The Past Tense in Arabic

The Arabic past tense is easy to build. Every form is the past stem plus an ending that shows who did it: ⁨كَتَبَ⁩ (he wrote), ⁨كَتَبْتُ⁩ (I wrote), ⁨كَتَبْنَا⁩ (we wrote).

The Basic Form

The simplest form of a verb is "he did it": ⁨كَتَبَ⁩ (he wrote). Dictionaries list verbs this way, and its three root letters, ⁨ك ت ب⁩, carry the meaning. The final vowel is part of the verb form, not a case ending, so it is always written: ⁨كَتَبَ⁩, ⁨كَتَبْتُ⁩.

All the Persons

Take off the last vowel of ⁨كَتَبَ⁩ to get the stem ⁨كَتَب⁩, then add the ending. Arabic has forms for one person, for two people (the dual) and for a group, and it tells men and women apart in "you" and "they".

The ending already shows the person, so the pronoun is usually left out: ⁨كَتَبْتُ⁩ alone means "I wrote". Use the pronoun only for emphasis. The ending ⁨ـُوا⁩ is written with an alif that is not pronounced: ⁨كَتَبُوا⁩.

Verb First

Arabic sentences often start with the verb. When the verb comes before its subject, it stays singular, even if the subject is two people or a group. It only shows whether the subject is masculine or feminine.

Subject First

When the subject comes first, the verb follows it fully: dual for two, plural for a group, and masculine or feminine.

Common Verbs

Most everyday verbs work exactly like ⁨كَتَبَ⁩. Learn the "he" form and the "I" form together.

A few verbs with a long vowel in the middle shorten it before endings like ⁨ـْتُ⁩: ⁨كَانَ⁩ (he was) becomes ⁨كُنْتُ⁩ (I was), and ⁨زَارَ⁩ (he visited) becomes ⁨زُرْتُ⁩ (I visited). Learn these as you meet them.

Common Mistakes

• Making the verb plural before a plural subject: say ⁨ذَهَبَ الطُّلَّاب⁩, not ⁨ذَهَبُوا الطُّلَّاب⁩.
• Leaving the verb singular after the subject: say ⁨الطُّلَّاب ذَهَبُوا⁩, not ⁨الطُّلَّاب ذَهَبَ⁩.
• Mixing up the endings for "I" and "you": ⁨كَتَبْتُ⁩ is "I wrote", ⁨كَتَبْتَ⁩ is "you wrote" to a man and ⁨كَتَبْتِ⁩ to a woman.
• Forgetting the feminine ⁨ـَتْ⁩: say ⁨ذَهَبَتْ مَرْيَم⁩, not ⁨ذَهَبَ مَرْيَم⁩.
• Leaving out the silent alif: write ⁨كَتَبُوا⁩, not ⁨كَتَبُو⁩.

Example Sentences