Guide: How verbs function in Tunisian Arabic (premium)
In this guide we’ll cover how verbs function in Tunisian Arabic. The sections include:
The concept of conjugation
Like all mature languages and dialects, verbs conjugate in Tunisian Arabic. Verb-oriented statements in tounsi / تونسي (another word for Tunisian Arabic) can conjugate based on: time (i.e., future, present and past) For example, “I will bring it to you.” Statements can conjugate based on the subject or principal pronoun of the statement (i.e., who is performing the action) : “I will bring it to you.” Statements can conjugate based on the recipient of the action: “I will bring it to you.” And statements can conjugate based on the object involved: “I will bring it to you.”
A crucial point: What is immediately important to understand for an English speaker learning Tunisian Arabic is, whereas, English often uses multiple words to complete the conjugation of an action, in Tunisian Arabic, this process can almost always occur within one or two words. But these one or two words can vary widely in spelling to account for the variables (listed above) involved.
Let’s use an example and start translating:
In the English statement, “I will walk to the store” (in the context of the near future) uses three words to get the expression of the action across: “I”, “will”, & “walk”. In Tunisian Arabic this expression of an action that is going to occur can be summed up with two words: Bech nemchi / باش نمشي. Bech / باش means “will” (the adverb) and the word nemchi / نمشي means “Go”, the verb, in the I form. To translate the full statement “I will walk to the store” fully, it’s Bech nemchi lel 7anout / باش نمشي للحانوت. The l / ل is the preposition “to” and -el 7anout / لحانوت- means “the store”. (If you’re curious, the “e” in -el is conventionally written using the Arabic script as ا in the word ال but doesn’t appear in the Arabic script due to elision—That is the process of a language being shortened (written or verbally) overtime by speakers, often for the sake of being easier to speak or write)
Below listen to IBL contributor Aroua F. pronounces Bech nemchi lel 7anout:
Conjugating based on time
Future
Verbs in Tunisian Arabic can conjugate based on time: past, present & future. To represent an action that will occur in the future oftentimes the same word that’s used in the present continuous is applied but a word like Bech… / …باش (introduced above, and means “will” as an adverb) precedes the verb. Using the example from the foregoing section: In English, nemchi / نمشي means “walk” (the verb) but adding Bech / باش in front of the word, making the phrase Bech nemchi… / …باش نمشي, communicates the phrase, “I will walk…”, which is an action that will take place in the near future.
A side note: If the speaker intended this statement to be in the immediate future, as in the speaker is asked as they are leaving the house if they are going to drive or walk to the store, the words (m) Hani mechi / هاني ماشي or (f) Hani mechya / هاني ماشية will replace Bech nemchi… / …باش نمشي, making the statement (m) Hani mechi lel 7anout / هاني ماشي للحانوت (f) Hani mechya lel 7anout / هاني ماشية للحانوت. Hani / هاني comes from Standard Arabic (fos7a / الفصحى) and literally means “Here I am”. Mechi/Mechya ماشي/ماشية is similar to nemchi/نمشي and means to go somewhere. (A deeper explanation of words like mechi/mechya is covered in this section of the guide and you these words principally show up on the IBL page, “Going” (present) (verb) in Tunisian Arabic)
Below listen to Aroua F. pronoun Hani mechi lel 7anout & Hani mechya lel 7anout:
Present
In the present, if the action is occurring currently and has a clear effort associated to it (e.g., the verb, “Reading”) the words (m) 9a3ed / قاعد or (f) 9a3da / قاعدة, which mean “sitting”, will precede the verb and act as the indicator that the action being described is occurring in the moment. Someone may say “She is reading” as 9a3da ta9ra /قاعدة تقرى. Ta9ri / نقرى is the act of reading in the feminine form (the next section below covers how verbs conjugate based on pronoun), whereas, 9a3da / قاعدة makes it clear that she is reading right now. (versus having read or will read)
It will be obvious above that there is a use of the numbers 9 and 3 as letters in thephrase 9a3da ta9ra. To learn more about this conventional alphabetical feature amongst Tunisian Arabic when writing using the Latin script, read the IBL article, Numbers as letters in Tunisian Arabic.
