What is a masdar mu’awwal in Arabic?

Let's start with a question:

أُريدُ أَنْ أذْهَبَ and أُريدُ الذَّهابَ – Does it mean the same?

Yes, both sentences mean the same: I want to go.

The word ذِهابٌ is the مَصْدَر of ذَهَبَ.

You can build the الْمَصْدَر الْمُؤَوَّل by using the particles أَنْ or ما. They are a so called حَرْف مَصْدَرِيّ. Let us have a look at it:

Watch out: The verb in the sentence above has a فَتْحة at the end as it is preceded by أَنْ.

Therefore, the verb has to be مَنْصُوب.

Did you know? There are many other masdar-forms in Arabic. You can denote the number of times an action is done or express certain actions.

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