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LESSON 58Irregular Past-Tense Verbs with “a” in the Middle
First irregular category
This group contains three-letter verbs with a long a in the middle. For these forms (I, you singular, we, you plural), remove the middle a before adding the ending. For she, add only t. The he and they forms keep the middle a.
Example verb: “to be” (kan)
| English | Darija |
|---|---|
| I was | knt |
| You were — masculine | knti |
| You were — feminine | knti |
| He was | kan |
| She was | kant |
| We were | knna |
| You were — plural | kntu |
| They were | kanu |
Common verbs in this group
- šaf — to see
- dar — to do / make
- 3am — to swim
- ba3 — to sell
- jab — to bring
- gal — to say
- ṣam — to fast
- ṣag — to drive
- naḍ — to get up
- laн — to throw
- daz — to pass by
- fat — to pass
- mat 3la — to love / be dying for
- zad — to increase
- xaf — to be afraid
- 3aš — to live
Examples
had ṣ-ṣbaн nḍt f s-sb3a. — This morning, I got up at seven.
šnu drti l-barн? — What did you do yesterday?
lli fat mat. — What is done is done.
Exercise
Put the verbs in parentheses into the correct past-tense form:
- s-simana lli fatt, ana u ṣнabi (3am) f la-ppisin.
- Sara (3aš) f mirikan 3amayn.
- nhar s-sbt f l-3šiya, ana u ṣнabati (kan) f l-нmmam. mlli xrjna, (daz) l l-qhwa.
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