How to Conjugate qāma (to stand up) in Arabic

قَامَ (qāma) means to stand up. It is a hollow Form I verb from the root ق و م (q-w-m): قَامَ (qāma) in the past, يَقُومُ (yaqūmu) in the present and قُمْ (qum) 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 qāma on this page comes from the engine behind our Arabic verb conjugator and was checked against Wiktionary's conjugation table for قَامَ, which is also the source of its verbal nouns.

Qāma at a glance

Past tense of qāma

The past tense (al-māḍī) of qāma has two stems: qām- before an ending that starts with a vowel (قَامَ (qāma), قَامَتْ (qāmat)) and qum- before an ending that starts with a consonant (قُمْتُ (qumtu), قُمْنَ (qumna)).

Present tense of qāma

The present tense (al-muḍāriʿ) of qāma has a long vowel in the stem, -qūm-, which turns short before the -na of the feminine plural: يَقُومُ (yaqūmu) but يَقُمْنَ (yaqumna).

Subjunctive and jussive of qāma

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

Imperative of qāma

Take the prefix off the jussive تَقُمْ (taqum) and the command is قُمْ (qum): no alif is needed, because the first root letter now has a vowel. The long vowel comes back when an ending follows: قُومِي (qūmī), قُومُوا (qūmū).

Passive of qāma

In the passive the weak middle letter of qāma turns into ī in the past (قِيمَ (qīma)) and ā in the present (يُقَامُ (yuqāmu)). Wiktionary lists the passive of qāma as impersonal: only the he-form is used, without a subject of its own.

Participles and verbal noun of qāma

In the active participle a hamza takes the place of the weak middle letter: قَائِم (qāʾim). The passive participle keeps only the long vowel of the weak letter: مَقُوم (maqūm). Form I verbal nouns follow no single pattern, and Wiktionary lists four for qāma: قَوْم (qawm), قَامَة (qāma), قِيَام (qiyām), مَقَام (maqām). Learn them with the verb, or look them up under q-w-m in one of the dictionaries in our guide.

Why qāma conjugates this way

The middle root letter of قَامَ (qāma) 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 (قَامَ (qāma), يَقُومُ (yaqūmu)); where a consonant ending closes it, the vowel is short (قُمْتُ (qumtu), يَقُمْ (yaqum)). So qāma has two past stems, qām- and qum-. ʿĀda (to return) and māta (to die) are hollow too, and change in the same places.

Qāma in sentences

قام توم.
Tom stood.
The verb: قَامَ (qāma), past, he. Source: Tatoeba sentence 11505093 by dididodo (CC BY 2.0 FR), unvowelled as published.

قاموا بذلك.
They have done it.
The verb: قَامُوا (qāmū), past, they (m.pl.). Source: Tatoeba sentence 11722948 by dididodo (CC BY 2.0 FR), unvowelled as published.

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