Talk:Arabic verbs

Being familiar with languages
I have rarely seen something that much confusing. I don't know if that's the order of the chapters or anything else...but I just don't get most of this.

--78.193.35.108 (talk) 20:58, 11 April 2022 (UTC)

A question
Is there a reason than in the table of the doubled-roots form VI imperative, only the form تفالَلْ is specified? what about تفالَّ? shouldn't it be specified? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.127.8.57 (talk) 11:18, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

[Untitled]
I'm in the process of splitting the Arabic grammar article. I created this article from what used to be the nouns and adjectives section of the main article.Azylber (talk) 20:23, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

Reformatting Verb Tables?
I used to be a stickler for my verb tables all looking the same. That works when you're learning an Indo-European language, because they're all taught in the 1-2-3rd person order (from top to bottom). But I've been learning Arabic (from some Western textbooks, too), and most verb charts go in the order 3ms-3fs-2ms-2fs-1s/3md-3fd-2d/3mp-3fp-2mp-2fp-1p. It makes coming here a little confusing, because you have to sort of read the chart in an order you're not used to from textbooks. Dmvjjvmd (talk) 18:37, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Disorganization
This article is disorganized and is hard to navigate. There are a lot of first-level sections, and then a few sections grouped together. Bizarrely, there are two sets of sections both describing weak verbs. And there is a section describing person-number-tense forms for a sound verb, then a few sections describing syntactic and semantic categories, then sections describing person-number-tense forms for weak verbs. There is a section with a table of derived forms of a sound verb and a table of categories of weak verbs, then near the bottom of the article, another more detailed table of derived forms of sound verbs and sections with more detailed tables of categories of weak verbs. This is ridiculously difficult to navigate, and needs reorganization.

I think the basic organization should include two main sections: syntactic and semantic categories (person, number, gender, mood, voice, tense, derived form), and morphology of these categories (including the distinction between sound and weak verbs, which is purely phonological and morphological, not syntactic or semantic; the endings for person and number, vowel changes for active and passive, and all the derived forms). This would be far more logical and easier for a reader to navigate (and for Wikipedians to edit!). I may end up doing this myself, but certainly help would be appreciated. — Eru·tuon 05:34, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

I've created User:Erutuon/Arabic verbs with my idea for the organization of this article. It would be better to rewrite it there and move it here when it has reached a certain level of completion, rather than rewriting it in this namespace and making it unreadable. I welcome other editors' help. — Eru·tuon 06:05, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

'times 7.385 tense/mood combinations'
Hi, what does 'times' mean before numbers? Thank you in advance. Backinstadiums (talk) 20:49, 23 January 2017 (UTC)


 * It means “multiplied by”. Loraof (talk) 20:33, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

changes caused by the addition of enclitic pronouns
Hi, I think adding at the bottom of the table those changes caused by the addition of enclitic pronouns would improve the entry significantly. Thanks in advance. --Backinstadiums (talk) 11:34, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

Non-integer number of tense/mood combinations
Currently the last paragraph of the lead says


 * The maximum possible total number of verb forms derivable from a root — not counting participles and verbal nouns — is approximately 13 person/number/gender forms; times 7.385 tense/mood combinations, counting the sa- future (since the moods are active only in the present tense, and the imperative has only 5 of the 13 paradigmatic forms); times 17 form/voice combinations (since forms IX, XI–XV exist only for a small number of stative roots, and form VII cannot normally form a passive), for a total of 1,632.

How can there be a non-integer number of tense/mood combinations?Loraof (talk) 20:37, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

Error in section 3.2 Weak roots
"the shorter stem has a vowel u or i corresponding to the actual second root consonant of the verb. "

This is incorrect. It is true that the vowel is i when the root is ي. But when the root is و, it is sometimes u and sometimes i. Consequently, one of the given examples is also incorrect:

"(خاف خفن (يخاف يخفن khāfa khufna (yakhāfu yakhafna) "

خفن is not khufna (خُفْنَ) but rather khifna (خِفْنَ).

You can see this explained in more detail here: http://www.learnarabiconline.com/hollow-verbs.shtml

It seems like this got first introduced here. Could you please comment or correct? --88.71.251.162 (talk) 19:45, 28 December 2019 (UTC)

Verbal noun "sg. masc. nom."
If anyone has the time to cut the "sg. masc. nom." field not to extend to "verbal noun" in the tables that would be great. There are enough verbal nouns as forms or examples also on the page that are feminine. Thanks a lot in advance, --Marsupium (talk) 23:44, 24 June 2022 (UTC)


 * ✅ with this edit. --Marsupium (talk) 21:20, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

orthographic convention
When grammarians write in Arabic (or Hebrew) about triliteral roots, do they use hyphens? —Tamfang (talk) 02:17, 18 September 2023 (UTC)


 * Hello, I think I have seen various styles including hyphens. What I've seen more I think is just spaces, like this: "ك ت ب". Best, --Marsupium (talk) 10:50, 22 September 2023 (UTC)