The verb باع / بيبيع bēʿ / byibīʿ “sell” anchors the ī-class of Lebanese hollow verbs. Its third-person perfect has a raised long vowel in the Beirut baseline, its suffixed perfect has short i, and its nonpast and command have long ī: باع – بعت – بيبيع – بيع.
English speakers must resist two shortcuts. The written ا in باع does not predict the spoken vowel precisely, and English “sold” gives no clue that Lebanese changes the stem before person suffixes. Treat all four principal parts as lexical information.
The core paradigm of باع
The same weak root appears in a long perfect stem bēʿ-, a short perfect stem biʿ-, and a long nonpast/command stem bīʿ-. Vowel length and quality both matter.
| Environment | Arabic | Romanization | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3ms perfect | باع | bēʿ | he sold |
| 3fs perfect | باعت | bēʿet | she sold |
| 1sg / 2ms perfect | بعت | biʿt | I sold / you sold |
| 2fs perfect | بعتي | biʿte | you sold |
| 1pl perfect | بعنا | biʿna | we sold |
| 3pl perfect | باعوا | bēʿo | they sold |
| 3ms b-imperfect | بيبيع | byibīʿ | he sells |
| 3ms bare imperfect | يبيع | ybīʿ | that he sell / he will sell |
| 2ms imperative | بيع | bīʿ | sell! |
باعت ليلى البيانو بعد ما انتقلت عبيت أصغر.
bēʿet Layla l-byāno baʿd ma ntaʾalet ʿa-bēt azghar.
Layla sold the piano after she moved to a smaller home. (informal; long third-person feminine perfect)
بعنا الطاولة والكراسي سوا لأنو ما عنا مطرح.
biʿna ṭ-ṭāwle wil-krēse sawa laʾanno ma ʿinna maṭraḥ.
We sold the table and chairs together because we don't have room. (informal; short perfect stem before -na)
Long versus short perfect stems
As with other hollow verbs, endings beginning with a consonant select a short stem: بعت، بعتي، بعنا. Third-person forms with no consonant-initial suffix retain the long stem: باع، باعت، باعوا. This division is morphological; it does not signal different kinds of past event.
بعت الكرسي لجارتي بعشرين دولار.
biʿt el-kirse la-zhārte b-ʿishrīn dolār.
I sold the chair to my neighbor for twenty dollars. (informal; first-person short perfect stem)
باعوا كل النسخ بأول يوم من المعرض.
bēʿo kill en-nosakh b-awwal yōm min el-maʿraḍ.
They sold every copy on the first day of the fair. (neutral; third-person plural long stem)
The apparent resemblance between بعت and English “bought” is accidental. بعت biʿt means “I/you sold”; “I bought” is اشتريت ishtarēt. Because buying and selling describe the same transaction from opposite participants, confusing them reverses who transferred the item.
The ī nonpast across viewpoints
The lexical nonpast stem is -bīʿ. Outer markers contribute aspect or modality: بيبيع for an ordinary state or habit, عم بيبيع for an unfolding sale activity, and bare يبيع after رح، بدو، لازم and other licensors.
هيدا الموقع بيبيع كتب مستعملة بس بحالة منيحة.
hayda l-mawʾeʿ byibīʿ ktob mistaʿmale bass b-ḥāle mnīḥa.
This website sells used books only in good condition. (neutral; habitual b-imperfect)
صاحب المحل عم بيبيع البضاعة القديمة قبل الجردة.
ṣāḥeb el-maḥall ʿam byibīʿ el-biḍāʿa l-ʾdīme ʾabl el-zharde.
The shop owner is selling off the old stock before inventory. (neutral; ongoing عم + b-imperfect)
يمكن يبيع السيارة إذا لقي شغل قريب من البيت.
yimken ybīʿ es-sayyāra iza lʾe shoghol ʾarīb min el-bēt.
