5 Things You Need To Know About The Arabic Present Tense
1- The Arabic infinitive is represented by the past conjugation of the verb with the pronoun “he”. There is no separate infinitive form.
The term muDaari3 marfuu3 refers to the regular present tense in Arabic. It is used for an action that happens or is happening.
Example: I read/am reading= أقرأ
2- For a form I verb (three root letters), you need to learn the middle vowel for each verb; this is the first information a dictionary will give you when you look up the verb.
Example: The verb “to live”(represented by “he lived”) takes a middle vowel “u” in the present:
سَكَنَ ـــُــ
This means that, in the present, “he lives” is يسكُن
More examples:
darasa…. yadrusu = درس….. يدرُس
qara’a…. yaqra’u = قرأ….. يقرَأ
jalasa…. yajlisu = جلس….. يجلِس
3- Conjugation is made by adding a prefix and a suffix to the three main letters of the verb.
*Note that these two conjugations are the same. Context will clarify the person.
4- When the suffix is only a short vowel, that vowel is “u” ُ (called Damma). Damma is the mark of marfuu3, which means:
-For nouns and adjectives: nominative
-For present tense verbs: regular present
Therefore, mudaari3 marfuu3 means regular present.
5- There are two other types of Mudaari3:
· ManSuub, where the short vowel suffix changes to fat7a َ and the long suffixes change.
· Majzuum, where the short vowel suffix changes to sukuun ْ and the long suffixes change.
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