Working in Arabic: A Comprehensive Guide to the Verb عَمِلَ & Sentence Examples

Working is a fundamental activity that we engage in daily. Then, how to say "work" in Arabic? and how to conjugating this Arabic verbs? Let me explains you.

Arabic verb "work"

In Arabic, the verb for "walk" is عَمِلَ ('amila), and it is an essential verb to learn for anyone studying the language.

As with most verbs in Arabic, the verb عَمِلَ is closely related to the time and the pronoun.

عَمِلَ is الفعل الماضي or past, and for pronoun هُوَ (third person, singular, masculine).

The present in Arabic is called الفعل المضارع. The present form of  عَمِلَ is يَعْمَلُ . يَعْمَلُ is also for pronoun هُوَ.

In this article, we will explore the verb عَمِلَ in detail, covering its different forms and providing sentence examples.

The goal of this article is to know and memorize 14 forms both al-fi'l al-madi and al-fi'l al-mudari' related to the pronouns, and fi'l al-amr forms.

The verb "work" in Arabic and the complete conjugation

 

- fi'l al-madi = عَمِلَ


- fi'l al-mudari' = يَعْمَلُ


- masdar = عَمَلٌ

عَمَلٌ means "working"


- فَاعِل (fa'il) = عَامِلٌ

عَامِلٌ means "worker"



 

Recap

In Arabic, the verb is related to the time and the pronoun.

Time: الماضي (the past) , المضارع (the present), الأمر (the future)

Pronoun: 14 forms (هُوَ, هُمَا, etc.)

Now, we are going to learn al-fi'l al-madi conjugation related to the pronouns.

الماضي (tasrif fi'l madi/fi'l madi conjugation)

 

 هو عَمِلَ
هما عَمِلَا
 هم عَمِلُوا
 هي عَمِلَتْ
هما عَمِلَتَا
هنّ عَمِلْنَ
 أنتَ عَمِلْتَ
أنتما عَمِلْتُمَا
أنتم عَمِلْتُم
أنتِ عَمِلْتِ
أنتما عَمِلْتُمَا
أنتنّ عَمِلْتُنَّ
أنا عَمِلْتُ
نحن عَمِلْنَا

المضارع (tasrif fi'l mudari'/fi'l mudari' conjugation)

 

هو يَعْمَلُ
هما يَعْمَلَانِ
هم يَعْمَلُونَ
هي تَعْمَلُ
هما تَعْمَلَانِ
هنّ يَعْمَلْنَ
أنتَ تَعْمَلْ
أنتما تَعْمَلَانِ
أنتم تَعْمَلُونَ
أنتِ تَعْمَلِينَ
أنتما تَعْمَلَانِ
أنتنّ تَعْمَلْنَ
أنا أَعْمَلُ
نحن نَعْمَلُ

الأمر (fi'l amr conjugation/tasrif fi'l amr)

 

أنت اِعْمَلْ
أنتِ اِعْمَلِي
أنتما اِعْمَلَا
 أنتما مؤ  اِعْمَلَا
أنتم اِعْمَلُوا
أنتنّ اِعْمَلْنَ

Additional rule

Future tense: Add سَ (sa) before the present conjugations to express future, e.g., سَأَعْمَلُ (sa-a'mal) for "I will work," سَيَعْمَلُ (saya'mal) for "he will work," سَنَعْمَلُ (sana'mal) for "we will work."

Sentence Examples

Here are three simple sentences in Arabic that contain the word "عَمِلَ" ('amila), which means "worked":

أَحْمَدُ عَمِلَ مُذهِلًا فِي المَطْبَخِ

English meaning: Ahmad worked amazingly in the kitchen.


هُوَ عَمِلَ فِي الْحَدِيقَةِ

English meaning: He worked in the garden.


هُمْ عَمِلُوا مَعًا لإِنْجَازِ الْمَشْرُوعِ

English meaning: They worked together to complete the project.

Below are three simple sentences in Arabic that contain the word "يَعْمَلُ" (ya'malu), which means "work":

هُوَ يَعْمَلُ فِي الْمَكْتَبِ

English meaning: He works in the office.



أَنَا لَا أَعْرِفُ مَاذَا يَعْمَلُ

English meaning: I don't know what he does.


يَعْمَلُ كَثِيرًا لَيْلًا

English meaning: He works a lot at night.

Below are three simple sentences in Arabic that contain the word "اِعْمَلْ" (i'mal), which means "work" in imperative mood:

اِعْمَلْ بِجِدٍّ

English translation: Work hard!


اِعْمَلْ الْوَاجِبَاتِ

English translation: Do the homework!


اِعْمَلْ مَا يُرْضِي اللهَ

English translation: Do what pleases Allah!

Below are three sentences in Arabic that contain the masdar form "عَمَلٌ" ('amalun), which means "working":

العَمَلُ مُهِمٌّ

English meaning: Work is important.


هُوَ يَبْحَثُ عَنْ عَمَلٍ

English meaning: He is looking for work.


العَمَلُ يُحَسِّنُ الحَيَاةَ

English meaning: Work improves life.

Summary

 

The verb "work" in Arabic is عَمِلَ (‘amila), and is related to time (الماضي, المضارع, الأمر) and pronouns (14 forms).

Additionally the article covers the verb's forms (past, present, future, imperative, doer, and masdar) and provides sentence examples.

Quiz

 

Read also the following lesson:

- Conjugating verb "walk"

- Conjugating verb "run"