Lebanese شربshirib “drink” is a strong Form I verb, but “strong” does not mean that all its vowels can be predicted. Its useful lexical card is شرب، شربت، بيشرب، اشرب، شارب. The perfect has an i-i pattern, while the imperfect has -ishrab; learners need both principal parts.
The verb takes a beverage directly, distinguishes a drink from its container through syntax, and extends into a few common idioms. This page gives the complete urban Beirut paradigm and the usage choices that English drink, have, and take often hide.
Complete perfect paradigm
Suffixes produce ordinary reductions in the perfect. The feminine third-person form شربتshirbet and first/second-person شربتshiribt share a spelling but not a reading.
| Person | Form | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| أنا | شربت | shiribt |
| إنت | شربت | shiribt |
| إنتي | شربتي | shiribte |
| هو | شرب | shirib |
| هي | شربت | shirbet |
| نحنا | شربنا | shiribna |
| إنتو | شربتوا | shiribto |
| هني | شربوا | shirbo |
شربت قهوة عالطريق لأنو كنت مستعجل.
shiribt ʾahwe ʿaṭ-ṭarīʾ laʾanno kint mistaʿzhil.
I had coffee on the way because I was in a hurry. (informal; first-person perfect)
شربت رنا مي وارتاحت شوي.
shirbet Rana mayy w-irtēḥet shwayy.
Rana drank some water and felt a little better. (informal; feminine singular perfect)
شربتوا القهوة قبل ما تبرد؟
shiribto l-ʾahwe ʾabel ma tibrod?
Did you all drink the coffee before it got cold? (informal; plural addressee)
Complete b-imperfect and bare imperfect
The b-imperfect expresses routines and ordinary independent generalizations. Bare forms occur after رح, بدّي, لازم, purpose expressions, and in prohibitions.
| Person | b-imperfect | Bare imperfect |
|---|---|---|
| أنا | بشرب bishrab | اشرب ishrab |
| إنت | بتشرب btishrab | تشرب tishrab |
| إنتي | بتشربي btishrabe | تشربي tishrabe |
| هو | بيشرب byishrab | يشرب yishrab |
| هي | بتشرب btishrab | تشرب tishrab |
| نحنا | منشرب mnishrab | نشرب nishrab |
| إنتو | بتشربوا btishrabo | تشربوا tishrabo |
| هني | بيشربوا byishrabo | يشربوا yishrabo |
بشرب قهوة سادة كل صبح، بس ما بشربها بالليل.
bishrab ʾahwe sēde kill ṣoboḥ, bass ma bishrabha bil-lēl.
I drink black coffee every morning, but I don't drink it at night. (informal; affirmative and negative habit)
رح نشرب شي سخن بعد ما نوصل.
raḥ nishrab shi sokhon baʿd ma nōṣal.
We'll drink something hot after we arrive. (informal; bare plural after رح)
لازم تشربي مي أكتر بهالحر.
lāzem tishrabe mayy aktar b-hal-ḥarr.
You need to drink more water in this heat. (informal; feminine bare form after لازم)
For an activity unfolding now, urban Beirut uses عم + b-imperfect: عم بشرب “I am drinking,” عم بيشربوا “they are drinking.” See the broader habitual b-imperfect contrast for why the same stem appears in a routine without عم.
Imperative and active participle
Unlike the short commands كل and خد, this strong verb keeps an initial helping vowel in the positive imperative.
| Function | Masculine | Feminine | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| imperative | اشرب ishrab | اشربي ishrabe | اشربوا ishrabo |
| active participle | شارب shēreb | شاربة shērbe | شاربين shērbīn |
اشرب هالكاسة شوي شوي، مش دفعة وحدة.
ishrab hal-kēse shwayy shwayy, mish dafʿa waḥde.
Drink this glass slowly, not all at once. (informal; masculine command)
اشربوا مي قبل ما تكفوا المشي.
ishrabo mayy ʾabel ma tkaffo l-mashe.
