Arabic Irregular Verbs: Hollow Verbs (Part 2)Posted by 

aziza on Feb 6, 2010 in Grammar

This post deals with conjugation of verbs that have a medial vowel ( ‫)ا‬. They are called hollow verbs(
‫)الفعل األجوف‬, e.g. ( ‫‘ )نام‬slept’, ( ‫‘ )باع‬sold’, ( ‫‘ )قام‬got up’, etc. In the past tense, the medial vowel
disappears with some pronouns, i.e. first and second person pronouns in addition to the third person
feminine plural pronoun. The examples below give examples of three verbs conjugated in the past.

‫نام‬ ‫باع‬ ‫قام‬

‫أنا‬ ُ ‫ن‬
‫َمت‬ ُ ِ‫ب‬
‫عت‬ ُ ُ‫ق‬
‫مت‬

َ‫أنت‬ َ‫نَمت‬ َ‫بِعت‬ َ‫قُمت‬

‫ت‬
ِ ‫أن‬ ‫ت‬
ِ ‫نَم‬ ‫ت‬
ِ ‫بِع‬ ِ ‫قُم‬
‫ت‬

‫هو‬ ‫نام‬ ‫باع‬ ‫قام‬

‫هي‬ ‫نامت‬ ‫باعت‬ ‫قامت‬

m ‫هما‬ ‫ناما‬ ‫باعا‬ ‫قاما‬

)f( ‫هما‬ ‫نامتا‬ ‫باعتا‬ ‫قامتا‬

‫نحن‬ ‫نَمنا‬ ‫بِعنا‬ ‫قُمنا‬

‫أنتما‬ ‫نَمتما‬ ‫بِعتما‬ ‫قُمتما‬

‫هم‬ ‫ناموا‬ ‫باعوا‬ ‫قاموا‬

ّ
‫هن‬ َ‫نَمن‬ َ‫بِعن‬ َ‫قُمن‬

ّ
‫أنتن‬ ّ ‫ن‬
‫َمتن‬ ّ ِ‫ب‬
‫عتن‬ ّ ُ‫ق‬
‫متن‬