Jussive and imperative in Arabic
In the last post about the moods in Arabic, we covered the indicative and the subjunctive.
Now it’s time to look at the jussive and the imperative, let’s take them one at a time.
Jussive in Arabic
The key marker of the jussive is the absence of the final vowel:
The indicative ends with damma
The subjunctive ends with fatha
The jussive ends with sukuun
The jussive is less common and is mainly required in written Arabic and under specific grammatical conditions.
Here is the verb “to write” conjugated in the jussive:
It’s important to keep in mind that when a Form 1 verb has a doubled final consonant and is put in the jussive, a consonant cluster is formed, and this is not common in MSA.
To avoid this cluster, a fatha is added, which makes the form look similar to the subjunctive.
Here is an example:
The jussive is used in the following cases:
In conditional sentences
With the negative particle لَمْ lam to negate the past
With the negative imperative particle لا la
With the indirect imperative particle لِ li-
As the base form for building the imperative
Among these, #2 and #5 are the most commonly used, and we will focus on them in this post.
Here are some examples using the negative particle لَمْ lam to negate the past. Notice that the verb is not in the past tense form, but rather in the jussive, while still expressing a past meaning.
Now, since the jussive is the foundation for forming the imperative, let’s take a look at how it works.
Imperative in Arabic
The imperative, or command form of the verb in Arabic, is derived from the present tense in the jussive mood. It is used mainly for the second person, but it can also appear in the first person plural (“let’s…”) and the third person (“let him/her/them…”).
The general rule for forming the imperative is:
Take the second-person form of the jussive and remove the prefix تـ (ta-).
If the remaining stem begins with a consonant cluster, then a helping vowel is added at the beginning.
Here are the imperative forms of the verb “to write”:
Now let’s take a look at some additional examples of imperative verbs in different forms:
As you can see, the imperative can be used with almost all verbs, including those with four-letter roots.
A small note regarding the verb “to come” جاءَ – يَجيءُ: it has its own imperative form, derived from a completely different root.
To negate the imperative, you use the particle لَا (la) followed by the jussive form of the verb. Note that in the jussive, the verb keeps the prefix.
Here are some examples:
