I was asked the following questions:

IMHO, there are more than enough websites out there that explain the 10 verb forms and the most common broken plurals. I believe it would be more helpful if you wrote about topics for intermediate learners that are usually not well explained in traditional textbooks such as resolving the ambiguity issues in real-life texts without vowel signs. Take for example a highly ambiguous imperfect form such as “لم يعد”, which could be read in a number of different ways depending on the context. Or readings of “ققد” as /fa-qad/ vs /faqada/, readings of “لما” as /lamā/ vs /lammā/ vs /limā/ etc.

Here is my attempt to answer them based on what I know.

لم يعد

This phrase can be derived from several verbs:

1. لم يَعُدْ from the verb عاد – يعود – عودة , the و is dropped in the جزم case because of لم , meaning “he can/is no longer” and it is followed by a verb or an indefinite noun.

غضب فلم يَعُد يتمالك نفسه He was so angry that he could no longer control himself.

لم يَعُد يدرس اللغة العربية He no longer studies Arabic.

لم يعُد متزوجاً He is no longer married.

2. لم يَعُدَّ from the verb عدّ – يعُدُّ – عَدّ meaning “he didn’t count, consider” It is often used in its passive form:لم يُعَدَّ

لم يَعُدَّها صديقةً He didn’t consider her a friend. (active)

لم يُعَدَّ شخصاً مهماً He was not considered an important person. (passive)

لم يَعُدَّ الفلوس He didn’t count the money.

لم يعُدَّ رجاله قبل دخوله إلى الحرب He didn’t count his men before entering the war. ( he didn’t assess his manpower properly.)

3. لم يُعِد from the verb أعاد – يعيد – إعادة the ي is dropped in the جزم case because of لم, meaning “ he didn’t redo something”, and it is almost always followed by a مصدر or a noun الذكريات، القول

لم يُعِد قوله He didn’t repeat his speech.

لم يُعِد بناء بيته He didn’t rebuild his house.

لم تُعِد دار النشر طبع الكتاب The print house didn’t reprint the book.

4. لم يَعِد … بـــ from the verb وَعَد – يعِد – وعد and is almost always followed by proposition بــ ,meaning “he didn’t promise”

لم يَعِد بالخروج معنا He didn’t promise to go out with us.

5. َّلم يُعِد from the verb أعدّ – يُعِدّ – إعداد , meaning “he didn’t prepare”

لم يُعِدَّ الدرس He didn’t prepare the lesson.

فــــقد / فقد

This one is easy. فقد is a verb or masdar means “to lose or miss something” and it is ALWAYS followed by a noun. فـــقدْ means therefore , thus, already, and is ALWAYS followed by a verb. Can you guess which is which in the following examples:

إلا تنصروه فقد نصره الله If you (plural) do not help him, Allah already helped him. (It’s a very famous verse from the Quran. Here إلا = إن + لا , and him is Muhammad, the Prophet)

فقد وعيه

فقد أبلغ الشرطة عندما فقد جواز سفره

لمَّا / لمَا / لِمَا

1. لمَّا = عندما means “when, while”, and is usually placed at the beginning of a sentence.

2. لِمَا consists of two words ل + ما الموصولة means “for which” and is followed by a phrase or full sentence explaining “for what” ما here is a connecting word, equivalent of “which, that, what” in English.

أجهِّز نفسي لِمَا بعد هذه المرحلة I prepare myself for what’s coming after this stage.

بدأت الحكومة مشروعاً جديداً لما من شأنه توفير فرص عمل للشباب The government started a new project in order to provide job opportunities for young people. (لما من شأنه is used all the time in media Arabic, meaning in order to…, it’s purpose is to… , during which…)

3. لمَا is the combination of two words: ل الرابطة وما النافية and is only used with لو، لولا اسما شرط غير جازمين in a conditional sentence as a pair. The basic construction goes like this: لولا… لَ / لو … ل, and ما is added only if the second half of the conditional sentence is negative.

لولا المطر لمَا نجت الزرعة If there was no rain, the plant would not have survived.

لو نزل المطر لَمَا جفت الزرعة If there was rain, the plant would not have dried up.

لولا المطر لَجفَّت الزرعة Or we can say the same sentence without ما: If there was no rain, the plant would have dried up.

I have never seen لَمَا used without “لو ، لولا”, so if you’ve seen otherwise please let me know.

♦ ♦ ♦

If you understood the rest of the sentence, you would know which meaning to apply. But in situations where you don’t understand the rest of the sentence and you are forced to guess blindly (e.g. in an exam), then go by these rules:

– The most common meanings of لم يعد are “no longer” and “didn’t consider or wasn’t considered”. Try the two and see which one fits better.

– فقد is easy to tell. Just look at what’s coming after it. If it’s a verb, فقد means “therefore, already,” if it’s a noun, فقد mean “lost, missed”

– When لما is used at the beginning of a sentence it usually means “when”, and when it’s used in the middle of a sentence it means “for that, in order to, with the purpose of” , and when it’s used in a conditional sentence with “لولا…. لما” it means didn’t / wouldn’t have / couldn’t have.

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