The Future Tense in Algerian Arabic
Welcome to today’s new grammar lesson on the future tense. In this lesson, you will learn everything you need to know as a beginner about this tense; the form of the future tense and how we use it in Algerian Arabic.
The Form
We can talk about the future tense in 4 different ways
1_ Adding the word (رايح) before the verb in the present tense
This word has to change according to the pronoun
/ra:yi7/ أنا رايح
/ra:y7i:n/ حنا رايحين
/ra:yi7/ أنتَ رايح
/ra:y7a/ أنتِ رايحة
/ra:y7i:n/ أنتوما رايحين
/ra:yi7/ هو رايح
/ra:y7a/ هي رايحة
/ra:y7i:n/ هوما رايحين
Examples:
هو رايح يخدم
/howa ra:yi7 yakhdam/
He is going to work
حنا رايحين نشرو
/7na: ray7i:n nechrou/
We will go shopping
2_ Adding the word (رح) before the verb in the present tense.
(رح) is the contracted form of (رايح)
The good news is you don’t need to change it with each pronoun 😉.
Examples:
أنا رح ندّي وليدي ليكول
/ana: ra7 neddi: w’li:di: likol/
I will take my son to school
نسيمة رح تجي هنا
/nassi:ma ra7 t’ji: hna: /
Nassima is coming here
3_ Adding the word (راني) before
the words (رح) or (رايح)
(راني) does also change depending on the pronoun that goes with it
/ra:ni:/ أنا راني
/ra:na:/ حنا رانا
/ra:k/ أنتَ راك
/ra:ki:/ أنتِ راكي
/ra:kom/ أنتوما راكم
/ra:h/ هو راه
/ra:ha:/ هي راها
/ra:hom/ هوما راهم
Examples:
هو راه رايح يفطر
/howa ra:h ra7 yeftar/
He is going to have his lunch
هوما راهم رايحين يسافرو
/houma ra:hom ra:y7i:n y’sa:frou/
They will travel
4_ Using ONLY the present tense, without the words (رايح_رح)
In this case, you have to mention the time expression of the future.
Examples:
في اللّيل نقرا الايميل
/fi’lli:l naqra: emi:l/
I will read the email tonight
غدوة نسافر لعنّابة
/ghodwa n’sa:fir l’3annaba/
Tomorrow I will go to Annaba
The Usage
We use forms 1,2 and 3 to talk about intentional and planned actions in the future. However, the last form is usually used to talk about unintentional and unplanned actions in the future.
Thanks for reading! I hope you found this lesson helpful
