174. Hollow Roots: Participles I. In the First Form, the Active Participle of all Hollow Roots is identical with that from roots with hamza as the second radical. Thus, sā'il could normally be taken to be the Active Participle of the common root S'L and translated “asking; a beggar”; but it could occasionally be referred to SYL and accordingly rendered “flowing (of a stream); fluid, liquid”. Likewise, nā'im would normally be taken as coming from the obvious root NWM and rendered “sleeping, asleep”; but it could in rare instances be referred to N'M, with the sense of “moaning”. Until you know Arabic well enough to be reasonably certain as to the most obvious sense, always refer such Active Participles to all three roots in the dictionary. The Passive Participle of Hollow Roots in Form I is determined by the middle radical: verbs with w all behave like maqūl, makhūf; those with y all have the pattern mazīd (from ZYD, which we have met) and mabī' (from BY', denoting “selling”). There are, as it happens, fewer middle-y Hollow Verbs capable of forming true passives in Form I than is the case for those with middle-w.

175. Hollow Roots: Maṣdars I. It will be remembered (para. 166(c)) that there is really no escape from learning by heart the individual maṣdar of each verb in Form I.