يَحْثُوscoop up

Example sentences

• فَأَتَانِيٓ آتٍ فَجَعَلَ يَحْثُو مِنَ الطَّعَامِ، فَأَخَذْتُهُ،

  Then a man came to me and began scooping up the food, so I seized him.

  يَحْثُو — he scoops up. A present-tense verb with its 'he' subject in the prefix, governed by the 'began to' verb before it to depict an action just getting underway. Arabic pairs a present verb with the helper to express the onset where English uses 'began to'.

  From: The Verse of the Throne →

• فَرَصَدْتُهُ فَجَاءَ يَحْثُو مِّنَ الطَّعَامِ فَأَخَذْتُهُ

  So I watched him. He came, scooping up from the food, so I seized him.

  يَحْثُو — he was scooping up. A present-tense verb with its 'he' subject in the prefix, used here for a vivid ongoing circumstance running alongside 'came', 'came scooping'. Arabic uses this present-as-description where English adds an '-ing' clause of manner.

  From: The Verse of the Throne →

• فَرَصَدْتُهُ الثَّالِثَةَ فَجَاءَ يَحْثُو مِنَ الطَّعَامِ،

  I watched for him a third time, and he came scooping up food.

  يَحْثُو — he scooped up. A present-tense verb with its 'he' subject in the prefix, used for a vivid ongoing circumstance alongside 'came', 'came scooping'. Arabic uses this present-as-description where English adds an '-ing' clause of manner.

  From: The Verse of the Throne →