Every now and again, I notice my Arabic verb use getting stale. I’ll concentrate on learning verbs for actions that I don’t have the words to describe, but don’t always put in the time to diversify my vocabulary to include multiple ways to say the same actions. Understanding multiple verbs with similar meanings is a useful conversational skill though, and it helps us speak more naturally. So, let’s get started with some verbs that mean to start or to finish.

For a comprehensive overview of Levantine Arabic verbs, we recommend the book The 101 Most Used Verbs in Spoken Arabic.