Arabic Essential Grammar #4
Hello again! Sorry itâs been 2 weeks but I am *almost* done with my summer school woo!
ANYWAYS todayâs topic was requested by somebody, but I canât find who, so if youâre reading this, this is for YOU.Â
Today we are looking at -Â
Inna (Ű„Ù) and Kaana (ÙۧÙ) and their sisters!
Sisters? in Grammar? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??
Donât worry! I will do my best to explain. To understand this, youâll need to know how cases work in Arabic, so go check out my post on this to get a basic understanding on the function of each case and how it is represented.Â
Okay, so what are Inna (Ű„Ù) and Kaana (ÙۧÙ)?
They represent categories of words which affect the case of what follows them.  Yes, these are their âsistersâ. So Inna and her sisters all follow one rule, and Kaana and her sisters follow another. Think of it as two different households, each having their own way of life and their schedule.Â
In grammatical terms, this âway of lifeâ and âdaily scheduleâ refers to the word order and the case of the different components of the sentence theyâre in.Â
These two households are important, since the words that fall into the categories are very common and necessary to have a nice written command of Arabic.Â
Now before we get into the nitty gritty, make sure you have a good idea of what the subject ( ۧÙÙ
ŰšŰȘۯۧ) and the predicate (ۧÙ۟ۚ۱) is in an Arabic nominal sentence. ( my post here introduces the concept quite succinctly!) . These are the two components whose cases are affected by Inna and Kaana!
Ű„Ù Ù ŰŁŰźÙۧŰȘÙۧ - Inna and her sisters
Here are Inna and her sisters + their meanings -Â (note the shadda ÙÂ for some of them)Â
 - Ű„ÙÙ - indeed ( inna)
- ŰŁÙÙ - that ( e.g. I heard that) (anna)
- ÙŰŁÙÙ - as if, (kaâanna)Â
- ÙÙÙÙ - but (lakinna)
- ÙÙŰčÙ - perhaps / i hope (la3alla) ( in comparison to âlaytâ which is wishful, âla3allaâ implies something is more likely to occur)
- ÙŰŁÙÙ - because (liâanna)Â
now these are all used at the beginning of a sentence to have the desired meaning. However these have a catch - whenever you use these, the subject of the sentence becomes mansuub (accusative) and the predicate becomes marfuâ3 ( nominative).Â
example sentence :ۧÙÙ
Ű·Ű±Ù ŰșŰČÙŰ±Ù - the rain is heavy - (al maáčaru ÄĄazÄ«run) - both are in the nominative.Â
-Â with Inna and akhwaatu-ha, this changes to -Â
ÙÙŰȘ ۧÙÙ
Ű·Ű±Ù ŰșŰČÙŰ±Ù - (layt al maáčara ĥazÄ«run) I wish the rain was heavy - Here , the subject ( al maáčara)  is in the accusative as opposed to the nominative and the predicate remains in the nominative.Â
This is the case, regardless if you wanted to say â indeed the rain is heavyâ or âas if the rain was heavyâ or â I heard that it was going to rainâ.Â
Why not give those sentences a try!!Â
ÙŰ§Ù Ù ŰŁŰźÙۧŰȘÙۧ - Kaana and her sisters
Kaana has a much bigger household lol - i have only included the most commonly used of her siblings.Â
- ÙŰ§Ù - (past tense indicatior e.g. ŰčÙŰŻÙ = âi haveâ but ÙŰ§Ù ŰčÙŰŻÙ = âi hadâ ) (kaana)
- ŰŁŰ”ŰšŰ = to become (asbaáž„a)Â
- ŰžÙÙ - to stay, to remain (áșalla)
- ÙÙŰł - (negation indicator - ÙÙŰł ŰčÙŰŻÙ = âi donât haveâ) (laysa)
- Ù
ۧ ŰšŰ±Ű - ( indication of continuity) (maa bariáž„a)
- Ù
ۧŰČŰ§Ù - to stay, remain ( sth that is continous to the present e.g. âhas remainedâ) ( maa zaala)Â
note - kaana and her sisters CONJUGATE to match their subject e.g. if you use ÙÙŰł in the past tense first person singular, it will become ÙŰłŰȘÙ ( iâm thinking of covering past tense conjugations next week! itâs a big one!)Â
The catch when using these is the opposite to inna wa akhwaatu-ha - the subject of the sentence becomes marfuâ3 ( nominative)  and the predicate becomes mansuub (accusative).
 so using the same example sentence , letâs use kaana wa akhwaatu-ha!
ÙŰ§Ù Ű§ÙÙ
Ű·Ű±Ù ŰșŰČÙŰ±Ù - (kaana maáčaru ĥazÄ«ran) - the rain was heavy.Â
Again, the same goes for everything else in kaanaâs family.Â
Okay, that about explains inna and kaana! Itâs easier once you get your head around it. no I donât know why it exists either.Â
I know that some bits I have left quite vague ( like what the heck is an indication of continuity and how does negation work) but Iâve done that on purpose, because honestly those all belong their own posts and I want to focus on one topic at a time, to avoid getting you ( and myself!) all muddled~Â
Of course, you can explore any of the topics you want online - donât feel like you have to wait for me!Â
For books, I recommend the Routledge Arabic Grammar and the Modern Literary Arabic by David Cowan ( old but gold!) - please try to buy them secondhand from somewhere other than amazon! letâs not support terrible working conditions! Even better - buy it local - support a charity! or your local bookshop, they definitely need it right now!Â
also recommend Arabic.desert-sky.com for fantastic blog posts that are much more to the point than mine!
Thank you for reading! Please let me know of any glaring mistakes , suggestions and requests! I will do them allllll
and of course, if you have any questions dm me!