عَاشَ — يَعِيشُ is Form I from the hollow-yāʾ root ع-ي-ش. Its long middle vowel alternates across the paradigm: عاش and يعيش, but عشتُ، لم يعشْ، عشْ. The verb most often means “live” or “reside,” and it also takes a direct object in the important sense “live through, experience.”
English uses live with several different prepositions. Arabic makes sharper choices: في locates a home or setting, مع names companions, على names the means on which someone subsists, and a direct object names an experience. Learning those frames alongside the weak stem prevents both morphological and translation errors.
For the shared stem mechanics, see the hollow-verb overview.
Lookup card and principal parts
| Item | Form | Use |
|---|---|---|
| root and Form | ع-ي-ش، Form I | hollow-yāʾ verb |
| perfect | عَاشَ | he lived |
| imperfect | يَعِيشُ | he lives |
| imperative | عِشْ | live! |
| maṣdars | عَيْشٌ، عِيشَةٌ، مَعَاشٌ | living, life, mode or means of living |
| active participle | عَائِشٌ | living; valid but less usual than حَيٌّ in ordinary description |
| passive | not productive in ordinary MSA | intransitive living and active experiencing favor active syntax |
عَيْش، عِيشَة، مَعَاش are recorded verbal nouns. The related noun معيشة is frequent in تكاليف المعيشة “cost of living” and مستوى المعيشة “standard of living.” The adjective حيّ is usually the plain answer to “alive”; do not mechanically replace it with the rarer participle عائش.
عاش جدي أكثر من تسعين عاما وظل مستقلا حتى النهاية.
ʿāsha jaddī ʾakthara min tisʿīna ʿāman wa-ẓalla mustaqillan ḥattā n-nihāya.
My grandfather lived for more than ninety years and remained independent until the end. (Formal neutral.)
يعيش نحو مليون شخص في هذه المنطقة الساحلية.
yaʿīshu naḥwa milyūni shakhsin fī hādhihi l-minṭaqati s-sāḥiliyya.
Around one million people live in this coastal region. (Formal.)
Hollow-yāʾ stem behavior
The perfect keeps long ā before vowel-initial endings: عاش، عاشت، عاشوا. Before consonant-initial suffixes, the hollow stem shortens to عِشْـ: عشتُ، عشنا، عشتنَّ. The imperfect usually has long ī, but the suffixless jussive and masculine-singular imperative shorten it: لم يعشْ، عشْ.
| Environment | Forms | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| perfect | عَاشَ، عَاشَتْ، عِشْتُ، عَاشُوا | long ā except before consonantal suffixes |
| indicative | يَعِيشُ، تَعِيشِينَ، يَعِيشُونَ | long ī retained |
| subjunctive | لَنْ يَعِيشَ، لَنْ يَعِيشُوا | singular fatḥa after shīn; plural loses nūn |
| jussive | لَمْ يَعِشْ، لَمْ يَعِيشُوا | singular loses long ī; plural keeps it before وا |
| imperative | عِشْ، عِيشِي، عِيشَا، عِيشُوا | short singular stem, long ī before vowel-initial endings |
عشت في الرباط خمس سنوات قبل أن أنتقل إلى عمان.
ʿishtu fī r-ribāṭi khamsa sanawātin qabla ʾan ʾantaqila ʾilā ʿammān.
I lived in Rabat for five years before moving to Amman. (Formal neutral.)
لم يعش الكاتب ليرى روايته الأخيرة منشورة.
lam yaʿishi l-kātibu liyarā riwāyatahu l-ʾakhīrata manshūra.
The writer did not live to see his final novel published. (Formal/literary.)
عش يومك، لكن خطط للمستقبل أيضا.
ʿish yawmaka, lākin khaṭṭiṭ lil-mustaqbali ʾayḍan.
Live your day, but plan for the future too. (Neutral advice.)
Ranked meanings and government
1. Be alive or live for a period
Used absolutely, عاش describes being alive or the span of a life. A duration commonly follows without an English-style for preposition.
عاش العالم حياة بسيطة رغم شهرته الواسعة.
ʿāsha l-ʿālimu ḥayātan basīṭatan raghma shuhratihi l-wāsiʿa.
The scientist lived a simple life despite his wide fame. (Formal biographical register.)
حياة here is a cognate-like object specifying the kind of life. It does not make عاش an ordinary transitive verb meaning “keep someone alive.” For that causative meaning, use أحيا or أبقى ... على قيد الحياة, depending on context.
2. Reside or exist in a setting: عاش في
في introduces a residence, environment, period, or condition: عاش في دمشق، عاش في القرن التاسع عشر، عاش في عزلة.
