بَدَأَ / يَبْدَأُ means “begin” or “start.” It is a Form-I verb from root ب-د-ء, with hamza as its third radical. That final hamza is not an optional spelling mark: it remains part of the root even though its written seat changes across بدأ، بدأت، يبدأ، ابدأ، بدء.
The verb can be intransitive (بدأ الاجتماع “the meeting began”), transitive (بدأ المدير الاجتماع “the director began the meeting”), or followed by an action. For actions, contemporary MSA distinguishes a light finite frame بدأ يشرح “he began explaining” from a nominal frame بدأ في شرح الموضوع “he began the explanation of the topic.” English begin to do should not automatically produce بدأ أن يفعل.
The complementary endpoint verb has a different weak paradigm and different government; compare انتهى with من and إلى.
Lookup card and principal parts
| Item | Form | Use |
|---|---|---|
| root and Form | ب-د-ء، Form I | strong verb with final hamza |
| perfect | بَدَأَ | he began |
| imperfect | يَبْدَأُ | he begins / is beginning |
| imperative | اِبْدَأْ | begin! / start! |
| maṣdar | بَدْءٌ | beginning, commencement |
| active participle | بَادِئٌ | beginning; one who begins, chiefly in fixed expressions |
| passive | بُدِئَ — يُبْدَأُ | was/is begun |
| passive participle | مَبْدُوءٌ | begun; relatively uncommon in ordinary prose |
بداية is the everyday noun “beginning/start” and is often more idiomatic than the event maṣdar بدء. Both are useful, but they enter different collocations: في بداية الأسبوع “at the beginning of the week,” منذ بدء المفاوضات “since negotiations began.” Do not confuse بَدْء “beginning” with مَبْدَأ “principle; starting point.”
بدأ اجتماع الفريق في التاسعة وانتهى قبل الظهر.
badaʾa jtimāʿu l-farīqi fī t-tāsiʿati wa-ntahā qabla ẓ-ẓuhr.
The team meeting began at nine and ended before noon. (Formal neutral.)
بدأت المديرة الجلسة بمراجعة جدول الأعمال.
badaʾati l-mudīratu l-jalsata bimurājaʿati jadwali l-ʾaʿmāl.
The director began the session by reviewing the agenda. (Formal.)
The hamza across the paradigm
The consonantal stem is regular, but Arabic orthography assigns the final hamza a seat according to its surroundings. In بدأ the preceding fatḥa gives أ; before consonantal suffixes the same spelling remains in بدأت، بدأتُ، بدأنا. In the imperfect يبدأ, the final hamza again sits on alif. In the imperative ابدأ, the initial bare alif is hamzat al-waṣl and the final أ is the root hamza.
| Environment | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| perfect samples | بَدَأَ، بَدَأَتْ، بَدَأْتُ، بَدَؤُوا | he/she/I/they began |
| indicative | يَبْدَأُ، تَبْدَئِينَ، يَبْدَؤُونَ | begins; you f.sg. begin; they begin |
| subjunctive | لَنْ يَبْدَأَ، لَنْ يَبْدَؤُوا | will not begin |
| jussive | لَمْ يَبْدَأْ، لَمْ يَبْدَؤُوا | did not begin |
| imperatives | اِبْدَأْ، اِبْدَئِي، اِبْدَؤُوا | begin! by addressee |
The table follows the common medial-hamza convention بَدَؤُوا، يَبْدَؤُونَ, which seats the now-medial hamza according to its vowel. The spellings بَدَأُوا، يَبْدَأُونَ, which preserve the seat of the unsuffixed forms, also have recognized editorial support. Follow one house style consistently; do not treat the alternative as a different conjugation or pronunciation.
لن يبدأ الفريق الاختبارات قبل تثبيت النسخة الجديدة.
lan yabdaʾa l-farīqu l-ikhtibārāti qabla tathbīti n-nuskhati l-jadīda.
The team will not begin testing before installing the new version. (Formal; subjunctive after لن.)