He might sell the car if he finds work near home. (informal; modal bare imperfect)
The English present progressive cannot decide the marker by itself. The store is selling used books may describe its ordinary business (بيبيع) or a temporary clearance happening now (عم بيبيع). Lebanese marks that viewpoint distinction overtly.
Commands and agreement
The masculine singular command is بيع bīʿ. Feminine بيعي bīʿe and plural بيعوا bīʿo add regular command endings to the long ī stem. A negative command uses ما + the corresponding second-person bare imperfect, not a negated positive imperative.
بيع هالطاولة لحالها وخلي الكراسي للصالون.
bīʿ haṭ-ṭāwle la-ḥāla w-khalle l-krēse laṣ-ṣālōn.
Sell this table on its own and keep the chairs for the living room. (informal; masculine singular commands)
ما تبيعوا الآلة قبل ما تجربوا تصلحوها.
ma tbīʿo l-āle ʾabl ma tzharbo tṣalliḥūha.
Don't sell the machine before you try to repair it. (informal; plural negative command with bare nonpast form)
For the larger command system, including negative and clitic forms, see Imperative Formation and Imperatives with Object Clitics.
The frame: item, buyer, and price
The thing transferred is the direct object: باع السيارة “sold the car.” The buyer is normally introduced by لـ: باعها لجاره “sold it to his neighbor.” A sale price commonly uses بـ: باعها بألف دولار “sold it for a thousand dollars.” This is a lexical frame, not a word-for-word copy of English prepositions.
بعت الكاميرا لزميلتي بخمسمية دولار مع العدسة.
biʿt el-kāmīra la-zmīlte b-khamsmiyye dolār maʿ el-ʿadase.
I sold the camera to my colleague for five hundred dollars with the lens. (neutral; buyer with لـ and price with بـ)
هالبيت مش للبيع، أصحابه بس مأجرينه.
hal-bēt mish lal-bayʿ, aṣḥābo bass mʾazhzhirīno.
This house isn't for sale; its owners are only renting it out. (neutral; lexical noun البيع)
Notice that the noun in للبيع is conventionally bayʿ, not the imperative bīʿ. Root relatives are useful evidence, but their vowels belong to their own patterns.
A written ambiguity: بعت
Unvocalized بعت can represent hollow biʿt “I/you sold” or the common spoken verb baʿat “he sent.” Context normally resolves it immediately. The pointed layer makes the difference visible.
بعت التلفون لأنو ما كنت عم بستعمله.
biʿt et-telefōn laʾanno ma kent ʿam bastaʿmlo.
I sold the phone because I wasn't using it. (informal; hollow biʿt)
بعت الملف عالإيميل قبل الاجتماع.
baʿat el-malaf ʿal-īmēl ʾabl el-izhtimēʿ.
He sent the file by email before the meeting. (neutral; a different verb, baʿat)
A related ī-class verb: جاب
جاب / جبت / بيجيب / جيب zhēb / zhibt / byizhīb / zhīb “bring” shows a comparable ī-class nonpast and command. Its urban ج is pronounced zh. The semantic frame is different, so it deserves its own lexical card.
جيب الفاتورة معك كرمال نبدل القطعة.
zhīb el-fētūra maʿak kermēl nbaddel el-ʾiṭʿa.
Bring the receipt with you so we can exchange the item. (informal; masculine singular command)
Affirmative and negative minimal pairs
باع نبيل دراجته الأسبوع الماضي.
bēʿ Nabīl darrāzhto l-osbūʿ el-māḍe.
Nabil sold his bicycle last week. (affirmative perfect)
ما باع نبيل دراجته الأسبوع الماضي.
ma bēʿ Nabīl darrāzhto l-osbūʿ el-māḍe.
Nabil didn't sell his bicycle last week. (negative perfect)
Dialogue: negotiating a used laptop
عنجد ناوي تبيع اللابتوب؟
ʿanzhad nāwe tbīʿ el-lābtōb?
