جَعَلَ often translates English make, but that gloss covers several distinct structures. It can make or render something a certain way, appoint someone to a role, place something somewhere, or—especially in formal narrative—mark the beginning of an action. The complement after it tells you which meaning is active.
The most important frame is an object plus a predicate: جعلت الغرفةَ مكتبًا “she made the room an office.” The room and the office refer to the same entity, just as “the room became an office” contains an underlying subject–predicate relationship. This logic explains why جعل can govern two accusatives rather than behaving like English make in every construction.
Lookup card: جَعَلَ — يَجْعَلُ
The root is ج-ع-ل. This is a sound Form-I verb with no weak, doubled, or hamzated radical. The stem remains stable throughout the paradigm.
| Part | Form | Use |
|---|---|---|
| perfect, 3 m.sg. | جَعَلَ | he made / rendered / began |
| imperfect, 3 m.sg. | يَجْعَلُ | he makes / renders |
| imperative, 2 m.sg. | اِجْعَلْ | make; put |
| maṣdar | جَعْلٌ | making; rendering |
| active participle | جَاعِلٌ | one who makes / appoints |
| passive participle | مَجْعُولٌ | made; placed |
| passive | جُعِلَ / يُجْعَلُ | was made / is made |
The maṣdar جَعْل “making, rendering” must be distinguished from vocalized جُعْل “payment, reward,” a separate lexical noun with the same unvocalized spelling. In modern prose, finite forms of جعل are much more frequent than the abstract maṣdar.
جعلت الأمطار الطريق خطرا.
jaʿalati l-ʾamṭāru ṭ-ṭarīqa khaṭiran.
The rain made the road dangerous. (Formal; nonhuman plural subject with feminine-singular verb.)
يجعل هذا التحديث استخدام التطبيق أسهل.
yajʿalu hādhā t-taḥdīthu stikhdāma t-taṭbīqi ʾashal.
This update makes the application easier to use. (Formal technical register.)
Rendering something a state or quality
The core two-object frame is جعل + object + predicate. The first accusative is the entity affected; the second tells what it becomes or how it is construed. That predicate can be an adjective, noun, prepositional phrase, or verbal clause.
جعلت الإضاءة الجديدة القاعة أكثر دفئا.
jaʿalati l-ʾiḍāʾatu l-jadīdatu l-qāʿata ʾakthara difʾan.
The new lighting made the hall warmer. (Formal.)
جعل المدير سلمى رئيسة للفريق.
jaʿala l-mudīru salmā raʾīsatan lil-farīq.
The director made Salma head of the team. (Formal; appointive use.)
جعل الخبر الجميع يعيدون حساباتهم.
jaʿala l-khabaru l-jamīʿa yuʿīdūna ḥisābātihim.
The news made everyone reconsider their calculations. (Formal.)
In the last example, الجميع is simultaneously the object of جعل and the understood subject of يعيدون. Unlike English make, Arabic does not use a bare infinitive; the caused action appears as an imperfect verb agreeing with its own understood subject.
For a fuller account of this syntax, see verbs with object predicates.
Making something into something
Arabic can also use جعل من + noun + predicate: جعل من القرية مركزًا سياحيًا “made the village into a tourist center.” The من phrase highlights the starting material or entity from which the result is made. It is common in formal expository writing. The direct two-object frame is equally standard and usually more compact.
جعل المشروع من المبنى القديم مركزا ثقافيا.
jaʿala l-mashrūʿu mina l-mabnā l-qadīmi markazan thaqāfiyyan.
The project turned the old building into a cultural center. (Formal.)
Compare this with حوّل المبنى إلى مركز. حوّل ... إلى explicitly profiles transformation from one state to another; جعل من ... presents the resulting status. Do not mechanically mix the government of the two verbs by writing جعل ... إلى.
Placing and assigning
With a location phrase, جعل can mean “put, place.” This use is fully standard but often more formal or literary than everyday وضع. The verb takes the placed item as its direct object and the destination as a prepositional or adverbial complement.
جعل الكاتب الملاحظات في نهاية الفصل.
jaʿala l-kātibu l-mulāḥaẓāti fī nihāyati l-faṣl.
The author put the notes at the end of the chapter. (Formal.)
The appointive frame similarly assigns a status: جعله مسؤولًا عن المشروع “made him responsible for the project.” The preposition belongs to the predicate مسؤول عن, not to جعل itself.
