عَظُمَتْwere severe

Example sentences

• فَعَلِمْتُ أَنَّ الْعُقُوبَاتَ وَإِنْ عَظُمَتْ دُونَ إِجْرَامِهِمْ؛

  And I realized that the punishments, even if severe, fall short of their wrongdoing.

  عَظُمَتْ — were severe. A past-tense verb in the feminine singular 'she/it' form. Arabic regularly lets a verb take the feminine singular when its subject is a non-human plural, treating such plurals as a single collective, so this singular feminine verb properly governs the plural 'punishments'. After 'even if', it reads as a granted hypothetical 'were great'.

  From: Preparing for Death and Repentance →