نزل nizil is the everyday Lebanese verb for “go down,” “come down,” “get off,” and “drop/fall.” (informal/neutral spoken) Its nonpast is بينزل byinzal, not a form whose vowels can be guessed from the perfect. It also describes prices, temperatures, rain, and newly released material moving metaphorically “down” into public availability.
Keep Form I نزل nizil separate from doubled Form II نزّل nazzal “bring/take down, let someone off, download/post online.” Ordinary unvocalized spelling often writes both as نزل, so pronunciation and participant structure do real grammatical work. The wider participant shift is mapped under lexical causative pairs.
Perfect paradigm
The perfect has i vowels in نزل nizil. Suffixed forms compress the first vowel in fluent Beirut speech, while the feminine نزلت is heard as nizlet. These vowels are lexical; another Form I verb need not copy them.
| Person | Arabic | Romanization | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| أنا | نْزِلِت | nzilit | I went down / got off |
| إنت | نْزِلِت | nzilit | you (m.) went down |
| إنتي | نْزِلْتِي | nzilte | you (f.) went down |
| هو | نِزِل | nizil | he went down |
| هي | نِزْلِت | nizlet | she went down |
| نحنا | نْزِلْنَا | nzilna | we went down |
| إنتو | نْزِلْتُوا | nzilto | you (pl.) went down |
| هني | نِزْلُوا | nizlo | they went down |
نزلنا عالطابق الأرضي لأنو المصعد عطلان
nzilna ʿaṭ-ṭābiʾ il-arḍe laʾanno l-miṣʿad ʿaṭlān
We went down to the ground floor because the elevator is broken.
نزلت من الباص عند أول الشارع
nizlet min il-bāṣ ʿind awwal ish-shēriʿ
She got off the bus at the beginning of the street.
For transport, the vehicle is normally the source with من: نزل من الباص / السيارة. The stop or landmark takes عند, while a downward destination can take عـ: نزل عالطابق الأول. English “get off the bus” packages the vehicle with off; Lebanese builds a normal source phrase.
B-imperfect and bare imperfect
The perfect nizil alternates with nonpast -inzal. This is exactly why verbs are learned through principal parts rather than by keeping the citation vowels unchanged.
| Person | B-imperfect | Bare imperfect | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| أنا | بِنْزَل binzal | اِنْزَل inzal | I go down / that I go down |
| إنت | بْتِنْزَل btinzal | تِنْزَل tinzal | you (m.) go down |
| إنتي | بْتِنْزَلِي btinzale | تِنْزَلِي tinzale | you (f.) go down |
| هو | بِيِنْزَل byinzal | يِنْزَل yinzal | he goes down |
| هي | بْتِنْزَل btinzal | تِنْزَل tinzal | she goes down |
| نحنا | مْنِنْزَل mninzal | نِنْزَل ninzal | we go down |
| إنتو | بْتِنْزَلُوا btinzalo | تِنْزَلُوا tinzalo | you (pl.) go down |
| هني | بِيِنْزَلُوا byinzalo | يِنْزَلُوا yinzalo | they go down |
كل يوم بنزل هون وبمشي للمكتب
kill yōm binzal hōn w-bimshe lal-maktab
Every day I get off here and walk to the office.
إذا نزلت الحرارة أكتر رح نسكر الشبابيك
iza nizlet il-ḥarāra aktar raḥ nsakkir ish-shabēbīk
If the temperature drops further, we’ll close the windows.
The changing entity is the subject in nonhuman uses: الحرارة نزلت, الأسعار بتنزل, المطر عم بينزل. English may choose fall, drop, or come down; Lebanese keeps the same intransitive event structure.