Dalia: Are you really planning to sell the laptop? (informal; bare form after participial intention)
إيه، عم بيشتغل منيح بس بدي واحد أخف.
ē, ʿam byishtighel mnīḥ bass badde wāḥad akhaff.
Marwan: Yes. It works well, but I want a lighter one. (informal; explanation of the sale)
بقديش رح تبيعه؟
b-ʾaddēsh raḥ tbīʿo?
Dalia: How much will you sell it for? (informal; price question with بـ and future bare form)
إذا إنت بدك ياه، ببيعلك ياه بسعر أحسن.
iza inta baddak yēh, bbīʿlak yēh b-siʿer aḥsan.
Marwan: If you want it, I'll sell it to you at a better price. (informal; first-person b-form with recipient clitic and resumptive object)
Common Mistakes
Keeping the long perfect stem before -t
❌ أنا باعت السيارة.
Incorrect — first-person perfect uses the short stem بعت; باعت is third-person feminine.
✅ أنا بعت السيارة لأنو بطلت استعملها.
ana biʿt es-sayyāra laʾanno baṭṭalt staʿmela.
I sold the car because I stopped using it. (informal)
Building the nonpast from the written alif
❌ المحل بيباع أجهزة قديمة.
Incorrect for active “the shop sells” — the verified nonpast is بيبيع.
✅ المحل بيبيع أجهزة صوت قديمة.
el-maḥall byibīʿ azhhize ṣawt ʾdīme.
The shop sells vintage audio equipment. (neutral habitual)
Reversing sell and buy
❌ بعت هالكتاب من المكتبة.
Wrong if you mean “I bought this book from the bookstore” — بعت means “I sold.”
✅ اشتريت هالكتاب من المكتبة الأسبوع الماضي.
ishtarēt hal-ktēb min el-maktabe l-osbūʿ el-māḍe.
I bought this book from the bookstore last week. (neutral)
Omitting the preposition before the buyer
❌ بعت السيارة جاري.
Incorrect for “I sold the car to my neighbor” — the buyer needs لـ.
✅ بعت السيارة لجاري بعد ما جربها.
biʿt es-sayyāra la-zhāre baʿd ma zharraba.
I sold the car to my neighbor after he tried it. (informal)
Negating the positive imperative directly
❌ ما بيع الكاميرا هلق.
Incorrect as a negative command — use ما plus the second-person bare nonpast form.
✅ ما تبيع الكاميرا قبل ما تسأل أختك.
ma tbīʿ el-kāmīra ʾabl ma tisʾal okhtak.
Don't sell the camera before asking your sister. (informal masculine singular negative command)
Key Takeaways
The bīʿ-type card is باع–بعت–بيبيع–بيع: raised long ē in the Beirut 3ms perfect, short i before consonant-initial perfect suffixes, and long ī in the nonpast and command. Keep aspect markers outside that lexical stem. With باع, mark the buyer with لـ and the price with بـ; use context to distinguish unvocalized بعت “I sold” from بعت “he sent.”
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
- Hollow VerbsB1 — Understand why Lebanese hollow verbs alternate between long-vowel and short-vowel stems across the perfect, imperfect, and imperative.
- qāl-Type Hollow VerbsB1 — Master the qāl-type alternation through قال and related Lebanese hollow verbs with an ā/ē perfect and ū-class nonpast.
- rāḥ-Type and Other Irregular Hollow VerbsB1 — Master rāḥ–riḥt–byrūḥ and learn why other frequent Lebanese hollow verbs require their own principal-part cards.
- Transitive, Intransitive, and Prepositional Verb FramesA2 — Learn whether a Lebanese verb takes a direct object, no object, or a required preposition.
- Forming Positive ImperativesA1 — Build masculine, feminine, and plural urban Lebanese commands from verified bare-imperfect stems, including initial vowels and irregular weak verbs.
- Learning a Verb through Principal PartsA2 — Learn the small set of forms that reveals a Lebanese verb's stems, irregularities, commands, and complement pattern.