← Back to all Modern Standard Arabic verbs
Root Verb
قَالَ
qala
to say
ق و ل
This is a Form I hollow verb with a waw root; the middle vowel drops and the first letter takes a damma in the past tense when a consonant-initial suffix is added (e.g., qultu), and the waw appears in the present tense.
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Past Affirmative
أنا
I — "I said"
How these tenses work
The present tense
Person prefixes, plus the dialect's marker for "now" or "usually".
The past tense
One stem, eight endings.
The future
One small prefix or word in front of the present.
Saying "not"
Negating verbs, nouns and adjectives.
Roots and verb forms (Form I–X)
How three root letters and a pattern make a verb.
Verb classes: sound, hollow, defective, doubled
Why some verbs change shape when they conjugate.