Arabic has a traditional group called أفعال الشروع, “verbs of beginning.” Besides the everyday verb بدأ, formal and literary texts use أخذ، جعل، طفق + bare imperfect to present a subject as entering an activity: أخذ المطر يشتدّ “the rain began to intensify.” These verbs are not interchangeable in register, and their ordinary lexical meanings remain active elsewhere.
The core syntax is precise: the inchoative verb agrees with its subject, and an imperfect verbal clause serves as its predicate. The imperfect has the same understood subject and normally appears without أنْ. Because there is no subjunctive governor, the complement is indicative: أخذ الباحثون يقارنونَ, not يقارنوا.
For the neutral contemporary default with a wider choice of complements, see بدأ and its complement patterns. This page explains the more style-sensitive members independently.
The three verbs and their principal parts
All three are Form I, but their lexical stems and histories differ.
| Verb | Root and principal parts | Ordinary lexical meaning | Inchoative distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| أَخَذَ | أ خ ذ; أَخَذَ / يَأْخُذُ | take | (formal narrative); productive and readily understood |
| جَعَلَ | ج ع ل; جَعَلَ / يَجْعَلُ | make, put, render | (formal/literary); context must separate it from causative جعل |
| طَفِقَ | ط ف ق; طَفِقَ / يَطْفَقُ | chiefly survives in this grammatical use | (literary/Classical); mainly for recognition today |
The initial hamza of أخذ is hamzat al-qaṭʿ and must be written. Its imperative خُذْ is irregularly short, but that form is not used as an inchoative auxiliary. جعل and طفق are sound-root verbs. Traditional accounts differ in how broadly they describe this subclass as “frozen”: inchoative أخذ is normally confined to the perfect form, while imperfect يجعلُ and يطفقُ are attested for the other two. None of those imperfect uses should be assumed to be a neutral everyday progressive.
أخذ: taking up an activity
Lexical أخذ has an object. Inchoative أخذ instead introduces a bare imperfect whose subject is the same participant.
يأخذ الموظف نسخة من كل عقد قبل أرشفته.
yaʾkhudhu l-muwaẓẓafu nuskhatan min kulli ʿaqdin qabla ʾarshafatih.
The employee takes a copy of every contract before archiving it.
أخذ الموظف ينسخ البنود المهمة في دفتره.
ʾakhadha l-muwaẓẓafu yansakhu l-bunūda l-muhimmata fī daftarih.
The employee began copying the important clauses into his notebook. (Formal narrative.)
The first sentence is ordinary present-time يأخذُ + object. The second is perfect أخذَ + imperfect indicative ينسخُ. It presents the onset from inside a narrative and often suggests that the activity then continued.
أخذت المذيعة توضح تفاصيل القرار للمستمعين.
ʾakhadhati l-mudhīʿatu tuwaḍḍiḥu tafāṣīla l-qarāri li-l-mustamiʿīn.
The broadcaster began explaining the decision's details to the listeners. (Formal narrative; female broadcaster.)
أخذ الباحثون يقارنون القياسات بالنتائج السابقة.
ʾakhadha l-bāḥithūna yuqārinūna l-qiyāsāti bi-n-natāʾiji s-sābiqa(h).
The researchers began comparing the measurements with the previous results. (Formal narrative.)
In neutral VSO, أخذ is singular before the explicit plural الباحثون. The complement's understood subject is plural, so يقارنونَ has full agreement and retains indicative nūn.
الكاتبتان أخذتا تعيدان صياغة المقدمة فقرة فقرة.
ʾal-kātibatāni ʾakhadhatā tuʿīdāni ṣiyāghata l-muqaddimati faqratan faqra(h).
The two writers began reworking the introduction paragraph by paragraph. (Formal narrative; both female.)
Subject-first order requires feminine-dual أخذتا, and the bare complement is indicative تعيدانِ. The hollow Form-IV verb أعاد / يعيد, root ع و د, keeps its verified long ī stem.
جعل: beginning versus causing
Inchoative جعل + imperfect is established in elevated narrative. It can mean “began doing” or, depending on the lexical aspect of the complement, “went on/kept doing.”
جعل الخطيب يكرر السؤال حتى انتبه إليه الحضور.
jaʿala l-khaṭību yukarriru s-suʾāla ḥattā ntabaha ʾilayhi l-ḥuḍūr.
The speaker began repeating the question until the audience noticed it. (Formal/literary.)
جعلت الممرضات يتفقدن الغرف واحدة بعد أخرى.
jaʿalati l-mumarriḍātu yatafaqqadna l-ghurafa wāḥidatan baʿda ʾukhrā.
The nurses began checking the rooms one after another. (Formal/literary.)
Preposed جعلت is feminine singular before the overt feminine plural; the complement يتفقدنَ carries feminine-plural agreement.
However, transitive/causative جعل can introduce a different participant who performs the second action:
جعل المدير الموظف يعيد الحساب أمام الفريق.
jaʿala l-mudīru l-muwaẓẓafa yuʿīdu l-ḥisāba ʾamāma l-farīq.
The manager made the employee redo the calculation in front of the team.
