In Arabic, the past time frame is used to mark actions that are complete at the time of speaking or writing. It is mainly marked by suffixes at the end of verbs that depend on the person or pronoun used.

 

Examples of the past (perfect) tense:

 درس اللغة العربية.

“He studied Arabic.”

 

سكنتَ في مدينةبغداد.

“You lived in Baghdad”

 

شاهدنا التليفزيون في المساء.

“We watched television in the evening.”

 The following table gives the appropriate suffixes used to mark the past (perfect) timeframe in Arabic.

 

Example	Past tense suffixes الفعل الماضي	Pronouns الضمائر
درستُ	ـتُ	أنا	1st person sing.
درستَ	ـتَ	أنتَ	2nd person sing. Masc.
درستِ	ـتِ	أنتِ	2nd person sing. Fem.
درس	_	هو	3rd person sing. Masc.
درستْ	ـتْ	هي	3rd person sing. Fem.
درستما	ـتما	أنتما	2nd person dual.
درسا	ـا	هما (m)	3rd person dual. Masc.
درستا	ـتا	هما(f)	3rd person dual. Fem.
درسنا	ـنا	نحن	1st person pl.
درستم	ـتم	أنتم	2nd person pl. Masc.
درستن	ـتن	أنتن	2nd person pl. Fem.
درسوا	ـوا	هم	3rd person pl. Masc.
درسن	ـن	هن	3rd person pl. Fem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The past tense in negated by the particle (ما) which must be used immediately before the verb.

 

ما سافرتُفي العطلة. “I did not travel in the holiday.”   ما قابلناهم من قبل. “We have not met them before.”