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An Easy Way To Explain The Present Tense Conjugation Of Arabic

This article explains the present tense conjugation of all Arabic pronouns, and as such can be considered a reference for all students learning Arabic.

In order to form the infinitive of Arabic verbs, we use the past tense of the verb conjugated in the masculine third person singular. In other words, we use the past tense conjugation for “he.” For example:

to study > darasa > درس (he studied)
to write > kataba > كتب. (he wrote)
to escape > haraba > هرب (he escaped)

Therefore, kataba can mean both “to write” (infinitive) or “he wrote.”

Most verbs in Arabic have a three letter root or stem, though there are also some verbs whose stem contain more than three letters. In this article, we will focus on verbs with a three consonant stem, also known as triliteral verbs, since triliteral verbs are the most common.

As you may have noticed, Arabic infinitive verbs follow a certain pattern, in which there are three consonants and each consonant is followed by an a. I will call this tone tatata, in which the letter t represent the three consonants. We will now need to extract just the consonants (ttt in this example). This will be our initial step in shaping the stem.

Now that we have our three consonants, the next thing to do is to add one vowel (a, u, i) just before the third consonant. Usually we add an a. This will give us the final form of the present tense stem, to which we will add the pronoun endings. In the conjugation charts below, we will use the verb darasa درس (to study), which uses the vowel u. The stem of darasa is drs, so once we add the appropriate vowel just before the third consonant (in this case u) we end up with drus.

However, before we dive into the conjugations, it is important to know that the endings of Arabic verbs in the present tense vary slightly based on two cases, the indicative and subjunctive. The indicative is the default form. For example:

I study Arabic.
He goes to school.

The subjunctive is used after the two prepositions an أن and i لـِ. These are applied as follows:

an أن, which means “to,” is used to connect two verbs with a preposition, such as in: “I want to study,” “I try to understand.”
li لـِ also means “to,” but in the context of “in order to.” For example: “I go to the library to/in order to study.”

Please note that لـِ may not be used for connecting verbs.

The following charts contain the verb endings of the present tense with examples:

	Indicative	Subjunctive
First person singular (I)	Rule: a-------u	Rule: a--------a
English	adrusu	adrusa
Arabic	أدرُسُ	أدرُسَ
Examples	أنا أدرُسُ العربية : I study Arabic.	أريدُ ان أدرُسَ العربية : I want to study Arabic. أنا هنا لِأدرُسَ العربية : I’m here to study Arabic.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
First person plural (we)	Rule: na-------u	Rule: na--------a
English	nadrusu	nadrusa
Arabic	ندرُسُ	ندرُسَ
Examples	نحن ندرُسُ العربية : We study Arabic.	نريدُ ان ندرُسَ العربية : We want to study Arabic. نحنُ هنا لِندرُسَ العربية : We’re here to study Arabic.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Second person singular masculine (you)	Rule: ta-------u	Rule: ta-------a
English	tadrusu	tadrusa
Arabic	تدرُسُ	تدرُسَ
Examples	انتَ تدرُسُ العربية : You study Arabic.	تريد أن تدرُسَ العربية : You want to study Arabic. أنتَ هنا لِتدرُسَ العربية : You are here to study Arabic.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Second person singular feminine (you)	Rule: ta-------ééna*	Rule: ta-------ee
English	tadrusééna	tadrusee
Arabic	تدرُسُين	تدرُسي
Examples	انتِ تدرُسين العربية : You study Arabic.	تريدين أن تدرُسي العربية : You want to study Arabic. أ نتِ هنا لِتدرُسي العربية : You are here to study Arabic.

Keep in mind that:

