Lebanese بقيbaʾi centers on something continuing to exist or being left after the rest is gone: “remain,” “stay,” or “be left.” Its final ي makes it a final-weak verb, so the last vowel changes when endings are attached. It also occurs in change-of-state and discourse uses, but English become is not a license to use بقي everywhere: everyday Beirut normally chooses صار for a new state and ضلّ for deliberate or continuous “stay.”
This distinction matters because English collapses several ideas into remain: an unchanged state, a quantity left over, time remaining, and a person staying at a place. Lebanese distributes those meanings across بقي، ضلّ، صار، قعد according to what the speaker profiles.
Perfect paradigm
The unsuffixed masculine form is بقيbaʾi. Before consonant-initial person endings, the weak final segment contracts and the stem sounds like bʾī-. Third-person feminine and plural retain a short glide sequence.
| Person | Form | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| أنا | بقيت | bʾīt |
| إنت | بقيت | bʾīt |
| إنتي | بقيتي | bʾīte |
| هو | بقي | baʾi |
| هي | بقيت | biʾyit |
| نحنا | بقينا | bʾīna |
| إنتو | بقيتوا | bʾīto |
| هني | بقيوا | biʾyo |
بقيت بالمكتب لحتى خلص الاجتماع.
bʾīt bil-maktab la-ḥatta khiliṣ el-izhtimēʿ.
I stayed at the office until the meeting ended. (neutral; first-person perfect)
بقي معنا خبز وزيتون للعشا.
baʾi maʿna khobez w-zētōn lil-ʿasha.
We had bread and olives left for dinner. (informal; remaining supply)
بقيوا شخصين ناطرين قدام الباب.
biʾyo shakhṣēn nāṭrīn ʾoddēm el-bēb.
Two people remained waiting in front of the door. (neutral; plural perfect)
b-imperfect, bare imperfect, and imperative
The b-imperfect gives habitual, characteristic, or independently asserted readings. The bare imperfect follows particles such as رح، بدّي، لازم، فيني. Notice that the masculine singular ends in written ى/ا and is pronounced -a, while feminine and plural forms use -e/-o.
| Person | b-imperfect | Bare imperfect |
|---|---|---|
| أنا | ببقى babʾa | ابقى ibʾa |
| إنت | بتبقى btibʾa | تبقى tibʾa |
| إنتي | بتبقي btibʾe | تبقي tibʾe |
| هو | بيبقى byibʾa | يبقى yibʾa |
| هي | بتبقى btibʾa | تبقى tibʾa |
| نحنا | منبقى mnibʾa | نبقى nibʾa |
| إنتو | بتبقوا btibʾo | تبقوا tibʾo |
| هني | بيبقوا byibʾo | يبقوا yibʾo |
عادة بيبقى كم محل فاتح لهالوقت.
ʿāde byibʾa kam maḥall fētiḥ la-hal-waʾt.
Usually a few shops are still open at this hour. (informal; habitual remainder)
رح يبقى معنا عشر دقايق قبل ما نفل.
raḥ yibʾa maʿna ʿashar daʾāyeʾ ʾabl ma nfill.
We'll have ten minutes left before we leave. (informal; bare form after رح)
إذا بدك تبقي هون، خبريني.
iza baddik tibʾe hōn, khabbirīne.
If you want to stay here, let me know. (informal; addressing one woman)
The imperatives are ابقىibʾa, ابقيibʾe, and ابقواibʾo. In Beirut, a request to stay is often more idiomatically ضلّ; ابقى can sound careful, emphatic, or regionally broader. That is a usage fact, not a conjugation error.
ابقوا شوي، بعد ما وصل قالب الحلو.
ibʾo shwayy, baʿd ma wiṣil ʾālab el-ḥilo.
Stay a little; the cake hasn't arrived yet. (neutral request to a group)
What remains and how much time is left
With a remaining entity as subject, بقي is close to English “be left.” The possessor or relevant party appears with مع، عند، لـ: بقي معي “I have left,” literally “remained with me.” A following غير or إلا narrows the residue to “only.” This is not an English-style transitive have: the remaining thing is the semantic subject. Agreement often follows it, while postverbal quantified remainders commonly allow default singular agreement.
