Hi everyone!

In this post I’ll be providing a brief overview of how passives and causatives work in Syrian. I’ve already covered passives in more detail here. This is intended mainly for completeness as part of my updated fuS7a-to-Shami series. As usual, I’ll be assuming you already know fuS7a.

Passive

In fuS7a any verb can form a passive by changing its internal vowelling. This structure is not normal in Syrian (although you will sometimes hear borrowings from fuS7a, especially in higher-register language). Instead, Syrian relies mainly on a change of pattern to passivise a verb:

Active

Passive

كتب
katab
he wrote
(Form I, fa3al)

انكتب
nkatab
it was written
(Form VII, nfa3al)

درس
darras
he taught
(Form II, fa33al)

تدرس
tdarras
it was taught
(Form V, tfa33al)
حاكى
7aaka
he spoke to
(Form III, faa3al)

تحاكى
t7aaka
he was spoken to
(Form VI, tfaa3al)

Form I verbs largely correspond to Form VII (sometimes Form VIII, fta3al) verbs, Form II to Form V and Form III to Form VI. Just like in fuS7a, Form V and VI also commonly have other meanings. Sometimes they are used not exactly for passives but for transitive and intransitive pairs.

Verbs that are not Form I, II or III do not generally have passives. This can be difficult to get used to coming from a language where everything can be passivised, but you’ll soon learn how to express yourself without them if you imitate native speakers! We’ll talk about this more later.

Note that the imperfective (مضارع) passive is very common in the meaning ‘cannot’ or ‘should not’:

الشاي ما بينشرب هيك
ishshaay maa byinshireb heek
tea is not to be drunk like that

هادا ما بيتناقش
haada maa byitnaaqash
this guy can’t be argued with

Causative

Causative constructions are formed either using a separate verb (usually on Form II, fa33al) or the auxiliary خلى khalla plus a subjunctive. Note that there is no clear distinction between ‘make’ and ‘let’ in Arabic, unlike in English:

Normal

Causative

فكرو باللي صار
fakkaru bi-lli Saar
they thought about what happened

خليناهن يفكرو باللي صار
khalleenaahon yfakkru bi-lli Saar
we made them think about what happened
فاتت
faatet
she went in

فوتتها
fawwatitha
I let her in

Although Form II causatives are very common, they are mainly the counterparts of Form I and Form V verbs, and sometimes have additional nuances of meaning beyond simple causatives. For verbs that can’t form their own distinct causative, خلى is the only option.

Note that Form IV (a common causative in fuS7a) and the fuS7a auxiliary جعل are very rare in Syrian.

 

Hi everyone!

In this post we’re going to talk briefly about a few negative constructions. If you’ve studied fuS7a – and I’ve generally been assuming you have – you’ll know that in written Arabic there are lots of different negative constructions depending on tense. Although there are a few possible negatives in spoken Arabic, the system is generally simpler.

maa

As a general rule, all verbal structures can be negated by simply placing ما maa before the verb. This corresponds to لا, لم and لن in fuS7a:

Positive

Negative

شربت شي
shribet shii
I drank something

ما شربت شي
maa shribet shii
I didn’t drink anything

بحب القهوة
b7ibb il2ahwe
I like coffee

ما بحب القهوة
maa b7ibb il2ahwe
I don’t like coffee

As in fuS7a, the negative counterpart to an imperative is a negative subjunctive form:

Positive

Negative
كول خبز
kool khibez
eat some bread

ما تاكل خبز
maa taakol khibez
don’t eat bread

 

muu

Everything else is negated with the invariable particle muu (which corresponds to fuS7a ليس). This is most obvious in ‘to be’ sentences:

Positive

Negative
طيبة
Tayybe
it’s tasty

مو طيبة
muu Tayybe
it’s not tasty

مهندس
muhandes
he’s an engineer

مو مهندس
muu muhandes
he’s not an engineer
كاتبين شي
kaatbiin shii
they’ve written something

