Form-I عَلِمَ means “know, be aware, come to know.” It is especially at home with facts and propositions: علم الخبر “he knew the news,” علم أن... “he knew/learned that...,” and علم بالأمر “he became aware of the matter.” Its root ع-ل-م also produces two indispensable but morphologically distinct verbs: Form II عَلَّمَ “teach” and Form V تَعَلَّمَ “learn.”
This distinction matters because ordinary unvocalized Arabic writes both Form-I and Form-II perfect as علم. In vocalized text, the shadda in عَلَّمَ reveals Form II's doubled middle radical. Their imperfects and syntax are different, so context cannot always rescue a reader who has not learned the forms as complete lexical units.
The Form-II overview and Form-V overview place علّم and تعلّم in the wider derived-form system; this page keeps their lexical contrast with Form I together.
Lookup card: Form I علم
| Item | Verified form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| root and Form | ع-ل-م، Form I | sound, usually transitive |
| perfect | عَلِمَ | he knew / learned |
| imperfect indicative | يَعْلَمُ | he knows |
| imperative, 2 m.sg. | اِعْلَمْ | know; be aware |
| maṣdar | عِلْم | knowledge; science, field of study |
| active participle | عَالِم | knowing; scholar/scientist as a lexical noun |
| passive participle | مَعْلُوم | known, specified |
| passive | عُلِمَ — يُعْلَمُ | was known — is known |
Memorize عَلِمَ — يَعْلَمُ — اِعْلَمْ — عِلْم. Form I begins with a in the perfect but its second radical carries i: عَلِمَ. The imperfect changes to يَعْلَمُ, with a after the second radical. This vowel pairing is lexical; the unvocalized root alone does not predict it.
علمت بالقرار من رسالة الإدارة.
ʿalimtu bil-qarāri min risālati l-ʾidāra.
I learned of the decision from the administration's message. (Formal.)
نعلم أن الإصلاح يحتاج إلى وقت وتمويل.
naʿlamu ʾanna l-ʾiṣlāḥa yaḥtāju ʾilā waqtin wa-tamwīl.
We know that the reform requires time and funding. (Formal neutral.)
The useful Form-I paradigm
علم is a sound verb, so the radicals remain stable. Mood behaves regularly: يَعْلَمُ indicative, لَنْ يَعْلَمَ subjunctive, لَمْ يَعْلَمْ jussive.
| Person | Perfect | Indicative imperfect |
|---|---|---|
| أنا | عَلِمْتُ | أَعْلَمُ |
| أنتَ | عَلِمْتَ | تَعْلَمُ |
| أنتِ | عَلِمْتِ | تَعْلَمِينَ |
| هو | عَلِمَ | يَعْلَمُ |
| هي | عَلِمَتْ | تَعْلَمُ |
| هم | عَلِمُوا | يَعْلَمُونَ |
لم تعلم اللجنة بوجود الملف إلا بعد انتهاء الجلسة.
lam taʿlami l-lajnatu biwujūdi l-malaffi ʾillā baʿda ntihāʾi l-jalsa.
The committee did not learn of the file's existence until after the session ended. (Formal.)
اعلم أن موافقتك لا تلغي حقك في الاعتراض لاحقا.
iʿlam ʾanna muwāfaqataka lā tulghī ḥaqqaka fī l-iʿtirāḍi lāḥiqan.
Be aware that your consent does not cancel your right to object later. (Formal notice to one man.)
The imperative set is اِعْلَمْ، اِعْلَمِي، اِعْلَمَا، اِعْلَمُوا، اِعْلَمْنَ. In contemporary prose, اعلم أن... is formal and directive; it occurs in explanations, legal guidance, and elevated address. It is not the neutral everyday equivalent of every English “you know.”
Ranked meanings and complement frames
1. Know a proposition: أن and interrogative clauses
The central formal frame is علم أنَّ + clause. أنَّ turns the following statement into the content known. The verb can also introduce an embedded question with هل، ما، من، أين، متى، لماذا، كيف.
يعلم الطبيب أن الجرعة الحالية لا تناسب هذا المريض.
yaʿlamu ṭ-ṭabību ʾanna l-jurʿata l-ḥāliyyata lā tunāsibu hādhā l-marīḍ.
The doctor knows that the current dose is not suitable for this patient. (Formal neutral.)
لا نعلم لماذا تغيرت الأرقام بين النسختين.
lā naʿlamu limādhā taghayyarati l-ʾarqāmu bayna n-nuskhatayn.
We do not know why the figures changed between the two versions. (Formal.)