Below Aroua F. pronounces 9a3ed:
Below Aroua F. pronounces 9a3da:
And below Aroua F. pronounces 9a3da ta9ra:
Past
And as expected, verbs in Tunisian Arabic can conjugate in the past tense. Where in the future and present tense, the conjugation is often the same but that there are words like Bech, Hani, 9a3ed/9a3da associated to them to define the tense, the spellings of words in the past depart from this method. With that said, words in the past tense hold the same root letters as their siblings in the other tenses. This section below explains more that at the base of Tunisian Arabic verbs (just like fos7a-based verbs) root letters exist.
Conjugating based on the pronoun
When it comes to verbs in Tunisian Arabic, a core feature to construct well-articulated statements is the concept of the prefix and/or suffix (based on the participle and pronoun) changing to represent the pronoun that’s the principal subject of the statement.
Here is a full listing of pronouns that exist in Tunisian Arabic:
- Future tense (7) — I; You; You, plural; He; She; We; They
- Third-person (2) — He; She
- Present (9*) — I, masculine; I, feminine; You, masculine; You, feminine; You, plural; He; She; We; They
- Past (7) — I; You; You, plural; He; She; We; They
*Depending on the present continuous verb series, some series have masculine- and feminine-versioned spellings in the I and You forms, whereas, with other series a variation in spellings doesn’t exist. In the latter case, the total number of variations total 7, which is the same as in the future and past tenses.
Let’s get into this topic more — Using the first example with a translation in this guide: “I will walk to the store” translates as Bech nemchi lel 7anout. باش نمشي للحانوت. The n- / ن- in nemchi / نمشيفي is what puts this statement in the I form. If someone wanted to say, “Will you go to the store?” the statement would become Bech temchi lel 7anout? / باش تمشي الحانوت؟. Between the two statements above, the only change (aside from it becoming a question) was the word nemchi / نمشي to temchi / تمشي. With all verbs in future and present tenses in Tunisian Arabic, if an n- / ن and t- / ت are available, the former is used to represent the I form and the latter represents the You form.
All of the participles are going to be explored at length in this guide including a further breakdown of the standard . (below) Here is the future section, third-person section, present section, past section, and the imperatives section.
For convenience, below Aroua F. speaks Bech nemchi lel 7anout again:
Below Aroua F. speaks Bech temchi lel 7anout?:
Conjugating based on gender, recipient & preposition
When no noun is present
As covered above a verb will conjugate based on time (e.g., future tense) & subject (I will…). If a verb statement doesn’t have an object (e.g., a noun isn’t present that the action affects) but has a recipient, the operative verb will change shape again to communicate the specificity of the expression. For example, in Tunisian Arabic, “I will get back to you” is translated as Taw narja3lek / تو نرجعلك. Taw / تو is another way to mean, I will: Taw is used commonly to communicate that something will occur in the immediate future. (Hani / هاني is immediately and Bech / باش is further in the future than the immediate future) Rja3 /رجع means “Return“, in the context of a living being or beings (Interestingly, in Tunisian Arabic, a slightly different series of words means Return, as in an object or objects being returned). As you’ll recall from the section above, the n- / ن puts rja3 /رجع in the I form. What’s left to address from the English statement, “I’ll get back to you” is the “…to you.”
In “…to you.” the “to” acts as the preposition and the “you” is the recipient of the action. In Tunisian Arabic (and in fos7a), l / ل means “to” and the -ek / ك means “you”. So the parts of this statement are: Taw na – rja3 – l – ek / تو ن – رجع – ل- ك. Brought together, this phrase is Taw narja3lek / تو نرجعلك.
If there are two friends or co-workers that you want to address simultaneously, you may say in English, “I will get back to you both”. In Tunisian Arabic, this phrase becomes Taw narj3elkom / تو نرجعلكم. The principal change in this case is swapping the -ek / ك for -kom / كم. Whereas, -k / – ك (used in the first example in this section) directs a verb to the You form, and -kom / كم puts a verb in the You plural.
