Arabic: An Essential Grammar

106

Chapter 17

Imperfect tense verb in the

indicative and word order

17.1 The Arabic imperfect tense َأْلـ ُم َضا ِر ُع expresses an incomplete,

continuous or habitual action or on-going state. It refers usually to

the present, in which case it is translated by the English (simple

or progressive) present tense, for example َي ْش َر ُب yasˇrabu, ‘he drinks’

OR ‘he is drinking’. In certain appropriate contexts, which will be

explained later, it may, however, refer to the past or future, in which case

it is translated by the English (simple or progressive) imperfect or future

(sometimes present), respectively. It is thus to be emphasized that the

Arabic imperfect tense is not like the English imperfect, which almost

always refers to the past. (See also chapter 14 on the perfect tense.)

17.2 There are three moods in Arabic for the imperfect tense: indica-

tive, subjunctive and jussive. The indicative mood is the basic mood of

the verb and it is mostly used in forming statements and questions. In

this chapter we will deal only with the indicative mood of the imperfect

tense, َأْلـ ُم َضا ِر ُع ْلـ َم ْر ُفو ُع. (See chapter 28 regarding the other moods.)

17.3 ‘Vowelling’ of the middle radical in the imperfect tense

It was mentioned in chapter 14 that the triliteral verb in the perfect tense

has three patterns of vowelling for the middle radical. The following are

the rules of corresponding vowelling for the middle radical in the

imperfect tense:

If the middle radical in the perfect tense has: