أنْ، ألاّ أنَّ، إنَّ

to, not to that, indeed

Subordination & Emphasis

أنْ + مضارع منصوب‬ ‫ ‬ ألّا (أنْ + لا) + مضارع منصوب أنَّ + جملة اسمية‬ ‫‬ ‫ إنَّ + جملة اسمية‬‬ ‫‬ The construction (أنْ + ماضٍ) is used in certain fixed/idiomatic expressions, such as: ما أن + ماضٍ بعد أن + ماضٍ ما لبث أن + ماضٍ

أنَّ / إنَّ → introduce something presented as a fact, statement, belief, or information. أنَّ commonly follows verbs of knowing, stating, believing, thinking, telling, considering, etc. For e.g. أخبر، علم، عرف، ذكر، ظنَّ، اعتقد، اعتبر، فهم، صرَّح بـ ، لاحظ. إنَّ follows قال and its derivatives. إنَّ may open a sentence for emphasis. ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ أنْ → usually introduces a possible action which one desires to accomplish but may or may not take place. It is the verb which precedes أن that tells us about the tense of the whole sentence. But if أن is followed by a perfect (فعل ماضٍ), then it states a fact. أنْ commonly follows verbs of desire, love, fear, hope, ability, command, necessity, obligation, etc. For e.g. أراد، رغب في، أحبَّ، خاف، خشي، أمل، استطاع، كره، تمكَّن من، قدر على، رجا، تمنّى، أمر بـ ، يجب، يحذر، اضطرَّ، انتظر، توقَّع. • Some verbs can take either أنْ or أنَّ, but their meaning changes accordingly. ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ • Normally, إنَّ and أنَّ are followed by a جملة اسمية (nominal sentence). When you need to express the information as a verbal sentence after أنَّ, one of two constructions can be used: a) Invert the word order of the subject and verb: نَجَحَ الطُّلَّابُ فِي الِامْتِحَانِ ← سَمِعْتُ أَنَّ الطُّلَّابَ نَجَحُوا فِي الِامْتِحَانِ b) Attach to أَنَّ the “dummy pronoun” (ضَمِيرُ الشَّأْن), which is always the third person singular pronoun suffix ـه : لَنْ يُسْمَحَ لِلطُّلَّابِ بِالْخُرُوجِ مِنَ الْمُحَاضَرَةِ ← أَخْبَرُونِي بِأَنَّهُ لَنْ يُسْمَحَ لِلطُّلَّابِ بِالْخُرُوجِ مِنَ الْمُحَاضَرَةِ Students will not be allowed to leave the lecture → They told me that students would not be allowed to leave the lecture. لَيْسَ مِنَ الْمُنْتَظَرِ أَنْ يُسَافِرُوا غَدًا ← عَلِمْتُ أَنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنَ الْمُنْتَظَرِ أَنْ يُسَافِرُوا غَدًا It is not expected that they will travel tomorrow → I learned that it is not expected that they will travel tomorrow. • The أَنْ clause can always be transformed into a verbal noun: يُرِيدُ الصَّحَفِيُّونَ أَنْ يُقَابِلُوا الرَّئِيسَ ← يُرِيدُ الصَّحَفِيُّونَ مُقَابَلَةَ الرَّئِيسِ The journalists want to meet the president → The journalists want a meeting with the president • Unlike an أَنْ + verb clause, an أَنَّ + sentence clause cannot always be replaced by a مصدر (verbal noun) construction. This is possible in some cases, as in the following example: سَمِعْنَا بِأَنَّهُ عَادَ مِنَ السَّفَرِ أَمْسِ ← سَمِعْنَا بِعَوْدَتِهِ مِنَ السَّفَرِ أَمْسِ. We heard that he returned from the trip yesterday → We heard of his return from the trip yesterday.