعَ شخصًا مِنْ شيءٍ. The person is direct; من introduces what that person is kept away from.

A compact working paradigm

All three radicals remain visible in the perfect and imperfect: مَنَعْتُ، مَنَعْنَا، مَنَعُوا and أَمْنَعُ، نَمْنَعُ، تَمْنَعُ، يَمْنَعُ. The moods are regular: لن يمنعَ and لم يمنعْ. Commands are اِمْنَعْ، اِمْنَعِي، اِمْنَعَا، اِمْنَعُوا، اِمْنَعْنَ.

Environment	Form	Meaning
perfect, 1 pl.	مَنَعْنَا	we prevented / prohibited
indicative, 3 f.sg.	تَمْنَعُ	she / it prevents
subjunctive	لَنْ يَمْنَعَ	he / it will not prevent
jussive	لَمْ يَمْنَعْ	he / it did not prevent
imperative	اِمْنَعْ	prevent! / stop!

لن يمنع التأخير الفريق من إكمال المشروع.

lan yamnaʿa t-taʾkhīru l-farīqa min ʾikmāli l-mashrūʿ.

The delay will not prevent the team from completing the project. (Formal.)

امنعوا الأطفال من الاقتراب من الأسلاك المكشوفة.

imnaʿū l-ʾaṭfāla mina l-iqtirābi mina l-ʾaslāki l-makshūfa.

Keep children from approaching the exposed wires. (Formal safety instruction.)

The passive keeps من when a person is barred from an action: مُنِعَ من السفر “he was prevented from traveling.” When the activity itself becomes the grammatical subject, no personal object is needed: مُنِعَ التدخين “smoking was prohibited.”

منع اللاعب من المشاركة في المباراة التالية.

muniʿa l-lāʿibu mina l-mushārakati fī l-mubārāti t-tāliya.

The player was barred from taking part in the next match. (Formal sports/news register.)

Ranked meanings and valency

1. Stop a person from an action: direct person + من

The affected person or group is accusative, while the blocked action follows من as a verbal noun or من أنْ + subjunctive. The verbal noun is usually shorter and more idiomatic in formal prose.

منع المرض الطالبة من حضور الامتحان.

manaʿa l-maraḍu ṭ-ṭālibata min ḥuḍūri l-imtiḥān.

Illness prevented the student from attending the examination. (Formal neutral.)

منعهم انقطاع الاتصال من أن يرسلوا النتائج في موعدها.

manaʿahumu nqiṭāʿu l-ittiṣāli min ʾan yursilū n-natāʾija fī mawʿidihā.

The communication outage prevented them from sending the results on time. (Formal.)

In the second example, هم is the direct object attached to منع, while انقطاع الاتصال is the delayed subject. English word order can obscure that division.

2. Avert or block an event: direct event noun

When no affected person needs to be named, an event noun may be the direct object: منع وقوع الحادث، منع انتشار العدوى، منع تسرب البيانات. This frame means that a cause or measure stops the event from occurring.

منع التدخل السريع انتشار الحريق إلى المبنى المجاور.

manaʿa t-tadakhkhulu s-sarīʿu intishāra l-ḥarīqi ʾilā l-mabnā l-mujāwir.

The rapid intervention prevented the fire from spreading to the neighboring building. (Formal news style.)

3. Ban or prohibit an activity

An authority can take the activity as a direct object: منع التدخين، منع التصوير، منع الاستيراد. In notices and regulations, the passive or the adjective ممنوع is often preferred because the rule matters more than whoever issued it.

منعت البلدية وقوف الشاحنات في هذا الشارع ليلا.

manaʿati l-baladiyyatu wuqūfa sh-shāḥināti fī hādhā sh-shāriʿi laylan.

The municipality prohibited trucks from parking on this street at night. (Formal administrative.)

التصوير ممنوع في هذه المنطقة لأسباب أمنية.

at-taṣwīru mamnūʿun fī hādhihi l-minṭaqati liʾasbābin ʾamniyya.

Photography is prohibited in this area for security reasons. (Formal notice.)

4. Deny or withhold something

Older and formal Arabic also permits منع شخصا الشيء “deny someone the thing” and منعه من حقه “deprive him of his right.” Contemporary prose often chooses حرم من when deprivation is the focus, but the منع frame remains established.

لا يجوز منع أي موظف من حقه في الاعتراض.

lā yajūzu manʿu ʾayya muwaẓẓafin min ḥaqqihi fī l-iʿtirāḍ.

No employee may be denied the right to object. (Formal/legal.)

💡

Use منع for an outside agent or condition that blocks something. Use امتنع عن when the subject refrains: منعته من الكلام “I stopped him from speaking,” but امتنع عن الكلام “he refrained from speaking.”

High-frequency collocations

Collocation	Meaning and register
مَنَعَهُ مِنَ الدُّخُولِ	prevented/barred him from entering (formal-neutral)
مَنَعَ وُقُوعَ حَادِثٍ	prevented an accident (formal-neutral)
مَنْعُ التَّدْخِينِ	smoking ban / banning smoking (administrative)
مَمْنُوعُ الدُّخُولِ	no entry / entry prohibited (notice)
مَمْنُوعٌ مِنَ السَّفَرِ	barred from traveling (legal/news)
لَا مَانِعَ مِنْ	there is no objection/impediment to (formal)

Common Mistakes

Marking the affected person with لـ

❌ منع الحارس للزائر من الدخول.

Incorrect for the intended verbal sentence—the person being stopped is a direct object, not a لـ phrase.

✅ منع الحارس الزائر من الدخول.

manaʿa l-ḥārisu z-zāʾira mina d-dukhūl.

The guard prevented the visitor from entering.

Putting a bare finite verb after من

❌ منعته من يفتح الملف.

Incorrect—من governs a noun/verbal noun, or it can be followed by أنْ plus a subjunctive verb.

✅ منعته من فتح الملف.

manaʿtuhu min fatḥi l-milaff.

I prevented him from opening the file.

Using the wrong preposition with voluntary restraint

❌ امتنع المتحدث على التعليق.

Incorrect—voluntary امتنع takes عن before the activity.

✅ امتنع المتحدث عن التعليق.

imtanaʿa l-mutaḥaddithu ʿani t-taʿlīq.

The speaker refrained from commenting.

Mispronouncing the imperfect vowel

❌ يمنع القانون نشر هذه البيانات.

yamniʿu l-qānūnu nashra hādhihi l-bayānāt

Incorrect reading—the imperfect is يَمْنَعُ, with a before the final ع.

✅ يمنع هذا القانون تداول البيانات السرية.

yamnaʿu hādhā l-qānūnu tadāwula l-bayānāti s-sirriyya.

This law prohibits circulation of confidential data.

Key Takeaways

Learn مَنَعَ — يَمْنَعُ — اِمْنَعْ — مَنْعًا as a sound Form-I bundle.
In منع شخصا من فعل, the affected person is direct and the blocked action follows من.
A prevented event or prohibited activity can itself be the direct object.
Passive مُنِعَ من and ممنوع are central in legal, news, and notice language.

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