Understanding Darija Verbs

Lesson objective

In this lesson, you will understand the basic form used to learn and conjugate Darija verbs.

The basic verb form

In English, verbs are usually learned in the infinitive form: to eat, to drink, to sit. Darija does not use an infinitive in the same way.

Instead, verbs are normally learned using the past-tense form for he — the third-person masculine singular form. Darija Academy uses this form as the basic form of the verb.

Examples

English	Darija (basic form)
He drank / to drink	šrb
He hit / to hit	ḍrb
He sat / to sit	gls

New verbs are normally presented in this form. Once you know this basic form, you can use it to form the past and present tenses.

Verb stems

Most Darija verbs have three letters. Prefixes can be added to the beginning of a verb, and suffixes can be added to the end.

Verbs with a vowel in the middle or at the end may follow different conjugation rules from verbs made only of consonants.