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The Arabic Imperative (Part 1) Posted by on Nov 23, 2009 in Arabic Language, Grammar

The imperative (الأمر) is used to make orders. It is addressed to a person or persons; therefore, verbs are conjugated with second person pronouns only, i.e. ‘you’ (أنتَ – أنتِ – أنتما – أنتم – أنتن). Verbs that contain three letters follow the pattern (افعلْ) and take the appropriate endings according to gender and number, as follows:

كتب(write)

درس (study)

فتح (open)

أنتَ

اكتب

ادرس

افتح

أنتِ

اكتبي

ادرسي

افتحي

أنتما

اكتبا

ادرسا

افتحا

أنتم

اكتبوا

ادرسوا

افتحوا

أنتن

اكتبن

ادرسن

افتحن

Verbs that contain vowels are irregular, and the vowels are sometimes deleted in the imperative, e.g.

أكل(eat)

أخذ (take)

وضع (put)

أنتَ

كُل

خُذ

ضَع

أنتِ

كُلي

خُذي

ضَعي

أنتما

كُلا

خُذا

ضَعا

أنتم

كُلوا

خُذوا

ضَعوا

أنتن

كُلن

خُذن

ضَعن

قال (say)

قام (get up)

نام (sleep)

أنتَ

قُل

قُم

نَم

أنتِ

قُولي

قُومي

نامي

أنتما

قُولا

قُوما

ناما

أنتم

قُولوا

قُوموا

ناموا

أنتن

قُلن

قُمن

نِمن

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Comments:

  1. Juan:

    Thanks a lot Aziza,

    I never pay attention to this verbal tense.
    I have a question,
    I noticed that in this tense all words start with alif (in the regular verbs with 3 letters),
    What is the vowel associated with this initial alif?
    Does it has some relation with the vowel for the present tense or there are no rules?

    I am asking this because I have heard different sounds at the start of the word and I get confused.

    Thanks.

  2. Juan:

    One more post, it is probably a typo.

    I noted in the pattern that you put a sukoon on the lam.
    Shouldn’t also be a sukoon on the fa? as below.

    افْعلْ

    Thanks,

    Juan.

  3. Aziza:

    Ahlan Juan,
    Yes, you’ve got the voweling right افْعلْ. There is a sukuun on the فْ

  4. Aziza:

    Thank you very much for your comment Juan. There is no fixed vowel to be attached to the ا in افْعلْ. It can be a short i e.g. open اِفتح, or a short o, e.g. أُكتبْ. There is no rule that I know of to specify when to use either of them, but we learn them by hearing them again and again.
    Salam,
    Aziza

  5. Juan:

    Thanks for your answers.

  6. Argyris:

    Dear Aziza, my compliments for your very interesting work and effort. However, PLEASE try to understand that someone who needs this knowledge is also incapable of knowing the vocalisation of what you offer! So , without the vowels the wealth of what you give becomes practically useless, like an unapproachable dream.

  7. Aziza:

    Ahlan Argyris,
    I hope the latest posts that are fully voweled are more useful!
    Salam,
    Aziza

  8. Abu musa:

    Salamz

    The following is a more detailed overview of the imperative verb:
    To make the 2nd person masculine single person from the verb تَفعل remove the damma from the third root letter and put a sakoon in it’s place. Remove the present tense prefix, in this case تَ and replace it with an alif ا
    If the vowel on the 2nd root letter is damma, eg, عُ then the imperative alif prefix will also take a damma I.e. تَفعُلُ changes into اُفعُل if however, the vowel on the second root letter is fatha or kasha, e.g. عَ or عِ then the imperative alif can take either Kasra or Fatha

  9. salman:

    شكرا Aziza i found the information very useful.may Allah reward you