How to Conjugate ʿāda (to return) in Arabic

عَادَ (ʿāda) means to return. It is a hollow Form I verb from the root ع و د (ʿ-w-d): عَادَ (ʿāda) in the past, يَعُودُ (yaʿūdu) in the present and عُدْ (ʿud) as a command. The tables below give its full conjugation in all 13 persons and its impersonal passive, vowelled, with its participles and verbal noun.

Every form of ʿāda on this page comes from the engine behind our Arabic verb conjugator and was checked against Wiktionary's conjugation table for عَادَ, which is also the source of its verbal nouns.

ʿĀda at a glance

Past tense of ʿāda

The past tense (al-māḍī) of ʿāda has two stems: ʿād- before an ending that starts with a vowel (عَادَ (ʿāda), عَادَتْ (ʿādat)) and ʿud- before an ending that starts with a consonant (عُدْتُ (ʿudtu), عُدْنَ (ʿudna)).

Present tense of ʿāda

The present tense (al-muḍāriʿ) of ʿāda has a long vowel in the stem, -ʿūd-, which turns short before the -na of the feminine plural: يَعُودُ (yaʿūdu) but يَعُدْنَ (yaʿudna).

Subjunctive and jussive of ʿāda

In the jussive the long vowel of the stem shortens wherever no ending follows: after لم (lam, did not) the he-form is يَعُدْ (yaʿud), while the subjunctive after لن (lan, will not) keeps it, يَعُودَ (yaʿūda).

Imperative of ʿāda

Take the prefix off the jussive تَعُدْ (taʿud) and the command is عُدْ (ʿud): no alif is needed, because the first root letter now has a vowel. The long vowel comes back when an ending follows: عُودِي (ʿūdī), عُودُوا (ʿūdū).

Passive of ʿāda

In the passive the weak middle letter of ʿāda turns into ī in the past (عِيدَ (ʿīda)) and ā in the present (يُعَادُ (yuʿādu)). Wiktionary lists the passive of ʿāda as impersonal: only the he-form is used, without a subject of its own.

Participles and verbal noun of ʿāda

In the active participle a hamza takes the place of the weak middle letter: عَائِد (ʿāʾid). The passive participle keeps only the long vowel of the weak letter: مَعُود (maʿūd). Form I verbal nouns follow no single pattern, and Wiktionary lists three for ʿāda: عَوْد (ʿawd), عَوْدَة (ʿawda), مَعَاد (maʿād). Learn them with the verb, or look them up under ʿ-w-d in one of the dictionaries in our guide.

Why ʿāda conjugates this way

The middle root letter of عَادَ (ʿāda) is و (w), a weak letter, which is why grammars call it a hollow verb. That letter never appears as a consonant in Form I. Where the syllable stays open it becomes a long vowel (عَادَ (ʿāda), يَعُودُ (yaʿūdu)); where a consonant ending closes it, the vowel is short (عُدْتُ (ʿudtu), يَعُدْ (yaʿud)). So ʿāda has two past stems, ʿād- and ʿud-. Māta (to die) and jāʾa (to come) are hollow too, and change in the same places.

ʿĀda in sentences

سوف أعود.
I'll come back.
The verb: أَعُودُ (aʿūdu), present, I. Source: Tatoeba sentence 12261089 by dididodo (CC BY 2.0 FR), unvowelled as published.

عادت أمه.
His mom came back.
The verb: عَادَتْ (ʿādat), past, she. Source: Tatoeba sentence 11609307 by dididodo (CC BY 2.0 FR), unvowelled as published.

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