Lesson 29 – الدَّرْسُ التَّاسِعُ وَالْعِشْرُونَ

Tenses of the Verb (Past, Present and Future)- زَمَن الفِعْل  (الماضي ،وَالْمُضارِع ،والمُسْتَقْبَل)

Continued

  • We are still in lesson twenty nine of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • Tenses in Arabic are divided into three types: past, present and future.
  • The PAST means that the action happened before the time of speaking. The past verb is always used to express the past tense [already discussed in Lesson 28]. See the following examples:

Sentence
(Arabic)

Sentence (English)

Verb (Arabic)

Verb (English)

هَلْ دَرَسَ أَخُوكَ هذا الكِتاب؟

Did your brother study this book?

دَرَسَ

Studied

مَا كَتَبْتُ وَاجِبي أَمْس ِ

I did not write my homework yesterday.

كَتَبَ

Wrote

بَعَثَ اللَّهُ الأَنْبِياء لِيُنْذِرُوا النَّاس

Allah sent prophets to caution people.

بَعَثَ

Sent

  • We notice that the meaning of the three above-mentioned verbs happened before the time of speaking, and this is the past tense.
  • The present verb means that the action is happening at the time of speaking. If we say: Muhammad is eating محمد يأكل, this means that he is eating right at the time of speaking, not before or after.
  • The present tense is expressed in Arabic through the present verb we studied in Lesson 28. We have already learned how to formulate various types of the present verb, as follows:

Sentence (English)

Sentence
(Arabic)

Verb (Arabic)

Verb (English)

My brother is hanging out in the mosque

يَجْلِسُ أَخِي في المَسْجِدِ

يَجْلِسُ

To hang out

Work starts at 10:00 o'clock.

يَبْدَأ ُ العَمَلُ الساعَةَ العَاشِرَةَ

يَبْدَأ ُ

To start

The engineer is repairing the television.

المُهَنْدِسُ  يُصْلِحُ التِّلْفَازَ

يُصْلِحُ

To repair

The child is damaging his toys.

الطِّفْلُ يُفْسِدُ لُعَبَهُ

يُفْسِدُ

To spoil/damage

The month is approaching its end.

يَقْتَرِبُ الشَّهرُ مِنْ نِهَايَتِهِ

يَقْتَرِبُ

To approach

Your opinion is far from true

يَبْتَعِدُ رَأْيُكَ عَنِ الصَّوَابِ

يَبْتَعِدُ

To go far

Engineers are extracting oil from underground.

يَسْتَخْرِجُ المُهَنْدِسُونَ النِّفْطَ مِنَ الأَرْضِ

يَسْتَخْرِجُ

To extract

The traveler is inquiring about the time of the plane takeoff.

يَسْتَعْلِمُ المُسَافِرُ عَنْ مَوْعِدِ إقلاع الطَّائِرَةِ

يَسْتَعْلِمُ

To inquire

Sentence
(Arabic)

Sentence (English)

Transliteration / Translation

The verb in the future

The verb in the present

The new academic year will start after a month.

سَيَبْدَأُ العامُ الدِّرَاسِيُّ الجَدِيدُ بَعْدَ شَهْرٍ

sa-yabda’u

(will) start

سَيَبْدَأُ

يَبْدَأُ

We will perform the Eid Prayer after sunrise.

سَنُصَلِّي صَلاةَ العِيدِ بَعْدَ شُرُوقِ الشَّمْسِ

sa-yuŝalli
(will) pray

سَيُصَلِّي

يُصَلَّي

The diligent student will succeed

سَيَنْجَحُ الطَّالِبُ المُجْتَهِدُ

sa-yanĵaħu

(will) succeed

سَيَنْجَحُ

يَنْجَحُ

The judge is going to settle disputes among people fairly.

سَيَقْضِي القاضِي بَيْنَ النَّاسِ بالحَقِّ

sa-yaqđī
(will) spend

سَيَقْضِي

يَقْضِي

The strong amongst us shall help the week.

سَيُسَاعِدُ القَوِيُّ مِنَّا الضَّعِيفَ

sa-yusāξidu
(will) help

سَيُسَاعِدُ

يُسَاعِدُ

The children are going to wear the new clothes.

سَيَلْبَسُ الأَوْلادُ المَلابِسَ الجَدِيدةَ

sa-yalbasu

(will) wear

سَيَلْبَسُ

يَلْبَسُ

  • Having understood the meaning of the future tense, we will learn how to formulate the verb in this tense.
  • In the previous table, we notice that there are two verbs: the first is يَبْدَأ and its future form سَيَبْدَأُ.  The future form of the verb is the same as the present tense with a pre-fixed letter seen (سَ) before the verb in the present tense:

سَ   +  الفعل في الحاضِر (المضارع)

sa- + the verb in the present form

  • Another way of converting the present tense into the future tense is by adding the word /sawfa/:

سَوْفَ  + الفعل في الحاضر (المضارع)

sawfa + the present form of the verb

  • The difference between sa- ( سـ ) and sawfa ( سوف ) is that the former indicates that the action will happen immediately or within a short time [near future] but the latter means that the action will happen in a longer time [distant future], i.e. there is a long period separating the time of speaking and the time of the future action, as in the following examples:

Sentence
(Arabic)

Sentence (English)

Translation

Future tense verb

Present tense verb

أنا سَأُسَافِرُ الآن وَلَكِنِّي سَوْفَ أَعُودُ بَعْدَ سَنَةٍ

I am going to travel now, but I will return after a year.

(will) return

سوف يَعُودُ

يَعُودُ

سَوْفَ أَنَامُ بَعْدَ أَنْ أُشَاهِدَ الفِيلمَ

I will sleep after I watch the film

(will) sleep

سَوْفَ أَنَامُ

أَنَامُ

يقول الوَزِيرُ أنه سَوْف يَقْضِي عَلَى البِطَالةِ خِلالَ خَمْس ِ سَنَوَات ٍ

The minister says he will put an end to unemployment in five years.

(will) spend

سَوْفَ يَقْضِي

يَقْضِي

سَوْفَ أَغْسِلُ مَلابِسِي في نِهَايَةِ الأُسْبُوعِ

I will wash my clothes in the weekend.

(will) wash

سَوْفَ أَغْسِلُ

أَغْسِلُ