مو كاتبين شي
muu kaatbiin shii
they haven’t written anything

 

wala

The word ولا wala is sometimes placed before the object or another part of a negative verbal sentence. This tends to intensify the meaning:

ما شفت ولا شي
maa shifet wala shii
I didn’t see anything (at all)

ما رحنا ولا على محل
maa ri7na wala 3ala ma7all
we didn’t go anywhere (at all)

If the word (usually the subject) comes before the verb, the verb isn’t negated:

ولا حدا إجى
wala 7ada 2ija
not a single person came

This word is also used on its own with various nouns: ولا شي wala shii ‘nothing’, ولا حدا wala 7ada ‘no-one’, etc.

laa

Both in imperatives and in independent subjunctives – especially in fixed expressions – you might also hear لا laa instead of maa:

لا تاكل خبز
laa taakol khibez
don’t eat bread

الله لا يردك
2aLLa laa yriddak!
may God not bring you back! (I hope I never see you again)

maal-, maan-

These two structures are combined with attached pronouns to produce a negative version of ‘to be’. In structures like the following, they are synonymous with muu:

مانو هون
maano hoon
he’s not here

مالي راجعة!
maali raaj3a!
I’m not coming back!

7ada and maa 7ada

حدا ‪7ada means ‘anyone’ or ‘someone’ in both negative sentences and questions:

ما شفت حدا
maa shifet 7ada
I didn’t see anyone

Note that when 7ada is the subject and comes before the verb, it combines with maa:

ما حدا إجى
maa 7ada 2ija
nobody came

That’s probably enough for one post!

 

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long hiatus.

Today we’ll be looking at a distinctive feature of Levantine that fuS7a has no straightforward counterpart to. We’ve already looked at how normal object pronouns attach to verbs. In this post, we’re going to look at another kind of attached pronoun: the -l- forms.

What is a -l- form?

The -l- pronoun suffixes attach to verbs, just like normal object suffixes. Instead of a direct object noun, however, they generally (but not always) correspond to a noun with the preposition لـ la- ‘for’ or ‘to’:

بعتلها مسج
b3at-la masej
send (to) her a message

اشتريتلو هدية
shtareet-illo hdiyye
I bought a present for him

What forms does it take?

As with normal pronouns, the -l- pronouns have slightly different forms depending on what they follow. In this case, however, the form is different depending on whether the pronoun follows a consonant cluster or not:

After a vowel or single consonant After a consonant cluster
ـلي
-li
to me
ـلي
-illi
to me
ـلك
-lak
to you [masculine]
ـلك
-illak
to you [masculine]
ـلك
-lek
to you [feminine]
ـلك
-illek
to you [feminine]
ـلو
-lo
to him
ـلو
-illo
to him
ـلها
-l(h)a
to her
ـلها
-il(h)a
to her
ـلنا
-lna
to us
ـلنا
-ilna
to us
ـلكن
-lkon
to you [plural]
ـلكن
-ilkon
to you [plural]
ـلهن
-l(h)on
to them
ـلهن
-il(h)on
to them

Complications

These suffixes cause all the normal changes to the words they attach to. But there are some extra complications.

The first is that with verbs ending in ـيت -eet or -iit (that is, perfective, defective verbs in the ‘I’ or ‘you (masculine)’ form, speakers tend to use the forms on the right, even though there is no cluster:

حكيتلك
7akeet-illak
I told you

The second is that when a ‘basic’ form beginning with two consonants (-lna, for example) follows a single consonant, and this would produce an unpronounceable cluster, a helping vowel is inserted:

زبطلنا الخاتم
zabbaT-ilna lkhaatem
he adjusted the ring for us

This ends up looking quite like the ‘cluster’ form given on the right above, but note that the stress here is on ba, since the helping vowel can’t be stressed.

