Hi everyone!
Last time we looked at the uses of the ‘imperfective’, formed by attaching the prefix b- to the base form we learned how to conjugate a few posts ago. As you will probably know, however, the base form itself also occurs quite commonly in Syrian sentences. In this post we will briefly introduce the uses of this form, often called the subjunctive.
Most of the places that the subjunctive is used have an obvious trigger word or structure. There are a few cases, however, where it can be used on its own to give a specific meaning. For ease of organisation, we’re going to look at these independent and triggered uses separately.
The triggered subjunctive
The subjunctive is triggered by a huge range of different structures. It commonly, although not always, corresponds to an infinitive (‘to X’) in English. It behaves very similarly to structures with أن and a manSuub in fuS7a:
بحب آكل موز
b7ibb 2aakol mooz
I like to eat bananas
إن شاء الله يجي
nshaLLa yiji
I hope he comes
يا دوب تلحق
yaa doob tla77e2
you’ll only just make it
إجو منشان يشوفوكي
2iju minshaan yshufuuki
they came to see you
There is no One Easy Trick to learn what structures will trigger a subjunctive – you just have to learn them by exposure. We’ll talk a bit more about various subjunctive structures later on.
Independent subjunctive
Occasionally the subjunctive is used on its own. There are a whole range of specialised idiomatic uses, but here we can briefly summarise the most common:
روح معكن؟
ruu7 ma3kon?
should/shall I go with you?
نمشي؟
nimshi?
shall we go?
Subjunctive forms also provide a sort of third-person equivalent to the imperative. In the following structures the subject is (formally) third person. Although English can use a normal imperative here, in Arabic the second person forms would sound wrong and we use a subjunctive instead:
حدا يحكيلو كلمة
7ada yi7kiilo kilme!
someone say something!
الكل ينبطح
ilkill yinbiTe7!
everyone get down!
This imperative form can be used in broader contexts as well, but it often sounds rude or aggressive. If someone warns me that Sami is out to get me, I can say:
اي يجي يجرب حظو
2ee yiji yjarreb 7aZZo!
he can come and try his luck!
It also occurs in lots of religious expressions and invocations. Here it is commonly negated with لا laa:
يعطيك العافية
ya3Tiik il3aafye
excuse me (lit. God give you strength)
الله لا يردك
2aLLa laa yriddak
may God not bring you back
That’s it for now. Next time we’ll look briefly at the semantics of the perfective (the ماضي), as previously promised.