There are two ways to convey exclamation in Arabic that express astonishment toward a person or an object:
- The standard exclamation / التَعَجُّب القِياسِي: is the expression of two reference verb patterns conveying exclamation under specific conditions.
- The oral exclamation / التَعَجُّب السَماعِي: corresponds to all the many other ways of expressing wonder that don’t abide by the same constraints as the ‘standard exclamation’.
The standard exclamation / التَعَجّب القِياسي
The two verbal patterns ما أَفْعَلَ and أَفْعَلْ بِـ
The Arabs use two forms of exclamation in standard use which are:
أَفْعَلْ بِـ (rarely used) | ما أَفْعَلَ (most used 🔥) |
- The most common form is constructed from the pattern أَفْعَلَ (considered here as a verb of form IV in the perfect tense which remains fixed as such) preceded by the particle ما and followed by the subject which is a noun (in the accusative case defined by the article) or a suffix pronoun:
ما أَجْمَلَها How beautiful she/it is! | ما أَجْمَلَ المَدِينةَ How beautiful this city is! |
- The second form of construction of the exclamation, a little less used, is also constructed from the pattern أَفْعِلْ (considered here as a verb of form IV in the imperative which remains fixed as such) and followed by the preposition بـ fixed to l ‘object representing the cause of astonishment which is a noun (in the genitive case defined by the article) or a suffix pronoun.
أَجْمِلْ بِها How beautiful she/it is! | أَجْمِلْ بِالمَدِينةِ How beautiful this city is! |
Note: When two verbs of wonder relate to the same noun, they are positioned following the noun and take a suffix pronoun.
ما أَسْرَعَ السَّيّارةَ وما أَطْوَلَ السَيّارةَ ❌ ما أَسْرَعَ السَّيّارةَ وما أَطْوَلَها ✔️ How fast and how long this car is!
The conditions
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