The following is an excerpt from Arabic for Dummies 3rd Edition by Amine Bouchentouf.
Conjugating verbs in the past tense is relatively straightforward, but conjugating verbs in the present tense is a bit trickier. Instead of changing only the ending of the verb, you must also alter its beginning. In other words, you need to be familiar not only with the suffix but also with the prefix that corresponds to each personal pronoun.
To illustrate the difference between past and present tense, the verb كتب (wrote) is conjugated as يكتب (yak.tub) (to write), whereas the verb درس (studied) is يدرس (yad.ru.su) (to study).
Here’s the verb “to write” conjugated using all the personal pronouns. Notice how both the suffixes and prefixes change in the present tense.
| Form | Pronunciation | English |
| أكتب | a.nā ak.tub | I am writing |
| أنتَ تكتب | an.ta tak.tub | You are writing (MS) |
| أنتِ تكتبين | an.ti tak.tu.bīn | You are writing (FS) |
| هو يكتب | hu.wa yak.tub | He is writing |
| هي تكتب | hi.ya tak.tub | She is writing |
| نحن نكتب | naḥ.nu nak.tub | We are writing |
| أنتم تكتبون | an.tum tak.tu.būn | You are writing (MP) |
| أنتنّ تكتبنّ | an.tun.na tak.tub.na | You are writing (FP) |
| هم يكتبون | hum yak.tu.būn | They are writing (MP) |
| هنّ يكتبنّ | hun.na yak.tub.na | They are writing (FP) |
| أنتما تكتبان | an.tu.mā tak.tu.bān | You are writing (dual/M/F) |
| هما يكتبان | hu.mā yak.tu.bān | They are writing (dual/M) |
| هما تكتبان | hu.mā tak.tu.bān | They are writing (dual/F) |
As you can see, you need to be familiar with both the prefixes and suffixes to conjugate verbs in the present tense.
Aside from prefixes and suffixes, another major difference between the past and present tenses in Arabic is that every verb in the present tense has a dominant vowel that’s unique and distinctive. For example, the dominant vowel in يكتب is a ضمة (ḍam.mah) (“u” sound). However, in the verb يفعل (yaf.’al) (to do), the dominant vowel is the فتحة (fat.ḥah) (“a” sound). This means that when you conjugate the verb يفعل using the personal pronoun أنا, you say أنا أفعَل (a.nā af.’a.lu) and not (a.nā af.’u.lu). For complete coverage of Arabic vowels كسرة، فتحة، ضمة (ḍam.mah, fat.ḥah, and kas.rah), check out Chapter 1.
The dominant vowel is always the middle vowel. Unfortunately, there’s no hard rule you can use to determine which dominant vowel is associated with each verb. The best way to identify the dominant vowel is to look up the verb in the قاموس (qā.mūs) (dictionary).
In this list, I divide up some of the most common Arabic verbs according to their dominant vowels:
ضمة (ḍam.mah)
- يكتب (yak.tub) (to write)
- يدرس (yad.rus) (to study)
- يأكل (ya‘.kul) (to eat)
- يسكن (yas.kun) (to live)
فتحة (fat.ḥah)
- يفعل (yaf.’al) (to do)
- يقرأ (yaq.ra‘) (to read)
- يذهب (yadh.hab) (to go)
- يفتح (yaf.tah) (to open
كسرة (kas.rah)
- يرجع (yar.ji‘) (to return)
- يعرف (ya’rif) (to know)
Remember: When you conjugate a verb in the present tense, you must do two things:
- Identify the dominant vowel that will be used to conjugate the verb using all personal pronouns.
- Isolate the prefix and suffix that correspond to the appropriate personal pronouns.