Arabic and English Sentence Patterns: A Comparative Guide

23 | P a g e 5.2 TIME REFERENCE : PAST TENSe : PAST ﺰﻣﻦ اﻟ : اﻟﻤﺎﺿﻲ وأ اﻟﻤﻀﺎرع اﻟﻤﺠﺰوم 1. S – V pst S – V pst 44F 45 The student studied. دَرَسَ اﻟﻄّﺎﻟِﺐُ. 2. S – PRI pst – NEG – V inf S – V jus – NEG The student did not study. 46 ﻟَﻢْ ﯾَﺪْرُسِ اﻟﻄّﺎﻟِﺐُ. S – V pst – NEG ﻣﺎ دَرَسَ اﻟﻄّﺎﻟِﺐُ. 3. PRI pst - S – V inf S – V pst - INT Did the student study? ھَ ﻞْ دَرَسَ اﻟﻄّﺎﻟِﺐُ ؟ 4. PRI pst + NEG - S – V inf S – V jus – NEG - INT Didn’t the student study? أَﻟَﻢْ ﯾَﺪْرُسِ اﻟﻄّﺎﻟِﺐُ ؟ Since auxiliaries (in this case, the past-tense did ) are consistently followed by fixed verb forms (in this case, the infinitive study ), the English tense designation applies only to the auxiliary, which determines the time frame of the sentence. The same principle applies to all charts that include auxiliaries. TIMe : past اﻟ ﺰﻣﻦ : اﻟﻤﺎﺿﻲ 1 English اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