ترك tarak: leave | Arabic (Levantine) Grammar

Lebanese تركtarak means “leave something or someone behind, leave a place or role, abandon, let remain.” It normally takes a direct object: ترك المفتاح عالطاولة “left the key on the table,” ترك الشغل “left the job,” ترك الباب مفتوح “left the door open.” It can also introduce a person who is allowed to continue an action: تركه يحكي “let him talk.”

English leave hides several different participant structures. A person who simply departs often فلّ or طلع من a place; ترك المكان more readily presents the place as something left behind. Accidental “left/forgot” often uses نسي. Choosing by meaning prevents ترك from becoming a one-word translation for every English phrasal use.

Perfect paradigm

The perfect keeps the strong stem tarak-. A short helping vowel may surface before an ending in connected speech, but the three root consonants remain stable.

Person	Form	Reading
أنا	تركت	tarakt
إنت	تركت	tarakt
إنتي	تركتي	tarakte
هو	ترك	tarak
هي	تركت	tarakit
نحنا	تركنا	tarakna
إنتو	تركتوا	tarakto
هني	تركوا	tarako

تركت الشاحن عند أختي كرمال ما ضيعه بالسفر.

tarakt esh-shāḥen ʿind okhte kermēl ma ḍayyiʿo bis-safar.

I left the charger with my sister so I wouldn't lose it while traveling. (informal; deliberate placement)

تركت رنا الشغل بعد خمس سنين وبلشت مشروعها.

tarakit Rana sh-shoghl baʿd khames snīn w-ballashit mashrūʿa.

Rana left her job after five years and started her own project. (neutral; feminine subject and role)

تركوا البيت القديم لأنو صار بده تصليح كبير.

tarako l-bēt el-ʾdīm laʾanno ṣār baddo taṣlīḥ kbīr.

They left the old house because it came to need major repairs. (neutral; residence left behind)

💡

Ask what remains behind. If an object, person, job, or place is construed as abandoned or relinquished, ترك fits. If the sentence only tracks someone's departure, فلّ or طلع may be more natural.

b-imperfect and bare imperfect

The imperfect principal part is بيتركbyitrok. The b-series expresses habits, policies, and independently asserted nonpast events. The bare series follows رح، بدّي، لازم، فيني and other selecting expressions.

Person	b-imperfect	Bare imperfect
أنا	بترك bitrok	اترك itrok
إنت	بتترك btitrok	تترك titrok
إنتي	بتتركي btitroke	تتركي titroke
هو	بيترك byitrok	يترك yitrok
هي	بتترك btitrok	تترك titrok
نحنا	منترك mnitrok	نترك nitrok
إنتو	بتتركوا btitroko	تتركوا titroko
هني	بيتركوا byitroko	يتركوا yitroko

عادة بترك نسخة من المفتاح عند الناطور.

ʿāde bitrok noskha min el-miftēḥ ʿind en-nāṭōr.

I usually leave a copy of the key with the concierge. (informal; habitual first person)

رح يتركوا القرار للجنة بعد ما يسمعوا الكل.

raḥ yitroko l-ʾarār lal-lazhne baʿd ma yismaʿo l-kill.

They'll leave the decision to the committee after hearing everyone. (neutral; future bare and responsibility recipient)

ما فيكي تتركي الولد لحاله بهالعمر.

ma fīke titroke l-walad la-ḥālo b-hal-ʿomor.

You can't leave the child alone at this age. (informal; bare feminine after ability expression)

Leaving objects, people, places, and roles

With a portable object, ترك + object + location says where it remains: ترك الملف بالمكتب، ترك المصاري عند أمه. The location is not the object. With a person, the same structure may be neutral physical separation or stronger abandonment; context supplies the social stakes.

تركلي الظرف عالرف التاني إذا ما كنت موجود.

trokle ẓ-ẓaref ʿar-raff et-tēne iza ma kint mawzhūd.

Leave the envelope for me on the second shelf if I'm not there. (informal; beneficiary plus location)

With a job, course, habit, or relationship, ترك means quit, give up, or leave. تركها can mean “he left her” in a relationship, so using the bare human object can sound much stronger than the neutral English left her at the station. Add the location if physical placement is intended.

ترك التدخين لما صار يطلع الدرج بصعوبة.

tarak et-tadkhīn lamma ṣār yiṭlaʿ ed-darazh b-ṣoʿūbe.

