Forms IX and X and quadriliteral verbs

Hi everyone!

In this final (إن شاء الله) conjugation post, we’re going to look at Forms IX (f3all) and X (staf3al) and the two quadriliteral (four-letter) patterns, fa3lal and tfa3lal. As in previous posts, I’ll start by looking at the stems used in the perfective and imperfective. I’ll then briefly give some examples of how these stems interact with affixes.

Stem shapes

Form IX is the simplest of all. There is only one possible stem shape:

احمر 7marr went red

يحمر yi-7marr he goes red

Form X is more complicated as there are variants for all the different kinds of root. Note though that the basic alternation of a in the perfective and i in the imperfective is the same throughout. Note that for some common hollow and doubled forms, the a can be dropped in the imperfective (يستفيد yi-stfiid ‘he benefits’):

استغرب staghrab was surprised	يستغرب yi-staghreb he’s surprised
استشار stashaar consulted	يستشير yi-stashiir he consults
استغنى staghna did without	يستغني yi-staghni he does without
استحب sta7abb thought X was nice	يستحب yi-sta7ibb he thinks X is nice

The two types of quadriliteral (four-letter) verbs look very similar to Form IIs and Vs respectively. They have only sound and defective variants:

بهدل bahdal told off	يبهدل y-bahdel he tells off
فرشى farsha brushed	يفرشي y-farshi he brushes
تبهدل tbahdal got told off	يتبهدل yi-tbahdal he gets told off
تفرشى tfarsha got brushed	يتفرشى yi-tfarsha he gets brushed

Conjugation

Assuming you’ve internalised the rules we’ve looked at so far, these forms should present no problems for you. As elsewhere, the main question in the imperfective is whether the stem begins with a doubled consonant or a single consonant, which determines which set of prefixes it uses (the y- set or the yi- set in the examples above). As in every other form, adding suffixes causes deletion of a short e or o (but not a) in the stem, often triggering addition of a helping vowel:

يبهدلو y-bahidl-u they tell off	يتبهدلو yi-tbahdal-u they get told off
تستغرب ti-staghreb you (m.) are surprised	تستغربي ti-staghirb-i you (f.) are surprised

As usual, imperfective suffixes also cause a defective final vowel to drop:

يفرشي y-farshi he brushes	يفرشو y-farsh-u they brush
يستغني yi-staghni he does without	يستغنو yi-staghn-u they do without

In the perfective all the normal concerns apply. Sound verbs simply attach the suffixes straightforwardly, while all other types distinguish between suffixes beginning with consonants and suffixes beginning with vowels. Hollow forms have a short stem (with a) used before consonant-initial suffixes:

استفاد stafaad he benefited

استفدتي stafad-ti you (f.) benefited

The final stem -a of defective forms is lost when vowel-initial suffixes are added and becomes -ee- when consonant-initial suffixes are added:

فرشى farsha he brushed	فرشينا farshee-na we brushed
فرشيتو farshee-tu you (p.) brushed	فرشو farsh-u they brushed

Stems ending in doubled consonants (note that this includes all Form IX verbs!) gain an -ee- when consonant-initial suffixes are added:

احمر 7marr he went red	احمريت 7marree-t I went red
استحب sta7abb he considered (it) good	استحبيتي sta7abbee-ti you went red

With that, you should know how to conjugate almost all the common types of verbs in the perfective and the (base) imperfective. We can now move on to something a bit more interesting: how the different tense forms work in practice.