Arabic (Modern Standard) Essential grammar

Abbreviations used in this guide

Each example below has three parts: the original text, a literal gloss describing how every word works, and a natural translation. The glosses use a few shorthand labels so they stay short. Don't worry about memorising them — this is a reference you can come back to.

Person and number · 1sg / 2sg / 3sg — first / second / third person singular (I, you, he/she/it) · 1pl / 2pl / 3pl — first / second / third person plural (we, you-all, they)

Gender and case · m / f / n — masculine / feminine / neuter · sg / pl — singular / plural · m.sg — combined: masculine singular (and similarly f.pl, n.sg, etc.) · NOM / ACC / GEN / DAT / INS / LOC — grammatical cases (nominative/accusative/genitive/dative/instrumental/locative) — which role the word plays in the sentence

Tense and aspect · PRES — present · PRET — preterite (a finished past event) · IMPF — imperfect (an ongoing or habitual past situation) · FUT — future · PERF — perfect (an action completed with present relevance) · PROG — progressive (action in progress, e.g. am eating) · COND — conditional (would…)

Mood · IND — indicative (regular statement) · SUBJ — subjunctive (uncertainty, wishes, doubts) · IMP — imperative (commands) · INF — infinitive (dictionary form: to go, to eat)

Other · REFL — reflexive (action on oneself: myself, yourself) · PERS — personal a (Spanish only — marks a human direct object) · HON — honorific (extra-polite form, common in Japanese/Korean) · TOP / SUB / OBJ — topic / subject / object markers (Japanese, Korean) · CL — classifier (Chinese, Japanese, Korean — a counter word for nouns) · NEG — negation

Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters, and all of them represent consonants. Short vowels are not letters but small marks written above or below the consonants — called harakat (fatha for a, kasra for i, damma for u) — and in everyday text they are usually omitted; readers reconstruct them from context. Long vowels are written using the consonant-letters ا و ي. The script is cursive: most letters connect to their neighbours, and each letter has up to four shape variants — isolated, initial, medial, and final — depending on its position in the word. Arabic is read and written from right to left. Half of the 28 letters are 'sun letters' that assimilate with the لـ of the definite article ال, while the rest are 'moon letters' that do not.

• ا ب ت — alif, ba, ta (the first three letters)
  the first three letters in isolated form
• ـبـ ب بـ ـب — ba in medial, isolated, initial, final forms
  the four positional shapes of the letter ba
• كَتَبَ — k-t-b root with fatha vowels
  he wrote

Script and direction

Arabic is written from right to left in a cursive script where most letters connect to their neighbours. It is an abjad: the 28 letters represent consonants and the long vowels (ا و ي). Short vowels (fatha a, kasra i, damma u) are diacritics called tashkīl (تَشكيل) and are normally omitted from everyday text — readers reconstruct them from context and word patterns. Beginners' books, the Qur'an, and dictionaries fully vowel the words. Letter shape changes depending on position (initial, medial, final, isolated). Numerals are written left-to-right even inside a right-to-left line. There is no upper/lower case distinction.

• كَتَبَ — he-wrote
  he wrote
• كتب — k-t-b (unvocalised)
  could be kataba 'he wrote', kutiba 'it was written', kutub 'books'
• بَيْت — house
  a house

Word order

Classical and journalistic MSA prefers Verb–Subject–Object (VSO): the verb opens the sentence, followed by its subject, then objects and adverbs. Subject–Verb–Object (SVO) is equally grammatical and is common in modern prose, especially when the subject is topical or emphasised. A peculiarity of VSO: when the verb precedes a plural subject, the verb stays singular and only agrees in gender; in SVO order the verb agrees in number too. Adjectives, possessors and relative clauses follow the noun they modify. Adverbs of time and place are flexible.

