Active Participles for Current Actions

Lesson objective

For a small group of verbs, the active participle is needed to describe an action happening now. For these verbs, the present tense usually describes a habit, while the active participle describes the current action or state.

Verb and active-participle forms

Verb	Active participle	Meaning
gls — to sit or stay	gals	sitting
lbs — to wear	labs	wearing
n3s — to sleep	na3s	sleeping
xrj — to leave/go out	xarj	leaving/going out
dxl — to enter	daxl	entering
rj3 — to return	raj3	returning
wqf — to stand	waqf	standing
safr — to travel	msafr	travelling
kra — to rent	kari	renting
ndm — to regret	nadm	regretting
skt — to be quiet	sakt	being quiet
xaf — to be afraid	xayf	being afraid
bat — to spend the night	bayt	spending the night

Habit compared with a current action

kay-lbs qamija xḍra kul nhar. — He wears a green shirt every day. (regular habit)
huwa labs qamija xḍra. — He is wearing a green shirt now. (current)

kat-n3s f 10:00. — She goes to sleep at ten o’clock. (habit)
hiya na3sa. — She is sleeping now. (current condition)