A common mistake even amongst native Arabs... When the letter Taa comes at the end of past tense verbs, do we put 9'amma ـُ on top or Fat7aa ـَ?
(Please watch the video on short vowels to learn what 9'amma and Fat7aa are if you don't know them)
The answer is quite simple actually... First we need to clarify whether the speaker was the one who did this past tense verb or whether he is speaking to the person who did it.
If the speaker was the one committed the action, then the Taa here is called Taa Almutakallim (Taa the speaker), and it should be pronounced with a 9'ammah. However, if the addressee was the one who did the past action then the Taa should be pronounced with a Fat7aa, and it is called Taa Almu7'aa6ab (Taa the addressee) with the need for the addressee to be male and not female
Examples:
خَرَجْتُ مِنْ العَمَل
Notice the 9'ammah ـُ on top of the ت in the past tense verb خَرَجْتُ. It is 9'ammah, because the person who is speaking has done the action i.e. The speaker has left work.
If we said
خَرَجْتَ مِنْ العَمَل
Then the addressee was the one who has left work and not the speaker, since there is a Fat7a ـَ on top of the ت. As you can see, making this mistake can lead to the wrong person doing the action.
Now if the addressee is a female, then the short vowel at the end should be Kasra ـِ and not Fat7a e.g.
خَرَجْتِ مِنْ العَمَل
The Taa here is called Taa Almu7'aa6ebah (Taa the female addressee).
Finally, if the Taa ت at the end of past tense verb silent ـْ, then this means we are talking about a female who has done the action and it's called Taa Atta2neeth (Taa the feminized) e.g.
خَرَجَتْ سَارَة مِنْ العَمَل
Notice here that the ج before the ت is not silent like in the other examples, and also we mentioned the subject سَارَة. It would be an incomplete sentence if the subject wasn't mentioned.
In summary, the ت at the end of past tense verbs:
- Comes with a ضمة ـٌ and is called تاء المتكلم if the speaker is the person who committed the action.
- Comes with a فتحة ـَ and is called تاء المخاطب if the male that you are speaking to has committed the action.
- Comes with a كسرة ـِ and is called تاء المخاطب if the female that you are speaking to has committed the action.
- Comes with a سكون ـْ and is called تاء التأنيث if we are talking about a female who has committed the action.