Below Aroua F. speaks both phrases Taw narja3lek & Taw narj3elkom:
When a noun is the object
When a noun is the object of a verb-oriented statement, the verb still conjugates based on the pronoun, but sometimes the spelling of the noun changes (conjugates) to communicate the expression of the statement fully. The statement “I will bring the book to you” is Ataw njiblek el kteb / أتو نجيبلك الكتاب. Whereas, Bech / باش is “I will…” in the future, Ataw / أتو is “I will…” in the immediate future. (An interesting side note that Tawa / توا means “now” in Tunisian Arabic) The root word of “bring” is jib / جيب, and the n- / ن puts it in the I form, effectively making the English phrase “I will bring…” Next, the l / ل is the preposition “to” and the suffix -ek / ك communicates “you”. And like in fos7a, the word “book” is translated as kteb / كتاب. Compartmentalized, the above looks like this:
Ataw n-jib-l-ek el kteb / أتو ن-جيب-ل-ك ال-كتاب
Brought together you have the statement Ataw njiblek el kteb / أتو نجيبلك الكتاب = “I will bring the book to you”.
Below Aroua F. speaks Ataw njiblek el kteb:
The root letters of verbs
In elementary school, Tunisians classically learn fos7a (its full spelling is Al lougha al 3arabeya al fos7a / اللغة العربيّة الفصحى) and learn Tunisian Arabic from their social environment—parents, friends, etc. Students of fos7a learn early that all verbs have root letters to them. (the same goes with nouns, adjectives & adverbs) By learning the root letters, it assists a speaker / writer in conjugating because the core almost always (an exception is explained here) stays in tact in any conjugated form.
Let’s use some examples from this guide.
In the first translated example we used the verb nemchi / نمشي which which means “I go”. The root of this word is the letters m – ch – i / م- ش- ي, which means “Go”. If you are on your way to the store (“I’m going…”) you’ll substitute the word with (m) mechi / نمشي (f) mechya / ماشية and if it’s in the past (“I went…”) you will say mchit / مشيت. Through all those tenses, m – ch – i / م- ش- ي was present.
Exception #1: In some instances in the past tense, if one of the root letters is a vowel it will disappear from the root. But even in these cases it’s best not to consider the root letters as being modified, but instead, that one of the three letters have been removed. Here is an example:
In the last section, we used njiblek / نجيبلك, which means “I bring”, and as mentioned in the section, has the root letters of j – i – b / ج – ي – ب. When you are in the process of bringing the book to someone, njiblek / نجيب is still used (“I’m bringing the book to you now” becomes Hani bech njiblek el kteb tawa / هاني باش نجيبلك الكتاب توا) and after you brought the book to someone it can be replaced with (m) Jebtlou / جبتلو or (f) Jebtlha / جبتلها (“I brought”). As you can see above, the root letters j – i – b / ج – ي – ب is constant throughout with the exception that the i / ي disappears in the past tense. And as you’ll read in the next subsection below, there is one other exception to consider.
Exception #2: In the past tense, with the absent pronouns (i.e., He, She & They) the ي will be modified to an ا (or written as ى if it is the last letter of a word and certain letters precede it) For instance with Go, Going & Went, m – ch – i / م- ش- ي is the root letters, but the i / ي becomes an a / ا and are written as: (He) Mcha / مشا (She) Mchet / مشات & (They) Mchew / مشاو. If you want to analyze this more see the IBL page, “Went” (past) (verb) in Tunisian Arabic.
Summarizing this section: Many, but not all, Tunisian Arabic verbs have the same root letters and meanings as in fos7a. Based on the root letters and knowing the rules across the participles (which is covered in this guide), a speaker can add prefixes, suffixes & in the past tense, change the vowel for the absent pronouns (the exception noted above).
