Arabic and English Sentence Patterns: A Comparative Guide

63 | P a g e 31 Quirk and Greenbaum, Grammar 51. 32 Or tense (see p. 8). 33 The emphatic form is at times referred to as a tense. See McCarus, Grammar 103. 34 Jacobs, Syntax 86, 365, 367. For a discussion of real and unreal conditions, see Palmer, Mood 188-94. 35 For conjugation charts, see Raymond Scheindlin, 201 Arabic Verbs (New York: Barron’s Educational Series, 1978); Peter F. Abboud, et al, eds. Elementary Modern Standard Arabic 1 (1968: New York: Cambridge UP, 1995) 235, 263-66, 383-85, 484-91. 36 The final jussive sukuun ْ◌ on ﯾَﻜُﻦْ is replaced by a helping vowel since there is a connection ( وَﺻْﻠَﺔ ) with the following word. 37 Binnick, Time 67. 38 There is one notable exception: the future negating particle ﻟَﻦْ takes a subjunctive verb and often functions in independent clauses. 39 This relates to MSA modality ( ﻣَﺸْﺮوطِﯿﱠﺔ ) only. In colloquial Arabic, certain verbal forms ( ﻻزِم ، ﺿَﺮوري ، ﻣَﻔْﺮوض ، ﯾِﻤْﻜِﻦ ، اﻟﺦ ) are used in a manner similar to English modals. 40 Since Arabic is an inflected language, in which form identifies function, Arabic verbs are conjugated and nouns declined. Instructional texts, however, sometimes refer to verb conjugations as declensions due to the similarity of noun and verb markings. As Arabic has no uninflected verbs, terms such as indeclinable are often used. 41 The tense marking of verbs such as ﯾَﺠِﺐُ and ﯾُﻤْﻜِﻦُ does not affect time reference, due to its fixed status. The particles ﻟَﻦْ ، ﺳَﻮْفَ ﻟَﻢْ ، consistently indicate time (past, future, and future, respectively), although they are not marked for tense. 42 Adapted from Quirk and Greenbaum, Grammar 24-25.