Here المدير is the causer, الموظف is an object of جعل, and that employee is the understood subject of يعيد. In inchoative جعل الخطيب يكرر, the speaker is subject of both verbs. Word order and context therefore matter; English make and begin represent different argument structures.
طفق: a valid but marked literary member
طفق + bare imperfect is grammatically sound and important for reading Classical Arabic and later literary prose. In ordinary contemporary formal exposition, بدأ or sometimes narrative أخذ will usually be less conspicuous. A register label is therefore essential; the construction is not an error.
طفق المسافر يقلب صفحات الدليل القديم باحثا عن اسم القرية.
ṭafiqa l-musāfiru yuqallibu ṣafaḥāti d-dalīli l-qadīmi bāḥithan ʿani smi l-qarya(h).
The traveler began turning the pages of the old guide, looking for the village's name. (Literary.)
طفق الطفل يبكي حين ابتعدت الحافلة.
ṭafiqa ṭ-ṭiflu yabkī ḥīna btaʿadati l-ḥāfila(h).
The child began to cry when the bus pulled away. (Literary/Classical-style.)
Final-weak بكى / يبكي, root ب ك ي, retains يبكي because the bare complement is indicative. The inchoative auxiliary does not regularize or otherwise rebuild the lexical stem of its complement.
Imperfect inchoative يطفقُ is also attested, though markedly literary:
في كل مرة يطفق الراوي يستعيد تفاصيل الرحلة من جديد.
fī kulli marratin yaṭfaqu r-rāwī yastaʿīdu tafāṣīla r-riḥlati min jadīd.
Each time, the narrator begins recalling the journey's details all over again. (Literary.)
The form is valid; its conspicuous register is the reason a contemporary writer would normally choose يبدأ instead.
Mood and complement shape
Traditional inchoative syntax requires a verbal predicate whose verb is an imperfect stripped of أنْ. This differs from English begin to do, where to makes learners expect an Arabic infinitive marker.
| Frame | Mood | Example |
|---|---|---|
| أخذ + bare imperfect | indicative | أَخَذَ يَشْرَحُ |
| جعل + bare imperfect | indicative | جَعَلَ يُعِيدُ |
| طفق + bare imperfect | indicative | طَفِقَ يَبْحَثُ |
The nūn of one of the “five verbs” makes the mood visible:
أخذ المندوبون يتبادلون الملاحظات قبل التصويت.
ʾakhadha l-mandūbūna yatabādalūna l-mulāḥaẓāti qabla t-taṣwīt.
The delegates began exchanging comments before the vote. (Formal narrative.)
Indicative يتبادلونَ retains nūn. An independent governor elsewhere could change a verb's mood, but these inchoatives do not govern a subjunctive themselves.
Common Mistakes
Copying English “to” as أنْ
❌ أخذ المحاضر أن يشرح الرسم.
Incorrect in the traditional inchoative frame — أخذ takes a bare imperfect, not أنْ + subjunctive.
✅ أخذ المحاضر يشرح الرسم خطوة خطوة.
ʾakhadha l-muḥāḍiru yashraḥu r-rasma khuṭwatan khuṭwa(h).
The lecturer began explaining the diagram step by step. (Formal narrative.)
Dropping indicative nūn from the complement
❌ أخذ المشاركون يناقشوا الاقتراح.
Incorrect — no subjunctive governor precedes the complement, so يناقشون retains nūn.
✅ أخذ المشاركون يناقشون الاقتراح بعد الاستراحة.
ʾakhadha l-mushārikūna yunāqishūna l-iqtirāḥa baʿda l-istirāḥa(h).
The participants began discussing the proposal after the break. (Formal narrative.)
Giving the preposed auxiliary full plural agreement
❌ أخذوا الصحفيون يطرحون الأسئلة.
Incorrect in neutral formal-MSA VSO — the auxiliary is singular before the overt human plural subject.
✅ أخذ الصحفيون يطرحون أسئلة أكثر تحديدا.
ʾakhadha ṣ-ṣaḥafiyyūna yaṭraḥūna ʾasʾilatan ʾakthara taḥdīdan.
The journalists began asking more specific questions. (Formal narrative.)
Losing gender agreement on the auxiliary
❌ أخذت الباحث يراجع التسجيلات.
Incorrect — the masculine subject الباحث requires أخذ, not feminine أخذت.
✅ أخذ الباحث يراجع التسجيلات مع زميلته.
ʾakhadha l-bāḥithu yurājiʿu t-tasjīlāti maʿa zamīlatih.
The researcher began reviewing the recordings with his colleague. (Formal narrative.)
Key Takeaways
- Inchoative أخذ، جعل، طفق take a bare indicative imperfect with the same understood subject.
- أخذ is productive in formal narrative; جعل is more elevated and can compete with a causative reading; طفق is chiefly literary/Classical.
- The ordinary lexical senses remain distinct: يأخذ نسخة means “takes a copy,” not “begins a copy.”
- A preposed auxiliary is normally singular before an overt dual or plural subject, while the complement agrees with its understood subject.
- These auxiliaries preserve the real weak, hamzated, or geminate stem of the complement.
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