Emphasis in Arabic Verbs

Emphasis in Arabic

• Adding emphasis to a verb (فعل مضارع):
  • Change the damman (diacritic marks) to a kasrah (diacritic mark) of j.
  • Add lam to the beginning of the verb.

Examples of adding emphasis

• فعل (faʿala) becomes ليفعل (lifaʿal).
• تفعل (tafʿala) becomes لتفعل (latfaʿal).
• تَفْعَلُونَ (tafʿalūna) becomes لَتَفْعَلُونَ (latfaʿalūna)

Using different types of Nun

• A heavy nun (نون ثقيلة) adds more emphasis, while a light nun (نون خفيفة) does not change the emphasis significantly, but using a heavy nun adds more emphasis. However, in English translations these are often the same.

• If d is used instead of j, the meaning will become "definitely not". This changes the meaning significantly from the "should"