تُحَدِّثُyou tell

Example sentences

• أَلَا تُحَدِّثُنِي مَا الَّذِي أَقْدَمَكَ

  Won't you tell me what brought you here?

  تُحَدِّثُنِي — you tell me. A present-tense verb of the make-someone-do pattern with the attached 'me' as object, the one to be told. Its 'you' subject is built into the prefix, so the word carries the telling, the teller, and the one told.

  From: A Stranger Finds the Prophet →

• قُلْتُ حُمَّى أَخَذَتْهَا مِنْ أَجْلِ حَدِيثٍ تُحَدِّثُ بِهِ،

  I said a fever had seized her because of a story she was telling about it.

  تُحَدِّثُ — she was telling. A present-tense verb, third-person feminine, with the doer 'she' built into its prefix. Arabic's present can cover an ongoing past action, which is why it reads as 'was telling' here: the same form spans English present and past-continuous, the surrounding narrative deciding the timeframe.

  From: Aisha Cleared of Slander →