شرب — drink with direct objects and Form I vowel classes

شَرِبَ “drink” is a sound Form-I verb from root ش-ر-ب. Its consonants behave regularly, but its vowels still have to be learned: the perfect is شَرِبَ with i on the middle radical, while the imperfect is يَشْرَبُ with a. “Form I” names a family of patterns; it does not let you predict that vowel pair from the English meaning.

The syntax is straightforward once two roles are separated. The liquid drunk is normally a direct object: شرب الماءَ. A container or supply serving as the source follows من: شرب من الكأسِ. English often leaves that distinction implicit, but Arabic marks it clearly. The Form-I overview explains why the perfect and imperfect vowel classes still require lexical verification.

Lookup card and principal parts

شَرَاب is the high-frequency noun “drink, beverage” and also “syrup” in pharmaceutical contexts. مَشْرُوب likewise means a beverage, especially as part of a category such as مشروبات ساخنة “hot drinks.” The maṣdar شُرْب names the activity or consumption and is common in compounds such as مياه الشرب “drinking water.”

Conjugation, moods, and imperative

Because all three radicals are strong, the stem stays recognizable throughout. The perfect uses شَرِبْـ before consonant-initial suffixes. The imperfect adds person prefixes to شْرَب, and ordinary mood endings apply.

The imperative begins with hamzat al-waṣl, written as ordinary ا, not أ or إ. It is pronounced ishrab at the beginning of an utterance, but the initial vowel elides after a preceding word: ثم اشرب is thumma shrab.

Ranked meanings and valency

1. Drink a liquid: direct object

The ordinary frame is شرب + beverage. The beverage may be a common noun, a quantified phrase, or an attached pronoun: شرب الماء، شرب كوبين، شربه كله. No preposition stands between the verb and what is consumed.

With medicines, use شرب naturally for a liquid preparation, but contemporary formal instructions often prefer broader تناول الدواء “take the medicine,” especially when its form is not specified. English drink medicine should not force شرب for tablets.

2. Drink from a container or supply: من

من introduces where the liquid comes from: من الكأس، من الزجاجة، من الصنبور. The beverage can remain implicit if the source makes it obvious. When both are expressed, the beverage is the direct object and the source is the من phrase.

3. Absorb or take in: restricted figurative uses

Arabic can extend شرب to absorption, as in soil or material “drinking” water, and literary prose may speak of taking in an idea or emotion. Such uses are (literary) unless a technical collocation licenses them. Do not translate every English figurative drink in literally.

Passive, participles, and collocations

The passive شُرِبَ / يُشْرَبُ is useful for customary consumption and safety instructions. The passive participle مشروب is highly lexicalized as “beverage,” while شارب may mean “a drinker” and is most natural when a complement specifies the habit: شارب القهوة.

Frequent combinations include شرب الماء، شرب القهوة، شرب على الريق “drink on an empty stomach,” مياه الشرب “drinking water,” مشروب ساخن/بارد “hot/cold beverage,” and شرب حتى ارتوى “drank until his thirst was quenched.” The adverbial نقدا pattern from payment has no role here; instruments instead take بـ, as in شرب بالمصاصة “drank through a straw.”

Common Mistakes

Guessing the imperfect vowel from the perfect

Writing hamzat al-qaṭʿ on the imperative

Treating the container as the beverage

Using شرب for a solid tablet

Key Takeaways

• شَرِبَ — يَشْرَبُ — اِشْرَبْ — شُرْبٌ is a sound Form-I bundle whose vowel class must be memorized.
• The beverage is a direct object; من marks the source or container, and بـ can mark an instrument.
• The imperative begins with hamzat al-waṣl, which elides in connected pronunciation.
• Passive شُرِبَ — يُشْرَبُ is natural in instructions; مشروب is also the common noun “beverage.”
• Use تناول rather than شرب when “medicine” is a tablet or its physical form is unspecified.