kataba

Kataba is the transliteration of the Arabic verb كَتَبَ, meaning "he wrote." It is the past tense (perfect) form of the Form I triliteral root K-T-B, used to express a completed act of writing. In Arabic grammar, kataba is the third-person masculine singular form; the corresponding present tense is yaktubu, meaning "he writes" or "he is writing."

From the same root, other personal forms include katabat ("she wrote") and katabtu ("I wrote"). The root K-T-B also yields a family of related words such as kitāb ("book"), kitāba ("writing" or "composition"), maktab ("office" or "desk"), and maktaba ("library" or bookstore). These words preserve the semantic field of writing and record-keeping that underlies kataba.

Kataba is widely attested in classical Arabic literature and remains common in Modern Standard Arabic and contemporary writing. It is typically used with a direct object in the accusative, for example, kataba al-walad risāla ("the boy wrote a letter"). The regular word order in Arabic prose tends to be verb–subject–object, though both subject and object can be marked or omitted for emphasis or style.

Notes: negation of the past tense is formed with lam, as in lam kataba meaning "he did not write." Kataba thus occupies a core position in Arabic verb conjugation and in the broader Arabic lexicon tied to writing and documentation.