Parenting and Education
A verbal noun (المصدر) represents the idea of an action without being tied to a specific time or tense.
| care (sponsorship, protection) | رعايةri'âya |
| guiding | توجيهtawjîh |
Syntactic Governance (عمل المصدر)
In Arabic, verbal nouns can act syntactically like the verbs they are derived from. This is known as عمل المصدر (verbal noun governance).
When a verbal noun has a logical subject (the doer) and a direct object (the receiver), here is how the case endings work:
- Logical Subject: The verbal noun forms an Idaafa (genitive construct) with the doer. The logical subject immediately follows the verbal noun and takes the genitive case.
- Direct Object: The logical object remains in the accusative case, exactly as if a regular verb had acted upon it.
In the following example, notice how الأمِّ (the mother) takes the genitive case, while أبناءَها (her children) takes the accusative case.
| The mother's care of her children is a great responsibility. | رعاية الأم أبناءها مسؤولية عظيمة.riâyatu al-ummi abnâ'ahâ mas'ûliyyatun azîmatun |
| The teacher's guiding of his students continues to be important. | لا يزال توجيه المعلم طلابه مهما.lâ yazâlu tawjîhu al-mu'allimi tullâbahu muhimman |
Dual Subjects and Additional Objects
This structure behaves consistently regardless of the noun's number. If the logical subject is a dual noun, such as "the parents", it takes the genitive dual ending ـين (rather than the nominative ـان).
| The parents' disciplining of their children is the foundation of the family. | تهذيب الوالدين أبناءهما أساس العائلة.tahdhību al-wâlidayni abnâ'ahumâ asâsu al-'â'ilati. |
| The mother's neglecting of her child leads to a big problem. | إهمال الأم طفلها يؤدي إلى مشكلة كبيرة.ihmâlu l-ummi tiflahâ yu'addî ilâ mushkilatin kabîratin |
If a verbal noun represents an action that naturally takes two direct objects (like "teaching someone something"), it can govern multiple objects in the accusative case simultaneously. Below, both أبناءَ (children) and الأخلاقَ (morals) are accusative objects of the verbal noun تعليم (teaching).
| The parents' teaching their children morals is very important. | تعليم الوالدين أبناءهما الأخلاق مهم جدا.ta'lîmu l-wâlidayni abnâ'ahumâ l-akhlâqa muhimmun jiddan |
Seeing the endings
This course writes Arabic the way books and newspapers print it, without the short-vowel marks, so the ending this lesson is about is usually something you hear in the audio but cannot see in the drills. Here are some of them with every vowel written out:
| as written | fully vocalized | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| عقاب المعلم الطالب مهم أحيانا. | عِقَابُ المُعَلِّمِ الطَّالِبَ مُهِمٌّ أَحْيَانًا. | The teacher's punishment of the student is sometimes important. |
| تهذيب الوالدين أبناءهما أساس العائلة. | تَهْذِيبُ الوَالِدَيْنِ أَبْنَاءَهُمَا أَسَاسُ العَائِلَةِ. | The parents' disciplining of their children is the foundation of the family. |
| إطعام الأب طفله طعاما صحيا مفيد. | إِطْعَامُ الأَبِ طِفْلَهُ طَعَامًا صِحِّيًّا مُفِيدٌ. | The father's feeding his child healthy food is beneficial. |
The doer right after the verbal noun is genitive: المُعَلِّمِ, الأَبِ. The one the action is done to stays accusative, as it would after a verb: الطَّالِبَ, طِفْلَهُ. In the first drill only these vowels tell the teacher from the student. Two endings can be seen: the dual doer الوَالِدَيْنِ, with ـين, and the alif of the second object طَعَامًا.
