← Back to all Modern Standard Arabic verbs
Root Verb
بَكَى
baka
to cry
ب ك ي
As a Form I defective verb ending in ya, the final root letter is dropped in the 'they' and 'you (pl)' forms, and the subjunctive takes a visible fatha on the ya.
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Past Affirmative
أنا
I — "I cried"
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.