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Session 8 — The Past: Yesterday, What I Did & Where I Went

Cumulative time: 16 / 20 hours
Duration: ~2 hours

This is an important transition. Until now, you've mostly described who you are, what you want, where things are, and what you normally do.

Today you learn to talk about what happened.

By the end, you should be able to:

  • say what you did yesterday

  • say where you went

  • say what you ate and drank

  • ask someone what they did

  • form basic past-tense sentences

  • negate simple past actions

  • distinguish today / yesterday / tomorrow

  • tell a short story about yesterday

0:00–0:15 — Review

Without looking back, say:

I go to work.

I drink coffee.

I eat chicken.

I sleep.

I work in France.

I go home.

Where are you going?

How do I get to the airport?

Go straight.

Turn right.

I don't understand.

Repeat, please.

Now answer:

shu bta3mel es-sub7?

What do you do in the morning?

And:

wein btrou7?

Where do you go?

0:15–0:25 — The three time anchors

You already know these.

Arabic Transliteration Meaning
مبارح mbāre7 yesterday
اليوم elyom today
بكرا bukra tomorrow

These three words give you a simple temporal framework:

mbāre7 → past

elyom → present

bukra → future

For now, we're concentrating on mbāre7.

0:25–0:45 — The past tense: your first verbs

The good news:

The past tense is often easier to recognize than the present tense because the verb endings clearly indicate the person.

We'll start with I.

Go — راح

I went

re7et

I went.

Example:

mbāre7 re7et 3ash-shoghel.

Yesterday I went to work.

Eat — أكل

I ate

akalet

I ate.

mbāre7 akalet dajaj.

Yesterday I ate chicken.

Drink — شرب

I drank

shrebet

I drank.

mbāre7 shrebet ahwe.

Yesterday I drank coffee.

Sleep — نام

I slept

nimet

I slept.

mbāre7 nimet bkkiir.

Yesterday I slept early.

Work — اشتغل

I worked

eshtaghlet

I worked.

mbāre7 eshtaghlet.

Yesterday I worked.

See — شاف

I saw

shoft

I saw.

mbāre7 shoft sa7be.

Yesterday I saw a friend.

The pattern you should notice

Look at:

re7et

akalet

shrebet

nimet

eshtaghlet

shoft

For many regular verbs, the -et ending is associated with I in the past.

But don't assume that every verb will mechanically follow one formula. Arabic verb classes vary.

For the 20-hour method, your strategy is:

memorize high-frequency forms → recognize the pattern → generalize later

0:45–1:00 — The most important past-tense question

What did you do?

shu 3melt?

What did you do?

This is an extremely useful question.

Yesterday?

shu 3melt mbāre7?

What did you do yesterday?

Where did you go?

wein re7et?

Where did you go?

What did you eat?

shu akalet?

What did you eat?

What did you drink?

shu shrebet?

What did you drink?

You now have a mini-conversation engine.

1:00–1:15 — Answering questions

Q:

shu 3melt mbāre7?

A:

mbāre7 eshtaghlet.

I worked yesterday.

Then:

ba3den re7et 3a-bēt.

Then I went home.

Then:

shrebet ahwe.

I drank coffee.

Then:

nimet.

I slept.

New verb: “do”

عمل — 3emel

to do / make

The form:

3melt

means:

I did.

This is extremely useful because it lets you talk about an activity even when you don't know the specific verb.

shu 3melt?

What did you do?

It's one of the questions you should make automatic.

1:15–1:30 — Past-tense mini-table

Let's expand to the other people.

We'll use re7 = go.

Person Levantine English
أنا re7et I went
إنتَ re7et you went — M
إنتِ re7ti you went — F
هو re7 he went
هي re7et she went

Notice something important:

re7et

can mean:

  • I went

  • you went — male

  • she went

Again, context determines the person.

This is normal in spoken Levantine Arabic.

Compare present and past

This is the distinction you want to feel.

Present

barou7

I go / I'm going.

Past

re7et

I went.

Present

bākol

I eat / I'm eating.

Past

akalet

I ate.

Present

beshrob

I drink / I'm drinking.

Past

shrebet

I drank.

Present

bnām

I sleep.

Past

nimet

I slept.

Present

beshtaghil

I work.

Past

eshtaghlet

I worked.

1:30–1:40 — Negative past

This is very useful.

You already know:

ma = not

In Levantine, you can form many negative past statements with:

ma + past verb

Examples:

ma re7et.

I didn't go.

ma akalet.

I didn't eat.

ma shrebet.

I didn't drink.

ma nimet.

I didn't sleep.

ma eshtaghlet.

I didn't work.

This is another reason ma is so important.

1:40–1:50 — “Yesterday I didn't…”

Now combine everything.

mbāre7 ma re7et 3ash-shoghel.

Yesterday I didn't go to work.

mbāre7 ma akalet.

Yesterday I didn't eat.

mbāre7 ma shrebet ahwe.

Yesterday I didn't drink coffee.

mbāre7 ma nimet bkkiir.

Yesterday I didn't sleep early.

1:50–2:00 — Tell me about yesterday

This is your first proper narrative exercise.