• كَتَبَ الوَلَدُ الدَّرْسَ. — wrote the-boy the-lesson
  The boy wrote the lesson. (VSO)
• الوَلَدُ كَتَبَ الدَّرْسَ. — the-boy wrote the-lesson
  The boy wrote the lesson. (SVO, topicalised)
• ذَهَبَ الأَوْلادُ إِلى المَدْرَسةِ. — went(sg.m) the-boys to the-school
  The boys went to school. (verb stays singular before plural subject)

Definite article ال and sun/moon letters

Definiteness is marked by prefixing ال (al-) to the noun (and any agreeing adjective). There is no separate indefinite article — a bare noun is indefinite. Before half the alphabet — the 'sun letters' (ت ث د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ل ن) — the لـ of ال assimilates to the following consonant, which is then doubled (shadda). The ال is still written but pronounced as a doubled initial. Before 'moon letters' (the rest) the ل is pronounced clearly. The initial alif of ال is also elided in pronunciation when the previous word ends in a vowel.

• القَمَر — the-moon
  the moon (al-qamar — moon letter, ل pronounced)
• الشَّمْس — the-sun
  the sun (ash-shams — sun letter, ل assimilates)
• البَيْتُ الكَبيرُ — the-house the-big
  the big house (article repeated on adjective)

Gender

Arabic nouns and adjectives are either masculine or feminine; there is no neuter. The default is masculine. A noun is almost always feminine if it ends in tā' marbūta ة (a final -a that becomes -at- when a suffix follows), and it is feminine if it refers to a female being, a paired body part (يَد hand, عَيْن eye), or is on a short closed list of feminine cities and countries (مِصْر Egypt). Verbs, adjectives and pronouns all agree with the noun's gender. Forming a feminine adjective or participle from a masculine one is normally as simple as adding ة.

• طالِب / طالِبة — student(m) / student(f)
  a (male) student / a (female) student
• سَيّارة جَديدة — car(f) new(f)
  a new car
• بابٌ كَبيرٌ — door(m) big(m)
  a big door

Root system and patterns

Almost every Arabic word is built from a consonantal root — most often three consonants — that carries an abstract meaning. The root is poured into templates ('patterns', أَوْزان) of vowels and affixes to derive concrete nouns, verbs and adjectives. The root ك-ت-ب 'writing' yields kataba (he wrote), yaktubu (he writes), kātib (writer), kitāb (book), maktab (office), maktaba (library), maktūb (written). Learning to recognise the root inside an unfamiliar word lets you guess its meaning. Dictionaries are organised by root, not alphabetically by surface form, so finding مَكْتَبة means looking under ك-ت-ب.

• كَتَبَ — كِتاب — مَكْتَب — مَكْتَبة — كاتِب — wrote — book — office — library — writer
  all from root k-t-b (writing)
• دَرَسَ — دَرْس — مَدْرَسة — مُدَرِّس — studied — lesson — school — teacher
  all from root d-r-s (studying)
• فَعَلَ — F-ʿ-L (do)
  the dummy root used to name patterns: faʿala = the 'CaCaCa' pattern

Pronouns

Arabic has independent (subject) pronouns and attached suffix pronouns that mark possession on nouns and objects on verbs and prepositions. The independent set distinguishes gender from the 2nd person upwards and has a dual form (two people) alongside singular and plural. Subject pronouns are usually dropped because the verb already shows person, gender and number. The suffix set glues directly onto a noun (بَيْت → بَيْتي 'my house', بَيْتُك 'your house'), a verb (رَأَيْتُك 'I saw you'), or a preposition (مَعي 'with me').

• أَنا، أَنْتَ، أَنْتِ، هُوَ، هِيَ، نَحْنُ، أَنْتُمْ، هُمْ — I, you(m), you(f), he, she, we, you(pl.m), they(m)
  core independent pronouns
• كِتابي، كِتابُكَ، كِتابُهُ، كِتابُها، كِتابُنا، كِتابُهُمْ — book-my, book-your(m), book-his, book-her, book-our, book-their(m)
  possessive suffixes on 'book'
• سَأَلَني — asked-me
  he asked me (object suffix -ni on the verb)

Cases

Classical Arabic has three cases shown by short-vowel endings (iʿrāb): nominative -u (subject and predicate of a non-verbal sentence), accusative -a (direct object, adverbial complements), and genitive -i (after prepositions and as the second member of a noun-noun construct/idāfa). Indefinite nouns add nunation: -un, -an, -in (written ـٌ ـً ـٍ). Because these endings are short vowels, they are usually not written in modern unvowelled text and not pronounced in news or conversation; only the accusative indefinite -an is reliably both written and pronounced (with a final alif: ـًا). Learners should recognise endings rather than reproduce them perfectly.

