Breakdown of أثني على الجدارية، ناهيك عن المزار.
الal
the
ناهيك عنnâhîka 'an
not to mention / let alone
مزارmazâr
shrine
أثنى علىathnâ 'alâ
to praise (+ preposition)
جداريةjidâriyyah
mural
Questions & Answers about أثني على الجدارية، ناهيك عن المزار.
Why is the passive verb أثني (u'thniya) in the masculine form when the apparent subject, الجدارية (the mural), is feminine?
This is the core of an impersonal passive! The active verb أثنى (to praise) is intransitive, meaning it needs the preposition على to connect to its object. When we make it passive, the verb doesn't take الجدارية as a true grammatical subject. Instead, the whole prepositional phrase على الجدارية acts as a placeholder subject. Because there is no true feminine subject for the verb to agree with, the passive verb defaults to the 3rd person masculine singular, أُثْنِيَ.
How exactly is the passive أثني formed from the active verb?
The active Form IV verb is أَثْنَى (he praised), which is a defective verb (meaning it ends in a weak letter). To make a past tense verb passive, we generally change the first vowel to a damma (u) and the second-to-last to a kasra (i). So, أَثْنَى becomes أُثْنِيَ (u'thniya). Notice how the final alif maqsuura (ى) turns into a ي to match the kasra sound right before it.
What is the literal meaning of ناهيك عن, and does the ـك suffix change depending on who I am speaking to?
ناهيك عن is a very common fixed idiom meaning not to mention or let alone. Literally, it comes from the root for forbidding or sufficing, meaning something like it is enough to stop you (from needing to mention more). While the ـك is technically the you suffix, the phrase is usually frozen as ناهيك عن in modern writing regardless of the audience, though you might occasionally see it matched to the listener (like ناهيكم for plural) in highly formal or classical contexts.
How does the word الجدارية relate to its root?
الجدارية (the mural) is a noun created by adding the feminine nisba adjective suffix (ـيّة) to the noun جدار (wall). It literally translates to the wall-related thing, which perfectly describes a mural!
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