Future tense
To describe an action that may or may not or will or will not occur in the future, there are always seven pronouns for the subject that can be considered (this was covered in the initial list above):
I, You, You plural, He, She, We, & They
In the future tense, how these verbs conjugate based on pronoun are by modifying the prefix and in the cases of the plural pronouns (You plural, We & They) the suffix. Here is the full listing of prefixes and suffixes for verbs in the future tense:
(I) n- / –ن
(You) t- / -ت
(You, plural) t- / -ت & -ou / و-
(He) y- / -ي
(She) t- / -ت
(We) n- / –ن & -ou & و-
(They) y- / -ي & -ou & و-
(A note that the You and She forms are always the same words. There is no confusion when statements are constructed though because in the case of the absent pronouns (He, She & They) the pronoun word will precede the verb. (Houa / هوا, Heya / هي & Houma / هوما, respectively) For example, “Are you going to go to the store?” and, “She will go to the store” both use the same operative verb temchi / تمشي but in the case of “Are you going to the store?” Bech temchi lel 7anout? / بش تمشي الحانوت؟ is communicated, whereas, with “She will go to the store” the word Heya / هي is added to the start of the statement, making it, Heya bech temchi lel 7anout / هي باش تمشي للحانوت.
As a next step, let’s use the list above and form a verb series in the future tense. Using the common word “Go”, the root of which (as noted in the section above) is mchi / مشي
(I) Nemchi / نمشي
(You) Temchi / تمشي
(You, plural) Temchiw / تمشيو
(He) Yemchi / يمشي
(She) Temchi / تمشي
(We) Nemchiw / نمشيو
(They) Yemchiw / يمشيو
For more information on the above conjugation and to view over a dozen sentences and statements with “Go” used in the future tense, see the IBL page, “Go” (future) (verb) in Tunisian Arabic.
Below IBL contributor Nada A. pronounces the above series of verbs:
Third-person participle
Aside from the Imperative form of a verb (which is covered in this section below) the third-person participle format of a Tunisian Arabic verb series is probably the easiest to learn and handle. First, there is only two ways to conjugate a verb in the third-person: In the masculine form and in the feminine form. And the words used are always identical to the masculine- and feminine-based verbs that will be used in the future-tense.
Here is the listing:
(m) y- / -ي
(f) t- / -ت
So the statement, “He goes to the store everyday” is:
Kol youm yemchi lel 7anout / كل يوم يمشي للحانوت
“Goes” is the verb which is based on the root letters m – ch – i / م- ش- ي. (covered extensively in this section above) And because this statement conjugates the verb in the masculine form, y- / -ي is applied, which formulates the full word of yemchi / يمشي (In English, this means, “He goes”)
A similar process occurs in feminine form. The statement, “She goes to the store everyday” is translated as:
Kol youm temchi lel 7anout / كل يوم نمشي للحانوت
Listen to Nada A. pronounce yemchi & temchi:
To study the “Goes” verb more, here is the IBL page along with five associated translations, “Goes” (third-person) in Tunisian Arabic.
Present tense
In this section we’re going to discuss present tense verbs in the present continuous form. That is to say actions that occur in that moment or are currently underway. (“I understand you”, “I expect us to arrive in one hour”, “He is studying upstairs”, “She is talking with her mother on the phone right now”, etc.)
Intrinsically, there are two types of present-tense verbs that affect how you construct statements:
- Occurrences that are brief but present — “I understand you”, “I expect us to arrive in one hour”, etc.
- Actions that are ongoing — “He is studying upstairs”, “She is talking with her mother on the phone right now”, etc.
Occurrences that are present
Occurrences that are present are occurrences that exist in the present moment but are intrinsically brief or transient (by the nature of the verb, they last for a very short, almost immediate period of time). In the examples, “I understand you” and “I expect us to arrive in one hour”, the moment these statements are communicated they exist, but may not necessarily persist after that moment has passed. For example, after someone makes another statement, the speaker may not understand what the interlocutor has said. And the expectation that the speaker had of arriving in one hour may change five minutes later if the car being driven comes to a section of the highway that is under construction.