علم بأنَّ also occurs in contemporary administrative and journalistic prose. The بـ presents the proposition as information of which someone becomes aware. Plain علم أنَّ is leaner and broadly standard; علم بـ is particularly natural with a noun such as القرار، الحادث، وجود المشكلة. There is no need to “correct” every attested علم بأن to علم أن.
علمت الوزارة بأن بعض الطلبات أرسلت إلى العنوان القديم.
ʿalimati l-wizāratu biʾanna baʿḍa ṭ-ṭalabāti ʾursilat ʾilā l-ʿunwāni l-qadīm.
The ministry learned that some applications had been sent to the old address. (Administrative.)
2. Know a fact or matter: direct object or بـ
علم الشيءَ is an established transitive frame: علم الحقيقة، علم الخبر، علم السبب. With an event or matter understood as information reaching the knower, علم بـ is frequent: علم بالحادث، علم بالقرار. The two patterns can overlap, but the prepositional frame highlights awareness of something.
علم المدير الحقيقة قبل نشر التقرير بساعات.
ʿalima l-mudīru l-ḥaqīqata qabla nashri t-taqrīri bisāʿāt.
The director knew the truth hours before the report was published. (Formal.)
هل علمتم بالتغيير الأخير في جدول القطارات؟
hal ʿalimtum bit-taghyīri l-ʾakhīri fī jadwali l-qiṭārāt?
Did you learn about the latest change to the train timetable? (Formal neutral.)
3. Come to know or discover
The perfect علم often describes a transition into knowledge, so English may translate it as “learned” or “found out.” It does not mean the deliberate skill-building “learn” of تعلّم.
علمنا بعد الفحص أن العطل في البطارية لا في المحرك.
ʿalimnā baʿda l-faḥṣi ʾanna l-ʿuṭla fī l-baṭṭāriyyati lā fī l-muḥarrik.
After the inspection, we learned that the fault was in the battery, not the engine. (Formal neutral.)
4. Know someone or something to be a certain way
Traditional and elevated prose can give علم two object-like complements: a person or thing known, then a predicate assessed as true—علمته صادقا “I knew him to be truthful.” In modern prose, علمت أنَّه صادق is often clearer. The older compact frame is grammatical, not an error, but learners do not need to force it into ordinary communication.
علمه زملاؤه أمينا على أسرار المرضى.
ʿalimahu zumalāʾuhu ʾamīnan ʿalā ʾasrāri l-marḍā.
His colleagues knew him to be trustworthy with patients' confidences. (Formal/literary.)
عرف or علم?
عرف is the default for recognizing a face or voice and for personal familiarity. علم is prominent in formal statements about facts and propositions. Both can mean “know” with facts, and genre affects the preference.
أعرف هذه المهندسة شخصيا، وأعلم أنها تقود المشروع الجديد.
ʾaʿrifu hādhihi l-muhandisata shakhṣiyyan, wa-ʾaʿlamu ʾannahā taqūdu l-mashrūʿa l-jadīd.
I know this engineer personally, and I know that she is leading the new project. (Formal neutral.)
Form II علم: teach
Form II doubles the middle radical: عَلَّمَ — يُعَلِّمُ — عَلِّمْ — تَعْلِيم. Its active participle مُعَلِّم is “teacher,” and its passive participle مُعَلَّم means “taught/instructed” in a literal context, though other lexical senses exist.
The learner is normally a direct object, and the content taught may be another direct object, a كيف clause, or a verbal noun: علّم الطفلَ القراءةَ، علّمه كيف يسبح، علّمهم استخدامَ النظام.
علمتني جدتي قراءة الوصفات القديمة بدقة.
ʿallamatnī jaddatī qirāʾata l-waṣafāti l-qadīmati bidiqqa.
My grandmother taught me to read old recipes accurately. (Neutral MSA.)
يعلم المدرب المشاركين كيف يتعاملون مع الحالات الطارئة.
yuʿallimu l-mudarribu l-mushārikīna kayfa yataʿāmalūna maʿa l-ḥālāti ṭ-ṭāriʾa.
The trainer teaches the participants how to handle emergencies. (Formal neutral.)
Form V تعلم: learn
Form V makes the learner the subject: تَعَلَّمَ — يَتَعَلَّمُ — تَعَلَّمْ — تَعَلُّم. Its active participle مُتَعَلِّم means “learner” or “educated person,” depending on context. The subject learns a language, skill, fact, or procedure as a direct object; the source can follow مِنْ.