The third important point is that with hollow verbs, these suffixes trigger a shortening of the long stem vowel. Remember that both ii and uu become i:

الزلة جبلي كولا
izzalame jab-li koola
the guy brought [for] me cola (جاب ‘he brought’)

بدي قللك شغلة
biddi 2il-lak shaghle (قول ‘I say’)
I want to say something to you

Interactions with other pronouns

When a -l- form is attached to a verb that already has a direct object pronoun attached, it pushes that direct object off onto the carrier يا yaa, just as happens when two normal pronouns are competing for the same verb:

ترجملي ياها
tarjim-li yaa-ha
translate it for me

عدتلكن ياهن
3addit-ilkon yaa-hon
she counted them for you [plural]

That’s all for today. These pronouns have a number of idiomatic uses, but there’s no space here to talk about them – perhaps in a future post!

In this post we’re going to talk about relative clauses and how to form them in Syrian.

What is a relative clause?

A relative clause is a clause that acts like an adjective – that is, it adds extra information about a noun (the ‘head noun’) to which it is attached. Examples of relative clauses in English are things like ‘the man who I saw‘, ‘a key (that) I found in the park‘, ‘a book (that) you heard about‘.

Arabic relative clauses work differently in two important ways. Firstly, they agree with their noun for definiteness, and secondly, the noun always has to be referenced (usually by a pronoun) in the relative clause.

Definite and indefinite clauses

A relative clause attached to a definite noun is always introduced with اللي illi (which does not change for gender or number, unlike its fuS7a counterparts الذي, التي etc):

Definite Indefinite
الشب اللي شفتو
ishshabb illi shifto
the guy that I saw
شب شفتو
shabb shifto
a guy that I saw
الصبية اللي كانت هون من شوي
iSSabiyye lli kaanet hoon min shwayy
the girl who was here just now
صبية كانت هون من شوي
Sabiyye kaanet hoon min shwayy
the girl who was here just now

اللي is often translated as ‘that’, but it’s important to remember that unlike its English counterpart, it is obligatory with definite clauses and wrong with indefinite clauses.

Referencing the head noun

Unlike in English, the head noun always has to be referenced somehow in the relative clause. When the head noun is the subject, this reference is simply the agreement marking on the verb. In all other cases, however, Arabic requires us to include a pronoun which shows us exactly what role the head noun is playing in the relative clause:

شب شفتو
shabb shift-o
a guy I saw [him]
صبية شفتها
Sabiyye shift-ha
a girl I saw [her]
الناس اللي دقيتلهن
innaas illi da2eet-ilhon
the people I called [to them]
البيوت اللي فتت عليهن
libyuut illi fitet 3aleyy-on
the houses I went into [them]

 

Indefinite relative clauses with subjunctive

An indefinite relative clause with a subjunctive generally expresses ‘an X to Y (with, etc)’:

بيت نقعد فيه
beet ni23od fii
a house to stay in
a house for us to stay in

سكينة تقطع فيها الخضروات
sikkiine t2aTTe3 fiiha lkhaDrawaat
a knife to chop the vegetables with
a knife for you to chop the vegetables with

Relative clauses standing alone

A definite relative clause with اللي, like a definite adjective, can stand on its own (as a ‘headless’ relative clause). There are many possible translations here, including ‘the one/the ones that’, ‘the guy/woman that’, depending on context:

اللي عم تدور عليه
illi 3am itdawwer 3alee
what you are looking for
the one you’re looking for
the guy you’re looking for

اللي اجو امبارح
illi 2iju mbaare7
the ones that came yesterday
the guys that came yesterday

That’s all for today!

Hi everyone!

Today we’re going to talk briefly about the imperative. This is formed differently in Syrian and fuS7a.

