عمل ʿimil: do, make, and work | Arabic (Levantine) Grammar

عمل ʿimil is the everyday Lebanese verb for both “do” and “make.” (informal) It can name an action, the creation or preparation of something, what someone does professionally, and dozens of conventional combinations such as عمل حجز “make a reservation.” Its principal parts are عمل ʿimil, بيعمل byiʿmil, and اعمل iʿmal!.

English speakers get welcome mileage from one verb covering do and make, but that convenience has a limit. Lebanese chooses fixed verb–noun combinations of its own, and “work” as an activity is usually اشتغل, not automatically عمل. Learn the construction around the verb, not only a one-word gloss.

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Ask what follows عمل. A concrete result favors “make,” an activity favors “do,” a job label after a question can describe occupation, and a conventional noun may create a light-verb expression whose meaning belongs to the whole phrase.

Perfect paradigm

The citation form عمل has the spoken melody ʿimil. Before suffixes, unstressed vowels reduce: compare عمل ʿimil with عملت ʿmilt. The feminine عملت is distinguished in speech by ʿimlet, not by spelling.

Person	Arabic	Romanization	Meaning
أنا	عْمِلْت	ʿmilt	I did / made
إنت	عْمِلْت	ʿmilt	you (m.) did / made
إنتي	عْمِلْتِي	ʿmilte	you (f.) did / made
هو	عِمِل	ʿimil	he did / made
هي	عِمْلِت	ʿimlet	she did / made
نحنا	عْمِلْنَا	ʿmilna	we did / made
إنتو	عْمِلْتُوا	ʿmilto	you (pl.) did / made
هني	عِمْلُوا	ʿimlo	they did / made

عملت قهوة قبل ما يفيقوا الضيوف

ʿmilt ʾahwe ʾabil ma yfīʾo ḍ-ḍyūf

I made coffee before the guests woke up.

شو عملتوا لما قطعت الكهربا؟

shū ʿmilto lamma ʾiṭʿit il-kahraba?

What did you all do when the power went out?

The object makes the interpretation natural: coffee is produced, whereas شو عملت؟ asks about an action. Do not look for a hard grammatical boundary between “do” and “make”; context supplies the English choice.

B-imperfect and bare imperfect

The b-imperfect handles habits, characteristic actions, and ordinary nonpast statements. The bare form follows future, modality, and other licensors. The stem vowel is -i- in this Beirut baseline.

Person	B-imperfect	Bare imperfect	Meaning
أنا	بَعْمِل baʿmil	اَعْمِل aʿmil	I do / that I do
إنت	بْتِعْمِل btiʿmil	تِعْمِل tiʿmil	you (m.) do
إنتي	بْتِعْمِلِي btiʿmle	تِعْمِلِي tiʿmle	you (f.) do
هو	بِيِعْمِل byiʿmil	يِعْمِل yiʿmil	he does
هي	بْتِعْمِل btiʿmil	تِعْمِل tiʿmil	she does
نحنا	مْنِعْمِل mniʿmil	نِعْمِل niʿmil	we do
إنتو	بْتِعْمِلُوا btiʿmlo	تِعْمِلُوا tiʿmlo	you (pl.) do
هني	بِيِعْمِلُوا byiʿmlo	يِعْمِلُوا yiʿmlo	they do

بيعمل أكله بالبيت وما بيطلب دليفري

byiʿmil aklo bil-bēt w-ma byiṭlob delivery

He makes his food at home and doesn’t order delivery.

رح نعمل خطة جديدة إذا ما زبطت هيدي

raḥ niʿmil khiṭṭa zhdīde iza ma zibṭit hayde

We’ll make a new plan if this one doesn’t work.

The initial alif of the 1st-person bare form helps write and pronounce the onset, but predictable initial hamza is not represented in this course’s romanization. Contrast habitual بعمل “I do/make” with future رح اعمل “I will do/make.”

Imperative and active participle

The commands are اعمل iʿmal (masculine), اعملي iʿmale (feminine), and اعملوا iʿmalo (plural). Their vowel pattern differs from the imperfect, so copying -i- into every slot will not produce the standard Beirut command.

