Lesson 11
Prepositions with Pronouns and Present Tense
الفعل المضارع
Prepositions with pronoun suffixes (فِيهِ, عَلَيْهِ) plus the first encounter with present-tense verb conjugation for the third person masculine هُوَ.
Prepositions + Pronoun Suffixes
Preposition+ him (ـهُ)+ her (ـهَا)+ me (ـي)
فِيفِيهِفِيهَافِيَّ
عَلَىعَلَيْهِعَلَيْهَاعَلَيَّ
مِنْمِنْهُمِنْهَامِنِّي
إِلَىإِلَيْهِإِلَيْهَاإِلَيَّ
Present Tense الفعل المضارع
The present tense (مُضَارِع) begins with a prefix indicating person and number. For هُوَ (he) the prefix is يَـ. The verb يَكْتُبُ = "he writes / he is writing." Arabic has no separate present-continuous form context distinguishes them.
PronounPrefixExampleMeaning
هُوَيَـيَكْتُبُhe writes
أَنَاأَـأَكْتُبُI write
نَحْنُنَـنَكْتُبُwe write
يَكْتُبُ أَحْمَدُ الدَّرْسَ فِي الْكِتَابِ يَذْهَبُ إِلَى الْمَدْرَسَةِ كُلَّ يَوْمٍ
Yaktubu Aḥmadu d-darsa fī l-kitābi Yadhhabu ilā l-madrasati kulla yawm
Ahmad writes the lesson in the book. He goes to the school every day.
الْكِتَابُ فِيهِ دَرْسٌ مُهِمٌّ أَذْهَبُ إِلَيْهَا كُلَّ أُسْبُوع
Al-kitābu fīhi darsun muhimm Adhhabu ilayhā kulla usbūʿ
The book has an important lesson in it. I go to it (f) every week.
Sample Dialogue
أ: مَاذَا يَكْتُبُ أَحْمَدُ؟ ب: يَكْتُبُ الدَّرْسَ. أ: وَأَنْتَ؟ ب: أَكْتُبُ رِسَالَةً إِلَى صَدِيقِي.
A: Mādhā yaktubu Aḥmad? B: Yaktubu d-dars. A: Wa-anta? B: Aktubu risālatan ilā ṣadīqī.
A: What is Ahmad writing? B: He is writing the lesson. A: And you? B: I am writing a letter to my friend.
- Present-tense prefixes: يَـ (he), تَـ (she/you m), أَـ (I), نَـ (we).
- The verb object takes the accusative (fatḥa): الدَّرْسَ (the lesson direct object).
- فِيهِ (m) vs فِيهَا (f) the pronoun suffix must agree with the gender of the noun replaced.
- مَاذَا؟ (mādhā = what?) question for asking what action is being done.
- كُلَّ يَوْمٍ (kulla yawm = every day) is an accusative adverb of time very common phrase.