تَذَكَّرَ is the dependable Modern Standard Arabic verb for “remember, recall.” It is Form V from root ذ-ك-ر, with the full principal-parts chain تَذَكَّرَ — يَتَذَكَّرُ — تَذَكَّرْ — تَذَكُّرًا. It can take a direct object, أنْ + verb for an action to remember to perform, or أنَّ + clause for a remembered fact.
The same root also gives Form I ذَكَرَ — يَذْكُرُ, whose central contemporary meaning is “mention, state.” Form I still means “remember” in frequent expressions such as لا أذكر “I do not remember” and على حد ما أذكر “as far as I remember.” Form II ذَكَّرَ is causative “remind.” English uses remember, mention, and remind with similar vocabulary; Arabic usually distinguishes them in the verb stem and its complement frame.
Lookup card: تَذَكَّرَ — يَتَذَكَّرُ
| Part | Verified form | Function |
|---|---|---|
| root and Form | ذ-ك-ر، Form V | sound derived verb |
| perfect, 3 m.sg. | تَذَكَّرَ | he remembered / recalled |
| imperfect, 3 m.sg. | يَتَذَكَّرُ | he remembers / recalls |
| imperative, 2 m.sg. | تَذَكَّرْ | remember! |
| maṣdar | تَذَكُّرٌ | remembering; recollection |
| active participle | مُتَذَكِّرٌ | remembering; one who recalls |
| passive participle | مُتَذَكَّرٌ | remembered, rare as an independent adjective |
| passive | تُذُكِّرَ — يُتَذَكَّرُ | was / is remembered, grammatically available but uncommon |
Form V is sound here: no radical disappears. The doubled middle radical كّ is part of the stem throughout. Passive forms are possible, especially impersonal يُتَذَكَّرُ أنَّ... “it is remembered that...,” but contemporary prose strongly prefers active يتذكر or لا يُنسى when an ordinary remembered person or event is meant.
تذكرت اسم المطعم بعد أن غادرنا الحي.
tadhakkartu sma l-maṭʿami baʿda ʾan ghādarnā l-ḥayy.
I remembered the restaurant’s name after we had left the neighborhood. (Formal neutral.)
هل تتذكرين أين وضعت المفتاح؟
hal tatadhakkarīna ʾayna waḍaʿti l-miftāḥ?
Do you remember where you put the key? (Formal neutral; addressed to one woman.)
Remember or recall a direct object
The remembered person, name, scene, event, or statement is normally a direct object: تذكر الاسم، تذكر الحادثة، تذكرني. Neutral MSA does not insert عن or بـ before that object. A following prepositional phrase may naturally belong to the noun or event, as in تذكر حديثه عن السفر.
أتذكر معلمتي الأولى وصبرها معنا.
ʾatadhakkaru muʿallimatī l-ʾūlā wa-ṣabrahā maʿanā.
I remember my first teacher and her patience with us. (Formal neutral.)
تذكر الشاهد وجه الرجل، لكنه لم يتذكر رقم السيارة.
tadhakkara sh-shāhidu wajha r-rajuli, lakinnahu lam yatadhakkar raqma s-sayyāra.
The witness remembered the man’s face, but he did not remember the car’s number. (Formal.)
لا أزال أتذكر صوت البحر في تلك الليلة.
lā ʾazālu ʾatadhakkaru ṣawta l-baḥri fī tilka l-layla.
I still remember the sound of the sea that night. (Formal neutral.)
The attached pronoun is an ordinary direct-object clitic: أتذكره، أتذكرها، أتذكركم. Unlike final-weak نسي, this sound Form-V stem does not change shape before the clitic.
قابلته مرة واحدة قبل سنوات، ولا يزال يتذكرني.
qābaltuhu marratan wāḥidatan qabla sanawātin, wa-lā yazālu yatadhakkarunī.
I met him once years ago, and he still remembers me. (Formal neutral.)
تذكّر أنْ يفعل: remember to act
أَنْ + subjunctive imperfect presents an action to be performed. With an imperative or future-oriented context, تذكر أن تفعل means “remember to do.” English speakers should not replace this with a preposition or with أنَّ.
تذكر أن ترسل النسخة الموقعة قبل ظهر الخميس.
tadhakkar ʾan tursila n-nuskhata l-muwaqqaʿata qabla ẓuhri l-khamīs.
Remember to send the signed copy before noon on Thursday. (Formal neutral.)
تذكرت أن أطفئ الموقد قبل أن أخرج.
tadhakkartu ʾan ʾuṭfiʾa l-mawqida qabla ʾan ʾakhruj.
