Present tense - summary

Form I
NB. The root letters are green. The parts you change are in capitals (prefix and suffix, and middle vowel). The middle vowel is in red: this may be fatah A, damma U or kasra I depending on the verb. It is the vowel given in brackets at the top of the entry in the Hans Wehr dictionary.

Notice that the most common suffix is -U. To help you remember this, it is the same as the nominative case. In fact, in Arabic terminology, the same term is used for the nominative noun and the imperfect verb, رَفْع


أَكْتُبُ AktUbU - أََنَا - I
نَكْتُبُ NAktUbU - نَحْنُ - we


تَكْتُبُ TAktUbU - أَنْتَ - you (s, m)
تَكْتُبِينَ TAktUbINA - أَنْتِ - you (s, f)

تَكْتُبٌونَ TAktUbUNA - أَنْتُمْ - you (pl, m)
تَكْتُبْنَ TAktUbNA - أَنْتُنَّ - you (pl, f)


يَكْتُبُ YAktUbU - هُوَ - he
تَكْتُبُ TAktUbU - هِيَ - she

يَكْتُبٌونَ YAktUbUNA - هُمْ - they (m)
يَكْتُبْنَ YAktUbNA - هُنَّ - they (f)