Chapter 1.10 Part 1

, like the words and , is an adverb which in Arabic is called (pl. ). These are words which often provide a detail about the verb, specifically when or where the verb was done.

You may remember many lessons ago, that when something answers when or where the verb was done, then that will be منصوب on the basis of مفعول فيه. Just like the thing that answers why a verb was done will also be منصوب because of مفعول له, or the object of a verb because of مفعول به. For example 17:31 in the Quran: ((And do not kill your children for fear of poverty.)). Here, is answering the question, "On what was the killing done?". And is answering the question, "Why was the killing done." Then, we have the حال and ذو الحال which answers the question "In what state was the verb done?". And the state is either of the subject of the verb, the object of the verb, or both:

• ((Zaid reached Madinah riding))
• ((I heard the boy laughing))
• ((We sat waiting))

Finally, if we have a detail of the verb that does not match anything above i.e. it isn't answering any of the following questions:

• On what/whom was the verb done مفعول به
• When/where was the verb done? مفعول فيه
• What was the state of the subject/object/both حال
• Why was the verb done? مفعول له

then it will be what is called مفعول مطلق, which we can translate for now as the generic adverb. It serves a number of purposes that will be studied in detail later.

Here we have another adverb , but unlike what we've discussed so far, it isn't an adverb of time or place. Recall from The Three Parts of Speech that adjectives modify nouns and adverbs modify anything other than nouns. Some modify verbs as we've seen above. Others, like come and modify an adjective (here it is modifying the word ). In English, we say the adverb first, then the adjective, and finish with the noun: "A very powerful king." In Arabic, the order is inverted with the noun first, then the description, then the adverb:

This is the main discussion for our lesson. Here we see an exception for the first time in the book. In Arabic, the word for exception is اِسْتِثْنَاء which is a مصدر that literally means "exclusion, exception". An exception is made of 3 parts.

1. الْمُسْتَثْنَى مِنْهُ - the group being excluded from (literally means "excluded from").
2. حَرْفُ الْإِسْتِثْنَاء - the particle of exclusion. This is the word creating the exclusion. In English it would be words like, "except, other than, not including".
3. الْمُسْتَثْنَى - the thing excluded

All three of these will combine to form a phrase. The مُسْتَثْنًى مِنْهُ is , the حَرْفُ الْإِسْتِثْنَاء is and the مُسْتَثْنًى is the word All three together form the مفعول به for the verb :