Lesson 69
Circumstantial Object Mafʿūl Maʿah
المفعول معه
The mafʿūl maʿah is an accusative noun following the wāw of accompaniment (وَاو الْمَعِيَّة), meaning "along with" or "accompanying." It expresses accompaniment rather than joining two subjects.
Wāw of ʿAṭf vs. Wāw of Maʿiyya
وَ typeMeaningCase after وَExample
ʿAṭf (conjunction)Both shared the actionFollows first elementجَاءَ زَيْدٌ وَعَمْرٌو
Maʿiyya (accompaniment)One acted, other accompaniedAlways accusativeسِرْتُ وَالنَّهْرَ
Test: "both did it"→ ʿaṭfNominative / genitiveجَاءَ أَحْمَدُ وَخَالِدٌ
Test: "X did it, Y nearby"→ maʿiyyaAccusative (mafʿūl maʿah)اسْتَوَى الْمَاءُ وَالْخَشَبَةَ
Common Maʿiyya Contexts
Verb typeWhy maʿiyya worksExample
Motion verbsSubject moves, other thing accompaniesسِرْتُ وَالنَّهْرَ
Levelling verbsSubject reaches level of the otherاسْتَوَى الْمَاءُ وَالْخَشَبَةَ
Social verbsOne sat/stood with anotherجَلَسْتُ وَزَيْداً
سِرْتُ وَالنَّهْرَ جَلَسْتُ وَزَيْداً
Sirtu wa-n-nahra Jalastu wa-Zaydan
I walked alongside the river. I sat with Zayd. (النَّهْرَ / زَيْداً = accusative mafʿūl maʿah, not performing the action)
اسْتَوَى الْمَاءُ وَالْخَشَبَةَ
Istawā l-māʾu wa-l-khashabata
The water became level with the plank. (الْخَشَبَةَ = accusative mafʿūl maʿah it accompanies the levelling but did not itself level)
- Test: "together both…" → ʿaṭf. "X did it, Y alongside" → wāw of maʿiyya (mafʿūl maʿah in accusative).
- The noun after wāw of maʿiyya is always accusative unlike ʿaṭf where case follows the first element.
- Most natural with motion, levelling, or social verbs where one entity acts and the other merely accompanies.
- اسْتَوَى الْمَاءُ وَالْخَشَبَةَ الْخَشَبَةَ is accusative because the water "levelled" but the plank was only the reference point.
- Relatively rare in prose, but important for parsing classical poetry and for distinguishing coordinated subjects from accompanied objects.