How to Conjugate arāda (to want) in Arabic

أَرَادَ (arāda) means to want. It is a hollow Form IV verb from the root ر و د (r-w-d): أَرَادَ (arāda) in the past, يُرِيدُ (yurīdu) in the present and أَرِدْ (arid) as a command. The tables below give its full conjugation in all 13 persons, active and passive, vowelled, with its participles and verbal noun.

Every form of arāda on this page comes from the engine behind our Arabic verb conjugator and was checked against Wiktionary's conjugation table for أَرَادَ, down to the regular Form IV verbal noun إِرَادَة (irāda).

Arāda at a glance

Past tense of arāda

The past tense (al-māḍī) of arāda has two stems: arād- before an ending that starts with a vowel (أَرَادَ (arāda), أَرَادَتْ (arādat)) and arad- before an ending that starts with a consonant (أَرَدْتُ (aradtu), أَرَدْنَ (aradna)).

Present tense of arāda

The present tense (al-muḍāriʿ) of arāda has a long vowel in the stem, -rīd-, which turns short before the -na of the feminine plural: يُرِيدُ (yurīdu) but يُرِدْنَ (yuridna).

Subjunctive and jussive of arāda

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

Imperative of arāda

The Form IV command keeps the hamza of the pattern, and unlike a connecting alif it is always pronounced: أَرِدْ (arid) to one man, أَرِيدِي (arīdī) to one woman, أَرِيدُوا (arīdū) to a group.

Passive of arāda

In the passive the weak middle letter of arāda turns into ī in the past (أُرِيدَ (urīda)) and ā in the present (يُرَادُ (yurādu)).

Participles and verbal noun of arāda

A Form IV active participle is the present stem with mu- in place of the prefix: يُرِيدُ (yurīdu) gives مُرِيد (murīd). The passive participle has ā where the active participle has ī: مُرَاد (murād). The verbal noun (maṣdar) is إِرَادَة (irāda): the Form IV pattern ifʿāl, with the weak letter gone and -a added at the end. The Arabic grammar books we recommend cover all ten patterns at more length.

Why arāda conjugates this way

The middle root letter of أَرَادَ (arāda) is و (w), a weak letter, which is why grammars call it a hollow verb. That letter never appears as a consonant in Form IV. Where the syllable stays open it becomes a long vowel (أَرَادَ (arāda), يُرِيدُ (yurīdu)); where a consonant ending closes it, the vowel is short (أَرَدْتُ (aradtu), يُرِدْ (yurid)). So arāda has two past stems, arād- and arad-.

Form IV puts a- in front of the root (afʿala) and is often causative. That a- is a hamza, which becomes the u- of the present prefix: يُرِيدُ (yurīdu). Aḥabba (to love, to like) is built on the same Form IV pattern.

Arāda in sentences

أريد هذا.
I want this one.
The verb: أُرِيدُ (urīdu), present, I. Source: Tatoeba sentence 11979292 by dididodo (CC BY 2.0 FR), unvowelled as published.

نريد قطا.
We want a cat.
The verb: نُرِيدُ (nurīdu), present, we. Source: Tatoeba sentence 12339167 by dididodo (CC BY 2.0 FR), unvowelled as published.

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