Addressee	Arabic	Romanization
masculine singular	اِعْمَل	iʿmal
feminine singular	اِعْمَلِي	iʿmale
plural	اِعْمَلُوا	iʿmalo

اعمل حسابك إنو الطريق رح تكون عجقة

iʿmal ḥsēbak inno ṭ-ṭarīʾ raḥ tkūn ʿazhʾa

Plan on the road being crowded.

Here عمل حسابه is an idiom meaning “take into account / plan on.” The active participle is عامل ʿāmel, feminine عاملة ʿēmle, plural عاملين ʿāmlīn. It can describe a current/resulting arrangement, but it also has lexical uses: عامل can mean “worker,” and عامل حاله means “acting as if / pretending to be.”

عامل حاله مش سامع السؤال

ʿāmel ḥālo mish sēmiʿ is-suʾāl

He’s pretending not to hear the question.

Do not infer that every English progressive must use عامل. For an action unfolding now, the regular progressive system with عم is normally the productive choice.

Doing, making, working, and light-verb phrases

With action nouns, عمل supplies person and tense while the noun contributes the specific event. Common (informal/neutral) combinations include عمل حجز “make a reservation,” عمل فحص “get/do a test,” عمل اتصال “make a call,” عمل مشكلة “cause a problem,” and عمل جولة “take a tour.” These collocations must be learned individually; English do versus make is not a reliable guide.

عملنا حجز لأربعة عالساعة تمانية

ʿmilna ḥazhiz la-arbaʿa ʿas-sēʿa tmēnye

We made a reservation for four at eight o’clock.

بدي اعمل فحص دم قبل الموعد

badde aʿmil faḥeṣ damm ʾabil il-mawʿid

I need to get a blood test before the appointment.

For employment, شو بتعمل؟ can ask “what do you do?” and invite a profession. But to say “I work at a bank,” the natural verb is usually بشتغل ببنك. بعمل ببنك is not the ordinary equivalent. See light-verb constructions for the larger system.

Object clitics and beneficiaries

Direct objects attach normally: عمله ʿimlo “he did/made it,” عملها ʿimla “he did/made it (f.),” عملته ʿmilto “I did/made it,” and بعملها baʿmela “I do/make it.” With a command, اعملها iʿmela means “do/make it.” A person receiving the result is different: عمللي قهوة “make me coffee” contains لـ + لي, not a direct-object “me.”

إذا بدك قهوة بعملك وحدة معي

iza baddak ʾahwe baʿmillak waḥde maʿe

If you want coffee, I’ll make you one along with mine.

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A thing made is a direct object; a person it is made for is introduced by لـ. In fast speech that لـ fuses with the pronoun, as in بعملك “I make for you.”

Common Mistakes

❌ أنا بعمل ببنك

Incorrect for the intended meaning ‘I work at a bank’ — عمل is not the general activity verb ‘work.’

✅ أنا بشتغل ببنك

ana bashtighil bi-bank

I work at a bank.

❌ رح بعمل الحجز بكرا

Incorrect — رح selects the bare imperfect, without b- on the following verb.

✅ رح اعمل الحجز بكرا

raḥ aʿmil il-ḥazhiz bokra

I’ll make the reservation tomorrow.

❌ عملتله المشروع

Incorrect if the intended meaning is ‘I did the project itself’ — the project is the direct object, not a لـ-recipient.

✅ عملت المشروع

ʿmilt il-mashrūʿ

I did the project.

❌ هي عملت القهوة

hiyye ʿmilt il-ʾahwe

Incorrect pronunciation — with هي, the spoken form of عملت is ʿimlet.

✅ هي عملت القهوة

hiyye ʿimlet il-ʾahwe

She made the coffee.

The last written pair looks identical because Lebanese spelling does not mark all spoken vowels. That is precisely why learning the spoken paradigm, rather than only the consonantal text, matters.

Key Takeaways

عمل covers both English do and make, but collocations determine the natural choice.
Its perfect alternates ʿimil with reduced suffixed forms such as ʿmilt.
Use اشتغل for the general activity “work,” while شو بتعمل؟ can ask about someone’s occupation.
Direct objects attach to the verb; a beneficiary is expressed through لـ.

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