ما بقي غير كرسي واحد فاضي.
ma baʾi ghēr kirse wāḥad fāḍe.
There is only one empty chair left. (informal; restricted remainder)
قديش بقي ليوصل القطار؟
ʾaddēsh baʾi la-yōṣal el-ʾiṭār?
How long is left until the train arrives? (informal; time remaining)
بقي عليي دفعتين وبسكر الحساب.
baʾi ʿalayye dafʿtēn w-basakker el-ḥsēb.
I have two payments left, and then I'll close the account. (informal; obligation remaining)
بقي, ضل, and صار
Choose by viewpoint, not by one English translation.
| Verb | Core viewpoint in Beirut | Typical example |
|---|---|---|
| بقي | something remains or is left | بقي وقت “time remained” |
| ضلّ | a person or state keeps going without interruption | ضل ناطر “he kept waiting” |
| صار | a new state comes about | صار غالي “it became expensive” |
Some neighboring Levantine varieties and careful styles extend بقي further toward “become” (regional: parts of Syria/Palestine/Jordan). Beirut speakers understand such uses, and lexicalized phrases may preserve them, but productive change is normally صار. See the full صار versus بقي decision guide.
ضل ناطر ساعة، وبقي معه بس عشر دقايق.
ḍall nāṭer sēʿa, w-baʾi maʿo bass ʿashar daʾāyeʾ.
He kept waiting for an hour, and he had only ten minutes left. (informal; continuation versus remainder)
صار الطريق أهدى بعد نص الليل.
ṣār eṭ-ṭarīʾ ahda baʿd noṣṣ el-lēl.
The road became quieter after midnight. (informal; new state, so صار)
The active participle باقيbēʾe, feminine باقيةbēʾye, plural باقيينbēʾyīn, presents a current remainder or continuing state. The nominalized الباقي means “the rest” or “the remainder.”
باقي معنا يومين قبل التسليم.
bēʾe maʿna yōmēn ʾabl et-taslīm.
We have two days left before the deadline. (neutral; participial current state)
خد هودي وخلي الباقي لإلي.
khod hawde w-khalle l-bēʾe la-ʾile.
Take these and leave the rest for me. (informal; nominalized participle)
Common Mistakes
❌ أنا بقي بالبيت مبارح.
Incorrect — the perfect must carry first-person -ت.
✅ أنا بقيت بالبيت لأن كنت تعبان.
ana bʾīt bil-bēt laʾann kint taʿbēn.
I stayed home because I was tired. (informal)
❌ رح بيبقى معنا مصاري.
Incorrect — رح selects the bare imperfect, without b-.
✅ رح يبقى معنا مبلغ صغير للطوارئ.
raḥ yibʾa maʿna mablagh zghīr laṭ-ṭawāreʾ.
We'll have a small amount left for emergencies. (neutral)
❌ بقي الجو بارد فجأة.
Unnatural for ordinary Beirut if the point is that the weather became cold.
✅ صار الجو بارد فجأة.
ṣār el-zhaww bēred fazhʾa.
The weather suddenly turned cold. (informal)
❌ بقيتني خمس دقايق.
Incorrect English transfer — basic بقي does not take a direct object meaning ‘I had five minutes left.’
✅ بقي معي خمس دقايق.
baʾi maʿe khames daʾāyeʾ.
I had five minutes left. (informal)
Key Takeaways
Learn baʾi–bʾīt–byibʾa–bēʾe as a final-weak set. Use بقي for what remains, is left, or persists in the situation; express the affected possessor with a prepositional phrase. Prefer ضلّ for sustained continuation and صار for ordinary productive “become” in the Beirut baseline. Treat broader change-of-state بقي as labeled regional input, not as a universal substitute for صار.
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- Active Participles for Current States and ResultsB2 — Use Lebanese participles such as واصل, قاعد, نايم, لابس, عارف, and ماسك to describe states that hold now.
- صار or بقي for BecomeB1 — Choose صار for entering a new state and بقي for what remains, stays left, or continues from an earlier state.
- كان kān: be and becomeA2 — Conjugate Lebanese كان and use it for past states, marked nonpast meanings, habitual backgrounds, directives, and counterfactuals.