Arabic Irregular Verbs
Irregular Verbs
Irregularly behaving verbs in Arabic are:
۩ Doubled Verbs
Those are verbs that end with two identical consonants with no short vowel between them (-CC, no green short vowel).
۩ Weak Verbs
Weak verbs الأَفْعَاْلُ المُعْتَلَّةُ are verbs that have original weak letters (y or w). Or, in other words, verbs whose roots contain one or more weak letters.
There are four categories of weak verbs depending on the position of the weak letter in the root (first, middle, final letter, or more than one letter).
I. Doubled Verbs
Doubled verbs المُضَعَّفُ are verbs ending with two identical consonants with no vowel in between (-CC). This refers to any verb ending with a shadda(t) ّ over the final letter (indicates doubled consonants without a vowel in between).It is not necessary that the two letters be both original letters.
The missing short vowel in these verbs is nothing but the green short vowel that lies between the final two letters of any verb.
Examples:
| Original Form | Verb | |
| مَدَدَ | madd(a) | مَدَّ |
| madad(a) | (he) extended (tr.) | |
| عَدَدَ | “add(a) | عَدَّ |
| “adad(a) | (he) counted (tr.) | |
| مَرَرَ | marr(a) | مَرَّ |
| marar(a) | (he) passed (intr.) | |
| اِشْتَدَدَ | ‘ishtadd(a) | اِشْتَدَّ |
| ‘ishtadad(a) | (he) intensified (intr.) | |
| اِحْمَرَرَ | ‘ihmarr(a) | اِحْمَرَّ |
| ‘ihmarar(a) | (he) became red(der) | |
| أَحْبَبَ | ‘ahabb(a) | أَحَبَّ |
| ‘ahbab(a) | (he) loved | |
| اِسْتَعْدَدَ | ‘ista”add(a) | اِسْتَعَدَّ |
| ‘ista”dad(a) | (he) prepared (intr.) | |
| اِطْمَأْنَنَ | ‘itma’ann(a) | اِطْمَأَنَّ |
| ‘itma’nan(a) | (he) became reassured | |
Notice that doubled verbs are two types:
Verbs with an omitted short vowel from between the doubled consonants (-CvCvC- → -CvCC-).
Verbs that have a displaced-back, rather than omitted, short vowel (-CCvC- → -CvCC-).
Most doubled verbs are of the first type, except for form IV, X & QIV doubled verbs. The distinctive feature of this type is that the first copy of the doubled consonant is preceded by a vowel.
-CvCvC- → -CvCC-
(C: consonant, v: vowel)
In the second type, the first copy of the doubled consonant is not preceded by a vowel but rather by a consonant.
-CCvC- → -CvCC-
In this case, omitting the vowel between the two identical consonants would produce the cluster -CCC- which is unacceptable. Therefore, the green short vowel is not omitted but rather moved backward from between the two identical consonants. Doubled verbs of this type are those of forms IV, X & QIV.
In the imperfective, form I becomes of the second type because the imperfective structure of form I has the combination -CCvC- rather than -CvCvC-.
The conjugation of doubled verbs will often require reinserting a short vowel between the two doubled consonants (-CvCC- → -CvCvC-). This is termed in Arabic “untying” the shadda(t). For the forms with a displaced short vowel, the short vowel will be moved back forward to between the two doubled consonants (-CvCC- → -CCvC-).
These changes will happen in the 1st and 2nd person conjugations and with the 3rd person feminine plural conjugation of the perfective. For the imperfective, untying will be required only in the feminine plural conjugations.
Verbs forms that can be doubled verbs are the following:
| Form I | fa”?l(a) → fa”l(a) | فَعلَ |
| Form IV | ‘af”al(a) → ‘afa”l(a) | أَفْعَلَ |
| Form VII | ‘infa”al(a) → ‘infa”l(a) | اِنْفَعَلَ |
| Form VIII | ‘ifta”al(a) → ‘ifta”l(a) | اِفْتَعَلَ |
| Form X | ‘istaf”al(a) → ‘istafa”l(a) | اِسْتَفْعَلَ |
Verbs forms that are always doubled verbs are the following:
| Form IX | ‘if”alal(a) → ‘if”all(a) | اِفْعَلََّ |
| Form XI | ‘if”aalal(a) → ‘if”aall(a) | اِفْعَاْلَّ |
| Form QIV | ‘if”allal(a) → ‘if”alall(a) | اِفْعَلَلَّ |
II. Mithaal Verbs
The first category of weak verbs, Mithaal verbs المُعْتَلُّ الْمِثَاْلُ, refers to verbs whose first original letter is weak letter (w or y).
Most of the roots of these verbs begin with و w, rare ones begin with ي y (this is contrary to other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Old South Arabian languages, in which the initial w is often turned into y).
Verbs whose roots begin with ‘alif أ ‘ are not weak verbs. They conjugate regularly and they are categorized as sound verbs (regular verbs), because this is the consonant ‘alif (the hamza(t)) and not the weak ‘alif (the vowel-denoting ‘alif). The vowel-denoting ‘ali can never be part of any root nor can it be the first letter of any word. The differentiation between the two varieties of ‘alif was made in this section.
Note: weak letters at the beginning of a word (w or y) are always consonants not vowels, because a weak letter must be preceded by a corresponding short vowel and not followed by any vowel in order to become a vowel.
Examples of Mithaal verbs:
| Root | Verb | ||
| Y B S | ي ب س | yabis(a) | يَبِسَ |
| (he) hardened (intr.) | |||
| W J D | و ج د | wajad(a) | وَجَدَ |
| (he) found | |||
| W ” D | و ع د | wa”ad(a) | وَعَدَ |
| (he) promised | |||
| W Q “ | و ق ع | waqqa”(a) | وَقَّعَ |
| (he) signed | |||
| W S L | و ص ل | waasal(a) | وَاْصَلَ |
| (he) continued (tr./intr.) | |||
| Y N “ | ي ن ع | ‘ayna”(a) | أَيْنَعَ |
| (he) ripened (intr.) | |||
| W L W L | و ل و ل | walwal(a) | وَلْوَلَ |
| (he) howled | |||
Mithaal verbs can exist in any verb form.
Mithaal verbs conjugate regularly in the perfective, but in the imperfective of form I, they will lose their first original letter (the weak letter) if the short vowel following the second root-letter is i, and sometimes if it isa.
III. Hollow Verbs
Hollow verbs المُعْتَلُّ الأَجْوَفُ are verbs whose second original letter is a weak letter.
These verbs have either و or ي in the middle position of their roots, but not ‘alif.
Verbs whose roots have ‘alif أ ‘ in the middle position are not weak verbs. They conjugate regularly and they are categorized as regular verbs, because this is the consonant ‘alif (the hamza(t)), and the weak ‘alif can not be part of any root.
The trick with perfective hollow verbs is that, in the actual world, many of them change the second original letter (the w or y) to a weak ‘alif, or vowel-denoting ‘alif, so that the middle part of the verb will become a long A vowel (CaCvC → CaCC → CaaC).
Example, the form I hollow verb: