The Colloquial Arabic Present Tense

In this lesson, we are going to learn about verbs, the present tense particularly. Verbs in Arabic Amiya have tree different forms only. These are Present, Past and Imperative. A typical practice is to memorize the three forms of each verb.

1) Simple Present Tense
Now we will focus on the present form/tense. Like in French and many other languages, the verb changes according to the subject and it's different to compare with English and Bahasa Malaysia. The pattern most verbs follow in the present tense is demonstrated in the following examples (notice the letters written in Red):

لعب Play (Root Verb)
I (أنا)	ألعب	Il'ab	I Play
We (احنا)	نلعب	Nil'ab	We Play
You - Masc (إنت)	تلعب	Ti'ab	You Play
You - Fem (إنتي)	تلعبي	Til'abiy	You Play
You - Plural (انتو)	تلعبوا	Til'abu	You Play
He (هو)	يلعب	Yil'ab	He Plays
She (هي)	تلعب	Til'ab	She Plays
They (هم)	يلعبوا	Yil'abu	They Play

How do we use the Simple Present Tense?
A) the action happens all the time, or habitually in the past, present and future or the statement is always true.
-Ana akol bil lail (I eat at night) - اناأكل بلليل

B) General questions
- Tishrab eih? (What do you want to drink?) - تشرب إيه

C) Giving directions or making suggestions
- Timsyi min hena - (You could walk from here) - تمشي من هنا


2) Present Continuous Tense
Turn "Simple Present" to "Present Continuous" by putting "Ba" before present verb.

Ba + Present Verb
ب + نلعب

How do we use the Present Continous Tense?
A) For action happening exactly now
-Ana basrab al-qahwah (I'm drinking coffee) - أنا باشرب القهوة

B) Questions for current action
- Enta bi-ta'mil eih? (What are you doing right now?) - إنت بتعمل إيه