Conjugation

The imperatives of Form I sound verbs are a bit complicated. There is usually no prefix. Instead, the imperfective stem is used on its own. When there are no suffixes attached – that is, in the masculine form, with no pronouns attached – the stem vowel is lengthened. Note that the addition of suffixes triggers the merger of stressed u to i:

دروس
droos
study (m)

درسي
dris-i
study (f)

درسو
dris-u
study (p)

مسيك
mseek
take (m)

مسكي
msik-i
take (f)
مسكو
msik-u
take (p)
فتاح
ftaa7
open (m)
فتحي
fta7-i
open (f)

فتحو
fta7-u
open (p)

Adding a pronoun suffix to the masculine form reverses the lengthening:

درسو
dris-o
study (m) it
فتحو
fta7-o
open (m) it

مسكو
msik-o
take (m) it

Note as well the similar forms for 2akhad ‘take’ and 2akal ‘eat’, which lose their initial consonant:

كول
kool
eat

كلي
kil-i
eat (f)

كلو
kil-u
eat (m)

Otherwise the forms are more or less what we would expect from fuS7a. Defective verbs take a prefix 2i- (although a variant with lengthening like sound verbs also exists):

احكي
2i7ki
speak

احكي
2i7k-i
speak
احكو
2i7k-u
speak

All other types of verb use the imperfective stem on its own, with no prefix. This goes for all other kinds of Form I verb as well as all derived verbs:

قول
2uul
say (m)

قولو
2uul-u
learn (p)

تعلم
t3allam
learn (m)

تعلمي
t3allam-i
learn (f)

اشتغل
shtighel
work (m)

اشتغلو
shtighl-u
work (p)

Note the irregular imperatives:

تعال
ta3aal
come (m)

تعالي
ta3aal-i
come (f)
تعالو
ta3aal-u
come [p]
هات
haat
hand (m) [it] over
هاتي
haat-i
hand (f) [it] over

هاتو
haat-u
hand (p) [it] over

Using the imperative

The imperative is used to give orders:

تعال لعندي
ta3 la3indi
come here

عطيه مصاري
3aTii maSaari
give him some money

As we noted briefly in the post on the subjunctive, there is no third person imperative per se. Where a third person structure is used, the verb must be subjunctive:

ما حدا يحكي كلمة
maa 7ada yi7ki kilme
nobody say anything

khalli is also used for first-person imperatives:

خليني شوف
khalliini shuuf
let me see

خلينا نروح
khalliina nruu7
let’s go

Hi everyone!

In the last few posts we’ve looked at various forms of the verb. Today we’re going to look briefly at the direct object pronouns. These are almost identical to the forms used with nouns, with the exception of the first person singular.

Verb forms

A pronoun attached to a verb marks its direct object, and the same concerns apply (including lengthening and deletion). Note the two sets of forms, one following vowels, one following consonants:

After consonant After vowel
شافني
shaaf-ni
he saw me
شافوني
shaafuu-ni
they saw me
شافك
shaaf-ak
he saw you (m.)
شافوك
shaafuu-k
they saw you (m.)
شافك
shaaf-ek
he saw you (f.)
شافوكي
shaafuu-ki
they saw you (f.)
شافو
shaaf-o
he saw him
شافوه
shaafuu
they saw him
شافها
shaaf-(h)a
he saw her
شافوها
shaafuu-(h)a
they saw her
شافنا
shaaf-na
he saw us
شافونا
shaafuu-na
they saw us
شافكن
shaaf-kon
he saw you (p.)
شافوكن
shaafuu-kon
they saw you (p.)
شافهن
shaaf-hon
he saw them
شافوهن
shaafuu-hon
they saw them

Note again that when the verb itself ends in a vowel, as in the case of shaafu ‘they saw’, the pronoun spelt ـه is pronounced as a stress shift and lengthening and is not otherwise distinguished from the form without a pronoun.