Double vowels are pronounced long. For example, ee is pronounced as a long /i/.
Vowels with a tilde are stressed. For example, both é and á are stressed.
If there are no stress signs, that means that the stress falls on the first syllable.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Second person dual masculine/feminine (you two)	Rule: ta-------an	Rule: ta-------á
English	tadrusáán	tadrusáá
Arabic	تدرُسُان	تدرُسا
Examples	انتما تدرُسان العربية : You (two) study Arabic.	تريدان أن تدرُسا العربية : You want to study Arabic. أنتما هنا لِتدرُسا العربية : You are here to study Arabic.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Second person plural masculine (you, for a group of men)	Rule: ta-------*úúna*	Rule: ta-------áá
English	tadrusúúna	tadrusuu
Arabic	تدرُسون	تدرُسوا
Examples	أنتُم تدرُسون العربية : You (group of men) study Arabic.	تريدون أن تدرُسوا العربية : They want to study Arabic. انتم هنا لِتدرُسوا العربي : They are here to study Arabic.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Second person plural feminine (you, for a group of women)	Rule: ta-------na	Rule: ta-------na
English	tadrúsna	tadrúsna
Arabic	تدرُسن	تدرُسن
Examples	انتنَّ تدرُسن العربية : They (a group of women) study Arabic.	ترِدن أن تدرُسن العربية : They want to study Arabic. انتنَّ هنا لِتدرُسن العربية : They are here to study Arabic.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Third person singular masculine (he)	Rule: ya-------u	Rule: ya-------a
English	yadrusu	yadrusa
Arabic	يدرُسُ	يدرُسَ
Examples	هوَ يدرُسُ العربية : He studies Arabic.	يريد أن يدرُسَ العربية : He wants to study Arabic. هوَ هنا لِيدرُسَ العربية : He is here to study Arabic.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Third person masculine dual (they, for two men)	Rule: ya-------*áán*	Rule: ya-------áá
English	yadrusáán	yadrusáá
Arabic	يدرُسان	يدرُسا
Examples	هما يدرُسان العربية : They (two men) study Arabic.	يريدان أن يدرُسا العربية : They want to study Arabic. هما هنا لِيدرُسا العربية : They are here to study Arabic.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Third person masculine plural (they, for a group of men)	Rule: ya-------*úúna*	Rule: ya-------úú
English	yadrusúúna	yadrusúú
Arabic	يدرُسون	يدرُسوا
Examples	هُم يدرُسون العربية : They (a group of men) study Arabic.	يريدون أن يدرُسوا العربية : They want to study Arabic. هُم هنا لِيدرُسوا العربية : They are here to study Arabic.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Third person singular feminine (she)	Rule: ta-------u	Rule: ta-------a
English	tadrusu	tadrusa
Arabic	تدرُسُ	تدرُسَ
Examples	هي تدرُسُ العربية : She studies Arabic.	تريد أن تدرُسَ العربية : She wants to study Arabic. هي هنا لِتدرُسَ العربية : She is here to study Arabic.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Third person dual feminine (they, for two women)	Rule: ta-------*áán*	Rule: ta-------áá
English	tadrusáán	tadrusáá
Arabic	تدرُسُان	تدرُسا
Examples	هما تدرُسان العربية : They (two women) study Arabic.	تريدان أن تدرُسا العربية : You want to study Arabic. هما هنا لِتدرُسا العربي : You are here to study Arabic.

	Indicative	Subjunctive
Third person feminine plural (they, for a group of women)	Rule: ya-------na	Rule: ya-------na
English	yadrúsna	yadrúsna
Arabic	يدرُسن	يدرُسن
Examples	هن يدرُسن العربية : They (a group of women) study Arabic.	يردن أن يدرُسن العربية : They want to study Arabic. هنَّ هنا لِيدرُسن العربية : They are here to study Arabic.

The negative of the indicative is formed by simply adding the word لا before the verb, which is pronounce like la and literally means “no.”

أنا لا أدرُسُ العربية : I don’t study Arabic.
لا أريدُ أن ادرُسَ العربية : I don’t want to study Arabic.

As for the negative with the preposition لـِ, we add the phrase كي لا. Therefore, لـِ + كي لا is added to the form لِكي لا, and is pronounced like likai laa.

Example:

لِكي لا يشعُرَ بالخوف, أغمض عينيه : In order to not be afraid, he closed his eyes.

Important notes:

Note that in Arabic, there are thirteen different pronouns, and therefore thirteen different conjugations. However, while some conjugations are identical, they are used for different pronouns.
Note that pronouns are not usually needed with verbs (unless you want to show emphasis), as the verb endings indicate the pronouns.
There is no present continuous in Arabic.
For verbs starting with wa, like wasala or wathaba, we need to remove the first wa, thus making the stem biliteral (consisting of two consonants). Then, for (sl) and (thb), the vowel (usually i) is inserted between them: asilu (I arrive) and athibu (I jump).
The conjugation of second person plural feminine and third person plural feminine stay the same across the two cases.

Best of luck with your Arabic studies.

Sincerely,

Mido

Image Sources

Hero Image by Dr. Bashi™ (CC BY-SA 2.0)

May 19, 2016 10:57 AM

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