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The Secret Code of Arabic Verbs: What the Vowel on the 2nd Root Letter Reveals
The second root letter’s vowel in Arabic past tense verbs (فَعَلَ) provides vital clues to its meaning. This guide explains how the vowels ‘a’, ‘i’, and ‘u’ distinguish between acts, transitory states, and permanent states, with examples.
The vowel on the second root letter in Arabic past tense verbs (فَعَلَ) offers crucial insights into a verb’s meaning and character.
The second radical is the most important component of the past tense. Only the second root letter can have any of the three vowels (a, i, u) in the past tense whereas the first and third must have فَتْحةٌ.
The second vowel can help us understand verbs better. Let’s see why.
| “a” | فَعَلَ | an act; someone initiates something |
| “i” | فَعِلَ | a transitory state; |
| “u“ | فَعُلَ | a permanent state; |
Some examples:
| “a” | قَتَلَ | to kill |
| “a” | فَعَلَ | to do; to act |
| “i” | لَبِسَ | to dress |
| “i” | عَلِمَ | to know |
| “u“ | حَسُنَ | to be beautiful |
| “u“ | كَبُرَ | to be big |
This is generally but not universally true. There are exceptions because neighboring consonants have influenced the vowels (or the other way round). There is a rule of thumb for verbs of category 3 (فَعُلَ):
They usually don’t form an active participle – but a pseudo, quasi participle that describes the state of things (صِفةٌ مُشَبَّهةٌ). For example: big (ٌكَبِير), nice (لَطِيفٌ).
Have an Arabic grammar question or problem? Leave a comment or message me.
Note: The feature image was generated by AI and is for illustration purposes only. The Arabic script in the image makes no sense – so please don’t try to decipher it ;-)
Wanna cite this article?
Drißner, G. (2021, November 10). The Secret Code of Arabic Verbs: What the Vowel on the 2nd Root Letter Reveals. Arabic for Nerds. https://arabic-for-nerds.com/grammar/vowel-second-root-letter/
Published: November 10, 2021
Please check the citation before use, especially if your style guide has local requirements.
Publication ISSN: 3055-1730
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I went through a few sites trying to get clear idea of the nuances of each change and only finally understood after accidently falling into this site. Well explained. Thank you
Amazing! I had no idea about this 😅
قَتَلَ (u)?
Hi Teresa, do you mean the present tense (يَقْتُلُ)? This article only talks about the stem vowel of the past tense, which is “a” in قَتَلَ. Regarding the present tense, there are other rules.