Beyond the basic forms, there isn’t much to say about these pronouns. But it is worth noting that unlike in fuS7a, where the ـني form is more or less confined to verbs, this set of pronouns is used on all sorts of other miscellaneous words in Syrian:

كلني عرق
kill-ni 3ara2
I’m covered in sweat [= all of me is sweat]

لساتني هون
lissaat-ni hoon
I’m still here

Note that where a verb has two pronoun objects, only one can appear as a suffixed pronoun on the verb. The other is shunted off onto a carrier, يا yaa (corresponding to the fuS7a إيا). The order of the two pronouns generally corresponds to the English order:

عطينتي ياها
3aTeet-ni yaa-ha
you’ve given me it

Hi everyone!

Today we’re going to talk about an underappreciated topic in dialect teaching: the ‘sisters of kaan‘ or ‘framing verbs’. You will be familiar with this class of verbs from fuS7a (ظل, أصبح etc). In Syrian the set is slightly different, but has similar functions.

The main property of all the sisters of kaan is that they can be combined with both verbal and nominal sentences to add a particular nuance (usually a time-related nuance). Since English syntax usually distinguishes between these two functions, most of these verbs will have different translations depending on the kind of sentence they’re combined with. The basic meaning, however, is usually the same. And unlike in fuS7a, you don’t have to worry about case marking.

Let’s now look at the most common sisters of kaan.

 

Saar

صار Saar ‘become’ is used extensively to express changes of state, much like its fuS7a counterpart أصبح. It is often not directly translated or is translated as ‘start’ or with a time expression, as you can see from the following examples:

الكل صار عم يتجوز
ilkill Saar 3am yitjawwaz
everyone’s getting married [these days]

صايرة محامية
Saayra mu7aamye
she’s become a lawyer

Dall

ضل Dall means ‘stay’ or (with a continuous form) ‘keep Xing’. It also has an idiomatic meaning ‘to [nonetheless] be’:

ضليت عم حاول
Dalleet 3am 7aawel
I kept trying

بضل أخوك
biDall 2akhuuk
he’s still your brother

More often than not, Dall carries an object pronoun suffix referring back to the subject. Counterintuitively, this replaces the suffixes -i and -u:

بتضلكن ساكتين
bitDallkon saaktiin
you (p) keep quiet

ضليتي مبسوط
Dalleetni mabsuuT
I stayed happy

khalli

خلي khalli also means ‘stay’, ‘keep’, and is always combined with this suffixed pronoun. This form is particularly common in the imperative, where the verb itself is generally invariable and the suffix marks the subject:

خليكن هون
khalliikon hoon
stay here (p)

خليك عم تحاول
khalliik 3am it7aawel
keep trying (m)

maa3aad and maaba2a

The forms ما عاد maa 3aad and ما بقى maa ba2a correspond partially to لم يعد lam ya3ud in fuS7a, but they are usually invariable, and do not act like full verbs:

هي ما عاد صغيرة
hiyye maa3aad izghiire
she’s not a kid anymore

أنا ما بقى بدخن
2ana maa ba2a bdakhkhen
I don’t smoke anymore

Note that they can have future and imperative meaning, in which case they translate ‘never… again’:

ما بقى تحكي معو
maa ba2a ti7ki ma3o
don’t talk to him again

ما عاد بعيدها
maa 3aad ib3iidha
I won’t do it [ever] again

rije3

رجع rije3 ‘return’ expresses a change of state, like صار, but with the extra implication that this is a ‘return’ to a previous state. It’s often translatable with ‘go back to’ or ‘be… again’:

رجعت بكتب مقالات
rji3t biktob maqaalaat
I’m writing articles again
I went back to writing articles

برجع ولد صغير
birja3 walad zghiir
I’ll be a kid again

I wrote another post on the various uses of rije3 and radd here.

Hi everyone!

With our last post on the use of participles, we’ve looked at all the important bits of the verbal system proper. But if you’ve been paying attention (or if you’ve just studied fuS7a), you’ll have noticed that there are a few holes in the system. In particular, how do we express continuous or regular action in the past, given that the perfective form can’t be used for this purpose? The answer involves the verb كان kaan ‘to be’.

