Palestinian Arabic Verbs: 25 Verbs, 3 Tenses

Quick answer Palestinian Arabic verbs have three tenses on one set of endings: the past (shribt, shirib, shirbat… "drank"), the present with the prefix b- (بشرب bashrab, bishrab, btishrab… "drinks") and the future with rah (rah ashrab, "I will drink"). To say no, put ma before the verb: ما بعرف ma baʿrif, "I don't know". The full chart and the 25 most useful verbs are below; the PDF adds grids to complete and exercises.

How do you conjugate Palestinian Arabic verbs?

Palestinian Arabic has three tenses you need at the start, and all three use the same eight persons. The past adds endings to the stem; the present puts b- in front (ba- for "I"); the future drops the b- and puts rah before the verb. Learn one verb all the way through and you have the pattern. Here is shirib, to drink, as it is said in Jerusalem and Ramallah:

Two things to notice. "I" and "you (m)" sound the same in the past (shribt), and "you (m)" and "she" sound the same in the present (btishrab); context does the rest. And the short i of shirib drops as soon as an ending is added, which is why you hear shribt and shirbat rather than shiribt. Palestinian has one plural "you", intu, for any group.

The 25 most useful Palestinian verbs

These are the verbs the worksheet drills, picked for how often they come up in everyday speech: at home, in the café, in a shared taxi. The chart gives the he-form, because that is how dictionaries list verbs and the other persons are built from it. Verbs marked with a dot are irregular in the past; the PDF explains each group.

How do you say no with a verb in Palestinian Arabic?

Put ma in front of the verb: ma baʿrif, I don't know; ma baʾdar, I can't; ma shuft, I didn't see. In fast speech you will often hear an extra -sh at the end (ma bashrabsh, biddish), but ma alone is always correct. Words that are not verbs take mish: mish fahim, I don't understand; mish hon, not here. The future is negated with mish too: mish rah aruh, I won't go.

How are Palestinian verbs different from Standard Arabic, Lebanese and Egyptian?

Compared with Modern Standard Arabic, three things change. MSA has no b- prefix: the plain form yashrabu survives in Palestinian only after another verb or after biddi (biddi ashrab, I want to drink). MSA marks the future with sa- or sawfa, Palestinian with rah. And the dual and feminine plural forms of MSA are not used, so the table has eight forms instead of thirteen. Within the Levant the differences are small but easy to hear: Palestinians say binishrab (we drink) where Beirut and Damascus say mnishrab, the past "she" ends in -at (shirbat) instead of -it, and "want" is biddi rather than Lebanese baddi. Egyptian uses the same b- for the present but ha- for the future and wraps negation in ma… sh.

The PDF has the full chart, a second grid to complete (rakab, to ride), the 25 verbs with example sentences, exercises on b-, rah and negation, and a "my day" pair interview. The pronouns you need for the chart are on worksheet 3; the core words and everyday expressions are on worksheet 5. To compare the three Levantine dialects, see the Levantine Arabic worksheets or read Egyptian Arabic vs Levantine Arabic.

What's inside the PDF

• One full conjugation grid (shirib, to drink) in past, present with b- and future with rah, for all eight persons, with Arabic script
• Three short rules: when b- is dropped (after biddi, lazim, mumkin), how rah makes the future, and the two ways to negate (ma before verbs, mish before everything else)
• The 25 verbs table: past and present, Arabic script, a short example each, 10 irregular verbs marked and explained
• A Jerusalem pronunciation box: ق as a glottal stop, j as in "jam", binishrab instead of mnishrab, plus the village and southern variants you will hear
• Five exercises: complete a grid, past-now-future, change the tense, say no, write and tell your day with a partner
• Answer key and teacher notes on a separate page you can remove before handing out

How to use it on your own

Say the shirib grid out loud until b- and rah come without thinking, then do Ex. 1 without looking back at page 1. Work through the 25 verbs five at a time and tick a verb only when you can say both forms. Finish with Ex. 5: write your five sentences, then say them to a mirror or record yourself and listen once.

How to use it in class

About 50 minutes, or two shorter lessons: tenses (A, B, Ex. 1 to 3) and negation plus speaking (Ex. 4 and 5). Drill the shirib grid chorally before anyone writes, then let pairs conjugate rakab aloud. Watch for b- after biddi and lazim, and for Lebanese or Syrian forms (mnishrab, ʿam) creeping in. Ex. 5 ends in a pair interview (shu ʿmilt imbarih? shu rah tiʿmal bukra?) that forces real tense choices. Points fields on every exercise, answer key on the last page.

Preview

Page 1 is above. Here are the other pages; click one to open it full size.

Frequently asked questions

How do you conjugate verbs in Palestinian Arabic?

Take the past stem and add the person endings (shribt, shribt, shribti, shirib, shirbat, shribna, shribtu, shirbu). For the present, put b- in front of the present stem with its person prefix (bashrab, btishrab, btishrabi, bishrab, btishrab, binishrab, btishrabu, bishrabu). For the future, drop b- and put rah in front: rah ashrab, rah tishrab. The chart on this page shows all eight persons.

What does the b- prefix mean in Palestinian Arabic?

b- marks the present: habits and things happening now. bashrab shai means I drink tea or I am drinking tea. Without b- the verb is the plain form you use after biddi (I want), lazim (must) and mumkin (can): biddi ashrab shai, I want to drink tea. Standard Arabic has no b- at all, so learners coming from MSA have to get used to it.

How do you say "I will" in Palestinian Arabic?

Put rah before the verb without b-: rah aruh (I will go), rah ashrab (I will drink), rah adfaʿ (I will pay). The negative is mish rah: mish rah aruh, I won't go. Standard Arabic uses sa- or sawfa, and Egyptian uses ha-, so rah is one of the first things that marks you as speaking Levantine.

How are Palestinian verbs different from Lebanese and Syrian verbs?

The system is the same, but a few forms differ. Palestinians say binishrab (we drink) where Beirut and Damascus say mnishrab, and the past "she" ends in -at (shirbat) instead of -it. The progressive ʿam (ʿam bishrab) is typical of Lebanon and Syria; in Jerusalem the plain b- form covers "right now". "Want" is biddi in Palestine and baddi in Lebanon.

Is this worksheet free?

Yes. Download the PDF, print it and copy it as often as you like for personal use and in class. Please keep the Yallah Speak credit in the footer.