القواعد

Levantine Arabic grammar tables

Every form of 12 everyday verbs in every tense, plus possessive endings and “to have”, with audio, example sentences and practice.

• المُضارِع

  Present tense

  In spoken Levantine Arabic the everyday present tense starts with بـ. It covers what you do now and what you usually do: بَدرُس means both “I study” and “I’m studying”.

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• بدون ب

  Present without بـ

  Drop the بـ and you get the form Levantine Arabic uses after words like بدّي (I want), لازم (must), ممكن (can) and بحب (I like): بدّي أدرُس, “I want to study”.

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• المُستقبل

  Future tense

  To talk about the future, put رح in front of the present tense without بـ: رح أدرُس, “I’m going to study / I will study”. رح never changes.

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• الماضي

  Past tense

  The past tense works with endings instead of prefixes. The “he” form is the bare verb (أكَل, he ate), and every other person adds an ending to it.

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• الأمر

  Commands

  Commands only exist for “you”: one form for a man, one for a woman and one for a group. روح! (go!) · روحي! · روحوا!

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• مُلكية

  Possessive endings

  Arabic doesn’t have separate words for “my” or “your”: you add an ending to the noun. كتاب (book) → كتابي (my book), كتابها (her book).

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• عِند و مع

  To have

  To say “I have”, Levantine Arabic uses عِند (at) or مع (with) plus a possessive ending: عِندي سيّارة, “I have a car”; مَعي مصاري, “I’ve got money on me”.

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