Imperative and active participle
The commands are انزل inzal (masculine), انزلي inzale (feminine), and انزلوا inzalo (plural). Very compressed speech may approach nzal (informal pronunciation), but the fuller production forms make the initial syllable and person endings clear.
| Addressee | Arabic | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | اِنْزَل | inzal |
| feminine singular | اِنْزَلِي | inzale |
| plural | اِنْزَلُوا | inzalo |
انزلي عند الصيدلية ودقيلي بس توصلي
inzale ʿind iṣ-ṣaydaliyye w-doʾʾīle bass tōṣale
Get off by the pharmacy and call me as soon as you arrive.
The active participle is نازل nēzel, feminine نازلة nēzle, plural نازلين nēzlīn. It presents a current orientation or imminent trip downward/out: أنا نازل عالسوق can mean “I’m heading down/out to the market.” It can also describe something visibly descending.
أنا نازلة عالسوبرماركت، بدك شي؟
ana nēzle ʿas-sūbarmārkit, baddik she?
I’m heading down to the supermarket; do you want anything?
Releases, posting, and downloading
Intransitive Form I describes material becoming available: التقرير نزل “the report came out,” الحلقة نزلت “the episode dropped.” (informal/media) The content itself remains the subject.
الحلقة الجديدة نزلت مبارح عالمنصة
il-ḥalaʾa l-zhdīde nizlet mbēreḥ ʿal-manaṣṣe
The new episode came out on the platform yesterday.
Downloading, posting material online, lowering something, or letting someone off normally uses doubled Form II نزّل nazzal / byinazzel. Because normal spelling often omits shadda, نزلت الملف is interpreted through pronunciation and roles: nazzalet il-malaf means “I downloaded the file,” not “the file went down.”
نزلت الملف عالتلفون لاقراه بالطريق
nazzalet il-malaf ʿat-tilifōn la-ʾrāh biṭ-ṭarīʾ
I downloaded the file to my phone so I could read it on the way.
Object clitics and the Form II boundary
Core Form I نزل is intransitive, so it does not take a direct object meaning “get him off.” A vehicle/source follows من, and other people attach to their prepositions: نزل معي “he got off with me.” To cause a person or thing to descend, use Form II: نزّلني nazzalne, نزّلك nazzalak, نزّله nazzalo, نزّلها nazzala, نزّلنا nazzalna, نزّلكن nazzalkon, نزّلهن nazzalon.
السواق نزلني قبل الإشارة لأنو الطريق مسكر
is-sawwāʾ nazzalne ʾabil il-ishāra laʾanno ṭ-ṭarīʾ msakkar
The driver let me off before the traffic light because the road was closed.
Common Mistakes
❌ بينزل
byinzil
Incorrect reading — the verified imperfect changes the stem vowel to byinzal.
✅ بينزل الباص عالمدينة كل نص ساعة
byinzal il-bāṣ ʿal-madīne kill noṣṣ sēʿa
The bus goes down into town every half hour.
❌ نزلت من الباص عالجامعة
Incorrect for the intended stop location — the vehicle is the source, while the landmark is عند الجامعة.
✅ نزلت من الباص عند الجامعة
nzilit min il-bāṣ ʿind il-zhēmʿa
I got off the bus by the university.
❌ نزلت رامي من السيارة
nizilit Rāme min is-sayyāra
Incorrect for ‘I got Rami out’ — intransitive Form I cannot take Rami as its affected object.
✅ نزلت رامي حد البيت
nazzalet Rāme ḥadd il-bēt
I let Rami out by the house.
❌ رح بينزلوا عند المحطة الجاية
Incorrect — رح selects the bare imperfect without b-.
✅ رح ينزلوا عند المحطة الجاية
raḥ yinzalo ʿind il-maḥaṭṭa l-zhēye
They’ll get off at the next stop.
Key Takeaways
- Learn نزل / بينزل as nizil / byinzal; the perfect does not predict the imperfect vowels.
- Use من for the vehicle or source and عند for the stop where someone gets off.
- Form I is intransitive; doubled Form II adds a causer and licenses direct objects.
- Releases can “come out” with Form I, while downloading or posting normally uses Form II.
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