Handling these verbs in the present moment is quite simple: They either use the same set of verbs in the future or the past tense—Knowing which comes with study. In the statement, “I expect us to arrive in one hour”, it uses the same word as which is used in the future-tense: netwa9a3 / نتوقع. (the full statement translated is Netwa9a3 bech nakhltou fi se3a / نتوقّع باش نخلطو في ساعة) Whereas, “I understand you” most conventionally, and simply, uses the verb in the past tense, Fhemtek / فهمتك, which essentially means “I understood you.” (The word Fhemt- / -فهمت, which means Understood, combined with -ek / ك-, which as covered in a couple places above, puts the expression in the You form)
Here is a full listing of how verbs in the present tense, when their nature is intrinsically transient, conjugate based on the subject/pronoun: (A note that this is an identical list to the future tense)
(I) n- / –ن
(You) t- / -ت
(You, plural) t- / -ت & -ou / و-
(He) y- / -ي
(She) t- / -ت
(We) n- / –ن & -ou / و-
(They) y- / -ي & -ou / و-
Aroua F. pronounces Netwa9a3 bech nakhltou fi se3a / نتوقّع باش نخلطو في ساعة:
IBL contributor Amine B. pronounces Fhemtek below:
Actions that are ongoing
A way of looking at actions that are ongoing is, intrinsically, does the action take more than a brief moment to occur and is there some form of effort involved? These are often actions you can really observe or abstractions that persist: For example:
- Studying
- Jogging
- Reading
- Writing
- Learning
- Thinking
Do you see above how someone that is studying, writing and learning are different from someone who understands someone or something or has a particular expectation in the moment?
How Tounsi treats these kinds of verbs is inserting the word (m) 9a3ed / قاعد (f) or 9a3da / قاعد in front of the operative verb.
9a3ed/9a3da mean “sitting” and used to communicate that something is occurring in the present. (versus in the past or the future)
Here is a full listing of how verbs in the present tense, when they are ongoing, conjugate: (there is one exception to this list covered here)
(I) (m) 9e3ed/قاعد n-/-ن
(I) (f) 9e3da/قاعدة n-/-ن
(You) (m) 9e3ed/قاعد t-/-ت
(You) (f) 9e3da/قاعدة t- / -ت
(You, plural) 9e3din/قاعدين t-/-ت & -ou/و-
(He) 9e3ed/قاعد y-/-ي
(She) 9e3da/قاعد t-/-ت
(We) 9e3din/قاعدين n-/-ن & -ou/و-
(They) 9e3din y- / -ي & -ou/و-
Next, let’s take the above list and insert a verb using its root word in combination with the conjugations listed above. As noted above the root word of the verb “read” is 9ra / قرى. If you want to transform “read” into “reading” in Tunisian Arabic, voila, here is the list:
(I) (m) 9e3ed na9ra / قاعد نقرى
(I) (f) 9e3da na9ra / قاعدة نقرى
(You) (m) 9e3ed ta9ra / قاعد تقرى
(You) (f) 9e3da ta9ra / قاعدة تقرى
(You, plural) 9e3din ta9raw / قاعدين تقراو
(He) 9e3ed ya9ra / قاعد يقرى
(She) 9e3da ta9ra / قاعدة تقرى
(We) 9e3din na9raw / قاعدين نقراو
(They) 9e3din ya9raw / قاعدين يقراو
Here is the IBL page on Reading in Tunisian Arabic which includes recordings of the above and 8 sample statements translated in both scripts — “Reading” (present) (verb) in Tunisian Arabic.
Next we’ll use an example to demonstrate how the list above is used.
The English statement, “She is reading in the backyard” is spoken/written in Tunisian Arabic as 9a3da ta9ra fi el jarda el tilaneya / قاعدة تقرى في الجردة التيلانيّة.
As you’ll remember from above, ta9ra / تقرى means “she reads” (the ta- / -ت conjugates 9ra / قرى into the feminine form) By prefacing 9e3da / قاعدة before stating the verb ta9ra, the speaker has made it clear that the action of reading is currently underway.
Do you want to bring this statement into the future tense instead? (as in, “She will read in the backyard”) You can modify it slightly with (changes underlined): Bech ta9ra fi el jarda el tilaneya / باش تقرى في الجردة التيلانيّة. The same verb ta9ra / تقرى is present but by replacing 9e3da / قاعدة with bech / باش (“will”) the statement has moved away from the present tense and into the future. (in the past section below we cover the spirit of this statement in the past tense)
To wrap up some auxiliary points about the principal statement in this section: As may be presumed, الجردة التيلانيّة / الجردة التيلانية means “the backyard”. Jarda / جردة means yard and tilaneya / لتيلانيّة means “back”.