As in fuS7a, it is possible to combine forms of كان with any other kind of sentence in order to change the tense reference. This is most common in the past, where it allows us to use imperfective constructions and ‘to be’ sentences with past reference. Note that the subjunctive form is used after kaan:

بيروح كل يوم
biruu7 kill yoom
he goes every day

كان يروح كل يوم
kaan yruu7 kill yoom
he used to go every day

Remember that it is unusual to use descriptive verbs, ‘to know’, etc in the perfective. Instead we have to use a form with kaan:

بيعرف منيح
bya3ref imnii7
he knows very well

كان يعرف منيح
kaan ya3ref imnii7
he knew very well

We can also produce past continuous and future-in-past forms (like كان سـ kaana sa- in fuS7a):

عم يشرب ماي
3am yishrab maay
he’s drinking water

كان عم يشرب ماي
kaan 3am yishrab maay
he was drinking water

رح تحكي
ra7 ti7ki
she’s going to talk

كانت رح تحكي
kaanet ra7 ti7ki
she was going to talk

A perfective form gives a past-in-past (like كان قد فعل kaana qad fa3ala), although these forms are not as common as their English counterparts:

كنت سألت عن الإجار
kint sa2alet 3an il2ajaar
I’d asked about the rent

كانت راحت
kaanet raa7et
she’d (already) left

Similarly, we can produce past-in-past forms with resultative-meaning participles and past continuous forms with continuous-meaning participles:

كتني جايه لعنا
kinti jaaye la3inna
you were coming here [جاية = ‘is coming’]

كانو باعتينلي المصاري
kaanu baa3tiinli lmaSaari
they’d sent me the money [باعتين = ‘they have sent’]

Although the perfective forms are most common, the imperfective of kaan can also be used in this way to produce future forms. Like the English equivalents, they are often used to express inferences:

بتكون جايه هلق
bitkuun jaaye halla2
she’ll be on her way now

بكون وقع منو ع الطريق
bikuun wi2e3 minno 3aTTarii2
he’ll have dropped it on the way

Occasionally, this structure adds a ‘repeated action’ meaning to another form:

كل يوم لما بخلص شغل بكون تعبت كتير
kill yoom lamma bkhalleS shighl ibkuun t3ibt iktiir
every day when I finish work I’m very tired

 

Hi everyone!

In the last post we looked at how to form the active participle (اسم فاعل). Most of the information there will have been fairly familiar to anyone who’s studied fuS7a. Active participles in Syrian look pretty similar to their fuS7a counterparts. But their usage is quite different from what you’ll probably have encountered in modern fuS7a texts.

Basic meanings

Most participle forms are translated with an English verb. Since I’ve already produced a series going into more detail on participle semantics, this will be a fairly brief overview.

For some very common verbs, a participle expresses an ongoing event (‘is X-ing’). The most common categories here are verbs of motion (‘go’, ‘come’ etc) and posture (‘sit’, ‘stand’ etc):

وين رايحة؟
ween raay7a?
where’re you going?

ليش قاعدين؟
leesh 2aa3diin?
why are you sitting down?

With a few verbs, the best English translation will be an adjective. The meaning, however, is the same:

نايمين جوا
naaymiin juwwa
they’re asleep inside

This form is not interchangeable with the 3am form! For more on this, see this post.

This continuous meaning is not available for all verbs. But all participles – at least in theory – can also express a result (i.e. of a past action). Sometimes this corresponds to English ‘have Xed’, and sometimes it carries a connotation of surprise or reportedness:

كاتبة مقالة جديدة
kaatbe maqaale jdiide
she’s written a new article

ليش هيك مساوي؟
leesh heek imsaawi?
why’d you do that?!

