نسي nisi: forget | Arabic (Levantine) Grammar

Lebanese نسيnisi “forget” is final-weak: its final vowel and historical y change shape across the paradigm. The essential principal parts are نسي، نسيت، بينسى، انسى، ناسيnisi, nsīt, byinsa, insa, nēse. None can be safely guessed from the unvocalized citation form alone.

The verb takes a forgotten person or thing directly, a bare verb for “forget to do,” and a location phrase when something was accidentally left behind. Its participle ناسي presents the resulting state—something is absent from current memory.

Perfect paradigm

The unsuffixed masculine ends in -i. Before first- and second-person endings, the stem has long ī; the feminine and third-person plural retain an audible y.

Person	Form	Reading
أنا	نسيت	nsīt
إنت	نسيت	nsīt
إنتي	نسيتي	nsīte
هو	نسي	nisi
هي	نسيت	nisyit
نحنا	نسينا	nsīna
إنتو	نسيتوا	nsīto
هني	نسيوا	nisyo

نسيت كلمة السر واضطريت غيرها.

nsīt kilmet es-sirr w-iḍṭarrēt ghayyira.

I forgot the password and had to change it. (informal; first-person perfect)

نسيت ميرا دفترها عالطاولة ورجعت تجيبه.

nisyit Mīra daftara ʿaṭ-ṭāwle w-rizhʿit tzhībo.

Mira left her notebook on the table and came back to get it. (informal; feminine perfect and accidental leaving)

نسينا ليش بلشنا نحكي بهالموضوع.

nsīna lēsh ballashna niḥke b-hal-mawḍūʿ.

We forgot why we started talking about this subject. (informal; plural speaker and embedded question)

💡

Written نسيت has two common readings: nsīt “I/you masculine forgot” and nisyit “she forgot.” The subject and pronunciation—not the bare spelling—identify the form.

b-imperfect and bare imperfect

The imperfect reverses the citation vowel to -a: بينسىbyinsa. Feminine and plural endings replace that final a with -e or -o.

Person	b-imperfect	Bare imperfect
أنا	بنسى binsa	انسى insa
إنت	بتنسى btinsa	تنسى tinsa
إنتي	بتنسي btinse	تنسي tinse
هو	بينسى byinsa	ينسى yinsa
هي	بتنسى btinsa	تنسى tinsa
نحنا	مننسى mninsa	ننسى ninsa
إنتو	بتنسوا btinso	تنسوا tinso
هني	بينسوا byinso	ينسوا yinso

إذا ما بحط تنبيه، بنسى كل المواعيد الصبح.

iza ma baḥoṭṭ tanbīh, binsa kill el-mawēʿīd eṣ-ṣoboḥ.

If I don't set an alert, I forget all my morning appointments. (informal; habitual first person)

رح ينسى اسم الفندق إذا ما يكتبه هلق.

raḥ yinsa ism el-fondoʾ iza ma yiktobo hallaʾ.

He'll forget the hotel's name if he doesn't write it down now. (informal; bare form after رح)

ليش دايما بتنسوا وين صفيتوا السيارة؟

lēsh dēyman btinso wēn ṣaffēto s-sayyāra?

Why do you all always forget where you parked the car? (informal; plural habitual)

The full alternation is explained in Final-ī Verbs. For this lexical entry, learn the cells as one paradigm rather than deriving them from formal Arabic.

Forgotten objects and things left behind

People, information, and physical objects are direct: نسي الاسم، نسيها، نسي رفيقه. A location with بـ or على tells where an object was accidentally left.

نسيت المفاتيح بالبيت، فيك تنطرني خمس دقايق؟

nsīt el-mafātīḥ bil-bēt, fīk tinṭorne khames dʾāyiʾ?

I left the keys at home; can you wait for me for five minutes? (informal; accidental leaving)

هو نسي تلفونه بالتاكسي واتصل بالشركة على طول.

huwwe nisi tilifōno bit-tākse w-ittaṣal bish-shirke ʿala ṭūl.

He left his phone in the taxi and called the company immediately. (informal; direct object plus location)

English leave does not say whether the act was accidental. نسي الكتاب بالمكتب entails failure of memory; ترك الكتاب بالمكتب “left the book at the office” can be deliberate. Choose the Lebanese verb according to intention, not the English surface verb.

“Forget to” and clause complements

For an omitted action, نسي takes a bare imperfect agreeing with the forgetter. Lebanese has no infinitive marker corresponding to English to.

نسيت ادفع فاتورة الكهربا قبل آخر مهلة.

nsīt dfaʿ fātūret el-kahraba ʾabel ākher mohle.

