Arabic instructions often form a chain: do one thing, then another, and obtain a result. فـ joins a closely connected next step or consequence, while ثمّ marks a later step or a consciously separate stage. Both are conjunctions, but فـ is written attached to the following word and ثمّ stands separately.
A second contrast is morphological. In افتح الملف ثم اقرأ المقدمة both verbs are imperatives. In the formal result construction راجع الأرقام فتكتشفَ الخطأ, the verb after causative فـ is an imperfect subjunctive: “Review the figures and thereby discover the error.” Punctuation does not decide the mood; syntax and meaning do.
فـ for an immediate or tightly linked next step
In an instruction chain, فـ presents the next command as closely connected to the first. It can suggest “then,” “so,” or “and next,” often with little conceptual delay.
افتح الرسالة فاقرأ المرفق بعناية
iftaḥi r-risālata faqraʾi l-murfaqa biʿināya
Open the message, then read the attachment carefully. (Addressing one man.)
اضغطوا زر الحفظ فأغلقوا البرنامج
iḍghaṭū zirra l-ḥifẓi faʾaghliqū l-barnāmaj
Press the save button, then close the program. (Addressing a masculine or mixed group.)
The second imperative retains its own person, gender, and number. فـ does not turn it into an infinitive or remove its agreement. Form IV أَغْلَقَ / يُغْلِقُ “close,” root غ-ل-ق, has imperative أغلقْ with permanent hamzat al-qaṭʿ; it remains pronounced after فـ.
قارنا النسختين فاختارا النص الأوضح
qārinā n-nuskhatayni fakhtārā n-naṣṣa l-ʾawḍaḥ
Compare the two versions, then choose the clearer text. (Addressing two people.)
Here Form VIII اِخْتَارَ / يَخْتَارُ “choose,” root خ-ي-ر, begins its imperative with hamzat al-waṣl. The written alif remains after فـ, but the hamza is not pronounced: fakhtārā, not fa-ikhtārā.
رتبن الطلبات حسب التاريخ فأرسلنها إلى القسم المختص
rattibna ṭ-ṭalabāti ḥasaba t-tārīkhi faʾarsilnahā ʾilā l-qismi l-mukhtaṣṣ
Arrange the requests by date, then send them to the responsible department. (Addressing an all-female group.)
ثمّ for a later or separate stage
ثمّ also orders events, but it presents the second as subsequent with some interval, intervening process, or conceptual separation. The delay can be seconds or months; what matters is that the speaker treats the stages as distinct.
اغسل يديك، ثم ابدأ بإعداد الطعام
ighsil yadayka, thumma bdaʾ biʾiʿdādi ṭ-ṭaʿām
Wash your hands, then begin preparing the food.
احفظا نسخة احتياطية، ثم حدثا النظام
iḥfaẓā nuskhatan iḥtiyāṭiyyatan, thumma ḥaddithā n-niẓām
Save a backup copy, then update the system. (Addressing two people.)
اقرأن السؤال كاملا، ثم اخترن الإجابة الأدق
iqraʾna s-suʾāla kāmilan, thumma khtarna l-ʾijābata l-ʾadaqq
Read the entire question, then choose the most precise answer. (Addressing an all-female group.)
By contrast, و merely adds or coordinates. افتح النافذة وأغلق الباب asks for both actions but does not grammatically specify which comes first. Use فـ or ثمّ when order is part of the instruction.
راجعوا الأسماء والعناوين
rājiʿū l-ʾasmāʾa wal-ʿanāwīn
Check the names and addresses. (Both objects of one command; no sequence between them.)
Commands versus past-tense narration
English instructions often use a bare verb, whereas a report uses past tense. Arabic makes the difference explicit. فتح المدير الملف ثم قرأه reports completed events with perfect verbs; افتح الملف ثم اقرأه commands future actions with imperatives.
فتح المدير الملف، ثم قرأ الملاحظة الأخيرة
fataḥa l-mudīru l-malaffa, thumma qaraʾa l-mulāḥaẓata l-ʾakhīra
The director opened the file and then read the final note. (Past narrative.)
افتح الملف، ثم اقرأ الملاحظة الأخيرة
iftaḥi l-malaffa, thumma qraʾi l-mulāḥaẓata l-ʾakhīra
Open the file, then read the final note. (Instruction to one man.)
Do not copy the English bare form into Arabic by using a perfect, and do not interpret every perfect sequence as a set of commands. Context helps, but the Arabic verb forms carry the central contrast.
A resulting event after causative فـ
After a command, prohibition, question, or another request-like clause, فاء السببية can introduce a consequence. Traditional analysis places an unspoken أنْ after this فـ, so the following imperfect is subjunctive:
command + فـ + [أنْ] + imperfect subjunctive
This is (formal) and common in careful prose, maxims, and rhetorically shaped instructions. It does not simply mean “do step two”; it means that the second event follows as the consequence or intended result of obeying the first.
دقق في المجموع فتكتشف الخطأ قبل اعتماد الميزانية
daqqiq fī l-majmūʿi fataktashifa l-khaṭaʾa qabla ʿtimādi l-mīzāniyya
Check the total carefully and thereby discover the error before the budget is approved.
تعاونا فتنجحا في إنهاء العمل قبل الموعد
taʿāwanā fatanjaḥā fī ʾinhāʾi l-ʿamali qabla l-mawʿid
Work together, and as a result you two will succeed in finishing before the deadline.
