The Arabic verb is a wonderful thing. It's like a Swiss knife – it takes a while to remember all it can do, but once you've figured out how to use it you can tweak it at will to produce different meanings.

At the root of the verb is a... root. You'll never encounter it unless you're discussing linguistics, but to know a verb's root is helpful because it's the basis of all the transformations the verb goes through. It is simpler to modify a verb starting from the root than starting from another form that you would have to break down first.
I give the roots in uppercase so they won't be mistaken with other words: KTB, QAL, TRK, DRS, 'KL … Most verbs are like the above: triliteral, or made up of three letters that have an important structural function. The vowels that show up when we pronounce them (kataba, qála, taraka…) are not a true part of the verb; they are added to obtain a meaning and can be changed at will to change that meaning. The only "vowels" you may encounter in a root are what I referred to on this site as "long vowels" (for instance the A in QAL), and that is only because they are in truth consonants – they only sound like long vowels to a foreign ear.

Something important to keep in mind is how willing the Lebanese language is to let words sound right, even if it creates inconsistency. Very often you'll see a verb seemingly change form where it logically shouldn't have, but the change is actually only on pronunciation level. For instance:
Zé7: he moved aside.
Za7le: he moved aside for me.
There is absolutely no reason for zé7 to turn into za7 just because a pronoun was affixed to it, except the fact that zé7le wouldn't sound right, and would prolong the first syllable to the detriment of the second while the latter is just as important to comprehension.
So when you see vowels dancing around a letter, don't panic: your tongue will know what's the easiest to articulate.

B. Tenses and conjugation

There are only two tenses to conjugate, plus the imperative. We think of them as past and present, but they are better described as "completed" and "incomplete", or perfect and imperfect. To express the future, the present continuous and the past continuous, we add words to the above two tenses. Another tense that I will refer to as the "true present" is used in specific circumstances and will be explained as well. Let us look at a few verbs and how they conjugate in both the past and the present, and derive the rules of conjugation from there.

1. The past (máde)

The first entry in this table, which is the past conjugation for "he", is what we use for an infinitive. It is the simplest, barest form and is identical to the verb's root (remember that only long vowels actually exist in a verb; short vowels are "virtual").
I chose verbs that present particular structures to create a useful sample: one "normal", one that begins with a vocal stop, one that includes an A, one that is made up of two letters only with one of them doubled by stress, and one that ends in an A.

	KTB (to write)	'KL (to eat)	KAN (to be)	KBB (to throw)	3TA (to give)
He	katab	akal	kén	kabb	3ata
She	katabit	akalit	kénit	kabbit	3atit
They	katabo	akalo	kéno	kabbo	3ato
You (male)	katabt	akalt	knt	kabbeyt	3ateyt
You (female)	katabte	akalte	knte	kabbeyte	3ateyte
You (plural)	katabto	akalto	knto	kabbeyto	3ateyto
I	katabt	akalt	knt	kabbeyt	3ateyt
We	katabna	akalna	knna	kabbeyna	3ateyna

The pattern is pretty clear: the changes occur at the end of the verb, with the addition of the following suffixes:
He: No suffix, simply the root with the basic "a" sound. It is the base form for all that follows.
She: -it
They: -o
You (male): -t
You (female): -te
You (plural): -to
I: -t (just like male you)
We: -na

The irregularities that can be observed, where the verb itself changes (knt, kabbeyte…), are not actually irregular but dictated by the particulars of the verb itself.
- Any verb whose middle letter is an A loses it for "you" through "we" when conjugated in the past.
KAN: kén, knt.
RA7: rá7, r7t.
JAB: jéb, jbt.
- Any verb that ends in a stressed consonant requires the insertion of an –ey- sound before the conjugation ending for "you" through "we" when conjugated in the past.
KBB: kabb, kabbeyt.
FZZ: fazz, fazzeyt.
JNN: jann, janneyt.
- The same applies to any verb whose root ends in an A. More often than not, this final A corresponds in Arabic not to the Aleph (pronounced A) but to an alternate "attached Aleph" that only exists at the end of words (like the "attached t"). This freak of nature is both an A and a Y, hence its transformation into –ey-, but it won't really come to the fore, so don't worry about it!

2. The present (mudáre3)

Please note: the present as shown in this table is not used for an action that is happening at the time of speech, in other words not for present coninuous. It is used exclusively to denote a usual action or a state, such as "He doesn't drink coffee", "Do you know him?", "I go to church every Sunday", or present of narration. To express ideas such as "He's opening the door", Lebanese behaves exactly like English and uses a continuous form (see below).

If you have a certain understanding of Arabic, you'll remember that the Arabic present would be yaktob rather than byektob. In Lebanese removing the b- creates an imperative, equivalent to "let him…"

	KTB (to write)	'KL (to eat)	KAN (to be)	KBB (to throw)	3TA (to give)
He	byektob	byékol	bikoon	bikebb	bya3te
She	btektob	btékol	btkoon	btkebb	bta3te
They	byektbo	byéklo	bikoono	bikebbo	bya3to
You (male)	btektob	btékol	btkoon	btkebb	bta3te
You (female)	btektbe	btékle	btkoone	btkebbe	bta3te
You (plural)	btektbo	btéklo	btkoono	btkebbo	bta3to
I	bektob	békol	bkoon	bkebb	ba3te
We	mnektob	mnékol	mnkoon	mnkebb	mna3te

Note: The verb kán, translated as "to be", is not used for simple statements such as "you are pretty" or "It's hot today". Nominal sentences are used for this. We'll see the uses of kàn for the past continuous.