لم يبدأ المؤتمر في موعده بسبب عطل تقني.
lam yabdaʾi l-muʾtamaru fī mawʿidihi bisababi ʿuṭlin tiqniyy.
The conference did not begin on time because of a technical fault. (Formal; linking i before the article.)
ابدؤوا من الصفحة العاشرة واتركوا المقدمة الآن.
ibdaʾū mina ṣ-ṣafḥati l-ʿāshirata wa-trukū l-muqaddimata l-ʾān.
Start on page ten and leave the introduction for now. (Formal instruction to a group.)
Ranked meanings and frames
1. An event begins: intransitive
When the event itself is the subject, بدأ needs no object. Common subjects include الاجتماع، الدرس، الموسم، العمل، المطر، التغيير. English speakers sometimes overuse a passive “was started”; Arabic usually prefers this intransitive frame when no agent matters.
بدأ المطر بعد دقائق من وصولنا إلى القرية.
badaʾa l-maṭaru baʿda daqāʾiqa min wuṣūlinā ʾilā l-qarya.
The rain began a few minutes after we arrived in the village. (Formal neutral.)
2. Someone begins something: direct object
With an agent, بدأ can take an event noun directly: بدأت الشركة المشروع، بدأ المتحدث حديثه، بدأت الشرطة التحقيق. The object names the event or activity initiated. In careful vocalization it is accusative. Without an overt agent, an unvocalized sequence such as بدأ المشروع will normally be read as the intransitive “the project began.”
بدأت الوزارة تحقيقا مستقلا في أسباب الحادث.
badaʾati l-wizāratu taḥqīqan mustaqillan fī ʾasbābi l-ḥādith.
The ministry began an independent investigation into the causes of the accident. (Formal administrative register.)
3. Begin doing: a following imperfect
For the onset of an action by the same subject, بدأ + imperfect is concise and highly productive: بدأ يكتب، بدأت تتكلم، بدأوا يغادرون. The second verb agrees with the understood actor and normally remains indicative in form. No أن is required.
بدأ الموظفون يغادرون المبنى عندما انقطع التيار.
badaʾa l-muwaẓẓafūna yughādirūna l-mabnā ʿindamā nqaṭaʿa t-tayyār.
The employees began leaving the building when the power went out. (Formal neutral.)
بدأ صوت المحرك يضعف بعد ساعة من السفر.
badaʾa ṣawtu l-muḥarriki yaḍʿufu baʿda sāʿatin mina s-safar.
The sound of the engine began to weaken after an hour of travel. (Formal neutral.)
4. Begin a process: بدأ في + maṣdar
بدأ في + verbal noun packages the action as a bounded task or process: بدأ في إعداد التقرير، بدأ في بناء الجسر. It is frequent in formal prose and often suggests entering into the work, not merely the first visible instant.
بدأ الفريق في جمع البيانات من المناطق النائية.
badaʾa l-farīqu fī jamʿi l-bayānāti mina l-manāṭiqi n-nāʾiya.
The team began collecting data from remote areas. (Formal.)
5. Start with or by: بدأ بـ
بدأ بـ identifies the first item in a sequence or the first method used. This is not interchangeable with في: بدأ بالنتائج means “started with the results,” whereas بدأ في تحليل النتائج means “began analyzing the results.”
بدأ المتحدث بعرض النتائج ثم انتقل إلى التوصيات.
badaʾa l-mutaḥaddithu biʿarḍi n-natāʾiji thumma ntaqala ʾilā t-tawṣiyāt.
The speaker began by presenting the results and then moved to the recommendations. (Formal.)
The same بـ may govern a finite أن-clause: بدأ كلمته بأن شكر الحضور “he began his speech by thanking the audience.” Here بأن means “by [the fact/action that …]”; it does not make bare بدأ أن يفعل the neutral frame for “begin to do.”
بدأت المديرة كلمتها بأن شكرت الفريق، ثم عرضت الخطة الجديدة.
badaʾati l-mudīratu kalimatahā biʾan shakarati l-farīqa, thumma ʿaraḍati l-khuṭṭata l-jadīda.
