There are two particles used as suffixes to verbs to express emphasis in Arabic or to give an assertive tone to a certain action. Those particles are the emphatic nūn ـنَّ/ـنْ and the emphatic lām لَـ.
Emphatic nūn / نُون التَوْكِيد
The emphatic nūn (نون التوكيد) is a letter nūn ـن suffixed to a verb to emphasize the action it expresses. This noun can be found under two different versions at the end of the verb; the heavy version and the light version, although the heavy version is most often preferred:
- The heavy nūn (نُون التَوكِيد الثَقِيلة) is a nūn bearing a shadda and a fatḥa ـنَّ (most used)
- The light nūn (نُون التَوكِيد الخَفِيفة) is a nūn bearing the sukūn ـنْ
Conditions of use
Both the heavy nūn and the light nūn are suffixed to verbs under the same conditions. The verb has to be:
Imperative or interdiction:
| Write the sentence on the board | اُكْتُبَنَّ الجُمْلةَ على اللَوْحِ |
| Don’t open the gift now | لا تَفْتَحَنْ الهَدِيّةَ الآنَ |
In the present tense:
- In the negative form
| He doesn’t live there | لا يَسْكُنَنَّ هناك |
| We don’t go out at night | لا نَخْرُجَنْ في اللَيْل |
- Following an oath:
| By God I will study hard | وَاللّهِ لأَدْرُسَنَّ باجتهاد |
| By God I will punish the thief | تَاللّهِ لأُعاقِبَنْ السارِق |
Note: When the emphatic nūn is used for an oath it’s usually combined with the emphatic lām.
- After a conditional particle combined with ما:
| {And if you fear treachery from any people (with whom you have a covenant) then publicly throw their covenant at them…} Qurʾān [al-Anfāl : 58] | {…وَإِمَّا تَخَافَنَّ مِن قَوْمٍ خِيَانَةً فَانبِذْ إِلَيْهِمْ عَلَىٰ سَوَاءٍ} القُرْآن [الأنفال: 58] |
| {And whether or not We take you away [in death], indeed, We will take retribution upon them} Qurʾān [al-Zukhruf : 41] | {فَإِمَّا نَذْهَبَنَّ بِكَ فَإِنَّا مِنْهُم مُّنتَقِمُونَ} القُرْآن [الزخرف: 41] |
Conjugation
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