Arabic/Verbs

A textbook about Arabic verbs and their conjugations and paradigms.

=Paradigms=

active
= Other approach = A verb is a word that tells us that someone or something is doing something. For example, "I went to school." In that sentence the word "went" is a verb. A verb tells us what action is happening, that is why verbs are called "action words".

In Arabic, like English, verbs are conjugated. This means that the verb changes depending on who is doing the action. For example:

"I went to school"

"He went to school"

In an Arabic translation of the above two sentences, the word for "went" would differ between the sentences. In one it would be ذهبت (dhahabtu) and in the other it would be ذهب (dhahaba). This is what conjugation is all about. When the person doing the action is different (for example I, instead of he) the verb also changes in Arabic. They differ depending on the pronoun.

For example, in English:

I go. BUT He goes. NOT He go.

Just like in Arabic. (a-na adh-hab (u))أنا أذهب BUT (hu-wa yadh-hab(u)) هو يذهب Not (hu-wa adh-hab (u)) هو أذهب

So why can't one use the same verb? Because verbs conjugate. If you do not conjugate the verb properly two things can happen:
 * People don't understand who you are talking about (because the way the verb is conjugated doesn't match up to what you are talking about)
 * People don't understand what verb you are using, conjugating improperly, might make people think you meant something else.

So
 * Conjugation is important
 * Conjugation happens in English as well as Arabic

Here is a table of pronouns: Verbs are conjugated according to the pronoun that represents the one who is doing the action.

Pronunciation key (non-pausal)
أنا is always normally prounced a-na even though it's spelling indicates a-naa. The exception to this rule is in specific places of the Quran (qur'aan).