تَمَكَّنُbecome able

Example sentences

• وَلَا يَتَمَكَّنُ مِنْ خُرُوجِ إِلَى حَمَّامٍ وَلَا غَيْرِهِ،

  and he was unable to go out to the bathhouse or anywhere else,

  يَتَمَكَّنُ — he is able. A present-tense verb with a built-in 'he' subject, here under the negation just before it. In this narrative the negated present describes an ongoing inability across that period: he kept being unable. The verb is the one the preceding 'not' is cancelling.

  From: An Exiled Scholar's Trials →