How to Conjugate daʿā (to call) in Arabic

دَعَا (daʿā) means to call. It is a defective Form I verb from the root د ع و (d-ʿ-w): دَعَا (daʿā) in the past, يَدْعُو (yadʿū) in the present and اُدْعُ (udʿu) 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 daʿā on this page comes from the engine behind our Arabic verb conjugator and was checked against Wiktionary's conjugation table for دَعَا, which is also the source of its verbal nouns.

Daʿā at a glance

Past tense of daʿā

The past tense (al-māḍī) of daʿā ends in a vowel in the he-form, دَعَا (daʿā). The weak last letter decides the rest: دَعَوْتُ (daʿawtu) for I, دَعَتْ (daʿat) for she, دَعَوْا (daʿaw) for they.

Present tense of daʿā

The present tense (al-muḍāriʿ) of daʿā ends in a long vowel in the he-form, يَدْعُو (yadʿū). Before the plural ending the weak letter disappears: يَدْعُونَ (yadʿūna).

Subjunctive and jussive of daʿā

After لن (lan, will not) the he-form of daʿā is يَدْعُوَ (yadʿuwa); after لم (lam, did not) its final long vowel shortens: يَدْعُ (yadʿu).

Imperative of daʿā

The command (al-amr) is the jussive تَدْعُ (tadʿu) without its prefix, with a connecting alif (hamzat al-waṣl) in front that is pronounced only when the command starts a sentence: اُدْعُ (udʿu) to one man, اُدْعِي (udʿī) to one woman, اُدْعُوا (udʿū) to a group.

Passive of daʿā

The passive past of daʿā ends in -iya (دُعِيَ (duʿiya)) and the passive present in -ā (يُدْعَى (yudʿā)).

Participles and verbal noun of daʿā

The active participle ends in -in, the spelling of a noun whose last root letter is weak: دَاعٍ (dāʿin). The passive participle ends in a doubled weak letter: مَدْعُوّ (madʿuww). Form I verbal nouns follow no single pattern, and Wiktionary lists two for daʿā: دُعَاء (duʿāʾ), دَعْوَة (daʿwa). Learn them with the verb, or look them up under d-ʿ-w in one of the dictionaries in our guide.

Why daʿā conjugates this way

The last root letter of دَعَا (daʿā) is و (w), which makes it a defective verb. At the end of the word it turns into a vowel: -ā in the past (دَعَا (daʿā), spelled with a plain alif because the root letter is w) and -ū in the present (يَدْعُو (yadʿū)). Before a consonant ending it comes back as a consonant (دَعَوْتُ (daʿawtu)), and before the plural -ū it disappears (دَعَوْا (daʿaw)). Banā (to build) and atā (to come) are defective too, and change in the same places.

Daʿā in sentences

دعت ليلى سامي لعشاء.
Layla invited Sami to a dinner.
The verb: دَعَتْ (daʿat), past, she. Source: Tatoeba sentence 6989684 by OsoHombre (CC BY 2.0 FR), unvowelled as published.

توم دعا ميري إلى العشاء.
Tom invited Mary to supper.
The verb: دَعَا (daʿā), past, he. Source: Tatoeba sentence 1397261 by alanood (CC BY 2.0 FR), unvowelled as published.

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