# Dictionary Verb Entry: فعل - يفعل - فعلاً



## theeasternfox

Hello!

I possess a Malay-Arabic dictionary and am confused with the verb categorization as an example:

عهد-يعهد-عهدا

I know عهد means to promise however what is the meaning of عهدا؟ 

Thank you


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## elroy

It looks like your dictionary lists the masdar (gerund) form in the accusative, following the past and present tense forms.


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## cherine

Yes, that's how we learned verbs: past form, present form and maSdar. فعل - يفعل - فعلاً .


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## fdb

This is how verbs are entered in all traditional Arabic dictionaries. I do hope, however, that your dictionary indicates the vowels as well. Otherwise it would be fairly useless.


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## theeasternfox

elroy said:


> It looks like your dictionary lists the masdar (gerund) form in the accusative, following the past and present tense forms.



I think so too. So does this mean if I were to write the gerund I just change the accusative sign towards a nominative sign?


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## elroy

It depends on the sentence.  Gerunds are like any other nouns and can be in the nominative, accusative, or genitive case.


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## theeasternfox

Oh, and one more related question, are gerundives used in a way to indicate nouns such as the word download = تشغيل
If so does this conclude that gerundives are same as verbal nouns?


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## fdb

“Gerund” and a “gerundive” are terms in Latin grammar, and designate two very different things. Neither is an adequate translation for maṣdar مصدر. The usual translation for maṣdar is “infinitive” or “verbal noun”.


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## elroy

theeasternfox said:


> Oh, and one more related question, are gerundives used in a way to indicate nouns such as the word download = تشغيل


 I'm not sure I understand your question.  Could you clarify what you're asking about?


fdb said:


> “Gerund” and a “gerundive” are terms in Latin grammar, and designate two very different things. Neither is an adequate translation for maṣdar مصدر. The usual translation for maṣdar is “infinitive” or “verbal noun”.


 While "gerund" doesn't cover all the uses of a مصدر, it's certainly adequate for many of them, and I don't think "infinitive" is a more accurate (or more common) translation.  "Verbal noun" is a more all-encompassing translation.  I'm not very familiar with the term "gerundive."


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## aasheq

In the Wehr/Cowan dictionary مصدر , in its grammatical sense, is defined as "infinitive, verbal noun".


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## elroy

I don't see how "infinitive" is a better translation than "gerund."  A مصدر, like a gerund, has all the properties of a noun and is licensed in the same syntactic environments as a noun, but the same doesn't apply to an infinitive.

the feeding of the animals 
إطعام الحيوانات 
the to feed of the animals 

after swimming 
بعد السباحة 
after to swim 

In other words, I can't think of any situations in which you can have a gerund in English but can't have a مصدر in Arabic, but there are situations, as the above examples show, in which you can have a مصدر but can't have an infinitive (specifically, an infinitive cannot have an _of_ prepositional phrase as a complement, and it cannot be the object of a preposition), so why would "infinitive" be a better translation than "gerund"?


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## theeasternfox

A question elroy or anyone who can answer: how does Arabic treat the infinitive in a sentence as a direct object or an adjective and how is it written example:

No matter how fascinating her face is, Amin turns his head and refuses to look.

To look functions as a noun because it is the direct object for the verb refuses.

How is 'to look' written? Is it written as ْان ينظر or its مصدر

If it was an adjective example: She always brings _to read._ 

How is it written?


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## elroy

The infinitive most frequently corresponds to المصدر or المصدر المؤول in Arabic.  In your sentence, you could use either: يرفض النظر إليها or يرفض أن ينظر إليها. 

Your second sentence is incomplete.  Did you mean "She always brings a book to read"?  If so, I would say هي دائمًا تحضر كتابًا للقراءة.  You can't use المصدر المؤول in that type of sentence.


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## theeasternfox

^Oh! So I just replace it with masdars then? Thank you!


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## elroy

It depends on the context and the usage.  I'm hesitant to generalize, as it's unlikely the same form will work every time.


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## theeasternfox

Of course Elroy I understand completely what you mean


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## theeasternfox

elroy said:


> I'm not sure I understand your question.  Could you clarify what you're asking about?
> While "gerund" doesn't cover all the uses of a مصدر, it's certainly adequate for many of them, and I don't think "infinitive" is a more accurate (or more common) translation.  "Verbal noun" is a more all-encompassing translation.  I'm not very familiar with the term "gerundive."


I have the question:

You know how English describes the act of a verb in noun sense? (verbal noun)
Example:  A Connection Request ( طلب وصول)

My question is if the verbal noun form were to appear how would I translate it? I have confusion whether to translate as example the verbal noun connection especially in idaafa construction as:

(a) the act of connecting something to another

(b) connection

(c) connect

I know it is confusing but this is what I face when trying to interpret verbal nouns hope you can answer :/


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## elroy

It depends on the context, theeasternfox.  If you have specific phrases you'd like to discuss, please start a new thread for each.


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