تتعلم سلمى العربية من نشرات الأخبار والكتب الصوتية.
tataʿallamu salmā l-ʿarabiyyata min nasharāti l-ʾakhbāri wa-l-kutubi ṣ-ṣawtiyya.
Salma learns Arabic from news bulletins and audiobooks. (Neutral MSA.)
تعلمنا من الخطأ أن نراجع النسخة الاحتياطية كل أسبوع.
taʿallamnā mina l-khaṭaʾi ʾan nurājiʿa n-nuskhata l-iḥtiyāṭiyyata kulla ʾusbūʿ.
We learned from the mistake to check the backup every week. (Formal neutral.)
Passive and high-frequency collocations
Form-I passive عُلِمَ / يُعْلَمُ is formal and often impersonal: كما هو معلوم “as is known.” معلوم is much more frequent and appears in من المعلوم أن... “it is known that...” and معلومات “information.”
من المعلوم أن جودة البيانات تؤثر في دقة النتائج.
mina l-maʿlūmi ʾanna jawdata l-bayānāti tuʾaththiru fī diqqati n-natāʾij.
It is well known that data quality affects the accuracy of results. (Academic.)
| Collocation | Meaning and register |
|---|---|
| عَلِمَ أَنَّ | know/learn that (formal neutral) |
| عَلِمَ بِالْأَمْرِ | become aware of the matter (formal) |
| عَلَى حَدِّ عِلْمِي | to the best of my knowledge (formal) |
| مِنَ الْمَعْلُومِ أَنَّ | it is known that (academic/formal) |
| عَلَّمَهُ الْقِرَاءَةَ | teach him reading (neutral) |
| تَعَلَّمَ مِنْ خَطَئِهِ | learn from his mistake (neutral) |
Common Mistakes
Confusing the Form-I imperfect with its perfect vowel
❌ يعلم المدير بالنتيجة غدا.
yaʿlimu
Incorrect pronunciation for Form I—the imperfect is yaʿlamu, not yaʿlimu.
✅ يعلم المدير بالنتيجة غدا.
yaʿlamu l-mudīru bin-natījati ghadan.
The director will learn the result tomorrow.
Using Form II for the learner's own action
❌ علمت مريم البرمجة خلال عام.
Incorrect for ‘Maryam learned programming’ if read as عَلَّمَتْ; Form II means that she taught someone. The learner as subject takes Form V.
✅ تعلمت مريم البرمجة خلال عام.
taʿallamat maryamu l-barmajata khilāla ʿām.
Maryam learned programming within a year.
Using Form V for the teacher
❌ تعلم الأستاذ الطلاب قواعد البحث.
Incorrect for ‘the professor taught the students’—Form V makes the professor the learner.
✅ علم الأستاذ الطلاب قواعد البحث.
ʿallama l-ʾustādhu ṭ-ṭullāba qawāʿida l-baḥth.
The professor taught the students the principles of research.
Treating the shadda as optional
❌ علمت المعلمة الحروف للأطفال.
ʿalimat
Incorrect pronunciation for ‘the teacher taught’—Form I ʿalimat means ‘she knew’; teaching requires Form II ʿallamat with middle-radical doubling.
✅ علمت المعلمة الأطفال الحروف.
ʿallamati l-muʿallimatu l-ʾaṭfāla l-ḥurūf.
The teacher taught the children the letters.
Key Takeaways
- Form I is عَلِمَ — يَعْلَمُ — اِعْلَمْ — عِلْم and centers knowing or becoming aware.
- Use أنَّ for a proposition, a direct object for a known fact, and commonly بـ for becoming aware of a matter.
- عرف tends toward familiarity and recognition; علم tends toward formal propositional knowledge, but their factual uses overlap.
- Form II عَلَّمَ means “teach”; Form V تَعَلَّمَ means “learn.” The shadda and initial تـ encode different participant structures.
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- عرف — know or recognize people and factsA2 — Use عرف for recognition, familiarity, and known information, with its direct objects, أن clauses, passive عرف بـ, and contrast with علم.
- فهم — understand with direct objects and أن clausesA2 — Conjugate فهم and choose among direct objects, أن clauses, source phrases with من, and passive يفهم من for understanding and inference.
- كان — beA2 — Reference the hollow verb كان across its full paradigm, copular and existential senses, predicate case, conditionals, and high-frequency collocations.
- Form II فعّلA2 — Recognize Form II gemination, conjugate فعّل / يفعّل / تفعيل, and learn its causative, intensive, denominative, and lexical meanings as tendencies.
- Form V تفعّلA2 — Build Form V from t- plus the Form II shape and distinguish reflexive, result, developmental, and fully lexicalized meanings.