Past tense verb (الفِعْلُ المَاضِي)

In the previous lesson, we learned what an Arabic verb is, and we mentioned that it is customary to work with them using patterns

Past tense verb patternsفَــعَــلَ فَــعِــلَ فَــعُــلَ

فَــعَــلَ : كَــتَــبَ Wrote

فَــعِــلَ : شَــرِبَ Drank

فَــعُــلَ : حَــسُــنَ Was good

There is also a fourth pattern فُــعِــلَ, but it is rare

In general, the first and last letters have the vowel sound الفَتْحَة

The verb and attached pronouns

To indicate the subject or object the Arabic verb often uses attached pronouns (الضمائر المتصلة). For example:

ذَهَـبْــتُ إلى الـمدرسةِ I went to school

كَـتَبَ + تُ = كَتَـبْتُ

The pronoun تُ (I) is the subject (الفَاعِل)

كَتَـبْــتُ فِي الدَّفْتَرِ I wrote in the notebook

كَتَـبْــنَا على السَّبُورةِ We wrote on the blackboard

ذَهَـبْــتَ إِلى المَدْرَسَةِ You went to school

ذَهَـبْــتِ إِلى فَاطِمَةِ You went to Fatima

جَلَسْــتُـمْ في الفَصْلِ You (plural, male) sat in class

جَلَسْــتُـنَّ في الفَصْلِ You (plural, female) sat in class

رَجَعَ مِن الـمَدرسةِ He came back from school

رَجَعَــتْ مِن الـمَدرسةِ She came back from school

سَبَحُــوا فِي البَحْرِ They (male) swam in the sea

سَبَحْــنَ فِي النهرِ They (female) swam in the river

💡 Summary of the lesson

Arabic verb conjugation patterns in the past tense