أَرْسَلَ “send” is a sound Form-IV verb from root ر-س-ل. Its morphology is regular, but its argument structure deserves care. The thing or person put in motion is the direct object; a destination or recipient commonly follows إلى, while لـ presents someone as the recipient or beneficiary. Thus أرسل التقريرَ إلى المديرة sends the report to the director, but أرسل المندوبَ إلى المديرة sends the representative to her.
English permits “send someone something” with two adjacent objects. Formal Modern Standard Arabic does not simply copy that order with أرسل. It normally makes the transmitted item the direct object and expresses its recipient with إلى or لـ: أرسل له نسخةً or أرسل نسخةً إليه. This one choice prevents a sentence from accidentally saying that a person was dispatched somewhere.
The Form-IV overview explains the derivational pattern shared with other verbs; here the focus is the attested lexical syntax of أرسل.
Lookup card: أَرْسَلَ — يُرْسِلُ
| Part | Verified form | Use |
|---|---|---|
| root and Form | ر-س-ل، Form IV | sound derived verb |
| perfect, 3 m.sg. | أَرْسَلَ | he sent |
| imperfect, 3 m.sg. | يُرْسِلُ | he sends / is sending |
| imperative, 2 m.sg. | أَرْسِلْ | send! |
| verbal noun | إِرْسَالٌ | sending; transmission |
| active participle | مُرْسِلٌ | sender; transmitting |
| passive participle | مُرْسَلٌ | sent; transmitted |
| passive | أُرْسِلَ — يُرْسَلُ | was / is sent |
The derivational hamza is hamzat al-qaṭʿ in the perfect, imperative, and verbal noun: أرسل، أرسلْ، إرسال. It is therefore written with a hamza even in connected text. The imperfect uses the Form-IV prefix vowel u and a kasra before the final radical: يُرْسِلُ, not يَرْسَلُ.
أرسلت الشركة العقد إلى المستشار القانوني.
ʾarsalati sh-sharikatu l-ʿaqda ʾilā l-mustashāri l-qānūnī.
The company sent the contract to its legal adviser. (Formal.)
يرسل النظام تنبيها للمستخدم قبل انتهاء الجلسة.
yursilu n-niẓāmu tanbīhan lil-mustakhdimi qabla ntihāʾi l-jalsa.
The system sends the user an alert before the session ends. (Formal/technical.)
A regular Form-IV paradigm
The perfect stem remains stable before suffixes: أرسلتُ، أرسلتَ، أرسلتْ، أرسلنا، أرسلوا. Mood marking is likewise regular: indicative يُرْسِلُ, subjunctive لن يُرْسِلَ, and jussive لم يُرْسِلْ. The imperative keeps hamzat al-qaṭʿ: أرسلْ، أرسلي، أرسلا، أرسلوا، أرسلنَ.
| Category | Singular example | Plural example |
|---|---|---|
| perfect | أَرْسَلْتُ | أَرْسَلْنَا / أَرْسَلُوا |
| indicative | يُرْسِلُ | يُرْسِلُونَ |
| subjunctive | لَنْ يُرْسِلَ | لَنْ يُرْسِلُوا |
| jussive | لَمْ يُرْسِلْ | لَمْ يُرْسِلُوا |
| imperative | أَرْسِلْ | أَرْسِلُوا |
لن ترسل الوزارة وفدا قبل تلقي دعوة رسمية.
lan tursila l-wizāratu wafdan qabla talaqqī daʿwatin rasmiyya.
The ministry will not send a delegation before receiving a formal invitation. (Formal; subjunctive.)
لم يرسل المختبر النتائج بعد.
lam yursili l-mukhtabaru n-natāʾija baʿd.
The laboratory has not sent the results yet. (Formal; jussive with a linking vowel before the article.)
أرسل لي رقم الطلب عندما يصلك التأكيد.
ʾarsil lī raqma ṭ-ṭalabi ʿindamā yaṣiluka t-taʾkīd.
Send me the order number when the confirmation reaches you. (Formal neutral; addressed to one man.)
Ranked senses and valency
1. Send or transmit a thing
Messages, documents, money, files, signals, and physical parcels all occur as direct objects. إلى marks an endpoint, whether a person, organization, address, device, or place. With an attached pronoun, the preposition remains: إليه، إليها، إليهم.
أرسل الصحفي أسئلته إلى المتحدث باسم الوزارة.
ʾarsala ṣ-ṣaḥafiyyu ʾasʾilatahu ʾilā l-mutaḥaddithi bismi l-wizāra.
The journalist sent his questions to the ministry spokesperson. (Formal.)
أرسلي الملف إلي بمجرد اكتمال المراجعة.
ʾarsilī l-milaffa ʾilayya bimujarradi ktimāli l-murājaʿa.
Send me the file as soon as the review is complete. (Formal neutral; addressed to one woman.)
2. Send someone somewhere or on a task
A dispatched person is also a direct object. The following destination uses إلى, and a purpose can use لـ plus a verbal noun. Context therefore decides whether an animate direct object is a messenger, delegate, employee, patient, or another person being sent.
أرسل المستشفى طبيبا إلى المنطقة المتضررة.
ʾarsala l-mustashfā ṭabīban ʾilā l-minṭaqati l-mutaḍarrira.
The hospital sent a doctor to the affected area. (Formal.)
أرسلت الإدارة مهندسين لفحص المبنى.
ʾarsalati l-ʾidāratu muhandisayni lifaḥṣi l-mabnā.
The administration sent two engineers to inspect the building. (Formal.)