• كَتَبَ الطّالِبُ رِسالةً. — wrote the-student(NOM) letter(ACC.indef)
  The student wrote a letter.
• ذَهَبَ إلى البَيْتِ. — went to the-house(GEN)
  He went to the house. (genitive after preposition)
• شُكْرًا! — thanks(ACC.indef)
  Thanks! (frozen adverbial accusative, fully pronounced)

Verb conjugation overview

Arabic verbs are conjugated for two basic 'tenses' (better called aspects): the perfect (الماضي), which describes completed action — usually translated as the English past — and the imperfect (المُضارِع), which describes ongoing or habitual action — usually translated as present or future. The perfect uses suffixes only. The imperfect uses prefixes plus suffixes. Every form encodes person (1st/2nd/3rd), number (singular/dual/plural) and gender (from the 2nd person upwards). The imperfect has three moods — indicative (-u), subjunctive (-a) and jussive (no ending) — selected by particles that precede the verb. The citation form of a verb is the 3rd-person masculine singular perfect: kataba 'he wrote'.

• كَتَبَ — wrote-he
  he wrote (perfect, citation form)
• يَكْتُبُ — writes-he
  he writes / is writing (imperfect indicative)
• اُكْتُبْ! — write!
  Write! (imperative, from imperfect stem)

Past tense (perfective)

The perfect is formed from a fixed stem (the citation form kataba is the 3sg masc) by adding personal suffixes: -tu (I), -ta (you m), -ti (you f), — (he, this is the bare stem), -at (she), -nā (we), -tum (you pl m), -tunna (you pl f), -ū (they m), -na (they f). The vowel after the second root consonant in the stem varies by verb (kataba 'wrote', sharība 'drank', kabura 'grew big'); you memorise it per verb. Negation of the past uses ما + perfect, or لَمْ + jussive imperfect (see negation).

• كَتَبْتُ رِسالة. — wrote-I letter
  I wrote a letter.
• كَتَبَتْ هِيَ الدَّرْسَ. — wrote-she the-lesson
  She wrote the lesson.
• كَتَبْنا الواجِبَ. — wrote-we the-homework
  We wrote the homework.

Present tense (imperfective)

The imperfect attaches BOTH a prefix and a suffix to a stem (for the root k-t-b the stem is -ktub-). Prefixes: ʾa- (I), ta- (you m sg / she), ta- + -īna (you f sg), ya- (he), ya- + -ūna (they m), na- (we), ta- + -ūna (you pl m). The default mood is the indicative, which ends in -u for singular forms and in -na for the plural -ūna/-īna; this -u/-na drops in the subjunctive and jussive. The same conjugation expresses simple present, habitual present and present continuous — Arabic does not distinguish them grammatically.

• أَكْتُبُ رِسالةً. — I-write letter
  I write / I am writing a letter.
• تَكْتُبينَ بِسُرعة. — you(f)-write with-speed
  You (fem.) write quickly.
• يَكْتُبونَ كُلَّ يَوْم. — they(m)-write every day
  They write every day.

Future tense

There is no separate future conjugation. The future is formed by placing one of two particles before the indicative imperfect: the prefix سَـ (sa-) for the near future ('will, going to'), written attached to the verb, or the separate word سَوْفَ (sawfa) for a slightly more distant or emphatic future. The two are interchangeable in most contexts; سَوْفَ feels more formal. Negation of the future uses لَنْ (lan) + subjunctive imperfect — 'will never / will not'.

• سَأَكْتُبُ غَدًا. — FUT-I-write tomorrow
  I will write tomorrow.
• سَوْفَ نَذْهَبُ إلى مِصْر. — FUT we-go to Egypt
  We are going to go to Egypt.
• لَنْ أَنْسى. — NEG.FUT I-forget(SUBJ)
  I will never forget.