I remembered to turn off the stove before I went out. (Formal neutral.)
In the second example, the remembering led to the action, and the action occurred. By contrast, نسيت أن أطفئ الموقد normally implies that it remained on. Arabic expresses the opposition through the matrix verbs تذكر / نسي, while أنْ + subjunctive marks the planned action in both.
تذكّر أنَّ...: recall a fact
أَنَّ + nominal clause introduces information that was already true or presented as a fact. It commonly appears with an attached subject: أنه، أنها، أنني، أننا. The following finite verb has its ordinary tense; it is not governed into the subjunctive by أنَّ.
تذكرت أنني تركت الوثائق على مكتبك.
tadhakkartu ʾannanī taraktu l-wathāʾiqa ʿalā maktabik.
I remembered that I had left the documents on your desk. (Formal neutral.)
تذكر المدير أن الاجتماع نقل إلى الطابق الثاني.
tadhakkara l-mudīru ʾanna l-ijtimāʿa nuqila ʾilā ṭ-ṭābiqi th-thānī.
The director remembered that the meeting had been moved to the second floor. (Formal.)
أتذكر أن والدك كان يعمل في هذه الجامعة.
ʾatadhakkaru ʾanna wālidaka kāna yaʿmalu fī hādhihi l-jāmiʿa.
I remember that your father used to work at this university. (Formal neutral.)
The contrast mirrors that on the نسي reference page: أنْ packages an action, while أنَّ packages a proposition. English remember doing can often be rendered by أتذكر أنني فعلت or a suitable maṣdar phrase, not by copying an English gerund mechanically.
Mood and commands
The regular stem makes mood transparent: indicative يتذكرُ, subjunctive لن يتذكرَ, jussive لم يتذكرْ, and prohibitive لا تتذكرْ. The imperative begins directly with تـ: تذكّرْ. It does not need a prefixed alif because the command stem already begins with the pronounceable syllable تَـ.
لن يتذكر الطفل كل التفاصيل بعد سنوات.
lan yatadhakkara ṭ-ṭiflu kulla t-tafāṣīli baʿda sanawāt.
The child will not remember every detail years from now. (Formal.)
لم أتذكر كلمة المرور حتى اتصلت بالدعم الفني.
lam ʾatadhakkar kalimata l-murūri ḥattā ttaṣaltu bid-daʿmi l-fanniyy.
I did not remember the password until I contacted technical support. (Formal neutral.)
تذكروا أن الهدف هو حماية المرضى لا زيادة الأوراق.
tadhakkarū ʾanna l-hadafa huwa ḥimāyatu l-marḍā lā ziyādatu l-ʾawrāq.
Remember that the goal is to protect patients, not increase paperwork. (Formal exhortation to a group.)
تذكّر versus ذَكَرَ
Contemporary ذَكَرَ — يَذْكُرُ most often means “mention, name, state.” It can take a direct object or an أنَّ clause: ذكر التقريرُ السببَ and ذكر التقريرُ أنَّ الأسعار ارتفعت. With لا أذكر, interrogatives, and fixed memory expressions, Form I also commonly means “remember.”
ذكر التقرير ثلاثة أسباب لتأخر المشروع.
dhakara t-taqrīru thalāthata ʾasbābin litaʾakhkhuri l-mashrūʿ.
The report mentioned three reasons for the project’s delay. (Formal; Form I.)
لا أذكر أين قرأت هذه المعلومة.
lā ʾadhkuru ʾayna qaraʾtu hādhihi l-maʿlūma.
I do not remember where I read this information. (Formal neutral; Form I in a memory expression.)
على حد ما أذكر، افتتح المركز في عام ألفين وثمانية عشر.
ʿalā ḥaddi mā ʾadhkuru, ftutiḥa l-markazu fī ʿāmi ʾalfayni wa-thamāniyata ʿashar.
As far as I remember, the center opened in 2018. (Formal neutral; fixed expression.)
Positive past ذكرت can mean either “I mentioned” or “I remembered” in a supportive context, but تذكرت is the clearer default for “I recalled / it came back to me.” Similarly, هل تتذكرني؟ is the transparent “Do you remember me?”; هل تذكرني؟ is also possible in formal Arabic but can overlap in writing with other analyses and sounds more elevated or context-dependent.
Form II ذَكَّرَ: remind someone
Form II adds an external causer: ذكّر شخصًا بـ شيء “remind someone of something.” The person reminded is a direct object, and the remembered matter commonly follows بـ. This reverses the government pattern of Form V, where the remembered thing itself is direct.