As an interesting side-note: The double use of el / ال in el tilaneya / الجردة التيلانيّة above may have stood out to you—As a grammatical rule, when an adjective is intrinsically associated to a noun (versus describing a noun) that uses el / ال, the adjective will also take on el / ال. So, for instance, “That big house is beautiful” becomes El dar el kbira mezyena / الدار الكبيرة مزيانة. (Two el / ال are used), whereas, “That house is big” is El dar kbira / الدار كبيرة. (One el / ال is used)
The exception: The exception to the list provided above on how verbs conjugate in the present tense is principally with verbs that are clearly underway but there is more of a process to them. These types of nouns conventionally follow this conjugation format:
(I) (m) -i (or -y) /ي-
(I) (f) -ya / ية-
(You) (m) -i (or -y) / ي-
(You) (f) -ya / ية-
(You, plural) -in / ين-
(He) -y / ي-
(She) -ya / ية-
(We) -in / ين-
(They) -in / ين-
If you’re on the phone with a friend and a friend asks you, “Are you driving or walking?” and you’re walking, you can respond with (m) 9a3ed nemchi / قاعد نمشي (f) 9a3da nemchi / قاعد to indicate that you are physically walking in the present moment. But if someone asks you Where are you going? ((m) Win mechi? / وين ماشي؟ (f) Win mechya? / وين ماشية؟) it’s proper in Tunisian Arabic to respond with Mechi… / …ماشي instead which has the effect of saying, “I am going…” This concept applies to verbs such as: renting, flying (as in a passenger) & sleeping.
For more information on this concept read the IBL guide, The present tense in Tunisian Arabic. And here is the IBL page on “Going” the verb, in the future tense, which has the pronunciations of the above list of words along with 13 associated statements and sentences translated, “Going” (future) (verb) in Tunisian Arabic.
Below Nada A. speaks the above list of words:
Past tense
So far with most future, third-person & past tense verbs, the subject’s conjugation is almost always identical. In the past tense, the conjugation changes from the different tenses, but can be studied and learned as how they change is almost always the same across all past tense verbs. Here is a full listing of how verbs conjugate in the past tense: (Keeping in mind that what is conjugating is based on the root word)
(I) -t / ت-
(You) -t / ت-
(You, plural) -tou / تو-
(He) (Often the root word)
(She) -et / ات-
(We) ina / ينا-
(They) -ou & و-
Continuing with the Read series, below is Read, the verb, in the past tense:
(I) 9rit / قريت
(You) 9rit / قريت
(You, plural) 9ritou / قريتو
(He) 9ra / قرى
(She) 9rat / قرات
(We) 9rina / قرينا
(They) 9raw / قراو
One attribute that may have stood out with the above conjugation process is that the I and You forms use the same words. This occurs with almost all verbs in the past tense. Just like the example early on in this article of the You & She form future tense verbs sharing the same spellings, how a speaker/writer communicates if they are speaking about the I or You form in the past tense is based on either making the expression a statement (which is about tone) or making the statement a question. (based on tone, or if written, the use of a question mark) For example:
- “I read in the backyard earlier” becomes 9rit fi el jarda el tilaneya 9bila / قريت في الجردة التيلانيّة قبيلا
- Did you read in the backyard earlier? becomes 9rit fi el jarda el tilaneya 9bila? / قريت في الجردة التيلانيّة قبيلا؟
The two statements above of near identical except in the latter there is a question mark and the tone that one would express these two statements would change as such, accordingly.
In all forms of past-tense verb, leading with a pronoun word isn’t necessary because the operative verb has the pronoun as part of its composition. “She read in the backyard earlier” becomes 9rat 9bal lyoum fel jarda etilenya / قرات ىفي الجردة التيلانية; “They read in the backyard earlier” becomes 9raw 9bal lyoum fel jarda etilenya / قراو ىفي الجردة التيلانية, and so on and so forth.
