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Arabic Present Tense

FORM-1, verb=kataba=to write, root= -- masc=m, fem=f

English Pronouns Arabic PronounsPerfect Imperfect

I anaa ( ) katabtu ( ) aktubu ( )

Thou (m) anta ( ) katabta ( ) taktubu ( )

Thou (f) anti ( ) katabti ( ) taktubiyna( )

He huwa ( ) kataba ( ) yaktubu ( )

She hiya ( ) katabat ( ) taktubu ( )

We nahnu ( ) katabnaa ( ) naktubu ( )

You (m) antum ( ) katabtum( ) taktubuuna( )

You (f) antunna ( ) katabtunna( ) taktubna ( )

They (m) hum ( ) katabuu ( ) yaktubuuna( )

They (f) hunna ( ) katabna ( ) yaktubna ( )

Click here to see more verb conjugations

Arabic Present Tense and the example verb "kataba"

We are already familiar with the root form of the verb "akala" from the previous chapter

which presented the perfect tense. We will use our experince of building the forms of the

perfect tense while building the forms of the present tense. Remember now the three root

letters a,k,l of the "akala". In the perfect tense we throw out the last "a" from the "akala" in

order to get "akal" and attach suffixes to the "akal". The present tense is similar but little

more complicated. The present tense is formed by adding suffixes as well as prefixes to the

"akal". Before we can add prefixes and suffixes, we have to derive the "stem" from the root

verb. This is done by making "sakeen" of the first and the last letter of the root. The first root

letter becomes "sakeen" by throwing its "haraka." Moreover, the second and third root

letters are read according to the information contained in the dictionaries. There are many

rules as to how the second and the third letters would be read but this is beyond the scope

of our teaching here. We look at the dictionary and see that the present tense of "kataba" is

written as "yaktubu". Therefore, from this we know that the second and third letters areread with a "Damma" As we pointed out earlier the first letter becomes "sakeen" which

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means that it will not have any "haraka", e.g. fatha,kasra or Damma and so the "kataba" will

be converted to "ktub". Now, our stem for the present tense will be "ktub" and we will add

the below shown prefixes to the "ktub".

The prefixes are the following:

I = -a

thou (masc) = -ta

thou (fem) = -ta

he = -ya

she = -ta

we = -na

you (masc) = -ta

you (fem) = -ta

they (masc) = -ya

they (fem) = -ya

Let's add these prefixes to the "ktub".

Arabic

Pronoun

Prefix

+

Stem

Inter-

mediate

Result

SuffixPresent

tense

Haraka of

Suffix

pronounced?

anaa a+ ktub = aktub +u aktubu No

anta ta+ ktub = taktub +u taktubu No

anti ta+ ktub = taktub +iyna taktubiyna Yes

huwa ya+ ktub = yaktub +u yaktubu No

hiya ta+ ktub = taktub +u taktubu No

nahnu na+ ktub = naktub +u naktubu No

antum ta+ ktub = taktub +uuna taktubuuna Yes

antunna ta+ ktub = taktub +na taktubna Yes

hum ya+ ktub = yaktub +uuna yaktubuuna Yes

hunna ya+ ktub = yaktub +na yaktubna Yes

Let's note again that the pronouns are not used in the sentences. We write them here in

order to show the correspondances. The prefixes and the suffixes indicate the pronouns

already. So, there is no need to say the pronoun again. For example, when we say,

"yaktubuuna" that is a complete sentence and it means, "They are writing" or they write. I

am sure you start to feel the power of the Arabic language. Just one word presents a

complete thought process and a complete sentence. Amazing! Isn't it?