تَشَفَّعِيyou intercede

Example sentences

• قِيلَ لَكَ إِنْ لَمْ تَشَفَّعِي لَهُ

  You were told that if you do not intercede for him.

  تَشَفَّعِي — you intercede. A present-form verb in the clipped jussive shape, 'you intercede', whose -i ending marks a second-person feminine singular subject, the mother. The shortened ending is forced by the negator before it, and together they read as 'if you did not intercede'. So the verb's cut-back form is the grammatical fingerprint of that past-negation.

  From: A Mother's Forgiveness →