راجعوا الروابط فتتجنبوا المواقع المضللة
rājiʿū r-rawābiṭa fatatajannabū l-mawāqiʿa l-muḍallila
Check the links and thereby avoid misleading sites. (Addressing a masculine or mixed group.)
In فتنجحا and فتتجنبوا, the subjunctive deletes the mood nūn of the five verbs. The surviving dual alif or plural wāw marks the subject. A final-weak subjunctive normally retains its weak letter and takes an overt or estimated fatḥa, unlike the jussive deletion seen in commands and prohibitions.
اتبع الخريطة فتهتدي إلى أقصر طريق
ittabiʿi l-kharīṭata fatahtadiya ʾilā ʾaqṣari ṭarīq
Follow the map and thereby find the shortest route.
This page only supplies the contrast needed for instruction chains. The causative-fāʾ page covers its full set of licensing environments and edge cases.
An independent promised result
Not every consequence after فـ uses the special subjunctive construction. A speaker can make the second clause an independent prediction, often marked with سـ or سوف. Then its verb is indicative:
اضغط هذا الزر فستظهر الصفحة الرئيسية
iḍghaṭ hādhā z-zirra fasataẓharu ṣ-ṣafḥatu r-raʾīsiyya
Press this button, and the home page will appear.
Compare فتظهرَ “so that/as a result it may appear” in the compact formal construction with فستظهرُ “and it will appear” as a full future assertion. The visible future prefix removes ambiguity.
The subject الصفحة follows its verb, so the verb is feminine singular. With a non-human plural such as النتائج, formal MSA still uses feminine singular agreement: فستظهر النتائج “then the results will appear.”
أدخل البيانات الصحيحة فستظهر النتائج خلال ثوان
ʾadkhili l-bayānāti ṣ-ṣaḥīḥata fasataẓharu n-natāʾiju khilāla thawān
Enter the correct data, and the results will appear within seconds.
Punctuation and layout
Arabic uses the comma ،, semicolon ؛, and question mark ؟. A comma can make a long sequence easier to scan, but it does not replace a conjunction. Write ، ثم with a space because ثمّ is a separate word; write ، فافتح with فـ attached to its verb.
For two short steps, punctuation may be unnecessary: افتح الملف ثم اقرأه. For several complex steps, commas help separate units. A semicolon can divide two larger instruction blocks whose internal clauses already contain commas.
سجل الدخول، ثم افتح صفحة الإعدادات؛ اختر اللغة، فاحفظ التغييرات
sajjili d-dukhūla, thumma ftaḥ ṣafḥata l-ʾiʿdādāti; ikhtari l-lughata, faḥfaẓi t-taghyīrāt
Sign in, then open the settings page; choose the language, then save the changes.
Common Mistakes
Writing فـ as a separate word
❌ افتح الملف ف اقرأ المقدمة
Incorrect — conjunction فـ attaches to the following word: فاقرأ.
✅ افتح الملف فاقرأ المقدمة قبل الاجتماع
iftaḥi l-malaf fa-qraʾi l-muqaddimata qabla l-ijtimāʿ
Open the file, then read the introduction before the meeting.
Using a perfect as the second command
❌ افتح الملف ثم قرأت الملاحظة
Incorrect as a command sequence — قرأت is perfect ‘you read’; use imperative اقرأ.
✅ افتح الملف ثم اقرأ الملاحظة الأخيرة
iftaḥi l-malaf thumma qraʾi l-mulāḥaẓata l-ʾakhīra
Open the file, then read the final note.
Keeping indicative nūn in a causative result
❌ راجعوا الأرقام فتكتشفون الخطأ
Incorrect for the formal ‘and thereby’ construction — subjunctive فتكتشفوا loses mood nūn.
✅ راجعوا الأرقام فتكتشفوا الخطأ قبل النشر
rājiʿū l-ʾarqāma fataktashifū l-khaṭaʾa qabla n-nashr
Check the figures and thereby discover the error before publication.
Treating و as a sequencing marker
❌ أطفئ الجهاز وافصل الكابل
Unclear if shutdown must precede disconnection — و coordinates the actions but does not mark their order.
✅ أطفئ الجهاز، ثم افصل الكابل بعد توقفه تماما
ʾaṭfiʾi l-jihāza, thumma fṣili l-kābila baʿda tawaqqufihi tamāman
Turn off the device, then disconnect the cable after it has stopped completely.
Giving a non-human plural a masculine-plural verb
❌ أدخل البيانات فسيظهرون النتائج
Incorrect — النتائج is a non-human plural and, as the following subject, takes feminine-singular ستظهر.
✅ أدخل البيانات فستظهر النتائج خلال ثوان
ʾadkhili l-bayānāti fasataẓharu n-natāʾiju khilāla thawān
Enter the data, and the results will appear within seconds.
Key Takeaways
- Attach فـ to a closely linked next command; write ثمّ separately for a later or distinct stage.
- Repeat the correct imperative agreement on every commanded action.
- A causative فـ after a request-like clause introduces a resulting imperfect subjunctive, not another command.
- An explicit future result such as فستظهرُ is an independent indicative assertion.
- Use Arabic punctuation to clarify long sequences, but let conjunctions and morphology express the grammatical relationship.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
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- How to Avoid Impossible Passive ImperativesB2 — Express commands whose agent is unknown or deliberately backgrounded without inventing a passive imperative in Arabic.
- The Arabic Verb SystemA1 — See how Arabic verb stems, agreement, mood, voice, and derived Forms work together in complete sentences.