Finally, participles can sometimes have future meaning:

مسافرين بكرا
msaafriin bukra
we’re going to be travelling tomorrow

Participles used as nouns

Learning Arabic, you first encounter participles as a kind of agent noun: كاتب ‘author’, مدير ‘director’, طالب ‘student’, etc. In fuS7a, these forms are identical in form to the more ‘verbal’ uses of the participle, with the exception that they often have broken plurals (كتاب, مدراء, طلاب). In Syrian, there are a few nouns of this kind that are also indistinguishable in form from their underlying participle:

معلم
m3allem
has taught

معلم
m3allem
teacher
كاتب
kaateb
has written

كاتب
kaateb
author

In most cases, however, a fuS7a form is used for the noun, while the more characteristically Syrian form is used for the participle. It’s good to keep forms like the following separate in your mind:

داير
daayer
running

مدير
mudiir
director
مدرب
mdarreb
has trained

مدرب
mudarreb
coach

Note that the feminine forms also act differently. While adding an object to a feminine participle doesn’t trigger the -et form, adding a word to a feminine noun does:

كاتبة مقالة
kaatbe maqaale
she’s written an article

كاتبة مقالة
kaatbet maqaale
she’s the author of an article

As in fuS7a, many noun forms also have broken plurals, while their participle counterparts always form the plural with -iin:

كاتبين
kaatbiin
have written

كتاب
kittaab
authors

Hi everyone!

Today we’re going to look quickly at one final component of the verbal system: active participles. In this post we’ll look at how to form the participle. In the next post we’ll see how it’s used.

Formation

Active participles are formed similarly to fuS7a. Form I verbs generally use the pattern faa3el. Note that the doubled forms are regular (the fuS7a form here would be داقّ daaqqun):

SOUND

كاتب
kaateb
has written

HOLLOW

شايف
shaayef
has seen
DEFECTIVE

حاكي
7aaki
has spoken

DOUBLED

داقق
daa2e2
has tapped

A handful of Form I verbs use a form on fa3laan or fi3laan, which strictly speaking is a distinct adjective form in fuS7a. Most such verbs are ‘verbs of becoming’ (often corresponding to ‘get’ + adjective), although there are a handful of exceptions, عرف ‘know’, فهم ‘understand’ and قدر ‘be able to’ being common examples:

تعب
ti3eb
get tired

تعبان
ta3baan
[has got] tired, ill
جاع
jaa3
get hungry

جوعان
joo3aan
[has got] hungry

Most other forms use the imperfective stem plus the prefix مـ, which is m- before a single consonant and mi- before a consonant cluster:

يعلم
y-3allem
he teaches

معلم
m-3allem
has taught
يستغرب
yi-staghreb
he’s surprised

مستغرب
mi-staghreb
surprised

The handful of forms that have a as their final vowel in the imperfective stem change this vowel to e or i in the active participle:

يتعلم
yi-t3allam
he learns

متعلم
mi-t3allem
has learnt
يتحاكى
yi-t7aaka
he is spoken to

متحاكي
mi-t7aaki
has been spoken to

The forms given above, of course, are the masculine. Feminines and plurals are formed with ـة -e/a and ـين -iin, which follow the normal rules:

داقق
daa2e2
has tapped (m.)

داقة
daa22-a
has tapped (f.)
داقين
daa22-iin
have tapped
متعلم
mit3allem
has learnt (m.)
متعلمة
mit3allm-e
has learnt (f.)

متعلمين
mit3allm-iin
have learnt

Form with pronouns

As with verbs, pronouns can be attached representing the object. The masculine and plural forms are predictable, but note the feminine generally restores its deleted i/e:

كاتبة
kaatbe
has written (m.)

كاتبتو
kaatibt-o
has (f.) written it
معلمة
m3allme
has taught

معلمتهن
m3allimt-on
has (f.) taught them

Normally, the participle makes no person distinctions (‘I’, ‘you’, ‘she’ etc) explicitly. Where it refers to ‘you (f.)’ and a pronoun is attached, however, an -ii- is inserted. This creates the following distinction:

كاتبتهن
kaatibt-on
she has (f.) written them

كاتبتيهن
kaatibt-ii-on
you have (f.) written them