I forgot to pay the electricity bill before the deadline. (informal; first-person bare complement)

نسيوا يبعتوا العنوان للضيوف قبل الحفلة.

nisyo yibʿato l-ʿonwēn laḍ-ḍyūf ʾabel el-ḥafle.

They forgot to send the address to the guests before the party. (informal; plural perfect and plural lower verb)

For forgotten information, an embedded question or إنو clause is possible: نسيت وين حطيته “I forgot where I put it,” نسيت إنو اليوم عطلة “I forgot that today was a holiday.” In spontaneous speech, نسيت إنو... often explains a mistake.

نسيت إنو اليوم عطلة ووصلت عالمكتب بكير.

nsīt inno l-yōm ʿoṭle w-wiṣilt ʿal-maktab bkīr.

I forgot that today was a holiday and arrived at the office early. (informal; forgotten proposition)

Object clitics

The subject ending remains inside the word before the object suffix. Compare نسيت “I forgot” and نسيتها “I forgot it/her.” Third-person masculine نسيه exposes the weak y, while a plural subject before a clitic has long -ū-.

Form	Reading	Layering
نسيتك	nsītak	I forgot you (m.)
نسيتها	nsīta	I forgot it/her
نسيه	nisyo	he forgot it/him
نسيوني	nisyūne	they forgot me

ما نسيتك، بس كنت مسافر وما كان معي خط.

ma nsītak, bass kint msēfer w-ma kēn maʿe khaṭṭ.

I didn't forget you; I was traveling and didn't have phone service. (informal; masculine object clitic)

رفقاتها ما نسيونها وبعتولها هدية عالعيد.

rifʾāta ma nisyūna w-baʿatūla hadiyye ʿal-ʿīd.

Her friends didn't forget her and sent her a gift for the holiday. (informal; plural subject plus object clitic)

Imperative and result-state ناسي

The commands are انسىinsa, انسيinse, and انسواinso. A prohibition uses ما + bare second person: ما تنسى، ما تنسي، ما تنسوا.

انسى الخلاف القديم وخلينا نحكي بهدوء.

insa l-khilēf el-ʾadīm w-khallīna niḥke bi-hodūʾ.

Forget the old disagreement and let's talk calmly. (informal command to one man)

The active participle is ناسيnēse, feminine ناسيةnēsye, plural ناسيينnēsyīn. It describes a present result and is negated with مش, whereas finite perfect and imperfect forms use ما.

أنا مش ناسي طلبك، بس بعدني ناطر الجواب.

ana mish nēse ṭalabak, bass baʿdne nāṭer el-zhawēb.

I haven't forgotten your request; I'm still waiting for the answer. (informal; masculine result-state participle)

💡

Use ما نسيت to negate a forgetting event and مش ناسي to deny the current forgotten state. English often translates both with a present perfect, so the English tense alone cannot choose for you.

Common Mistakes

Keeping i in the imperfect

❌ هو بينسي كل اسم جديد.

Incorrect for the Beirut paradigm — نسي pairs with بينسى.

✅ هو بينسى الاسم إذا ما يستعمله.

huwwe byinsa l-ism iza ma yistaʿmelo.

He forgets the name if he doesn't use it. (informal)

Using masculine agreement for a woman

❌ يا لمى، ما تنسى جوازك.

Incorrect in the gender-agreeing baseline — one woman takes تنسي.

✅ يا لمى، ما تنسي جوازك بالدرج.

ya Lama, ma tinse zhawēzik bid-dorzh.

Lama, don't forget your passport in the drawer. (informal)

Adding a preposition before the forgotten object

❌ نسيت عن محفظتي بالبيت.

Incorrect literal transfer — the forgotten item is the direct object of نسي, without عن.

✅ نسيت محفظتي بالبيت واضطريت ارجع.

nsīt maḥfaẓte bil-bēt w-iḍṭarrēt irzhaʿ.

I left my wallet at home and had to go back. (informal; accidental)

Negating the participle with ما

❌ أنا ما ناسي الموعد.

Incorrect in the baseline — participial predicates normally take مش.

✅ أنا مش ناسي الموعد، كاتبه عالتقويم.

ana mish nēse l-mawʿed, kētbo ʿat-taʾwīm.

I haven't forgotten the appointment; I wrote it on the calendar. (informal)

Key Takeaways

Store nisi–nsīt–byinsa–insa–nēse together. Forgotten nouns are direct, forgotten actions use a bare lower verb, and a location phrase identifies where something was accidentally left. Preserve the weak-stem changes before person endings and clitics. Use finite ما for events and مش ناسي for the current result state.

Now practice Arabic

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Arabic →