In the Name of God,

The All-Compassionate, The All-Merciful

Lesson One (Reminder 1)

There are two kinds of sentences in Arabic: ‫( جمله اسمیه‬Nominal Sentence) and ‫ه‬
ّ ‫( جمله فعلی‬Verbal
Sentence).

The Nominal Sentence is started with a name i.e. : ‫ولَ ُد قائِم‬

َ ‫ ال‬The boy is standing (‫ انوند‬and ‫ انقائى‬are
nouns). The Verbal Sentence is started with a verb i.e.: ‫ب حامِد‬
َ ‫ض َر‬
َ Hamid Hits (Hamid = ‫فاعل‬, Hits
= ‫)فعل‬. In this lesson we are dealing with verb, roots and the past tense verbs.

Verbs

Tense Verb

Simple Past Perfective

Simple present Imperative

Simple Present
Imperfective
Simple Future

Just like every other word in Arabic barring the particles, verbs are based on roots. Roots will be plugged
into verbal structures to create verbs of different tenses and aspects.

Roots

In Indo-European languages such as English, the infinitive is usually the basic from of the verb of which
the rest of the forms are derived.

For example, the infinitive "to talk" is the source of many derived words:

Talk Infinitive
 Talking Present participle

Talked Past participle

Talk Present simple

Talked Past simple

Talk Noun

We see that the main stem of the infinitive stays preserved, while the inflection works by affixing other
parts to the stem. At least it is so most of the time. Unfortunately, in Semitic languages things are a little
bit more complex than that.

In Arabic, the basic source of all the forms of a verb is called the "root" of the verb .

The root is not a real word, rather it is a sequence of three consonants that can be found in all the words
that are related to it. Most roots are composed of three letters, very few are of four or five letters.

The root can be easily obtained from the 3rd person masculine singular past form (the perfective) of the
verb.

Look at these roots:

3rd person masc. sing.

Meaning of Verb Root
past (perfective) verb
(He) did FAL ‫فعل‬ fa"al(a) ‫م‬َ ‫َف َع‬
(He) wrote KTB ‫كتب‬ katab(a) َ ‫َك َت‬
‫ة‬
(He) studied DRS ‫درس‬ daras(a) ‫س‬
َ ‫َد َر‬
(He) drew (a
RSM ‫رسو‬ rasam(a) ‫ى‬
َ ‫س‬
َ ‫َر‬
picture)
(He) ate 'KL ‫أكل‬ 'akal(a) َ ‫أَ َك‬
‫م‬
(He) knew "LM ‫علو‬ "alim(a) ‫ى‬
َ ِ‫َعه‬
(He) was/became
KBR ‫كبر‬ kabur(a) ‫َك ُث َر‬
bigger
(He) rolled DHRJ ‫دحرج‬ dahraj(a) ‫ج‬
َ ‫ح َر‬
ْ ‫َد‬
 (something)

You see that the root is not a word; it is just a sequence of consonants. The consonants of the root are
separated by different vowels in different words. They can also be separated by other extra consonants
that do not belong to the root. The root is used to make all the forms of a verb. It is used to make nouns
as well.
Each root pertains to a certain meaning, e.g. K T B ‫ ک ت ب‬pertains to "writing."

See the following example:

Words derived from the

Meaning
root ‫ك ت ب‬

(he) wrote katab(a) َ ‫َك َت‬

‫ة‬

≈ (he) was/became
kutib(a) ‫ِة‬
َ ‫ُكت‬
written

(he) was/became written 'inkatab(a) ‫ة‬ َ ‫ا ْن‬

َ ‫ك َت‬

(he) made (somebody)

kattab(a) َ ‫َك َّت‬
‫ة‬
write

(he) made (somebody)

'aktab(a) َ ‫أَ ْك َت‬
‫ة‬
Verbs write

(he) exchanged writing

with
kaatab(a) ‫ة‬
َ َ‫كات‬
→ (he) corresponded
with

(he) exchanged writing

takaatab(a) ‫ة‬
َ َ‫تَكات‬
→ (he) corresponded
 (he) wrote himself
'iktatab(a) َ ‫ا ْك َت َت‬
‫ة‬
→ (he) subscribed

(he) sought writing 'istaktab(a) َ ‫ِس َت ْك َت‬

‫ة‬ ْ ‫ا‬

writing katb ‫َك ْتة‬

writing
kitaab ‫كِتاب‬
→ book/dispatch

writing kitaaba(t) ‫كِتاتَة‬

booklet kutayyib ‫ُك َت ِي ّة‬

writing (man)
Nouns kaatib ‫كاتِة‬
→ writer

written
maktoob ‫َيكْتوب‬
→ letter

desk/office maktab ‫َي ْك َتة‬

library/bookstore maktaba(t) ‫َي ْك َتثَة‬

phalanx kateeba(t) ‫َكتيثَة‬

So basically all these words were created by taking the root ‫ ك ت ب‬and adding letters or vowels to it.
This is how Semitic languages work.