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21 The adverb of time and place
21.1 Introduction
Consider the sentence:
“Zayd went to the market one day.”
The term “one day” here is an adverb of time. It describes the verb “went” and tells us the time in which the action of going ocurred.
In this chapter, we will study two kinds of adverbs in Arabic: the adverb of time and the adverb of place. These two adverbs are treated together because they both describe the space (of time and place, respectedly) in which the action of a verb ocurrs. There are other kinds of adverbs as well, and we will study them in other chapters, if Allāh wills.
The adverb, in Arabic, is a noun that qualifies a verb. It is put in the a-state. Let’s express the above sentence in Arabic:
- ذَهَبَ زَيْدٌ إِلَى ٱلسُّوقِ يَوْمًا.
The noun يَوْم is functioning as an adverb of time. When used thus, as an adverb, we can translate it idiomatically as “one day” instead of “a day”.
21.2 Determining when a noun is an adverb of time or place
The term adverb in Arabic grammar technically does not refer to any specific class of nouns. Generally, nouns can be used for different functions, including as adverbs. For example, the noun يَوْم doesn’t necessarily need to be used as an adverb. It may be used, for example, as the topic of a sentence:
- ٱَلْيَوْمُ طَوِيلٌ.
“The day is long.”
Even when it is in the a-state, it is not necessarily an adverb. Here it is as a direct doee:
- أَنْتَظِرُ يَوْمًا سَهْلًا.
“I wait for an easy day.”
The way that we can tell when a noun is an adevrb of time or place is if it satisfies the following conditions:
- The noun is in the a-state.
- The noun is extra, such that the sentence is complete, albeit more vague, without it.
- The noun signifies the time or place in which the verb occurred.
In the sentence أَنْتَظِرُ يَوْمًا سَهْلًا, the noun يَوْم is not signify the time in which the verb أَنْتَظِرُ is ocurring. So it is not an adverb of time.
Having said that, there are nouns that are used exclusively or mostly as adverbs, like قَبْل “before”. So, loosely speaking, such nouns, themselves, may be referred to as adverbs.
21.3 The adverb or time
The adverb of time is more unrestricted than the adverb of place. So we will deal with it first. We have already seen an example of an adverb of time in the sentence:
- ذَهَبَ زَيْدٌ إِلَى ٱلسُّوقِ يَوْمًا.
“Zayd went to the market one day.”
In the above example, the adverb of time يَوْم is singular and indefinite. But an adverb of time can occur in other formations as well. For example:
As a definite common noun:
- ذَهَبَ زَيْدٌ إِلَى ٱلسُّوقِ ٱلْيَوْمَ.
“Zayd went to the market today.”
(ٱلْيَوْم “the day” is also used to mean “today”.)
With a describer:
- قَتَلْتُهُ ٱلسَّنَةَ ٱلْمَاضِيَةَ.
“I killed him last year.”
[Wright, vol. ii, §44, p. 110A]
As a proper noun:
- صُمْتُ رَمَضَانَ.
“I fasted (the month of) Ramaḍān.”
[Wright, vol. ii, §44, p. 110A]
As an annexe noun to a base noun:
- جِئْتُ زَمَنَ ٱلشِّتَاءِ.
“I came in the winter-time.”
[Wright, vol. ii, §44, p. 110A]
As an annexe noun to a sentence:
- صَحَبْتُ صَدِيقِي يَوْمَ خَرَجْنَا مِنَ ٱلْمَدِينَةِ.
“I accompanied my friend the day we left the city.”
As a dual or plural:
تَأَمَّلْ شَهْرَيْنِ فِي ٱخْتِيَارِ ٱلْأُسْتَاذِ.
“Reflect two months upon the choice of a teacher.”
[Wright, vol. ii, §44, p. 109D]سَكَنَ فِي بَعْضِ ٱلْقُرَىٰ أَيَّامًا.
“He stayed in one of the villages (a few) days.”
[Wright, vol. ii, §44, p. 109D]
The adverb before its verb in sentence word order1:
- ٱلْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ
“This day I have perfected for you your religion”
[سورة المائدة 5:3]
21.4 The adverb of place
The adverb of place is more restricted than the adverb of time. Only some nouns are suitable to function as adverbs of place. Such nouns fall under some categories that we will discuss in the next few subsections:
21.4.1 Vague and unbounded nouns
Generally, only vague and unbounded nouns are permitted to be used as adverbs of place. A noun that denotes a specific place are not permitted. So, for example, we can’t use the noun بَيْت as an adverb of place to say جَلَسْتُ بَيْتًا. Instead we’ll have to use the preposition فِي and say جَلَسْتُ فِي بَيْتٍ.
Directional nouns are considered vague enough to be used as adverbs of place. Such nouns include:
- أَمَام, قُدَّام “in front (of)”
- خَلْفَ, وَرَاء “behind”
- فَوْق “above”
- تَحْت “under”
- يَمِين “right”
- شِمَال, يَسَار “left”
Permitted also are general spatial nouns like:
- وَسْط “in the middle (of)”
- حَوْل “around”
- عِنْد, لَدُنْ, لَدَىٰ “at, with, by”
- مَع “with”
- بَيْن “between”
Some of the nouns above we have introduced previously in section (ref) as pseudo-prepositions. But they are actually nouns, that when used as adverbs give meanings similar to prepositions.
Here is an example of the use of these nouns as adverbs of place:
- نَظَرَ يَمِينًا وَيَسَارًا (وَشِمَالًا)
“He looked right and left.”
[Wright, vol. ii., §44, p. 111B]
These nouns can be, and often are, annexe nouns. When they are annexed to a definite noun then they too will be definite. But this in no way restricts their vagueness and thus ability to be used as adverbs of place.2 For example,
- بَايَعْنَا النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم تَحْتَ الشَّجَرَةِ
“We gave the oath of allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ under the tree”
[صحيح البخاري :7208]
There are some nouns whose meaning is associated with the word “side”:
- جَانِب, نَاحِيَة, وَجْه, جِهَة “side”
- دَاخِل, جَوْف “inside”
- خَارِج “outside”
With these nouns, it is more common to use prepositions like فِي, إلَىٰ, or مِنْ before them. For example,
نِمْتُ فِي خَارِجِ ٱلدَّارِ
“I slept outside the house.”
[Wright, vol. ii., §44, p. 112A]زَيْدٌ فِي جَانِبِ عَمْرٍو.
or
زَيْدٌ إِلَىٰ جَانِبِ عَمْرٍو.
“Zayd is beside Ɛamr”
[شرح الرضي على الكافية p. 184]زَيْدٌ مِنْ خَارِجِ ٱلدَّارِ.
“Zayd outside the house.”
[شرح الرضي على الكافية p. 184]
But they may be used, less commonly, as adverbs of place as well. For example,
أَتَشَوَّفُ دَاخِلًا وَخَارِجًا
“I (was) looking inside and outside.”
[مسند أحمد :6520]فَهُوَ مُتَّكِئٌ عَلَيْهَا دَاخِلَ الْمَسْجِدِ
“And he (was) relying on [our arms] inside the mosque”
[مسند أحمد :15837]
Excluded from this restriction of vagueness are nouns used with the verbs دَخَلَ “to enter”, سَكَنَ “to dwell”, and نَزَلَ “to alight”.3 So we can say دَخَلْتُ ٱلدَّارَ “I entered the house,” سَكَنْتُ ٱلْبَيْتَ “I dwelled (in) the house,” and نَزَلْتُ ٱلْبَلَدَ “I alighted (in) the country.” The a-state nouns with these verbs may be considered either direct doees or adverbs of place. Excluded also, is the country name ٱلشَّأْم “Syria” with the verb ذَهَبَ “to go.” So we can say ذَهَبْتُ ٱلشَّأْمَ for “I went (to) Syria.”