Below Nada A. pronounces the “Read”, the verb, in the past tense series:
To study “Read”, the verb, in the past tense, this IBL page provides all the conjugations in writing with accompanying audio and 8 statements translated: “Read” (past) (verb) in Tunisian Arabic.
Imperatives
In grammar, imperatives are command-oriented or directive statements. A mother yelling at her child to “Stop!” or “Wait for us!” are verbs stated in the imperative form. A spouse saying to her partner, “Turn off the light” or “Pass me a pen” are also examples of imperative statements.
Imperatives can occur in two forms: The singular (speaking to one person) and the plural (speaking to more than one person).
In Tunisian Arabic determining the imperative form of a verb is reasonably simple: The imperative word can be created by taking the You form word, dropping the t- / -ت and in the Latin script, if a vowel follows it (e.g., e, o, etc.), the Arabic script is modified to begin with an ا or أ? In all other cases the imperative word is formed by simply dropping the t- / -ت.
Here are some examples:
Go! — (You form) Temchi / تمشي, (You plural) Temchiw / تمشيو (Imperative, singular) Emchi! / !امشي, (Imperative plural) Emchiw! / !امشيو
Look! — (You form) Toghzer / تغزر, (You plural) Toghzrou / تغزرو (Imperative, singular) Oghzer! / !أغزر, (Imperative plural) Oghzrou! / !أغزرو
Hurry up! — (Imperative, singular) Ezreb! / !ازرب, (Imperative plural) Ezrbou! / !ازربو
Below Aroua pronounces Emchi! & Emchiw!:
Below Aroua pronounces Oghzer! & Oghzrou!:
Below Aroua pronounces Ezreb! & Ezrbou!:
How the infinitive is treated
Verbs that are preceded with the word “to” are infinitive statements. Grammatically they have their own category because they aren’t conjugated in time. (past, now, & the future) Someone may say:
Statement #1: “That road is too bumpy to drive on.” as El kayes m7afer barcha bech ysou9ou fih / الكياس محفر برشا باش يسوقو فيه
Statement #2: “It will us take 30 minutes to finish the dishes.” as T7ebelna nos se3a bech nkamlou naghslou el ma3oun / تحبلنا نص ساعة باش نكملو نغسلو الماعون
In Statement #1, “to drive” is the operative phrase that makes the statement infinitive. And “to finish” is the operative phrase that puts Statement #2 in the same form.
In simple terms, in Tunisian Arabic, usually uses the same verb and conjugation based on what is listed in the future tense section of this article.
In Statement #1 — For “to drive”, nsou9ou / نسوقو is used, which is also the principal word used for “Drive“, the verb, in the future tense in the We form.
And in Statement #2 — For “to finish”, nkamlou / نكملو is used, which is the principal word used for “Finish“, the verb, in the future tense in the in the We form.
In this respect handling infinitive form statements are fairly straightforward.
How verbs fit into the syntax
In basic grammatical English, the rule of Subject -> Verb -> Object applies. In the statement “I will walk to the store” the “I” is the subject, “walk” is the operative verb and the object is the “store”. This same format applies in Tunisian Arabic. The statement “I will walk to the store” that we used in the opening notes of this guide, for convenient reference, is Bech nemchi lel 7anout / باش نمشي للحانوت. The prefix n- / ن puts nemchi / نمشي in the I form, and via this one word, both the Subject and Verb parts of the statement are covered. And then the statement ends with the Object, 7anout / حانوت.
Adverbs
When a preposition is present an adverb always follows the preposition. If the statement above was updated to “I will walk to the store quickly.”, quickly is the adverb, and the translation would become Bech nemchi lel 7anout fisaa fisaa / باش نمشي للحانوت فيسع فيسع (fissaa being the adverb for the word Quickly or Fast)
Closing thoughts
By studying and learning the above material you will have taken a giant leap in learning a new language—Progressing from knowing many words and phrases to beginning to conjugate in the language. If you want to study how nouns function in Tunisian Arabic access the IBL article, How nouns function in Tunisian Arabic and here is the IBL guide on How verbs function in Tunisian Arabic.
Enjoy learning Tunisian Arabic.
And as always, we wish you a marvellous journey!
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