The present tense in Arabic

The imperfect (indicative) or the present (Arabic: المضارع) forms the basic form of the verb in Arabic. We deliver the present tense in Arabic!

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The present tense in Arabic

Caution: The 3rd person singular (هي) and the 2nd person singular male (أنتَ) are the same as well as the 3rd person dual female (هما) and the 2nd person dual (أنتما) in the arabic present tense. It is therefore, necessary to pay close attention to the context, which is crucial to know which personal pronoun the verb is referring to, if the personal pronoun is omitted, which is allowed in Arabic and also often common because otherwise, it would be like a doubled information.

The verb in the present can occur in the following three moods: in the indicative, subjunctive or apocopate/jussive.

1. Indikative (short: represented by verb endings damma ( ْ ) or nun (ن)

a) Verb in the indicative without particle -> present tense, progressive form, reality form

b) لا + verb in the indicative -> negation of the present tense

c) قد + verb in the indicative -> “maybe”, future tense, probability form, also “even” or “already” in combination with a verb in the perfect

d) سوف \ س + verb in the indicative -> future tense, sometimes “as soon as”

e) كان + subject + verb in the indicative -> past, progressive form for something that happened in the past for a long time (comparable to the expression “used to do”

2. Subjunctive

Keyword: أن

Future is negated with the subjunctive: with لن

3. Apocopate / Jussiv

for formation see subjunctive

The past is negated with the apocopate: with لم

-> لم + apocopate + بعد -> to express “not yet”

That was The Present in Arabic. If you liked the article, then you should also read the article about the other tense, the past tense in Arabic.