Are you confused with various kinds of verb in Arabic? Are there 2 kinds, 3 kinds or 4 kinds of verb or more? Are you overwhelmed while reading or listening different forms and patterns of Arabic verbs? Are you struggling in understanding verbs of Arabic langauge? If you are having similar problem, then you have come to the right place. This article will help you develop a better understanding of verb and about the 4 kinds of verb.

Let’s start with the basics first.Right!!!

We all know that verbs have a very important role in the structure of any language. Arabic is one of the oldest languages still exist on this planet. Like every langauge, Arabic is enriched with verbs and verbal sentences. As discussed in one of the post, there are 3 basic components in Arabic language; Noun, Verb and Particle. Understanding what is a verb and what are the 4 kinds of verb will help exponentially in reading and listening arabic language.

4 Kinds of Verb

Though, there are some other classifications of Arabic verbs too, but, here in this article, we are focusing on the very basic type. The 4 kinds of verb in Arabic language are as follows:

ماضى (Past Tense)
مضارع (Present and Future Tense)
أمر (Imperative Commanding Verb)
نهى (Negative Commanding Verb)

ماضى (Past Tense):

One of the 4 kinds of verb in Arabic is ماضى (Past Tense). It is a kind of verb which expresses any action that happend in past.

e.g. ذَهَبَ (He went). So, here the verb ذَهَبَ is expressing action of going by ‘He’ happened in past.

Note: By now, you must have noticed that the Arabic verb is also giving the meaning of its doer. That makes the Arabic verb different from the verbs of some other languages where action verb is separate and its doer is separate. But in Arabic language, the action and actor, both are attached in one single word.

Anyways, Past tense is the first one of the 4 kinds of verb

مُضَارِع (Present and Future Tense)

Second of the 4 kinds of verb in Arabic is مضارع (Present and Future Tense). It is a kind of verb which describes any action that is happening in present. Similarly, مضارع is also used to express any action that will happen in future.

e.g. يَذْهَبُ (He goes / He will go). So. here you can see that the verb يَذْهَبُ is giving two different meanings. Firstly, the verb is describing the action of going happening in present. Secondly, the verb also expresses that the action of going will happen in future.

أمر (Imperative Commanding Verb)

Third of the 4 kinds of verb in Arabic is أمر (Imperative commanding verb).It is a kind of verb which gives command to do some action.

e.g. اِذْهَبْ {(You) go!}. So, here, you may observe that the verb اِذْهَبْ is giving command ‘of going’ to his listener.

نَهى (Negative Commanding Verb)

Fourth and the last of the 4 kinds of verb in Arabic is نهى (Negative commanding verb).It is a kind of verb which gives command to stop doing something.

e.g. لَا تَذْهَبْ {(You) Do not go!}. So, here, the verb لَا تَذْهَبْ is asking the listener to stop the action of ‘going’.

Conclusion

So, this was a brief but important information about the 4 kinds of verb in Arabic language. I beleive this article has helped you in understanding the basic concept of verb in Arabic and in incresing the motivation for learning Arabic grammar. There are other sub categories of verbs as well which are discussed in other articles. If you need more information on verbs and its kinds, you may check this article where verbs asre explained in more detail. A video about the 4 kinds of verb is also attached for more clarity on the topic.at the end. Have a blessed and great journey of learning Arabic. Let’s strive to learn Arabic together!!!