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Intermediate

Past Tense Verbs

The perfect tense

Suffixes mark the subject

The past tense (maadi) is built from the stem plus subject suffixes.

📊 Past tense of كتب (to write)
Pronoun Verb Translit
أنا كتبتُ katabtu
أنتَ كتبتَ katabta
أنتِ كتبتِ katabti
هو كتبَ kataba
هي كتبتْ katabat
نحن كتبنا katabnaa
هم كتبوا katabuu
💬 Examples
كَتَبتُ
katabtu
I wrote
📝 Suffix ـتُ for 'I'
كَتَبَ
kataba
he wrote
📝 Bare stem = he
Feminine and plural suffixes

ـتْ marks 'she'; ـوا marks masculine plural.

💬 Examples
كَتَبَتْ
katabat
she wrote
📝 Feminine 'she'
كَتَبوا
katabuu
they (m) wrote
📝 Masculine plural
Past is negated with ما

Negate the past with ما before the verb (or لم + jussive, covered later).

💬 Examples
ما كَتَبَ
maa kataba
he did not write
📝 Simple past negation
ما ذَهَبتُ
maa dhahabtu
I did not go
📝 ما + past verb