Our love for learning Arabic is unconditional, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Arabic grammar is. In fact, it’s the conditional part of Arabic grammar that we’ll be talking about today - conditional sentences, that is.
In Arabic, the word إِذا/’iTHaa/means “if” and is used in conditional Arabic sentences. For example:
إِذا دَرَسْتَ نَجَحْتَ
/ʼiTHaa darasta najaHta/
If you study, you will succeed.
Notice the structure of the sentence is “past tense, past tense + إِذا”
Another Arabic word used in the conditional sentence is إِلّا إِذا /’illaa ’iTHaa/ meaning “unless”, as in:
لَن تَنجَح في الامتِحانِ إلّا إِذا دَرَسْتَ.
/lan tanjaH fee ilimtiHaani ’illaa’iTHaa darasta/
You will not pass the exam unless you study.
Still, another way to say “if” in a conditional sentence is لَو/law/. This version of “if” is used to show a fact that would have happened had everything in the past been done under certain conditions. For example:
لَوْ قَرَأتَ هَذا الكِتابَ لَفَهِمْتَ
/law qara’ta haTHaa ilkitaaba lafahimta/
If you read this book, you would have understood.
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