Negation

Negation depends on what is being negated. لا (lā) negates the present indicative ('does not'). ما (mā) negates the past ('did not'). لَمْ (lam) also negates the past but takes a jussive imperfect verb after it — لَمْ + jussive is the more standard MSA past negation. لَنْ (lan) negates the future and takes a subjunctive. لَيْسَ (laysa) is the special verb used to negate a present-tense non-verbal (nominal) sentence — it inflects like a perfect verb but means 'is not'.

• لا أَفْهَمُ. — NEG I-understand
  I do not understand.
• لَمْ يَكْتُبْ. — NEG.PAST he-write(JUSS)
  He did not write.
• لَيْسَ الجَوُّ بارِدًا. — is-not the-weather cold(ACC)
  The weather is not cold.

Questions

Yes/no questions are formed by adding the particle هَلْ (hal) at the start of an otherwise normal statement; in literary Arabic the alternative particle أ (a-) is prefixed to the first word. No change in word order is needed and intonation alone (no particle) is also possible, especially in speech. Content questions use a wh-word at the start: ما (mā) what (for things), مَنْ (man) who, أَيْنَ (ayna) where, مَتى (matā) when, كَيْفَ (kayfa) how, لِماذا (limādhā) why, كَمْ (kam) how many. ما before a verb becomes ماذا (mādhā).

• هَلْ تَتَكَلَّمُ العَرَبيّةَ؟ — Q you-speak the-Arabic
  Do you speak Arabic?
• أَيْنَ البَيْتُ؟ — where the-house
  Where is the house?
• ماذا تَفْعَلُ؟ — what you-do
  What are you doing?

Plural — sound and broken

Arabic has a dual (for exactly two) and two kinds of plural. The 'sound' plural is regular: masculine human nouns add ـونَ (-ūna) in the nominative, ـينَ (-īna) elsewhere; feminine nouns swap ة for ـات (-āt). The 'broken' plural is internal: the consonants of the root are repoured into a new vowel pattern, often unpredictable, and must be memorised with the singular (kitāb → kutub, walad → awlād, rajul → rijāl). Most everyday non-human nouns and many human masculine nouns take broken plurals. Crucially, plurals of non-human things take feminine singular agreement.

• مُدَرِّس → مُدَرِّسونَ — teacher(m) → teachers(m)
  sound masculine plural
• طالِبة → طالِبات — student(f) → students(f)
  sound feminine plural
• كِتاب → كُتُب، رَجُل → رِجال — book → books, man → men
  broken plurals (memorised)

Adjective agreement

Attributive adjectives follow the noun they describe and agree with it in three things: gender, number, and definiteness. If the noun has ال, the adjective takes ال too. Indefinite noun → indefinite adjective. A predicate adjective in a non-verbal sentence agrees in gender and number but is left INdefinite — the contrast in definiteness is what makes the sentence 'X is Y' rather than 'the Y X'. A vital quirk: plurals of non-human things (objects, animals, ideas) take FEMININE SINGULAR agreement, regardless of the singular's gender.

• البِنْتُ الجَميلة — the-girl the-beautiful(f)
  the beautiful girl (both definite)
• البِنْتُ جَميلة. — the-girl beautiful(f)
  The girl is beautiful. (predicate: noun definite, adjective indefinite)
• الكُتُبُ جَديدة. — the-books new(f.sg)
  The books are new. (non-human plural → fem. sg. adjective)

The verb 'to be'

In the present tense, Arabic has no overt verb 'to be'. A nominal sentence simply juxtaposes a definite subject with an indefinite predicate, and the copula is understood: al-baytu kabīr-un 'the-house big' = 'the house is big'. For the past tense, the verb كانَ (kāna 'he was') is used and conjugates like any other perfect verb; its complement (the predicate noun or adjective) goes into the accusative case. The same verb كان is also used in compound constructions: كانَ يَكْتُبُ 'he was writing' (past habitual/continuous = kāna + imperfect). The future of 'to be' is سَيَكونُ.