He quit smoking when climbing the stairs became difficult. (neutral; relinquished habit)

تركها عالمحطة وراح يصف السيارة.

taraka ʿal-maḥaṭṭa w-rāḥ yṣoff es-sayyāra.

He left her at the station and went to park the car. (informal; location prevents an abandonment reading)

For immediate departure with no object left behind, فل من المكتب “left the office” or طلع من البيت “went out of the house” is often more idiomatic. The movement reference for مشي compares these departure verbs.

Leaving something in a resulting state

An object can be followed by a state predicate: ترك الباب مفتوح، ترك الغرفة مرتبة، ترك المي شغالة. The adjective or participle describes the object after the action; it does not describe how the subject departed.

تركت الشباك مفتوح كرمال يفوت هوا.

tarakt esh-shobbēk maftūḥ kermēl yfūt hawa.

I left the window open so air could come in. (informal; object plus resulting state)

ما تتركوا الأكل مكشوف بهالحر.

ma titroko l-akel makshūf b-hal-ḥarr.

Don't leave the food uncovered in this heat. (informal; plural negative command and result state)

ترك + person + bare verb: let without intervening

In تركه يحكي, the object of ترك is also the understood subject of the following bare verb: he is the person who talks. This usually profiles noninterference—someone does not stop the action. خلّى covers a wider “make/let/allow” range, while سمحله explicitly grants permission. See analytic causatives.

تركها تشرح فكرتها للآخر وبعدين جاوب.

taraka tishraḥ fikrta lil-ēkher w-baʿdēn zhēwab.

He let her explain her idea to the end and then answered. (neutral; noninterference plus bare complement)

اتركني خلص هالصفحة وبجي معك.

itrokne khalliṣ hal-ṣafḥa w-bzhe maʿak.

Let me finish this page, and I'll come with you. (informal; imperative plus first-person object)

💡

In تركه يحكي, track two roles: ـه is the object of “leave/let,” but that same person is the subject of يحكي. The lower verb agrees with that person.

Imperative, clitics, and participle

Commands are اتركitrok, اتركيitroke, and اتركواitroko. Object clitics are frequent: تركني، تركك، تركه، تركها، تركنا، ترككن، تركن. The 1pl form تركنا can mean “we left” or “he left us”; word order and context resolve it.

Active participle تاركtērek, feminine تاركةtērke, plural تاركينtērkīn, presents a currently relevant result or disposition. تارك الشغل can mean “has left the job,” while تارك المفتاح عند الجيران foregrounds where the key now is.

هي تاركة نسخة من العقد معي لوقت ترجع.

hiyye tērke noskha min el-ʿaʾed maʿe la-waʾt tirzhaʿ.

She has left a copy of the contract with me until she returns. (neutral; feminine result-relevant participle)

Common Mistakes

❌ تركت من المكتب عالخمسة.

Incorrect English calque for simple departure — use فل من or طلع من.

✅ فليت من المكتب عالخمسة وتركت اللابتوب هونيك.

fallēt min el-maktab ʿal-khamse w-tarakt el-lābtōb hūnīk.

I left the office at five and left the laptop there.

❌ رح بيترك المفتاح عندك.

Incorrect — رح selects bare يترك.

✅ رح يترك المفتاح عندك قبل ما يسافر.

raḥ yitrok el-miftēḥ ʿindak ʾabl ma ysēfer.

He'll leave the key with you before he travels.

❌ تركته بيحكي للآخر.

Incorrect in the permissive chain — the lower selected verb is bare يحكي.

✅ تركته يحكي للآخر بلا ما قاطعه.

tarakto yiḥke lil-ēkher bla ma ʾāṭʿo.

I let him speak to the end without interrupting him.

❌ نسيت المفتاح عالطاولة عن قصد.

Contradictory if the placement was deliberate — نسي encodes forgetting.

✅ تركت المفتاح عالطاولة عن قصد.

tarakt el-miftēḥ ʿaṭ-ṭāwle ʿan ʾaṣed.

I deliberately left the key on the table.

Key Takeaways

Learn tarak–byitrok–itrok. Use ترك for an object, person, place, role, or habit construed as left behind; add a location, recipient, or resulting-state predicate as needed. For simple departure, prefer فلّ/طلع; for accidental forgetting, prefer نسي. In ترك + person + bare verb, the construction means letting the person act by not intervening.

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