سرعان

Arabic

Verb

سُرْعَانَ • (surʕāna)

(defective) How quickly! in a short time
سُرْعَانَ مَا قَرَأَ ٱلْكِتَابَ.
surʕāna mā qaraʔa l-kitāba.
He read the book in a short time.

Usage notes

This word belongs to a special group of words known in Arabic as أَسْمَاء أَفْعَال (ʔasmāʔ ʔafʕāl), plural of اِسْم فِعْل (ism fiʕl), literally noun verbs. They act grammatically as nouns more than verbs, but carry the function of a verb. They do not conjugate, but each word signify a grammatical time on its own, in this case the past/perfective. However, they are different from nouns in that they do not receive declensions and inflections (are in the مَبْنِي (mabnī) state), and some (but not all) do not allow possessive enclitics.

Adjective

سُرْعَان • (surʕān) m pl

masculine plural of سَرِيع (sarīʕ)