Use this structure:

mbāre7...

Then:

ba3den...

Then:

ba3den...

Then:

bil-leil...

For example:

mbāre7 re7et 3ash-shoghel.
eshtaghlet.
ba3den akalet ghada.
ba3den re7et 3a-bēt.
shrebet ahwe.
bil-leil nimet.

Meaning:

Yesterday I went to work.
I worked.
Then I ate lunch.
Then I went home.
I drank coffee.
At night I slept.

Don't memorize this.

Replace it with what you actually did yesterday.

The six past verbs you need today

Present Past Meaning
barou7 re7et go → went
bākol akalet eat → ate
beshrob shrebet drink → drank
bnām nimet sleep → slept
beshtaghil eshtaghlet work → worked
بشوف / بشوف shoft see → saw

Add:

3melt — I did

These are enough to construct a surprisingly large number of conversations.

Arabic reading

Today, focus on recognizing these forms.

Present

بروح

باكل

بشرب

بنام

بشتغل

Past

رحت

أكلت

شربت

نمت

اشتغلت

شفت

Notice how much more you can now recognize than in Session 1.

Reading observation

Look at:

رحت

You should recognize:

ر = r
ح = 7
ت = t

So:

r-7-t

→ re7et

Arabic normally doesn't write the short vowels, so you gradually learn to recognize words from their consonantal skeleton and context.

This is one of the reasons reading Arabic is a skill in its own right, rather than simply memorizing the alphabet.

Active recall test

A — Translate

  1. Yesterday I went to work.

  2. Yesterday I ate chicken.

  3. Yesterday I drank coffee.

  4. Yesterday I slept early.

  5. Yesterday I worked.

  6. I didn't go.

  7. I didn't eat.

  8. I didn't drink coffee.

  9. What did you do yesterday?

  10. Where did you go?

B — Present → past

Change:

barou7

to:

I went.

bākol

to:

I ate.

beshrob

to:

I drank.

bnām

to:

I slept.

beshtaghil

to:

I worked.

barja3

Try to say:

I went back.

The useful form is:

raj3et

C — Past → negative past

Change:

re7et

to:

I didn't go.

akalet

to:

I didn't eat.

shrebet

to:

I didn't drink.

nimet

to:

I didn't sleep.

D — Answer personally

شو عملت مبارح؟

What did you do yesterday?

Answer with at least four actions.

Use:

mbāre7...

ba3den...

ba3den...

bil-leil...

E — Mini conversation

A

أهلا، كيفك؟

B

تمام، شكرا.

A

شو عملت مبارح؟

B

مبارح رحت عالشغل.

A

وبعدين؟

w-ba3den?

And then?

B

بعدين أكلت غدا وشربت قهوة.

A

وين رحت بالليل؟

Where did you go at night?

B

رحت عالبيت ونمت.

I went home and slept.

Important new expression

وبعدين؟ — w-ba3den?

And then?

This is a very useful conversational prompt.

If you're telling a story and someone says:

w-ba3den?

they're asking you to continue.

You should start using it yourself.

Homework — 30 minutes

1. Past-tense drill — 10 min

Say each pair:

barou7 → re7et

bākol → akalet

beshrob → shrebet

bnām → nimet

beshtaghil → eshtaghlet

barja3 → raj3et

Then say:

present → past → negative past

For example:

barou7 → re7et → ma re7et

2. Your real yesterday — 10 min

Describe yesterday in 8–10 sentences.

Use only vocabulary you know.

Example structure:

mbāre7...

ba3den...

ba3den...

bil-leil...

Don't try to say complicated things.

Simple + correct + automatic is the goal.

3. Question/answer drill — 5 min

Ask yourself:

shu 3melt mbāre7?

wein re7et?

shu akalet?

shu shrebet?

emta nimet?

Then answer aloud.

4. Reading — 5 min

Read:

رحت
أكلت
شربت
نمت
اشتغلت
شفت
عملت
مبارح
اليوم
بكرا

Then try to identify which are past-tense verbs without transliteration.

16-hour checkpoint

You now have three temporal layers:

Yesterday

mbāre7 + past

mbāre7 re7et...

Today

elyom + present

elyom barou7...

Tomorrow

We haven't properly learned the future yet, but you already have the time marker:

bukra

Tomorrow.

We'll build the future in Session 9.

Your current sentence engine

You can now produce:

Present

elyom barou7 3ash-shoghel.

Today I go to work.

Past

mbāre7 re7et 3ash-shoghel.

Yesterday I went to work.

Negative

mbāre7 ma re7et 3ash-shoghel.

Yesterday I didn't go to work.

This is a major milestone because you are no longer restricted to static descriptions. You can now talk about events.

Next: Session 9 — Wants, Needs, Ability & Future

18 / 20 hours.

We'll consolidate the core grammar by learning:

  • I want

  • I need

  • I can

  • I can't

  • I have to

  • I will / I'm going to

  • tomorrow

  • plans

  • likes/dislikes

  • making requests

  • asking for help

  • combining past + present + future

We'll also start deliberately reducing your dependence on transliteration.