Grammar term · Sarf · morphology
مِثَال
mithal
Assimilated root (weak first)
Sarf · morphologyRoot soundness (sihha/i'lal)core term542+ in the Qur'an
In one line
The waw-first root: وَعَدَ behaves until the mudari' — then the waw quietly vanishes: يَعِدُ.
Classical definition
المِثَالُ مَا كَانَ فَاؤُهُ حَرْفَ عِلَّةٍ، وَاوًا أَوْ يَاءً، كَوَعَدَ وَيَسَرَ.
“The mithal is that whose first radical is a weak letter, waw or ya, like wa'ada and yasara.”
(بتصرف من شذا العرف)
Key words in the Arabic
فَاؤُهُits first radical
حَرْف عِلَّةa weak letter
Understand it
Called mithal ('resembling') because in the madi it behaves exactly like a sound verb — وَعَدَ conjugates like كَتَبَ. The weakness shows in the mudari': waw-first verbs of the yaf'ilu gate drop the waw entirely (وَعَدَ → يَعِدُ, وَجَدَ → يَجِدُ), the textbook case of i'lal bil-hadhf. Ya-first verbs like يَسَرَ mostly keep their ya.
How to spot it
Recognition test
Dictionary form starts with و or ي as a genuine radical: mithal. If its mudari' looks two-thirds the size (يَعِدُ، يَقِفُ، يَضَعُ), the missing first radical was a waw.
In the Qur'an
وَعَدَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ
Al-Ma'ida 5:9 — “Allah has promised those who believe and do good deeds”
وَعَدَ — waw as first radical: a mithal, sound in the madi, waw-dropping in يَعِدُ.
Forms it takes
مثال واويمثال يائيواوييائي
Related terms