Same letters, two words
Arabic is printed without its short vowels, so two different words can share every letter. You already know one word of each pair below. This lesson adds the second, and the sentence tells you which one you are reading.
| you know | the new word |
|---|---|
| دَخَلَ to enter | دَخْل income |
| حَدَثَ to happen | حَدَث event |
| عَقْد contract | عَقَدَ to hold (a meeting) |
| قِسْم department | قَسَم oath |
| وَجْه face | وَجَّهَ to direct |
| لَوْح board | لَوَّحَ to wave |
| أَجَلْ yes, indeed | أَجَّلَ to postpone |
| حَرَمَ to deprive | حَرَم campus |
| سِلْك wire | سَلَكَ to take (a road) |
| قَلْب heart | قَلَبَ to turn over |
Let the sentence decide
A verb usually comes first and takes a subject: in عقدت الشركة اجتماعا مهما.(aqadati sh-sharikatu ijtimâ'an muhimman) the word after عقد is the company, so عقد is something it did. A noun sits where nouns sit: after a preposition, or after the verb of its clause:
| The family's income rose this year. | ارتفع دخل العائلة هذا العام.irtafa'a dakhlu al-'â'ilati hâdhâ al-'âma |
Here ارتفع is already the verb, so دخل is its subject: the family's income.
Sometimes both words meet in one sentence:
| The manager came in and talked about the company's income. | دخل المدير وتحدث عن دخل الشركة.dakhala al-mudir wa tahaddatha 'an dakhli ash-sharika |
The first دخل has a subject after it (المدير), so it is the verb came in. The second follows the preposition عن, so it is the noun income.
Three verbs with a doubled middle letter
وَجَّهَ, لَوَّحَ and أَجَّلَ double their middle letter. The doubling is not written either, but it is what you hear:
| We postponed the trip because of the rain. | أجلنا الرحلة بسبب المطر.ajjalnâ ar-riḥlata bisababi al-maṭari |
| The child waved his hand at the plane. | لوح الطفل بيده للطائرة.lawwaha at-tiflu bi-yadihi lit-ta'irati. |
