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Expressing frequency in Arabic: The اسم المرة
In Arabic, there is a special type of مصدر that focuses on the number of times an action is performed. It is called اسم المرة, which means noun of frequency.
In Arabic, there is an elegant way to express how often someone has done something.
Let’s take a look at these two sentences:
- قَفَزَ اللّاعِبُ قَفْزًا
- قَفَزَ اللّاعِبُ قَفْزَةً
What is the difference?
The first two words are the same and mean the player jumped. So, what about the object? Foremost, both sentences are correct, but the meaning is slightly different.
In Arabic, there is a way to emphasize if a person has done…
- Something in general (الْمَفْعُول الْمُطْلَق): قَفَزَ اللّاعِبُ قَفْزًا = the player jumped
- Something only once or a certain number of times: قَفَزَ اللّاعِبُ قَفْزَةً = the player jumped once
Examples of the اسم المرة
| I ate in this restaurant. (once; exactly one time) | أَكَلْتُ فِي هٰذا الْمَطْعَمِ أَكْلَةً |
| I ate in this restaurant. (unknown how often) | أَكَلْتُ فِي هٰذا الْمَطْعَمِ أَكْلاً |
| I ate in this restaurant three times. | أَكَلْتُ فِي هٰذا الْمَطْعَمِ ثَلاثَ أَكَلْاتٍ |
| The child smiled (one time only). | اِبْتَسِمَ الطِّفْلُ اِبْتِسامةً |
| The child smiled (unknown how often). | اِبْتَسِمَ الطِّفْلُ اِبْتِسامًا |
If you use the regular مَصْدَر after a verb to emphasize an action, it means you are saying something in general or that you don’t know how often the action was being done. Such forms do emphasize the action and are called absolute object (مَفْعُولٌ مُطْلَقٌ).
➤ In Arabic, however, there is a special form to emphasize the amount of times an action was being done.
The form فَعْلة is called اِسْم الْمَرّة (ism al-marra; noun of frequency or occurrence) and is a form of a مَصْدَر. You can recognize this form easily: It is the مَصْدَر plus a ة. The plural is built by the usual pattern for feminine nouns: ات. Since it has to be the object of a sentence, it has to be مَنْصُوب.
You will find more examples and tricky situations in the book Arabic for Nerds. Notice that there are many types of masdar forms as well that are a great and handy tool to express certain ideas nicely.
What kind of word is حُرِّيّةٌ in Arabic?
In Arabic, abstract words related to politics, economics or science like حُرِّيّةٌ often follow a certain model: the مصدر صناعيّ
Understanding the مصدر ميمي vs. مصدر أصلي in Arabic
Both سُؤال and مَسْألة are translated as "question". مَسْألة is a so-called مصدر ميمي – which is a special form of a verbal noun (مصدر) in Arabic. Some insights.
What is a مصدر مؤول in Arabic?
In Arabic, you often use an "interpreted infinitive", a masdar muawwal – المصدر المؤول. This is formed by an أن plus verb in منصوب mood.
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