الأَفْعالُ الناقِصَةُ Introduction

In Arabic a فِعْلٌ is usually considered a complete sentence. for example أَكَلَ means ”he ate”. No additional details are required, although they may be provided.

However, there is a group of أَفْعَال in Arabic which are generally unable to convey a complete meaning. These are called الأَفْعالُ الناقِصَةُ (incomplete الأَفْعالُ). For example, أَصْبَحَ means ”He became”. Clearly it is incomplete without information that answers ”what did he become?”.

Now, recall that in a جُمْلَةٌ إِسْمِيَّةٌ a مُبْتَدَأ is required and it is accompanied by either a خَبر or مُتَعَلِّقٌ بِالخبر which gives additional information. Because these incomplete الأَفْعالُ need extra information, they are grammatically considered to be مُبْتَدَأ in a جُمْلَةٌ إِسْمِيَّةٌ. The doer of the فِعْلٌ is called إِسْمٌ and its detail is called the خَبر.

In this module we will study such الأَفْعالُ الناقِصَةُ (incomplete الأَفْعالُ).