اشتقت إليك.

With full vowels, it is اِشْتَقْتُ إِلَيْكَ when speaking to one male, and اِشْتَقْتُ إِلَيْكِ when speaking to one female.

A common transliteration is:

• ishtaqtu ilayka = to a male
• ishtaqtu ilayki = to a female

A rough pronunciation guide:

• ish-TAQ-tu i-LAY-ka
• ish-TAQ-tu i-LAY-ki

Notes:

• q in ishtaqtu represents ق, a deeper sound than English k
• ay in ilayka sounds like the vowel in day

اشتقت is the perfect (past) tense, first person singular.

So grammatically it means I ...ed or I have ...ed.

The ending -تُ is the clue: it marks I in the perfect tense.

So:

• اشتقتُ = I longed / I missed
• the subject أنا = I is already built into the verb, so Arabic does not need to say it separately

This is a very common question.

In Arabic, اِشْتَقْتُ إِلَيْكَ is often used naturally in situations where English says I missed you or even I miss you in a conversational sense.

The perfect tense here can express a felt emotion that has arisen or been experienced. Depending on context, it may sound like:

• I missed you
• I’ve missed you
• I was longing for you

If you want a more clearly present-time meaning in MSA, you can also say:

• أشتاق إليك = I long for / I miss you
• أنا مشتاق إليك = I am missing you / I am longing for you
  
  • if the speaker is female: أنا مشتاقة إليك

So اشتقت إليك is idiomatic and very common, even though English often prefers the present.

The root is ش و ق.

This root carries the idea of longing, yearning, or desire.

Related words include:

• شَوْق = longing, yearning
• مُشْتاق = longing, missing someone
• اِشْتاقَ = to long for, to miss

So اشتقت comes from the verb اِشْتاقَ.

The dictionary form is اِشْتاقَ, which is commonly analyzed as Form VIII.

Its basic meaning is to long for or to miss.

In this sentence:

• اِشْتاقَ = he longed / he missed
• اِشْتَقْتُ = I longed / I missed

So اشتقت is the 1st person singular perfect of اِشْتاقَ.

Because this verb normally takes the preposition إلى in standard Arabic.

So the structure is:

• اشتقت إلى... = I longed for / missed ...

When the object is a pronoun, إلى combines with it:

• إليَّ = to me
• إليكَ / إليكِ = to you
• إليه = to him
• إليها = to her

So إليك is really:

• إلى + ك

In MSA, اشتقت إليك is the standard construction.

In Modern Standard Arabic, the safest and most standard choice is:

• اشتقت إليك

About the other two:

• اشتقتك: this is generally not the standard MSA pattern for this verb
• اشتقت لك: this can occur in some dialects or informal speech, but it is not the classical/standard MSA construction

So if you are learning MSA, use:

• اشتقت إليك

Yes, the ك at the end changes by addressee.

For singular:

• اِشْتَقْتُ إِلَيْكَ = said to one male
• اِشْتَقْتُ إِلَيْكِ = said to one female

For other forms:

• اِشْتَقْتُ إِلَيْكُمَا = to two people
• اِشْتَقْتُ إِلَيْكُمْ = to a group of males or mixed group
• اِشْتَقْتُ إِلَيْكُنَّ = to a group of females

Important detail:

• In everyday unvowelled writing, إليك can look the same for masculine and feminine singular
• the difference is in pronunciation: ilayka vs ilayki

No. In the perfect tense, اشتقتُ is the same whether the speaker is male or female.

So both a man and a woman can say:

• اشتقتُ إليك

But if you use the adjective form instead, then gender does matter:

• male speaker: أنا مشتاق إليك
• female speaker: أنا مشتاقة إليك

So:

• اشتقت إليك = same for both male and female speakers
• أنا مشتاق/مشتاقة إليك = changes with the speaker’s gender

Because this verb has a weak middle root letter.

The base form is:

• اِشْتاقَ

But when you add a suffix like -تُ in the perfect tense, the long vowel contracts:

• اِشْتاقَ → اِشْتَقْتُ

This is a normal pattern in Arabic with weak verbs.

A very common parallel is:

• قالَ = he said
• قُلْتُ = I said

So similarly:

• اِشْتاقَ = he longed
• اِشْتَقْتُ = I longed

Yes, that is grammatical.

But usually أنا is unnecessary, because اشتقت already means I.

So:

• اشتقت إليك = normal, natural
• أنا اشتقت إليك = possible, often with emphasis or contrast

For example, adding أنا can sound like:

• I missed you specifically
• As for me, I missed you

In neutral speech, Arabic often leaves the pronoun out.

It is perfectly natural and correct in Modern Standard Arabic.

It has a slightly elevated or formal feel compared with many colloquial dialect expressions, but it is absolutely normal in MSA writing, formal speech, messages, and emotional expressions.

So if you are studying MSA, this is a very good sentence to learn.