Top 20 *Must-Know* Arabic Adverbs of Time

Top 20 Must-Know Arabic Adverbs of Time

Posted on 18. Apr, 2012 by Hichem in Arabic Language, Grammar, Vocabulary

How do you say in Arabic “today“, “tomorrow“, “tonight“, “sometimes“, “now“, “never“, “forever“, etc.?

If you want to be really fluent in Arabic, then there’s no question about it my friend:

You absolutely should learn عن ظهــــــــــر قـــــلــب (by heart) the following “Must-Know” Arabic adverbs of time!

Every فِعْــــــــــل (verb) must occur in a given زَمَــــــــــــــــان (time) and a given مَكَـــــــــــــــــان (place) .

Take the following question for example:

“هل زُرت بُرج الخَلِيــــــــــــــــفَةِ مُـــؤَخَّــــــــــــرًا ؟”
(“Have you visited Burj Al-Khalifa lately?”)

By saying “مُـــؤَخَّــــــــــــرًا” (“recently”) at the end of the sentence, you specify exactly the time frame during which you want to know whether someone has paid a visit to the famous Dubai building.

This diagram shows some Arabic Adverbs of Time (right column) and Space (left column)

If you’re a faithful reader of the Transparent Arabic Blog, you will remember that the Arabic Adverbs have already been covered by my colleagues Aziza and Fisal‘s posts.

Top 20 “Must-Know” ظروف الزَّمـــــــــــــان (Arabic Adverbs of Time):

الْيَــــــــــــــوْم (al-yawm) : Today
أَمْــــــــــــس (Ams) : Yesterday
غَـــــــــدًا (Ghadan) : Tomorrow
بعــــــــد غد (Ba’da ghad) The day after tomorrow
أول أمــــــــــس (Awal ams) The day before yesterday
الْآَن (Al-an) : Now
فِيْــــــــــمَا بَعْـــــــــد (Fima ba’d) Later
فـــــــــــوراً / على الفور (Fawran/’Ala al fawr) : Immediately / at once
اللَّيــــــــــــــــلة (Al-layla) Tonight
صَبَــــــــــــاحًا (Sabahan) In the morning
عَشِيَّـــــــــــةً (‘Achiyatan) In the afternoon
مَسَـــــــــــــــــــاءًا (Massa-an) In the evening
سَــــــابِـــــــقَــــــا (Sabiqan) Already
مُـــؤَخَّــــــــــــرًا (Mu-akharan) Recently
قَرِيْـــــــــــــــبًا (Qariban) Soon
مَــــــــــازال (Mazal) Still
ليـــــــــس بعد (Laysa ba’d) Not yet
لَحْظَـــــــــــــةً (Lahdha) A Moment
أبــــــــــدَا (Abadan) Never
الى الأبــــــد (Ila al abad) Forever

Finally, keep in mind that in some Arabic grammar books ظرف الزَّمـــــــــــــان (the adverb of time) is also known as “المَفعـــــــــــــول فيـــــــــــــه” (literally “the object within”), but don’t let that confuse you, because both terms are in fact مُتَرادِفيـــــــــــــــــــــــن (synonymous.)

Ok, so see you guys again قَرِيْـــــــــــــــبًا (soon), إن شـــــاء الله (God willing)