Drink some water before you continue walking. (informal; plural command)
The active participle is context-sensitive. With an expressed beverage, it can present the result “has drunk it.” Without one, شكله شارب often implies alcohol: “he looks like he's been drinking.” Use عم بيشرب for a neutral ongoing drinking event.
ما تعملله قهوة؛ هو شارب تنتين من الصبح.
ma tiʿmello ʾahwe; howwe shēreb tintēn min eṣ-ṣoboḥ.
Don't make him coffee; he's already had two since the morning. (informal; result-state participle)
شكله شارب، خلي حدا غيره يسوق.
shaklo shēreb, khalle ḥada ghēro ysūʾ.
He looks like he's been drinking; let someone else drive. (informal; alcohol inferred from context)
Beverage, amount, container, and source
The beverage is a direct object: شرب مي، شرب قهوة، شرب عصير. No equivalent of English drink of or drink from is needed when the beverage itself is the object. Containers behave differently.
| Frame | Ordinary interpretation |
|---|---|
| شرب المي | drank the water |
| شرب كاستين مي | drank two glasses of water |
| شرب من القنينة | drank from the bottle |
| شرب القنينة كلها | drank the whole bottle's contents, by metonymy |
شرب من القنينة وبعدين حطها بالبراد.
shirib min el-ʾnīne w-baʿdēn ḥaṭṭa bil-barrēd.
He drank from the bottle and then put it in the fridge. (informal; container introduced by من)
شرب القنينة كلها بعد التمرين.
shirib el-ʾnīne killa baʿd et-tamrīn.
He drank the whole bottle after training. (informal; container stands for its contents)
Mass nouns such as مي and قهوة need a measure phrase when the amount matters: كاسة مي، فنجان قهوة، قنينة عصير. The measure—not the liquid—carries the count morphology.
Medication is a lexical choice
شرب is natural with liquid medicine when the act is genuinely drinking: شرب دوا السعلة “drank/took the cough medicine.” Pills and general prescriptions normally use أخد “take,” not شرب. English take medicine therefore maps to different Lebanese verbs according to form.
شربت دوا السعلة قبل ما نام.
shiribt dawa s-saʿle ʾabel ma nēm.
I took the cough medicine before going to sleep. (informal; liquid medicine)
أخدت الحبة مع كاسة مي كبيرة.
ʾakhadt el-ḥabbe maʿ kēset mayy kbīre.
I took the pill with a large glass of water. (informal; a pill takes أخد, not شرب)
Object clitics and transitivity
The beverage can be replaced by a direct-object suffix. Its grammatical gender controls the suffix: masculine العصير → شربته, feminine القهوة → شربتها, plural المشروبات → شربتهن.
| Environment | Form | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| perfect + it.m | شربته | shiribto | I drank it |
| perfect + it.f | شربتها | shiribta | I drank it |
| perfect + them | شربتهن | shiribton | I drank them |
| b-imperfect + it.m | بيشربه | byishrabo | he drinks it |
| b-imperfect + it.f | بيشربها | byishrabha | he drinks it |
| imperative + it.f | اشربها | ishrabha | drink it! |
طلبت ليموناضة وشربتها عالواقف.
ṭlibt laymōnāḍa w-shiribta ʿal-wāʾef.
I ordered a lemonade and drank it standing up. (informal; feminine object suffix)
هيدا العصير طيب؛ دوقه واشربه إذا عجبك.
hayda l-ʿaṣīr ṭayyeb; dūʾo w-ishrabo iza ʿizhbak.
This juice is good; taste it and drink it if you like it. (informal Lebanese هيدا; masculine suffix)
Human first- and second-person object suffixes are structurally possible but normally yield personification, joking threats, or other marked readings. For ordinary beginner use, clitic objects of شرب overwhelmingly refer to drinks and their containers.
Idiomatic extensions
In the informal idiom شرب المقلب, the person “swallows” a prank or false story—English would say “fell for it.” The phrase شرب نخب حدا means “drink a toast to someone.” These are fixed collocations, not a general rule for English phrasal verbs.
صدق القصة وشرب المقلب للآخر.
ṣaddaʾ el-ʾiṣṣa w-shirib el-maʾlab lal-ākher.
