Grammar term · Sarf · morphology
مُتَصَرِّف
mutasarrif
Fully conjugable verb
Sarf · morphologyVerb: conjugabilitycore term19,128+ in the Qur'an
In one line
The fully conjugable verb: it moves freely through past, present and command — unlike frozen verbs such as لَيْسَ and عَسَى.
Classical definition
الفِعْلُ المُتَصَرِّفُ مَا لَهُ أَكْثَرُ مِنْ صِيغَةٍ، فَيَأْتِي مَاضِيًا وَمُضَارِعًا وَأَمْرًا.
“The conjugable verb is that which has more than one form, occurring as past, present and command.”
(بتصرف من شذا العرف)
Key words in the Arabic
مُتَصَرِّفfree-moving, conjugable
أَكْثَرُ مِنْ صِيغَةٍmore than one form
Understand it
Most verbs are mutasarrif — كَتَبَ، يَكْتُبُ، اكْتُبْ, the full kit. A handful are jamid, frozen in a single form: لَيْسَ and عَسَى exist only as madi, and the ta'ajjub formulas never move at all. The distinction matters practically: a frozen verb can never supply you an amr or a mudari', and several jamid verbs double as the 'inert' fa'il-less operators the nawasikh chapters lean on. (The same word also describes fully-declining NOUNS — munsarif — in the tanwin discussion; context separates the two uses.)
How to spot it
Recognition test
Ask the verb for its other two forms: if madi, mudari' and amr all exist, it is mutasarrif; if the dictionary shows one frozen shape, it is jamid.
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