Sa, wa, and fa
There are three fragments which may be added in front of words in Arabic to modify the time or sequence being presented.
Fa is the modifier with the most immediate meaning, translated as “then” or even “so”. Used for immediate consequences or results, or something that happens immediately after it's preceding event.
Wa is translated as “and”, and has a medium meaning in terms of time. Used to tell something that happens after something, but lacking the urgency of fa, or the distance of sa.
Sa is used specifically with verbs, and it similarly to a preposition to push the meaning of a present tense verb to future tense. It is the most distant in terms of time, of these three modifiers.
But, there's one more modifier which is used to signify the future tense — sawfa. And it just hit me that sawfa is a fragment constructed of the above three modifiers, sa, wa, and fa.
This really makes it seem like fragments in Arabic are just arbitrary letters people used to signify a certain meaning. But isn't that all language?