Four principles organize the full past-tense paradigm:
1. Person and number: six third-person, six second-person and two first-person forms make fourteen.
2. Active: the action is attributed to its doer, as in ضَرَبَ.
3. Passive: the appropriate stem vowels change, as in ضَرَبَ → ضُرِبَ.
4. Negation: mā precedes the affirmative past, as in ضُرِبَ → مَا ضُرِبَ.
For each form, identify who is involved, how many, whether the verb is active or passive, and whether it is affirmative or negative. Together these distinctions explain the full 14 × 4 paradigm.
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The four governing rules of the paradigm
Complete Past-Tense Paradigm: Active, Passive, Affirmative and Negative
Four principles organize the full past-tense paradigm:
1. Person and number: six third-person, six second-person and two first-person forms make fourteen.
2. Active: the action is attributed to its doer, as in ضَرَبَ.
3. Passive: the appropriate stem vowels change, as in ضَرَبَ → ضُرِبَ.
4. Negation: mā precedes the affirmative past, as in ضُرِبَ → مَا ضُرِبَ.
For each form, identify who is involved, how many, whether the verb is active or passive, and whether it is affirmative or negative. Together these distinctions explain the full 14 × 4 paradigm.