The textbook exercises use past verbs from several roots. Each must be understood both for meaning and for its grammatical person and voice.
Word / formMeaning / explanation
كَتَبَhe wrote; third-person masculine singular, affirmative active.
مَنَعَhe prevented; third-person masculine singular, affirmative active.
اِجْتَنَبَhe avoided; third-person masculine singular, affirmative active in a derived stem.
عَلِمَhe knew; third-person masculine singular, affirmative active.
تَرَكَhe left; third-person masculine singular, affirmative active.
These differ in lexical meaning but share grammatical person. Although عَلِمَ has kasrah on its middle consonant, it is still active past; not every active verb has the exact stem pattern فَعَلَ.