Present tense in Arabic
Verb conjugation for Arabic appears complicated at first, and yet it is quite simple if you remember this cardinal rule: the subject, the actor of the verb's action, is part of the conjugated verb. Because of this, most of the time the subject pronouns are omitted in verb sentences. They are simply unnecessary because the Arabic verb contains all the information about the subject.
The process of conjugating a verb in Arabic is simple:
1) identify the tense you are conjugating for
2) determine who the subject is
3) add the proper suffix/prefix combination to the base verb
Using the base verb كَتَبَ meaning "to write" as a base verb, the following charts illustrate how it is conjugated in the Present Tense for all of the different Subject Pronouns.
The subject pronouns are categorized by number (Singular, Dual, Plural) like they have been presented previously and they include all the possible conjugations for this verb in the present tense.
Singular
English Pronoun | Transcription | Conjugated Arabic Verb |
Arabic Pronoun |
---|---|---|---|
I | aktubu | أكْتُبُ | أنا |
You (masc.) | taktubu | تكْتُبُ | أنتَ |
You (fem.) | taktubiinaَ | تكْتُبين | أنتِ |
He or It | yaktubu | يكْتُبُ | هُوَ |
She or It | taktubu | تكْتُبُ | هيّ |
English Pronoun | Transcription | Arabic Verb | Arabic Pronoun |
---|---|---|---|
We (No dual) |
naktubu | نكْتُبُ | There is no specific 1st person dual form "we two". Just use the word for "we " نحن |
You two (masc. or fem.) |
taktubaan | تكْتُبان | انتما |
They (masc.) two | yaktubaan | يكْتُبان | هما |
They (fem.) two | taktubaan | يكْتُبان | هما |
NOTE: Dual forms of verbs are the same as the singular BUT with an ان (aan) added to the end. In the case of the second person dual, there is no distinction between masc. and fem.
English Pronoun | Transcription | Arabic Verb | Arabic Pronoun |
---|---|---|---|
We | naktubu | نكْتَبُ | نحن |
you (group masc.) Any group with at least one man is considered masculine |
taktubuuna | تكْتَبونَ | أنتم |
you ( group fem.) Any group of all females. |
taktubnna | تكْتَبُن | أنتن |
they (group masc.) |
yaktubuuna | يكْتَبونَ | هم |
they (group fem.) | yaktubnna | يكْتَبُن | هن |
NOTE: PLURAL MASC forms of verbs are the same as the singular BUT with an ون (uun) added to the end
PLURAL FEM forms of verbs are the same as the singular BUT with an نّ (aan) added to the end
http://www.softschools.com/languages/arabic/present_tense_verbs/