• البَيْتُ كَبير. — the-house big
  The house is big. (zero copula)
• كانَ البَيْتُ كَبيرًا. — was the-house big(ACC)
  The house was big.
• كانَ يَكْتُبُ رِسالةً. — was he-writes letter
  He was writing a letter.

The 28 letters: isolated, initial, medial, final

Every Arabic letter has up to four shapes that depend on where it sits inside a word. Six letters (ا د ذ ر ز و) are non-connectors: they join to the letter on their right but never to the letter on their left, so a word containing one of them visually breaks into pieces. All other letters connect on both sides. The table below lists the 28 letters in the traditional alphabetical order, with the four positional forms, a Latin transliteration, and an English keyword to anchor the sound. Note that ح ع غ ق are sounds with no close English match, and that ث ذ correspond to English voiceless and voiced 'th'.

A few orthographic extras that learners meet right away: hamza (ء) is the glottal stop, which rides on a 'seat' letter (أ إ ؤ ئ) or sits alone; tāʾ marbūṭa (ة) is the feminine-ending 't' that is silent in pause but pronounced 't' before a suffix; alif maqṣūra (ى) is a final 'y'-shape that sounds like long 'a'. Arabic runs right to left, has no capital letters, the bound definite article ال- attaches directly to the noun (and assimilates before the 14 sun letters; see the definite-article section), and numerals 0-9 inside an Arabic line are written left to right.

• بـ + ـيـ + ـت = بَيْت — b (initial) + y (medial) + t (final) = bayt
  the letters joining to form 'house'
• د + ر + س = درس — d, r, s (all non-connectors after the first)
  darasa 'he studied'; note د and ر break the connection
• كتاب — kāf + tāʾ + alif + bāʾ
  kitāb 'book'; kāf and tāʾ connect, alif and bāʾ as final pair
• مَدْرَسة — m-d-r-s + tāʾ marbūṭa
  madrasa 'school'; feminine ة silent in pause, 't' if a suffix follows
• أَسْأَل — hamza on alif + s + hamza on alif + l
  asʾal 'I ask'; hamza takes alif as its 'seat' twice

Present indicative paradigm (Form I verbs)

Form I is the basic, unaugmented verb pattern faʿala / yafʿulu. The imperfect (present) attaches a prefix that marks person AND a suffix that marks number/gender to a stem made of the three root consonants plus a stem vowel. The stem vowel of the imperfect (here 'u' for k-t-b: -ktub-) varies per verb and must be learned with the dictionary entry; common patterns are yaktubu (u-stem), yajlisu (i-stem), yashrabu (a-stem). The indicative endings -u (singular, 1pl, 3sg) and -na/-ni (dual, plural with long-vowel suffix) appear on the verb when no particle requires a different mood. The table shows yaktubu 'he writes' in full.

The same conjugation does duty for simple present ('he writes'), habitual present ('he writes every day'), and present progressive ('he is writing'); Arabic does not distinguish these grammatically. The dual forms (تَكْتُبانِ for 2du, يَكْتُبانِ for 3du m, تَكْتُبانِ for 3du f) are used for exactly two and are listed in fuller references. The 2sg-feminine -īna and the plural -ūna/-na endings drop their final -na/-u in the subjunctive and jussive moods triggered by particles like أن, لن, لم.

• أَكْتُبُ رِسالةً كُلَّ يَوْم. — I-write letter every day
  I write a letter every day.
• هَلْ تَكْتُبينَ بِالعَرَبيّة؟ — Q you(f)-write in-the-Arabic
  Do you (f.) write in Arabic?
• نَدْرُسُ في المَكْتَبة. — we-study in the-library
  We study in the library.
• يَشْرَبونَ القَهْوة في الصَّباح. — they(m)-drink the-coffee in the-morning
  They drink coffee in the morning.
• تَجْلِسُ البَناتُ هُنا. — sits the-girls here
  The girls sit here. (non-human-ish plural takes fem-sg verb in pre-subject VSO)
• ماذا تَفْعَلُ الآنَ؟ — what you-do now
  What are you doing now?

