Elementary Arabic Morphology 2

The Preterite Tense Verb

  1. How many tenses of verbs are there?

  2. What is a preterite tense verb?

  3. What is the vowel sign of the last syllable of a preterite tense verb?

  4. What do you know about a glottal stop being added to the beginning of the preterite tense verb?

  5. What are the vowel signs of the preterite tense letters?

  6. What is the vowel sign of the second root letter of a triliteral verb?

  7. There are three tenses of a verb: preterite, aorist, imperative.

  8. The preterite tense is a verb that indicates a state or action that happened in the past. For example: أخَذَ(he took)

  9. The last syllable of a preterite tense verb is indeclinable on:

• A fathah, for example ضَرَبَ (he hit)

• A Dummah, if it is connected to the wāw plural pronoun, for example ضَرَبُوا (they hit)

• A sakūn, if a nominative pronoun with a vowel sign is connected to the verb, for example ضَرَبتُ (I hit)

  1. The glottal stop that is added to the beginning of the perterite tense verbs can be:

• A qat‛ glottal stop which takes a fathah in four-letter verbs. For example: أکرَمَ(he honored)

• A wasl glottal stop which takes a kasrah in five and six-letter verbs. For example: اِنطَلَقَ (he was set free)

  1. All of the vowel signs of the perterite tense verb, except the second root letter are fathahs. For example أکرَمَ (he honored).

  2. The second root letter of single triliteral verbs can either have a fathah, dummah or kasrah. For example: ضَرَبَ (he hit) کَرُمَ (he honored) and عَلِمَ (he knew)