We now have a new pattern, where both the beginning and end of the verbs change:
He: by-...
She: bt-...
They: by-...-o
You (male): bt-...
You (female): bt-...-e
You (plural): bt-...o
I: b-...
We: mn-...

In each column the conjugated radical is largely the same (ektob for KTB, ikebb for KBB...) but in the first two column there are irregularities for "they", female "you", and plural "you". The fact that these three are defined by a vowel sound for ending forces the radical to adjust in order to leave the emphasis where it belongs – on the defining characteristic. Therefore it is not btektobe (even though that is closer to the arabic conjugation) but btektbe, not btékolo but btéklo.
The other verbs' different anatomy immunes them against this rearrangement, for the following reasons.
In KAN as in all verbs that have A as a central letter, the A turns to oo or to ee in the incomplete tense. This central long sound dominates the whole verb and requires no other voice to be inserted.
In KBB as in all verbs that are composed of one letter then one doubled letter, the voice doesn't really have any place to go. You can't separate the two Bs in this case, so the verb keeps the form kebb no matter what happens to its ending. The same goes with verbs that have 3 as their central letter.

Outstanding characteristics of conjugation:
- The female pronouns as well as the "you" series are preceded by the prefix bt-. "He" and "they" use by-, "I" a b- alone, and "we" stands out with mn-.
- The e that is present after the prefix in some of the conjugations is virtual and can be pronounced right after the b instead if the pronunciation sounds better that way. That is what happens in btkebb for instance, which is actually pronounced betkebb.
- In regular verbs, the vowel after the verb's first letter now disappears. In KTB for instance we see that the K and T are now stuck together.
- Verbs starting in a vocal stop (') see their first syllable turned into a long vowel é (akala, byékol).

3. The "true present"

I refer to it this way because this is the present form used in Arabic. In Lebanese it only exists within prefabricated locutions after certain prepositions, or for certain imperative forms, never in a regular sentence. The chapter on Locutions offers a list of common locutions and mentions when the true present should be used. All you need to do to obtain it is to eliminate the initial b- (or m- for "we") from a verb conjugated in the present.

4. The imperative ('amr)

	KTB (to write)	'KL (to eat)	KAN (to be)	KBB (to throw)	3TA (to give)
He	yektob	yékol	ykoon	ykebb	ya3te
She	tektob	tékol	tkoon	tkebb	ta3te
They	yektbo	yéklo	ykoono	ykebbo	ya3to
You (male)	któb	kól	koon	kebb	3ti
You (female)	ktebe	kele	koone	kebbe	3ti
You (plural)	ktebo	kelo	koono	kebbo	3too

For the "absent" pronouns (meaning he, she, they), the imperative is merely the "true present". The pattern for the others is, I'm afraid, beyond me to explain right now. When there's a central A in the verb's root, this a turns either to oo or to ee in the imperative, and I need to figure out how to rationalize that. It goes without saying we know by habit, and not by deduction. See the lexicon.

5. The imperative negative

Nothing changes with the absent pronouns when you add the negation word ma. However, look what happens to the others:

	KTB (to write)	'KL (to eat)	KAN (to be)	KBB (to throw)	3TA (to give)
You (male)	ma tektob	ma tékol	ma tkoon	ma tkebb	ma ta3te
You (female)	ma tektbe	ma tékle	ma tkoone	ma tkebbe	ma ta3te
You (plural)	ma tektbo	ma tékelo	ma tkoono	ma tkebbo	ma ta3to

What happened? The verbs have reverted to the true present. Since the verbs conjugated with the absent pronouns were already in the true present, they haven't changed.

6. Obtaining the future

Several locutions permit to express the future, but to express it through conjugation alone we use the formula ra7 + conjugated true present.
Ra7 is the verb "to go" and is used in this context to imply "I am going to …" (again a remarkable coincidence with English), but it is used in this form and unconjugated.
Ra7 es'alo: I'm going to ask him
Ra7 yrajje3 lktéb: He's going to return the book
Ra7 nrawwe7 el-film: We're going to miss the movie

You can actually use the present tense to express the idea of "will" for a promise:
B'ello: I'll tell him.
Beb3atlak l-ghrád: I'll send you the stuff.

7. Obtaining the present continuous

The formula used is: 3am + conjugated present.
3ambeshteghel: I am working.
3amby3azzbik? Is he giving you a hard time?
3ambtemza7e! Your'e kidding!

8. Obtaining the past continuous

The formula used is: past kán + 3am + conjugated present (in other words past kán + present continuous).
Kent 3am bedros.. I was studying…
Kén 3am bysarrikh metl el-majnoon: He was yelling like a madman.
Shoo kento 3am bta3mlo? What were you doing?

Chapter 19: A few locutions

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