أريد أن + subjunctive (want to)

The verb أرادَ / يُريدُ (arāda / yurīdu, 'to want') followed by أنْ (an, 'that') plus a subjunctive imperfect renders English 'want to + verb'. Arabic has no infinitive in this construction: instead the second verb is fully conjugated and must agree with the same subject as أريد. The particle أنْ triggers the subjunctive mood, so the final -u of the indicative drops on singular forms, and the final -na drops on the plural forms (تَفْعَلُ → تَفْعَلَ; يَفْعَلونَ → يَفْعَلوا with a silent alif). Negation places لا inside the أنْ clause (أنْ لا = أَلّا) when forbidding the second action.

When the object of 'want' is a noun (not an action), أنْ disappears and a direct object follows: أُريدُ قَهْوة 'I want coffee'. Compare politer أَوَدُّ أَنْ (see below) and the future negation لَنْ which uses the same subjunctive form.

• أُريدُ أَنْ أَتَعَلَّمَ العَرَبيّة. — I-want that I-learn the-Arabic
  I want to learn Arabic.
• هَلْ تُريدُ أَنْ تَشْرَبَ شايًا؟ — Q you-want that you-drink tea
  Do you want to drink some tea?
• تُريدُ سارة أَنْ تَذْهَبَ إلى السّوق. — wants Sara that she-goes to the-market
  Sara wants to go to the market.
• نُريدُ أَنْ نَنامَ مُبَكِّرًا. — we-want that we-sleep early
  We want to sleep early.
• لا أُريدُ أَنْ آكُلَ الآنَ. — NEG I-want that I-eat now
  I don't want to eat now.
• أُريدُ ماءً، مِنْ فَضْلِك. — I-want water please
  I want water, please. (noun object, no أن)

سـ / سوف + verb (going to / future)

The future is built by prefixing one of two markers to a fully conjugated indicative imperfect. سَـ (sa-, written attached to the verb) covers the near future, comparable to English 'will' or 'going to'. سَوْفَ (sawfa, written separately) is the same idea but feels slightly more formal or distant ('shall, will eventually'). The verb after either marker stays in the indicative; only the marker changes. The negation of the future replaces these markers with لَنْ (lan) and switches the verb to the subjunctive: لَنْ أَكْتُبَ 'I will not write'.

Time adverbs (غَدًا 'tomorrow', بَعْدَ قَليل 'in a little while', العامَ القادِم 'next year') often accompany the future verb and can be sufficient by themselves; the marker is grammatically optional with a clear future adverb but stylistically expected in writing.

• سَأَذْهَبُ إلى العَمَل غَدًا. — FUT-I-go to the-work tomorrow
  I'll go to work tomorrow.
• سَوْفَ نُسافِرُ في الصَّيْف. — FUT we-travel in the-summer
  We are going to travel in the summer.
• هَلْ سَتَأْتي إلى الحَفْلة؟ — Q FUT-you-come to the-party
  Are you going to come to the party?
• سَيَكونُ الجَوُّ جَميلًا. — FUT-be the-weather beautiful(ACC)
  The weather will be lovely.
• لَنْ أَنْسى هذا اليَوْم. — NEG.FUT I-forget(SUBJ) this the-day
  I will not forget this day.
• سَيُساعِدُني أَخي. — FUT-he-help-me my-brother
  My brother is going to help me.

قد + perfect (have just / have already done)

Arabic has no separate compound perfect like English 'have written'. The simple past (perfect tense) often does the work alone. To stress that an action is RECENT or COMPLETED with present relevance, the particle قَدْ (qad) is placed directly before a perfect-tense verb. The combination قد + perfect translates as 'has/have just done' or 'has/have already done'. The particle لَقَدْ (laqad), an emphatic variant with the affirmation prefix la-, is common in writing and means '(indeed) has done'. With an imperfect verb, قد + imperfect means 'might, may, sometimes', a completely different meaning, so the verb form chooses the reading.

A second perfect construction handles the past perfect ('had done'): كانَ + قد + perfect literally 'he-was already he-wrote' = 'he had written'. The verb كان is itself a perfect, and the second verb stays in the perfect: كانَ قَدْ ذَهَبَ 'he had gone'.

