دَرَىto know

Example sentences

• يصوركم في الأرحام ولا يدرى آدم ولا حواء،

  He shapes you in the wombs, and neither Adam nor Eve knows.

  يَدْرِي — he knows. A present-tense verb with a built-in 'he' subject, under the negation just before it, so it reads 'he does not know'. The ongoing-tense form marks knowing as a general state, denied of the subject named after it.

  From: All Creation Praises Him →

• ثُمَّ انْطَلَقَ، فَلَبِثْتُ مَلِيًّا، ثُمَّ قَالَ يَا عُمَرُ أَتَدْرِي مَنْ السَّائِلُ؟

  Then he departed, and I stayed for a long period. Then he said: 'O Umar, do you know who the questioner was?'

  أَتَدْرِي — do you know. A present-tense verb 'do you know' fronted by a yes/no question marker, so the opening sound turns the statement into a question. The 'you' subject is built into the verb. The whole word asks whether the listener knows, without any separate question word.

  From: When Gabriel Came to Teach →