رجع rizhiʿ: return

رجع rizhiʿ is the everyday Lebanese verb for “return, come back, go back.” (informal/neutral spoken) It also precedes another verb to mean “do again,” while doubled Form II رجّع razzhaʿ means “return something, take/send someone back.” Written ج has the urban Beirut pronunciation zh throughout this page.

The principal pair رجع / بيرجع rizhiʿ / byirzhaʿ changes vowels between perfect and imperfect. Learn that pair before adding the command ارجع irzhaʿ and active participle راجع rāzheʿ. This follows the method on principal parts.

Perfect paradigm

The 3rd-person masculine is رجع rizhiʿ. Several suffixed forms begin with the compressed cluster rzh-, while the 3rd-person feminine keeps a linking vowel before -t.

The endpoint commonly takes عـ or لـ depending on the noun: رجع عالبيت, رجع للشغل, رجع لعند أهله. The origin takes من. English return home has no overt preposition, but that does not make Lebanese رجع البيت the ordinary neutral frame.

B-imperfect and bare imperfect

The nonpast uses -irzhaʿ. The first-person b-form برجع has a short helping vowel, while other persons show their regular prefixes.

The second example is bare after لازم. The first b-form can describe an arranged return or contextually near future as well as a habit; Lebanese aspect is not a one-to-one English tense code.

Imperative and active participle

The commands are ارجع irzhaʿ (masculine), ارجعي irzhaʿe (feminine), and ارجعوا irzhaʿo (plural). They can direct physical return or return to a topic, page, or previous step.

The active participle is راجع rāzheʿ, feminine راجعة rāzhʿa, plural راجعين rāzhʿīn. It presents a person as headed back or committed to a return, often with a near-future reading.

This orientation use belongs to the broader system of motion participles. It agrees like an adjective and is negated with مش, not verbal ما.

Do something again

Before another verb, finite رجع can mark repetition: رجع اتصل “he called again,” رجعت سألت “I asked again,” بيرجع بيحكي نفس القصة “he tells the same story again.” The repeated verb retains the form appropriate to its own event; a completed repeated action commonly has two perfect verbs.

This construction does not require actual travel back to a place. The return is to an earlier action in the discourse. English again is an adverb; Lebanese often uses an agreeing verb, so tense and subject marking remain visible.

Get back to someone

With a لـ-clitic, برجعلك means “I’ll get back to you,” literally “I return to you.” The suffix belongs to the preposition, not to a direct-object use of Form I.

Other preposition suffixes behave normally: رجع لعندها “he went back to her place,” رجع معنا “he came back with us.” None makes the person a direct object of intransitive Form I.

Form II: return something or someone

Doubled رجّع razzhaʿ / byrazzheʿ adds a causer and takes an affected object: return a book, send someone back, put an item back. Its clitic forms include رجّعني razzhaʿne, رجّعك razzhaʿak, رجّعه razzhaʿo, رجّعها razzhaʿa, رجّعنا razzhaʿna, رجّعكن razzhaʿkon, and رجّعهن razzhaʿon.

Unvocalized رجعت الكتاب could conceal Form II “I returned the book,” but it cannot be read as intransitive rzhiʿt followed by a direct object. Participant roles and the spoken doubling decide.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Learn رجع / بيرجع as rizhiʿ / byirzhaʿ and keep urban ج = zh.
• Motion endpoints take عـ، لـ، لعند, while من introduces the origin.
• Finite رجع + another verb commonly means “do that action again.”
• Form I is intransitive; doubled Form II returns an object or causes someone to go back.