Arabic Tenses Are Easy: Past And Present (+ Future)

Arabic is actually a lot simpler than English in many ways.

One of the simplest things is verb tenses.

Instead of a whole bunch of tenses, Arabic uses two tenses to talk about when things happen: the present and the past.

There’s an easy way to talk about the future too.

The present tense: al-muḍāriʿ (الْمُضَارِع)

The present tense, or al-muḍāriʿ (الْمُضَارِع) in Arabic, is what you use to talk about things happening right now, or things you do regularly (like habits).

Think of it like saying “I write,” “he eats,” or “they play.”

In Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the formal Arabic you see in news and books, the present tense verb changes by adding prefixes (and sometimes suffixes) depending on who is doing the action.

Take the verb “to write” (the root is ك-ت-ب K-T-B), for example.

In MSA, “he writes” is yaktubu (يَكْتُبُ).

Here’s a simple table to help you understand how the present tense looks in MSA:

Pronoun	MSA Present (e.g., to write - يَكْتُبُ)	Transliteration
I	أَكْتُبُ	ʾaktubu
You (m. sg.)	تَكْتُبُ	taktubu
You (f. sg.)	تَكْتُبِينَ	taktubīna
He	يَكْتُبُ	yaktubu
She	تَكْتُبُ	taktubu (Yes, same as ‘you (m)’! Context helps.)
We	نَكْتُبُ	naktubu
They (m. pl.)	يَكْتُبُونَ	yaktubūna
They (f. pl.)	يَكْتُبْنَ	yaktubna

Remember: Don’t get too bogged down by all the MSA vowel endings (like -u, -a, -īna) when you’re just starting to speak. In most dialects, these endings are dropped or simplified. Focus on the main verb stem and the prefixes/suffixes that mark who’s doing the action and when. This is where the chunking approach really helps.

Present tense in dialects

When people are just talking in their everyday dialects, like Egyptian or Levantine Arabic, they often add a little something to the present tense verb.

Egyptian Arabic: Often adds a b- (بـ) prefix to the MSA-like present tense form (with some sound changes). So, ‘he writes’ becomes biyiktib (بيكتب).
Levantine Arabic (like Syrian or Palestinian): Also often adds a b- (بـ) prefix. So, ‘he writes’ is typically byuktub or biktob (بيكتب).
Moroccan Darija: ka- (ك) or ta- (ت) is added as a prefix.

أنا بكتب جواب كل يوم

Ana baktib gawāb kull yōm.

I write a letter every day.

هي بتكتب بالدفتر تبعها

Hiyye btiktob bid-daftar tabaʿha.

She writes in her notebook.

It’s a good idea to learn these prefixes together with verbs in context, rather than isolated as a grammar rule.

The past tense: al-māḍī (الْمَاضِي)

The past tense, or al-māḍī (الْمَاضِي), is for actions that are already finished. “I wrote,” “he ate,” “they played” – all past tense.

To form the past tense, you change the endings (suffixes) of the verb.

The base form (dictionary form) of a verb you often learn first is the “he” form in the past tense. For “to write,” this is kataba (كَتَبَ), meaning “he wrote.”

Here’s how it looks in MSA:

Pronoun	MSA Past (e.g., to write - كَتَبَ)	Transliteration
I	كَتَبْتُ	katabtu
You (m. sg.)	كَتَبْتَ	katabta
You (f. sg.)	كَتَبْتِ	katabti
He	كَتَبَ	kataba
She	كَتَبَتْ	katabat
We	كَتَبْنَا	katabnā
They (m. pl.)	كَتَبُوا	katabū
They (f. pl.)	كَتَبْنَ	katabna

The cool thing is that the past tense is pretty similar across many spoken dialects and MSA, especially for basic verbs.

أنا كتبت الدرس مبارح

Anā katabt id-dars imbāriḥ.

I wrote the lesson yesterday.

The endings might sound a little different (e.g., the final vowels are often dropped in speech), but the core idea is identical.

The future tense: al-mustaqbal (الْمُسْتَقْبَل)

Okay, so how do you say you will do something?

Arabic makes this very easy.

You usually just add a little prefix or word/particle to the present tense verb (without the dialectal ‘b-’ prefix if it’s used for present).

Future tense in MSA

In Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), you have two main ways:

Add sa- (سَـ) directly to the beginning of the present tense verb. This is common for the near future. Example: ‘He will write’ becomes sayaktubu (سَيَكْتُبُ).
Add the word sawfa (سَوْفَ) before the present tense verb. This can imply a more distant or more certain future, but sa- is more common. Example: ‘He will write’ becomes sawfa yaktubu (سَوْفَ يَكْتُبُ).

هُوَ سَيَكْتُبُ الْإِيمِيلَ غَدًا

Huwa sayaktubu al-ʾīmayl ghadan.

He will write the email tomorrow (MSA).

Future tense in dialects

When it comes to spoken dialects, they also have their own easy ways to show the future:

Egyptian Arabic: Often uses ḥa- (هـ) + the base present tense verb (the form without the ‘b-’ prefix). So, ‘he will write’ is ḥayiktib (هيكتب).

أنا هسافر اسكندرية

Ana ḥasāfir Iskindiriyya.

I will travel to Alexandria.

Levantine Arabic: Also commonly uses ḥa- (هـ) or sometimes raḥ (رح) + the base present tense verb. So, ‘he will write’ could be ḥayuktub (هيكتب) or raḥ yuktub (رح يكتب).

هي هتدرس طب

Hiyye ḥatidrus ṭibb.

She will study medicine.

Moroccan Darija: Uses غادي (ghādi) as a standalone particle before the verb or ghayn (غ) prefix + base verb form.

Note: For dialects that use ha- prefix for future tense, هـ and حـ are often used interchangeably when written.

A quick note on learning verbs

When I first started learning Arabic, it took me about 3 years to reach a point where I felt comfortable communicating. Looking back, I realize that if I had the experience I have now, I would have focused more on learning whole phrases or ‘chunks’ with these verbs in action, rather than just memorizing grammar tables in isolation.

Instead of just drilling kataba, yaktubu, sayaktubu and so on, it’s more effective to learn whole phrases/sentences.

By doing it this way, you learn the tenses in context, which is how we naturally pick up languages.

Key takeaways

So, to sum up Arabic tenses:

Present Tense (al-muḍāriʿ): For actions happening now or regularly. Look for prefixes (and sometimes suffixes) on the verb. Spoken dialects often add a prefix like b- or k-.
Past Tense (al-māḍī): For completed actions. Look for suffixes added to the verb root. It’s fairly consistent between MSA and dialects.
Future Tense (al-mustaqbal): For things that will happen. Add a prefix like sa- (MSA), ḥa- (Egyptian, Levantine), ghādi (Darija) or raḥ (Levantine) to the present tense verb stem.