Al-Māḍī — The Past (Perfect) Tense
The Arabic past tense: one set of 14 suffixes that conjugates every verb in the language.
What Is Al-Māḍī?
Al-māḍī (الْمَاضِي) is the Arabic perfect tense — it describes an action that is completed, or so certain to happen that it is expressed as already done (which is why the Quran often describes events of the Day of Judgement in the māḍī). It is the simplest Arabic verb form and the gateway to the entire verb system.
Every Arabic verb carries three pieces of information simultaneously:
Every Arabic verb contains: (1) the ACTION — from the three root letters; (2) the DOER — a pronoun embedded within the verb; (3) the TENSE — indicated by the scale (al-mīzān).
A single word like فَتَحْتُ therefore translates as a whole English sentence: "I opened."
The Three Form 1 Scales
The Form 1 māḍī is built on three root letters. The first root letter always takes fatha, the third takes fatha (until a suffix is added), and the middle letter varies — giving three scales:
| Scale | Middle vowel | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| فَعَلَ (fa'ala) | fatha | فَتَحَ (to open), نَصَرَ (to help), ذَهَبَ (to go) |
| فَعِلَ (fa'ila) | kasra | سَمِعَ (to hear), عَلِمَ (to know) |
| فَعُلَ (fa'ula) | damma | كَرُمَ (to be noble) — rare |
Which scale a root follows must be looked up — it is determined by the verb's bāb (door). For recognition, all three are immediately identifiable as māḍī.
The 14 Conjugations
One set of suffixes conjugates every māḍī verb in the language — Form 1 through Form 10, without exception. Using فَتَحَ (to open):
| # | Pronoun | Conjugation | Doer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | هُوَ | فَتَحَ | hidden (mustatir) |
| 2 | هُمَا m | فَتَحَا | alif |
| 3 | هُمْ | فَتَحُوا | waw (+ protective alif) |
| 4 | هِيَ | فَتَحَتْ | hidden — the تْ marks femininity only |
| 5 | هُمَا f | فَتَحَتَا | alif |
| 6 | هُنَّ | فَتَحْنَ | نَ |
| 7 | أَنْتَ | فَتَحْتَ | تَ |
| 8 | أَنْتُمَا | فَتَحْتُمَا | تُمَا |
| 9 | أَنْتُمْ | فَتَحْتُمْ | تُمْ |
| 10 | أَنْتِ | فَتَحْتِ | تِ |
| 11 | أَنْتُمَا f | فَتَحْتُمَا | تُمَا |
| 12 | أَنْتُنَّ | فَتَحْتُنَّ | تُنَّ |
| 13 | أَنَا | فَتَحْتُ | تُ |
| 14 | نَحْنُ | فَتَحْنَا | نَا |
Key patterns: sighas 1 and 4 have a hidden (mustatir) doer — only these two can be followed by an external noun as doer. From sigha 6 onward the third root letter takes sukoon. The alif in sigha 3 (فَتَحُوا) is the protective alif (أَلِفُ الْوِقَايَة) — it has no grammatical value; it only guards the waw from being misread as "and".
The same 14 suffixes apply to every māḍī verb in Arabic, in every form (I–X). Learn them once — conjugate any verb in the past tense forever.
Beware the near-twins نَا (we — sigha 14) and نَ (they, f. pl. — sigha 6): فَتَحْنَا (we opened) versus فَتَحْنَ (they opened). Misreading one for the other changes the meaning of a Quranic ayah entirely.
Modifying the Māḍī
A small set of prefixes adjusts the meaning of any māḍī verb: قَدْ adds emphasis and the sense of "just recently" (قَدْ نَصَرَ — he has certainly/just helped); لَ adds certainty (and combines as لَقَدْ، وَلَقَدْ); مَا negates; إِذَا and إِنْ shift it into a future conditional sense; and كَانَ pushes it into the distant past (كَانَ نَصَرَ — he had helped).
Quranic Example
Frequently Asked Questions
Is al-madi the same as the English past tense?
Close, but not identical. Al-māḍī marks completed action, which usually maps to the English past — but the Quran also uses it for future events that are absolutely certain, expressing them as already done. Context tells you which reading applies.
How can one Arabic word be a whole sentence?
Because the doer is built in. فَتَحْتُ contains the action (ف ت ح — open), the tense (māḍī scale) and the doer (تُ — I). English needs three words; Arabic needs one.
Do I have to learn new suffixes for Forms 2 to 10?
No — that is the beauty of the system. The 14 māḍī suffixes are identical across all ten verb forms. Once you can conjugate فَتَحَ, you can conjugate عَلَّمَ (Form 2), أَسْلَمَ (Form 4) and every other māḍī you will ever meet.