The director began her speech by thanking the team, then presented the new plan. (Formal.)
Passive, participles, and collocations
The passive بُدِئَ / يُبْدَأُ is available when an activity is initiated but its initiator is backgrounded. It is formal and useful, though an intransitive active sentence is often lighter: بدأ العمل rather than بُدئ العمل.
بدئ العمل في ترميم المبنى مطلع هذا الشهر.
budiʾa l-ʿamalu fī tarmīmi l-mabnā maṭlaʿa hādhā sh-shahr.
Work on restoring the building was begun at the start of this month. (Formal passive.)
The active participle is most familiar in بادئ الأمر “at first / initially” (formal) and بادئ ذي بدء “first of all” (formal, elevated). For “beginner,” use مبتدئ, not بادئ. The passive participle مبدوء is grammatically regular but far less frequent than a finite passive or قيد التنفيذ.
| Collocation | Meaning and register |
|---|---|
| بَدَأَ الْعَمَلَ / الْمَشْرُوعَ | begin the work/project (formal neutral) |
| بَدَأَ يَفْعَلُ | begin doing (neutral) |
| بَدَأَ فِي التَّنْفِيذِ | begin implementation (formal) |
| بَدَأَ بِالسُّؤَالِ | start with the question (neutral/formal) |
| مُنْذُ بَدْءِ | since the beginning/start of (formal) |
| بَادِئَ الْأَمْرِ | at first (formal) |
Common Mistakes
Replacing the final root hamza with alif
❌ بدا الاجتماع في التاسعة.
Incorrect for ‘began’—بدا without final hamza is a different verb meaning ‘appeared/seemed.’
✅ بدأ الاجتماع في التاسعة.
badaʾa l-ijtimāʿu fī t-tāsiʿa.
The meeting began at nine.
Copying English “begin to” with أن
❌ بدأ أن يشرح المشكلة.
Nonstandard as the default onset frame—after بدأ, use a finite imperfect directly or في plus a verbal noun.
✅ بدأ يشرح المشكلة.
badaʾa yashraḥu l-mushkila.
He began explaining the problem.
Confusing في and بـ
❌ بدأ في المقدمة ثم انتقل إلى الفصل الأول.
Incorrect for ‘started with the introduction’—the first item in a sequence takes بـ.
✅ بدأ بالمقدمة ثم انتقل إلى الفصل الأول.
badaʾa bil-muqaddimati thumma ntaqala ʾilā l-faṣli l-ʾawwal.
He started with the introduction and then moved to the first chapter.
Omitting the root hamza in the imperative
❌ ابدا من جديد.
Incorrect spelling for ‘begin’—the command retains the final root hamza: ابدأ. The spelling ابدا belongs to other analyses, including أبدًا without its marks.
✅ ابدأ من جديد.
ibdaʾ min jadīd.
Start again.
Key Takeaways
- بَدَأَ — يَبْدَأُ — اِبْدَأْ — بَدْء is a Form-I root ب-د-ء bundle whose final hamza must remain visible.
- Use an intransitive subject for an event beginning, and a direct object when an agent begins an event or project.
- For an action, prefer بدأ + imperfect or formal بدأ في + maṣdar; do not copy English begin to as بدأ أن.
- بدأ بـ identifies what comes first or what method starts a sequence.
- The passive is valid but formal; بدأ العمل is usually lighter than بدئ العمل when no agent is relevant.
Related Topics
- شاهد — watch or observe as a Form III transitive verbB1 — Conjugate شاهد and use its direct-object frames for watching, viewing, witnessing, and formal observation.
- انتهى — endB1 — Conjugate the final-weak Form VIII verb انتهى and distinguish ending, finishing from, and reaching an endpoint with من and إلى.
- Hamzated Verbs: Hamza as a RadicalB1 — Treat hamza as a real root consonant while keeping its pronunciation, morphological role, and changing written seat separate.
- Hamza-Seat Changes across Full Verb ParadigmsB2 — Track one root hamza through perfect, imperfect, command, passive, participle, and maṣdar forms without mistaking a changing carrier for a changing root.