Arabic: An Essential Grammar

person, gender and number of the subject and pronominal object by

means of suffixes (and in the imperfect also prefixes). Suffixes which

refer to the subject are called personal endings. These endings are

written in bold type in the transliteration of the conjugation table below.

Note: There are various ways to read the order of the Arabic verb conjugation.

The order used in this book is not the Arabic way, but rather an old tradition

still employed in most of the European Arabic textbooks.

Conjugation of the verb َكـ َتـ َب kataba ‘to write’ in the perfect tense in

all persons, genders and numbers (of the subject):

14.6 The normal word order in sentences with a perfect tense verb is:

verb + subject + object / complement + adverbial(s)

singular dual plural

َكـ َتـ َب َكـ َتـ َبا َكـ َتـ ُبـوا

3. m. katab+a katab+a ̄ katab+u ̄

he wrote they (2) wrote they wrote

َكـ َتـ َبـ ْت َكـ َتـ َبـ َتـا َكـ َتـ ْبـ َن

3. f. katab+at katab+ata ̄ katab+na

she wrote they (2) wrote they wrote

َكـ َتـ ْبـ َت َكـ َتـ ْبـ ُتـ َمـا َكـ َتـ ْبـ ُتـ ْم

2. m. katab+ta katab+tuma ̄ katab+tum

you wrote you (2) wrote you wrote

َكـ َتـ ْبـ ِت َكـ َتـ ْبـ ُتـ َمـا نَّ َكـ َتـ ْبـ ُتـ

2. f. katab+ti katab+tuma ̄ katab+tunna

you wrote you (2) wrote you wrote

َكـ َتـ ْبـ ُت —— َكـ َتـ ْبـ َنـا

1. m. and f. katab+tu katab+na ̄

I wrote we wrote

Note: The extra

alif (^) ا at the end of the third person masc. plural is not pronounced, and it
is elided when a suffix denoting the object is added.
80
Perfect
tense, root,
radicals,
triliteral
verbs, word
order