What exactly is ACON?
Whether you are a student or a seasoned speaker of Arabic, you are by now aware that Arabic verb conjugation tends to get complicated. With the various conjugation types and paradigms and the rules about double-lettered roots and weak roots... it is easy to lose track of everything.
ACON is a verb reference tool, powered by a real Grammar Engine that automatically conjugates verbs. Let us repeat that: it actually conjugates the verbs that you input by applying Arabic grammar rules!
ACON is designed with students teachers linguists translators in mind.
Unlike other so-called conjugators, ACON does not rely on a fixed list of conjugations. Look up the conjugation for the verb that you need, instead of browsing through lists of "similar verbs" in other apps or printed reference books. In that sense, ACON is more like a calculator. It will even allow you to conjugate fictional verbs, which is great for experimenting.
ACON is available as ACON Online and ACON App. ACON Online is free to use but has limited functionality compared to ACON App. If you are serious about learning Arabic or if you are a teacher or a language professional, we strongly recommend that you get the App. You might want to look at the ACON App page to see an overview of what its advantages are.
ACON in Academia & beyond
ACON is listed as an educational resource by universities from around the world, including Yale University, Indiana University and Universidad de Murcia, among many others.
ACON's top institutional users are (in order)
Top 5 university users
#1 Oxford
#2 Georgetown
#3 Harvard
#4 Cambridge
#5 Columbia
Top 5 other users
#1 USAISC
#2 US Dept. of State
#3 United Nations
#4 US Dept. of Defense
#5 EU Commission
I was very impressed with your Arabic conjugation resources. Its really fantastic. I would like to copy and paste some of the Arabic conjugation tables for my students.
- A.R., Senior Lecturer
Your verb conjugator is a gift from the gods for every student of the arabic language.
- Jakob W.
I don't know you personally, but I can't express my gratitude fully by words (only) for the work you have undertaken.
- Aman K.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the more common questions that people ask about ACON. Is your question not listed? Reach out over e-mail or social media.
ACON is specifically developped to automatically generate Arabic verb conjugations. It does not aim to be a dictionary, at all. ACON does not aim to be a replacement for dictionaries but rather for verb conjugation reference books.
Students, teachers, linguists and translators can all benefit from ACON in their own way.
To properly use ACON, you need to have a basic understanding of how Arabic verbs work. Then, ACON can be used as a guide or reference at your side, much like how you would use a calculator for algebra. You know how to add and divide, etc. but you do not want to waste your time calculating or maybe you just need to double check your own conjugation?
Yes and no. ACON is like a calculator. You can use a calculator to solve math questions but you are supposed to know the basics of arithmetics. The same goes for ACON: you should have an understanding of basic principles such as verb roots, conjugation types, etc.
However, ACON is designed in such a way that you can easily and quickly switch from one verb or tense to the other. This way, it becomes easy for you to see how verb types, tenses and voices differ from one another. This provides a novel insight into the inner workings of Arabic verb conjugation, which can deepen your understanding of conjugation mechanics.
ACON is powered by a Grammar Engine. It is not a list of pre-conjugated verbs. The powerful Grammar Engine does not care whether the verb you select exists or not. It simply applies the rules of conjugation.
The advantage of this is two-fold:
(1) Even obscure and exotic verbs can be conjugated.
(2) You can experiment with every combination, which is not only fun, but also very important for gaining a deeper understanding of how verbs are conjugated in Arabic.
ACON app is vastly more accurate than the web-based version.
In fact, ACON is so accurate, that it was able to find errors in the Bescherelle Arabe, a work of reference of the highest quality. For university-level students of Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, ACON will have no problem conjugating virtually any verb with 100% accuracy. Translators or linguists who want to conjugate uncommon verbs can rely on ACON's built-in confidence meter to know whether or not the conjugation can be trusted.
Most "inaccuracies" are the result of bad input. ACON operates on the "garbage in, garbage out" principle. As with any tool, it is important to take the time to learn to properly use it to achieve the best results.
The ACON Grammar Engine is built on grammatical rules found in the most normative books on Arabic grammar that western scholarship has to offer, including:
- Arabische Sprachlehre, Harder & Schimmel
- A Grammar of the Arabic Language (Third Edition), W. Wright
- Bescherelle: Les verbes Arabes, Sam Ammar & Joseph Dichy
- 201 Arabic Verbs, Raymond P. Scheindlin
- A Grammar of Classical Arabic, Wolfdietrich Fischer
Although ACON is rigorously checked for errors, the enormous number of possible conjugations and verbs make oversights possible.
Are you sure that it is an error and not an alternative conjugation? If so, please report this ASAP. Do tell which verb, type, voice and tense is causing the error and also. If you can provide a reference to a correct version, you should.