Learn Arabic › B1 › كَلَّم
كَلَّم
to speak to (someone), to talk to (someone) /kal.ˈla.ma/
verbB1#2881 most common
Also: to address, to have a word with
Example sentences
أُريدُ أَنْ أُكَلِّمَكَ.
I want to talk to you.
كَلَّمْتُ صَديقي أَمْسِ.
I talked to my friend yesterday.
هَلْ يُمْكِنُني أَنْ أُكَلِّمَ المُدِيرَ؟
Can I speak to the manager?
كَلَّمَتْني أُمّي عَنْ خُطَطي لِلمُستَقبَل.
My mother talked to me about my plans for the future.
لَمْ يُكَلِّمْني أَحَدٌ بِخُصوصِ هٰذا المَوضوعِ مُنذُ أَسبوعَينِ.
No one has talked to me about this subject in two weeks.
لَو كُنتَ قَدْ كَلَّمْتَني قَبْلَ اتِّخاذِ القَرارِ، لَتَجَنَّبْنا هٰذِهِ المُشكِلَةَ.
Had you talked to me before making the decision, we would have avoided this problem.
Conjugation
| Present Active | Simple Past Active | Simple Future Active | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1sg | أُكَلِّمُ | كَلَّمْتُ | سَأُكَلِّمُ |
| 2sg | تُكَلِّمُ | كَلَّمْتَ | سَتُكَلِّمُ |
| 3sg | يُكَلِّمُ | كَلَّمَ | سَيُكَلِّمُ |
| 1pl | نُكَلِّمُ | كَلَّمْنَا | سَنُكَلِّمُ |
| 2pl | تُكَلِّمُونَ | كَلَّمْتُمْ | سَتُكَلِّمُونَ |
| 3pl | يُكَلِّمُونَ | كَلَّمُوا | سَيُكَلِّمُونَ |
Word family
Etymology
كَلَّم is the Form II (faʿʿala) verb built on the triliteral Semitic root ك ل م (k-l-m). The same root gives كَلِمَة (word) and كَلَام (speech), and doubling the middle radical turns the root's basic sense into a transitive, directed action: to make speech land on someone, that is, to address them. Classical Arabic dictionaries also record a related root sense of ك ل م as wounding or piercing, so speech and wounding share a root, on the old idea that words can cut. This is a Semitic-internal derivation, not an Indo-European one.
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