نظام الفعل: الماضي والمضارع
Arabic · GCSE · The School
Past tense endings
The past verb (māḍī) puts its doer in the ENDING. From كَتَبَ (he wrote): كَتَبَتْ she wrote, كَتَبْتَ you (m.) wrote, كَتَبْتِ you (f.) wrote, كَتَبْتُ I wrote, كَتَبْنا we wrote, كَتَبُوا they wrote. Notice the root ك-ت-ب never changes — only the tail. Learn this one pattern and you can put ANY sound three-letter verb into the past.
Present tense prefixes
The present verb (muḍāriʿ) puts its doer at the FRONT: يَكْتُبُ he writes, تَكْتُبُ she writes, أَكْتُبُ I write, نَكْتُبُ we write, يَكْتُبُونَ they write. The four present prefixes — أ ن ي ت — are worth memorising as a set ("anaytu"). Past = tail changes; present = head changes. That single contrast organises the whole verb system.
Reading for verbs
Read: ذَهَبَ الوَلَدُ إِلى المَدْرَسةِ. يَدْرُسُ العَرَبِيَّةَ وَيَكْتُبُ الدُّرُوسَ. — "The boy went to school. He studies Arabic and writes the lessons." Underline each verb, name its tense (dhahaba past; yadrusu, yaktubu present), and find its doer. This is how you read any Arabic text: verbs first, then everything falls into place.
ذَهَبْتُ إِلَى السّوقِ وَاشْتَرَيْتُ كِتاباً. الآنَ أَقْرَأُ الكِتابَ في البَيْتِ، وَغَداً سَأُعْطيهِ لِأَخي. Go verb by verb. ذَهَبْتُ — past, ending تُ, so 'I'. اِشْتَرَيْتُ — past, 'I'. أَقْرَأُ — present, prefix أ, so 'I'. سَأُعْطي — present with سَـ for future, 'I'. Four verbs, one doer throughout, and the tense sits in a different place in each pair.