When I started to learn Arabic, I found it odd, as the Arabic ROOT WORD is past tense or FA'IL MADHI and from FA'IL MADHI, other words can be derived.
I am used to the Malay and English systems, where the root words are normally a nouns or ISIM, to use the Arabic equivalent.
I Arabic, another king of nouns can be derived from a verb, FA'IL MADHI, the nouns is called TOOLING NOUNS . I did not catch the Arabic Word for it. What it does is, the past tense word is transformed to be a nouns for the tool or equipment that does the verb.
There are many style to transform the verb to become a tool. The transformation style is called the WAZAN.
1. WAZAN 1 - FA A LA --- become MAF A LUN
فعل...... مفعل
2. WAZAN 2 - FA - AAA LA becomes MAF AAA LUN
فعال .....مفعال
As an example FA TA HA meaning .. he open it, converted to the tool to open.. or key, a new word is formed ..MIS TAA HUN.
فتح....... مفتاح