• قَدْ وَصَلَ القِطار. — PERF arrived the-train
  The train has arrived.
• لَقَدْ شاهَدْتُ هذا الفيلم. — indeed-PERF I-watched this the-film
  I have already watched this film.
• قَدْ فَهِمْتُ كُلَّ شَيْء. — PERF I-understood every thing
  I've understood everything.
• كانَ قَدْ خَرَجَ قَبْلَ وُصولِنا. — was PERF he-left before our-arrival
  He had left before we arrived. (past perfect)
• هَلْ قَدْ قَرَأْتَ الرِّسالة؟ — Q PERF you-read the-message
  Have you read the message?
• قَدْ يَأْتي مَساءً. — may he-come(IMPF) in-the-evening
  He may come in the evening. (قد + imperfect = 'may, might')

يستطيع أن + subjunctive (can / be able to)

Ability is expressed with the verb اِسْتَطاعَ / يَسْتَطيعُ (istaṭāʿa / yastaṭīʿu, 'to be able') plus أنْ plus a subjunctive imperfect, exactly parallel to أُريدُ أَنْ. The subject of يَسْتَطيع and the subject of the embedded verb are always the same person, and both verbs are conjugated. The construction covers physical ability ('I can swim'), permission ('Can I come in?') and possibility ('It can rain in October'). For polite requests ('could you...?') Arabic typically uses the same form with a polite particle or just adds مِنْ فَضْلِك ('please'); there is no separate conditional form.

A shorter near-synonym is the verb قَدِرَ / يَقْدِرُ ('to be able'), which behaves the same way: أَقْدِرُ أَنْ أَفْعَلَ 'I can do'. The negative is straightforward: لا أَسْتَطيعُ أَنْ ... 'I cannot ...'.

• أَسْتَطيعُ أَنْ أَتَكَلَّمَ الإنجليزيّة. — I-can that I-speak the-English
  I can speak English.
• هَلْ تَسْتَطيعُ أَنْ تُساعِدَني؟ — Q you-can that you-help-me
  Can you help me?
• لا يَسْتَطيعُ الطِّفْلُ أَنْ يَمْشي. — NEG can the-child that he-walks
  The child cannot walk yet.
• نَسْتَطيعُ أَنْ نَلْتَقي غَدًا. — we-can that we-meet tomorrow
  We can meet tomorrow.
• يَسْتَطيعونَ أَنْ يَفْهَموا الدَّرْس. — they-can that they-understand the-lesson
  They can understand the lesson.
• هَلْ أَقْدِرُ أَنْ أَدْخُلَ؟ — Q I-am-able that I-enter
  May I come in?

أحب أن + subjunctive (like to / love to)

The verb أَحَبَّ / يُحِبُّ (aḥabba / yuḥibbu, 'to love, to like') followed by أنْ + subjunctive renders English 'I like to / I love to + verb'. It is the standard way to express enjoyment of a regular activity ('I like to read', 'I love to travel'). Without أنْ, يُحِبّ takes a noun object directly: أُحِبُّ القَهْوة 'I love coffee'. The first vowel of the verb is short u (yuḥibbu, not yaḥibbu) because أَحَبَّ is a doubled-root Form IV verb (ʾaḥabba). Negation places لا before the matrix verb: لا أُحِبُّ أَنْ أَنْتَظِرَ 'I don't like to wait'.

A gentler near-synonym in some registers is يَوَدُّ ('he would like'); see the next section for 'would like'. Note the distinction: أُحِبّ + noun = 'I love (something)'; أُحِبّ + أن + verb = 'I like to (do)'.