ذكرني زميلي بموعد تسليم التقرير.
dhakkaranī zamīlī bimawʿidi taslīmi t-taqrīr.
My colleague reminded me of the report deadline. (Formal neutral; Form II.)
هذا المكان يذكرني بالبيت الذي نشأت فيه.
hādhā l-makānu yudhakkirunī bil-bayti lladhī nashaʾtu fīh.
This place reminds me of the house where I grew up. (Formal neutral; Form II.)
Passive and high-frequency collocations
Passive Form V يُتَذَكَّرُ is found in formal reflective prose, but it is marked compared with يُذكر “is mentioned” and لا يُنسى “is unforgettable.” Use it when the act of recollection itself matters, not as a mechanical passive for every direct object.
عندما يتذكر ذلك اليوم، يتحدث الجميع عن شجاعة المسعفين.
ʿindamā yutadhakkaru dhālika l-yawmu, yataḥaddathu l-jamīʿu ʿan shajāʿati l-musʿifīn.
When that day is remembered, everyone speaks of the paramedics’ courage. (Formal reflective register.)
| Collocation | Meaning and register |
|---|---|
| تَذَكَّرَ شَيْئًا جَيِّدًا | remember something well (neutral) |
| لَا يَزَالُ يَتَذَكَّرُ | still remembers (neutral) |
| تَذَكَّرَ أَنْ يَفْعَلَ | remember to do (neutral) |
| تَذَكَّرَ أَنَّهُ فَعَلَ | remember that he did (neutral) |
| عَلَى حَدِّ مَا أَذْكُرُ | as far as I remember (formal neutral, Form I) |
| ذَكَرَ التَّقْرِيرُ أَنَّ... | the report stated that... (formal, Form I) |
| ذَكَّرَهُ بِالْمَوْعِدِ | reminded him of the appointment (neutral, Form II) |
Common Mistakes
Adding بـ to the object of Form V
❌ تذكرت بالموعد قبل دقائق من بدايته.
Nonstandard in neutral MSA for ‘I remembered the appointment’; Form V takes the remembered thing directly. Prepositional variants occur in some dialects.
✅ تذكرت الموعد قبل دقائق من بدايته.
tadhakkartu l-mawʿida qabla daqāʾiqa min bidāyatih.
I remembered the appointment minutes before it began.
Using أنَّ for the action to be performed
❌ تذكر أنك ترسل الطلب اليوم.
Wrong for the intended instruction ‘remember to send’: أنَّ presents a proposition (‘remember that you send...’). Use أنْ plus the subjunctive for the task.
✅ تذكر أن ترسل الطلب اليوم.
tadhakkar ʾan tursila ṭ-ṭalaba l-yawm.
Remember to send the application today.
Using Form V for “remind me”
❌ تذكرني بالموعد غدا.
Incorrect as a bare imperative meaning ‘remind me’: use causative Form II ذكّر. With other vocalization and sentence context, تذكرني can validly mean ‘you remind me’ or ‘she reminds me’; the error is the intended imperative analysis here.
✅ ذكرني بالموعد غدا.
dhakkirnī bil-mawʿidi ghadan.
Remind me about the appointment tomorrow.
Key Takeaways
- تَذَكَّرَ — يَتَذَكَّرُ is sound Form V from root ذ-ك-ر; the shadda belongs to the stem.
- The remembered thing is direct: تذكر الاسم، تذكره.
- تذكر أنْ يفعل means “remember to do,” while تذكر أنَّه فعل recalls a fact.
- Form I ذكر primarily means “mention/state” in contemporary prose but retains “remember” in لا أذكر and fixed expressions.
- Form II ذكّر شخصًا بـ شيء means “remind someone of something.”
- Passive Form V exists but is marked; active يتذكر or لا ينسى is usually more natural.
Related Topics
- نسي — forget with defective morphology and object or أن complementsB2 — Conjugate نسي, attach object pronouns, and distinguish a forgotten thing, a forgotten action with أنْ, and a forgotten fact with أنَّ.
- دعا — callB2 — Conjugate the final-weak verb دعا and distinguish calling, inviting, advocating, praying, and naming through its core complement frames.
- كان — beA2 — Reference the hollow verb كان across its full paradigm, copular and existential senses, predicate case, conditionals, and high-frequency collocations.
- Form V تفعّلA2 — Build Form V from t- plus the Form II shape and distinguish reflexive, result, developmental, and fully lexicalized meanings.
- Direct-Object Suffixes on VerbsA2 — Replace an already identifiable direct object with an Arabic pronoun suffix attached to the verb.