finding the origin/roots of words

[Ummu Sufyaan]

im wondering if there is any hard and fast rules to get to the root of a word.

 

[muslim1]

Yes the root of a word in Arabic is considered by the past for. There are words whose past for is 3 letters, others 4 letters, others 5 letters and others 6 letters. :smile:

 

[muslim1]

Any further questions, It will be my pleasure to answer. eace:

 

[Ummu Sufyaan]

can you please give an example?

 

[muslim1]

Yes sure. :thumbs_up

For three letter verbs, you have: لعب، نصر، ركب، كتب، إلخ
For four letter verbs, you have: أنفق، بعثر، زيّن، بهرج، إلخ
For five letter verbs, you have: انصرف، انقطع، استمع، استلم، إلخ
For six letter verbs, you have: استخرج، استفسر، استنفد، استيقظ، إلخ

Hope it makes sense now

 

[Ummu Sufyaan]

so in other words, if i want to know the root word of something, i look at its past tense form?

 

[muslim1]

maryam11
You are absolutely right :thumbs_up:sunny:

 

[amirah_87]

Yes sure. :thumbs_up

For three letter verbs, you have: لعب، نصر، ركب، كتب، إلخ
For four letter verbs, you have: أنفق، بعثر، زيّن، بهرج، إلخ
For five letter verbs, you have: انصرف، انقطع، استمع، استلم، إلخ
For six letter verbs, you have: استخرج، استفسر، استنفد، استيقظ، إلخ

Hope it makes sense now

You could even go further and find the root words for the Rubaa'iy (four letter verbs), the Khumaasiy (five letter verbs), the Sudaasiy (six letter verbs).. etc

eg:

The root of أنفق is : نفق

The root of انصرف is : صرف

The root of استخرج is : خرج

Wallaahu a'lam, Hope that helps.

 

[Ummu Sufyaan]

^ jazakallahu khair.
i kind of have a rough idea on how to get to the rot verb .basically what i do is play around with the word, until it sounds right lol:hiding: but then when i go and look for that word, it dosnt fit in with the rest of the sentecnce, and i think what i have done wrong is find a whole different word. so, yeah, i was wondering if there were hard and fast rules.

 

[seeker_of_ilm]

Learn basic Sarf, that'll help you alot in finding root words.

 

[Ummu Sufyaan]

jazakallahu khair. can anyne recommend me any books on this? (beginners level).

 

[asadxyz]

jazakallahu khair. can anyne recommend me any books on this? (beginners level).

http://al-inaam.com/Books/Treasures_of_Arabic_Morphology.pdf

 

[seeker_of_ilm]

I personally use some sheets I got a hold of. But I hear a lot of good things about this. So insha'Allaah you could try.

 

[Rare Rose]

Yes the root of Arabic language is the past tense
For example:
In English ( He wrote)
In Arabic (كتب)
We don't use pronoun like he=هو
We can't say هو كتب

 

[muslim1]

Yes the root of Arabic language is the past tense
For example:
In English ( He wrote)
In Arabic (كتب)
We don't use pronoun like he=هو
We can't say هو كتب

Thank you Rare Rose :sunny:
I can say هو كتب
If I want to:
Assure that HE and no body else wrote, and
When I want to assure that he already wrote, and
When I want to remove any doubt that he dint write. :thumbs_up