• أُحِبُّ أَنْ أَقْرَأَ في المَساء. — I-love that I-read in the-evening
  I love to read in the evening.
• تُحِبُّ سارة أَنْ تَطْبُخَ. — loves Sara that she-cooks
  Sara loves to cook.
• هَلْ تُحِبّينَ أَنْ تَرْقُصي؟ — Q you(f)-love that you-dance
  Do you like to dance?
• نُحِبُّ أَنْ نَلْعَبَ كُرّةَ القَدَم. — we-love that we-play ball the-foot
  We love to play football.
• لا أُحِبُّ أَنْ أَنْتَظِرَ طَويلًا. — NEG I-love that I-wait long
  I don't like to wait long.
• أُحِبُّ القَهْوةَ بِالحَليب. — I-love the-coffee with-the-milk
  I love coffee with milk. (noun object, no أن)

Progressive: simple imperfect, active participle, كان يفعل

Arabic has no dedicated progressive tense. The simple imperfect (يَفْعَلُ) already covers 'does' AND 'is doing'. When you specifically want to highlight that an action is HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, three strategies are available. First, just add a time adverb such as الآنَ ('now') to the imperfect: يَكْتُبُ الآنَ 'he is writing now'. Second, use the ACTIVE PARTICIPLE (اسم الفاعل), an adjective-like form on the pattern fāʿil (kātib 'writer/writing', dhāhib 'going') which is treated as a temporary state and is therefore the closest equivalent of English 'I am V-ing' for motion and posture verbs. Third, for the past progressive ('was doing'), use the auxiliary كانَ + imperfect: كانَ يَكْتُبُ 'he was writing'.

The active participle inflects for gender and number: kātib (m.sg), kātiba (f.sg), kātibūn (m.pl), kātibāt (f.pl). It is especially common with the motion verbs ذَهَبَ ('go'), جاءَ ('come'), رَجَعَ ('return') and with the verb 'sit' (جالِس) and 'sleep' (نائِم), where the imperfect would sound habitual.

• أَنا أَكْتُبُ الآنَ. — I I-write now
  I am writing right now.
• هُوَ ذاهِبٌ إلى المَدْرَسة. — he going(m.sg) to the-school
  He is going to school. (active participle)
• هِيَ نائِمة. — she sleeping(f.sg)
  She is sleeping. (active participle, temporary state)
• كُنّا نَلْعَبُ في الحَديقة. — we-were we-play in the-garden
  We were playing in the garden.
• ماذا تَفْعَلونَ الآنَ؟ — what you-do(pl) now
  What are you all doing right now?
• كانَ الأطفالُ يُشاهِدونَ التِّلفاز. — were the-children they-watch the-TV
  The children were watching TV.

أود أن + subjunctive (would like to)

Arabic has no morphological conditional, so 'I would like to' is expressed with the verb وَدَّ / يَوَدُّ (wadda / yawaddu, 'to wish, to like') in the imperfect plus أنْ + subjunctive. The Form I imperfect of the doubled root w-d-d gives يَوَدُّ for 'he wishes/likes'; with the polite cohortative prefix أَ- you get أَوَدُّ ('I would like'). This phrasing is markedly more polite than أُريدُ ('I want') and is the standard way to make formal requests, offers and invitations. The closest English match is 'I would like to' or 'I'd love to'. Negation: لا أَوَدُّ أَنْ ... 'I would not like to'.

In restaurant and shopping contexts, شoppers often use the phrase مِنْ فَضْلِك ('please') with the simple imperfect or with أُريدُ; أَوَدُّ أَنْ is reserved for more formal exchanges, written correspondence, and polite suggestions.

• أَوَدُّ أَنْ أَشْكُرَكُم جَميعًا. — I-would-like that I-thank-you all
  I would like to thank you all.
• هَلْ تَوَدُّ أَنْ تَنْضَمَّ إلَيْنا؟ — Q you-would-like that you-join to-us
  Would you like to join us?
• نَوَدُّ أَنْ نَدْعُوَكُم إلى الغَداء. — we-would-like that we-invite-you to the-lunch
  We would like to invite you to lunch.
• تَوَدُّ ليلى أَنْ تَدْرُسَ الطِّبَّ. — would-like Layla that she-studies the-medicine
  Layla would like to study medicine.
• أَوَدُّ كَوْبَ شاي، لَوْ سَمَحْتَ. — I-would-like cup tea if you-permit
  I'd like a cup of tea, please. (noun object, no أن)
• لا أَوَدُّ أَنْ أُزْعِجَكَ. — NEG I-would-like that I-bother-you
  I wouldn't like to bother you.