He believed the story and fell for the whole prank. (informal idiom)
شربنا نخب العروسين وبقينا شوي.
shiribna nakhb el-ʿarūsēn w-bʾīna shwayy.
We drank a toast to the newlyweds and stayed a little while. (neutral social formula)
Dialogue: coffee, water, and medicine
بدك قهوة تانية ولا شربت كفاية؟
baddak ʾahwe tēnye walla shiribt kfēye?
Nadine: Do you want another coffee, or have you had enough? (informal)
لأ، هلق بدي اشرب مي وآخد حبة للراس.
laʾ, hallaʾ badde ishrab mayy w-ākhod ḥabbe lar-rās.
Fadi: No, now I want to drink water and take a headache pill. (informal; bare forms after بدّي)
اشربها شوي شوي، وما تاخد الحبة عالمعدة فاضية.
ishrabha shwayy shwayy, w-ma tēkhod el-ḥabbe ʿal-maʿde fāḍye.
Nadine: Drink it slowly, and don't take the pill on an empty stomach. (informal)
Common Mistakes
Copying the perfect's vowels into the imperfect
❌ هو بيشرب بلفظ شرب نفسه.
Incorrect analysis — the imperfect uses -ishrab, not the perfect's shirib pattern.
✅ هو بيشرب شاي بلا سكر.
howwe byishrab shēy bla sokkar.
He drinks tea without sugar.
Keeping b- after رح
❌ رح بشرب قهوة بعد الغدا.
Incorrect — رح selects the bare first-person form اشرب.
✅ رح اشرب قهوة بعد الغدا.
raḥ ishrab ʾahwe baʿd el-ghada.
I'll drink coffee after lunch.
Treating every medicine as something to drink
❌ شربت حبة للراس.
Incorrect for a pill — use أخد unless the medicine itself is liquid.
✅ أخدت حبة للراس مع مي.
ʾakhadt ḥabbe lar-rās maʿ mayy.
I took a headache pill with water.
Confusing a container source with its contents
❌ شرب القنينة، إذا المقصود إنه أخد رشفة منها.
Incorrect for the intended ‘drank from the bottle’ — the bare object suggests consuming its contents.
✅ شرب من القنينة ورجعها عالطاولة.
shirib min el-ʾnīne w-razzhaʿa ʿaṭ-ṭāwle.
He drank from the bottle and put it back on the table.
Translating “drink up” word for word
❌ اشرب لفوق قبل ما نفل.
Incorrect calque — English up is not a Lebanese verbal particle.
✅ اشربها كلها قبل ما نفل.
ishrabha killa ʾabel ma nfill.
Drink all of it before we leave.
Key Takeaways
Store شرب–شربت–بيشرب–اشرب–شارب as a lexical set. The beverage is a direct object; من marks drinking from a container, while a bare container object can stand for all its contents. Use شرب for genuinely liquid medicine and أخد for pills or medicine in general. The active participle expresses a result and can imply alcohol; the neutral progressive is عم بيشرب.
Now practice Arabic
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- Form I as a Lexical BaseB1 — Learn Form I through perfect–nonpast principal parts, lexical vowel classes, real complement frames, and the contrast between events and states.
- Form I Stem-Vowel ClassesB1 — Learn Lebanese Form I verbs as perfect–nonpast principal-part pairs, with realistic limits on predicting their internal vowels.
- The b-Imperfect for Ordinary Present-Time PredicationA1 — Use the Lebanese b-imperfect for habits, generalizations, states, and ordinary present predication while contrasting progressive and bare forms.
- Imperatives with Object and Prepositional CliticsB1 — Attach object, recipient, and prepositional pronouns to urban Lebanese commands without losing the imperative stem or its natural syllable rhythm.
- Direct-Object Suffixes on VerbsB1 — Attach Beirut direct-object pronouns to perfect and imperfect verbs, including weak, geminate, and vowel-final hosts and topical doubling.
- Count, Mass, and Measure NounsB2 — Choose between count nouns, bare substances, measures, containers, and coerced portion readings in urban Lebanese.