3. Present the recipient with لـ
With a transmitted thing as the direct object, لـ can mark the intended recipient or beneficiary: أرسل له رسالة، أرسل للمدرسة نسخة. This is particularly natural when the recipient is an attached pronoun or is already prominent in the discourse. إلى presents the same participant more explicitly as the transmission endpoint. They often overlap with people, but the perspectives differ.
أرسلت للمحاسبة نسخة من جميع الفواتير.
ʾarsaltu lil-muḥāsabati nuskhatan min jamīʿi l-fawātīr.
I sent accounting a copy of all the invoices. (Formal workplace register.)
أرسلنا له رابطا جديدا لتغيير كلمة المرور.
ʾarsalnā lahu rābiṭan jadīdan litaghyīri kalimati l-murūr.
We sent him a new link for changing the password. (Formal/technical.)
Passive and communications vocabulary
The passive is productive and frequent: أُرْسِلَت الرسالة “the message was sent,” تُرْسَل النتائج “the results are sent.” The transmitted item becomes the grammatical subject, while its endpoint remains in an إلى or لـ phrase.
أرسلت الوثائق إلى السفارة صباح الاثنين.
ʾursilati l-wathāʾiqu ʾilā s-sifārati ṣabāḥa l-ithnayn.
The documents were sent to the embassy on Monday morning. (Formal passive.)
ترسل الفاتورة تلقائيا إلى عنوان البريد الإلكتروني المسجل.
tursalu l-fātūratu tilqāʾiyyan ʾilā ʿunwāni l-barīdi l-ʾiliktrūniyyi l-musajjal.
The invoice is sent automatically to the registered email address. (Formal/technical.)
Unvocalized مرسل has two important readings. مُرْسِل is the sender; مُرْسَل is something sent. The standard label for an addressee is المُرْسَل إليه, literally “the one sent to.” Email and form interfaces frequently contrast المُرسِل and المُرسَل إليه (technical/administrative).
يظهر اسم المرسل وعنوان المرسل إليه أعلى الرسالة.
yaẓharu smu l-mursili wa-ʿunwānu l-mursali ʾilayhi ʾaʿlā r-risāla.
The sender's name and the addressee's address appear at the top of the letter. (Formal/administrative.)
High-frequency collocations
| Collocation | Meaning and register |
|---|---|
| أَرْسَلَ رِسَالَةً / بَرِيدًا إِلِكْتُرُونِيًّا | send a message / email (neutral) |
| أَرْسَلَ نُسْخَةً إِلَى / لِـ | send a copy to (formal) |
| أَرْسَلَ وَفْدًا | send a delegation (formal/diplomatic) |
| أَرْسَلَ إِشَارَةً | send a signal (technical or figurative) |
| أَرْسَلَ تَحِيَّاتِهِ | send his regards (neutral/formal) |
| إِعَادَةُ الْإِرْسَالِ | resending (technical) |
Common Mistakes
Dropping hamzat al-qaṭʿ
❌ ارسل لي النسخة النهائية.
Incorrect spelling—the Form-IV imperative begins with written hamzat al-qaṭʿ: أرسل.
✅ أرسل لي النسخة النهائية.
ʾarsil lī n-nuskhata n-nihāʾiyya.
Send me the final copy.
Calquing the English double-object construction
❌ أرسل المدير الموظفة التقرير.
Incorrect for ‘sent the employee the report’; after أرسل, this sequence wrongly treats الموظفة as the person dispatched and leaves التقرير without a valid role.
✅ أرسل المدير التقرير إلى الموظفة.
ʾarsala l-mudīru t-taqrīra ʾilā l-muwaẓẓafa.
The director sent the report to the employee.
Treating the recipient as an attached direct object
❌ أرسلتها نسخة من العقد.
Incorrect for ‘I sent her a copy’; ها directly attached to أرسل is what or whom was sent, not an indirect recipient.
✅ أرسلت لها نسخة من العقد.
ʾarsaltu lahā nuskhatan mina l-ʿaqd.
I sent her a copy of the contract.
Confusing مُرسِل and مُرسَل in unvocalized text
❌ عنوان المرسل إليه هو عنوان الشخص الذي أرسل الرسالة.
ʿunwānu l-mursili ʾilayhi
Incorrect reading in this label—the addressee is الْمُرْسَل إِلَيْهِ, with fatḥa in مُرْسَل.
✅ عنوان المرسل إليه مكتوب بوضوح.
ʿunwānu l-mursali ʾilayhi maktūbun biwuḍūḥ.
The addressee's address is written clearly.
Key Takeaways
- أرسل — يرسل — أرسلْ — إرسال is a regular Form-IV chain with hamzat al-qaṭʿ in the perfect, imperative, and verbal noun.
- The transmitted thing or dispatched person is the direct object.
- Use إلى for an endpoint or destination; use لـ when profiling a recipient or beneficiary.
- Formal MSA avoids copying the English “send someone something” pattern as two adjacent direct objects.
- In communications language, distinguish active مُرسِل “sender,” passive مُرسَل “sent,” and المُرسَل إليه “addressee.”
Related Topics
- بنى — build with defective final-yāʾ morphologyB2 — Conjugate بنى, use its final-yāʾ mood forms, and distinguish building an object, building for someone, and basing a conclusion on evidence.
- حدث — happenB2 — Distinguish intransitive حدث ‘happen’ from transitive حدّث ‘tell or update,’ with their complement frames, moods, passives, and participles.
- كان — beA2 — Reference the hollow verb كان across its full paradigm, copular and existential senses, predicate case, conditionals, and high-frequency collocations.