When the tickets are piling up during a chaotic dinner rush, there is no time for polite requests. You need your kitchen staff to act immediately. In Arabic, you can turn a standard instruction into an urgent, intensified command using the Heavy Emphatic Suffix.
Urgent Commands (نون التوكيد الثقيلة)
In a previous lesson, you saw the heavy emphatic suffix (ـنَّ) used with present tense verbs to make absolute vows. You can also attach this exact same suffix directly to an imperative (command) verb. When you do, it intensifies the command, giving it a sense of urgency like "do it right now!" or "you must do this!"
To apply this to a basic singular masculine command, you change the final sukun (absence of a vowel) to a fatha and attach the ـنَّ. (Note that in unvoweled text, this simply looks like an attached ـن).
- عجل (hurry) becomes عجلن (hurry up!)
- تبل (season) becomes تبلن (season well/now!)
Here is what these urgent commands look like in the heat of the kitchen:
| Hurry up! It is necessary that we finish this order. | عجلن! من الضروري أن ننهي هذه الطلبية.'ajjilanna! mina ad-darûriyyi an nunhiya hâdhihi at-talabiyyata. |
| Season the meat well! | تبلن اللحم جيدا!tabbilanna l-lahma jayyidan! |
| Peel the potatoes and use the pot! | قشرن البطاطس واستخدمن الإناء!qashshiranna albatâtisa wastakhdimanna al'inâ'a! |
Emphasizing Weak Verbs
Some verbs end in a weak letter (a vowel), like غلّى (to boil something, present يغلّي) or حشا (to stuff, present يحشو). Normally, when you turn these into a command, that final weak letter is dropped: "boil!" is غلِّ and "stuff!" is احشُ.
However, when you attach the heavy emphatic suffix, the dropped letter returns, so the suffix has something to connect to. It comes back as the letter the present tense ends in: ي for يغلّي, و for يحشو.
- غلِّ (boil) becomes غلين (boil right now!)
- احشُ (stuff) becomes احشون (stuff right now!)
Notice how the returned letter acts as a bridge for the emphatic suffix in these urgent orders:
| Boil the water, Tariq, and peel the carrots! | غلين الماء يا طارق وقشرن الجزر!ghalliyanna al-mâ'a yâ târiqu waqashshiranna al-jazara! |
| Stuff the chicken, O chef! | احشون الدجاج يا أيها الطاهي!uhshuwanna ad-dajâja yâ ayyuhâ at-tâhî! |
Seeing the endings
This course writes Arabic the way books and newspapers print it, without the short-vowel marks, so the ن of this ending is written, but its fatha and its doubling are something you hear in the audio and cannot see in the drills. Here are some of them with every vowel written out:
| as written | fully vocalized | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| عجلن! من الضروري أن ننهي هذه الطلبية. | عَجِّلَنَّ! مِنَ الضَّرُورِيِّ أَنْ نُنْهِيَ هَذِهِ الطَّلَبِيَّةَ. | Hurry up! It is necessary that we finish this order. |
| تبلن اللحم جيدا! | تَبِّلَنَّ اللَّحْمَ جَيِّدًا! | Season the meat well! |
| غلين الماء يا طارق وقشرن الجزر! | غَلِّيَنَّ المَاءَ يَا طَارِقُ وَقَشِّرَنَّ الجَزَرَ! | Boil the water, Tariq, and peel the carrots! |
| احشون الدجاج يا أيها الطاهي! | اُحْشُوَنَّ الدَّجَاجَ يَا أَيُّهَا الطَّاهِي! | Stuff the chicken, O chef! |
The command to one man ends in a fatha and a doubled ن: عَجِّلَنَّ, تَبِّلَنَّ, وَقَشِّرَنَّ. Unvoweled, it looks exactly like the command to a group of women, عَجِّلْنَ, which has a sukun and a single ن. On a verb ending in a weak letter, that letter comes back and carries the fatha: ي in غَلِّيَنَّ (غلّى يغلّي), و in اُحْشُوَنَّ (حشا يحشو).