جعلت الجامعة الباحثة مسؤولة عن المختبر.
jaʿalati l-jāmiʿatu l-bāḥithata masʾūlatan ʿani l-mukhtabar.
The university made the researcher responsible for the laboratory. (Formal.)
Beginning an action: جعل يفعل
In formal and literary narrative, perfect جعل followed directly by an imperfect can mean “began to.” The subject of جعل is also the subject of the following imperfect, and there is no أن between them: جعل الطفل يضحك can mean “the child began to laugh.” Context must distinguish that inchoative reading from causation, where an intervening object is caused to act: جعل الأب الطفل يضحك “the father made the child laugh.”
جعل الجمهور يصفق عندما ظهرت النتائج.
jaʿala l-jumhūru yuṣaffiqu ʿindamā ẓaharati n-natāʾij.
The audience began to applaud when the results appeared. (Formal narrative.)
جعل الطفل يسأل عن كل صورة في الكتاب.
jaʿala ṭ-ṭiflu yasʾalu ʿan kulli ṣūratin fī l-kitāb.
The child began asking about every picture in the book. (Formal narrative.)
Contemporary expository prose often prefers transparent بدأ في + maṣdar or بدأ + imperfect, as in بدأ الطفل يسأل. That does not make inchoative جعل archaic; it is a live, elevated narrative option.
Compact paradigm and passive
| Environment | Form |
|---|---|
| هي, perfect | جَعَلَتْ |
| هم, perfect | جَعَلُوا |
| نحن, imperfect | نَجْعَلُ |
| after لن, 3 m.sg. | لَنْ يَجْعَلَ |
| after لم, 3 m.sg. | لَمْ يَجْعَلْ |
| 2 f.sg. imperative | اِجْعَلِي |
| 2 m.pl. imperative | اِجْعَلُوا |
The passive is common in formal descriptions when the agent is secondary. In a two-object construction, the former first object becomes the passive subject, while the predicate remains accusative: جُعِلَ المبنى مركزًا “the building was made a center.”
جعل المبنى مركزا مؤقتا لإيواء الأسر.
juʿila l-mabnā markazan muʾaqqatan liʾīwāʾi l-ʾusar.
The building was made a temporary center for sheltering families. (Formal passive.)
اجعلوا السلامة أولوية في جميع مراحل العمل.
ijʿalū s-salāmata ʾawlawiyyatan fī jamīʿi marāḥili l-ʿamal.
Make safety a priority at every stage of the work. (Formal directive to a male or mixed group.)
Common Mistakes
Importing إلى from English “make into”
❌ جعلوا المبنى إلى متحف.
Incorrect government—use a direct predicate or جعل من; إلى belongs naturally with حوّل.
✅ جعلوا المبنى متحفا.
jaʿalū l-mabnā mutḥafan.
They made the building a museum.
Adding أن in the inchoative frame
❌ جعل الطفل أن يبكي.
Incorrect for ‘the child began to cry’—inchoative جعل is followed directly by an imperfect without أن.
✅ جعل الطفل يبكي.
jaʿala ṭ-ṭiflu yabkī.
The child began to cry. (Formal narrative.)
Omitting the affected object in a causative reading
❌ جعل المدير يراجع التقرير.
Incorrect for ‘the director made the employee review the report’; as written, it can instead mean that the director began reviewing it.
✅ جعل المدير الموظف يراجع التقرير.
jaʿala l-mudīru l-muwaẓẓafa yurājiʿu t-taqrīr.
The director made the employee review the report.
Treating the result as a prepositional object
❌ جعلت الشركة سلمى كرئيسة للفريق.
Incorrect in this appointive frame—the role is a second accusative predicate, not a كـ phrase after جعل.
✅ جعلت الشركة سلمى رئيسة للفريق.
jaʿalati sh-sharikatu salmā raʾīsatan lil-farīq.
The company made Salma head of the team.
Key Takeaways
- جَعَلَ — يَجْعَلُ — جَعْلًا is a regular sound Form-I verb.
- Its central two-object frame joins an affected object to a resulting description or role.
- جعل من ... emphasizes making something into a result; do not substitute إلى mechanically.
- In formal narrative, جعل + imperfect without أن can mean “begin to”; an intervening object instead supports a causative reading.
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