تعيش الأسرة في قرية صغيرة قريبة من الحدود.
taʿīshu l-ʾusratu fī qaryatin ṣaghīratin qarībatin mina l-ḥudūd.
The family lives in a small village near the border. (Formal neutral.)
عاش الشاعر في عزلة خلال سنواته الأخيرة.
ʿāsha sh-shāʿiru fī ʿuzlatin khilāla sanawātihi l-ʾakhīra.
The poet lived in isolation during his final years. (Formal biographical register.)
3. Share a household or life: عاش مع
مع names the person or group someone lives with. Context decides whether it describes a family household, companionship, or a partnership; the preposition itself does not specify the legal relationship.
عاشت نور مع جدتها أثناء دراستها في الجامعة.
ʿāshat nūrun maʿa jaddatihā ʾathnāʾa dirāsatihā fī l-jāmiʿa.
Nur lived with her grandmother while she was at university. (Formal neutral.)
4. Subsist on or depend on: عاش على
على introduces the resource that sustains someone: income, savings, food, or assistance. من can instead identify the source from which someone earns a living, especially in يعيش من عمله “makes a living from his work.”
يعيش الزوجان على دخل محدود، لذلك يخططان لمصروفاتهما بعناية.
yaʿīshu z-zawjāni ʿalā dakhlin maḥdūdin, lidhālika yukhaṭṭiṭāni limaṣrūfātihimā biʿināya.
The couple live on a limited income, so they plan their expenses carefully. (Formal neutral.)
يعيش كثير من الصيادين من عمل موسمي غير مستقر.
yaʿīshu kathīrun mina ṣ-ṣayyādīna min ʿamalin mawsimiyyin ghayri mustaqirr.
Many fishers make their living from unstable seasonal work. (Formal.)
The distinction is conceptual, not absolute: على profiles what supports daily life, while من profiles the source from which the livelihood comes.
5. Experience directly: عاش + object
With an event, moment, crisis, or experience as direct object, عاش means “live through, experience.” This transitive use is common in reporting and personal narratives.
عاش السكان ليلة صعبة بعد انقطاع الكهرباء والمياه.
ʿāsha s-sukkānu laylatan ṣaʿbatan baʿda nqiṭāʿi l-kahrabāʾi wa-l-miyāh.
Residents endured a difficult night after the electricity and water were cut off. (Formal news register.)
عاشت الشركة مرحلة من النمو السريع ثم تباطأ الطلب.
ʿāshati sh-sharikatu marḥalatan mina n-numuwwi s-sarīʿi thumma tabāṭaʾa ṭ-ṭalab.
The company went through a period of rapid growth, and then demand slowed. (Formal business register.)
Collocations and register
| Collocation | Meaning and register |
|---|---|
| عَاشَ طَوِيلًا | lived a long time (neutral/formal) |
| عَاشَ فِي سَلَامٍ | lived in peace (neutral) |
| عَاشَ مَعَ أُسْرَتِهِ | lived with his family (neutral) |
| عَاشَ عَلَى مُدَّخَرَاتِهِ | lived on his savings (neutral/formal) |
| عَاشَ تَجْرِبَةً | went through an experience (formal neutral) |
| تَكَالِيفُ الْمَعِيشَةِ | cost of living (economic/administrative) |
| عَاشَ الْوَطَنُ | long live the nation (rhetorical slogan) |
The optative slogan عاش... is formally a perfect form but pragmatically expresses a wish, “long live...”. It is rhetorical and public, not the ordinary way to report that someone lived.
Common Mistakes
Keeping the long ī in the singular jussive
❌ لم يعيش الكاتب ليرى نجاح روايته.
Incorrect in formal MSA—the suffixless jussive of this hollow verb shortens to يعش.
✅ لم يعش الكاتب ليرى نجاح روايته.
lam yaʿishi l-kātibu liyarā najāḥa riwāyatih.
The writer did not live to see his novel's success.
Using في for a companion
❌ عاش فادي في أصدقائه خلال الرحلة.
Incorrect for ‘Fadi lived with his friends’; في marks a setting, not companions.
✅ عاش فادي مع أصدقائه خلال الرحلة.
ʿāsha fādī maʿa ʾaṣdiqāʾihi khilāla r-riḥla.
Fadi lived with his friends during the trip.
Using a passive for “experience”
❌ عيشت الأزمة من السكان بصعوبة.
Incorrect—the experiential sense is normally active, with the experiencers as subject and the event as object.
✅ عاش السكان الأزمة بصعوبة.
ʿāsha s-sukkānu l-ʾazmata biṣuʿūba.
The residents lived through the crisis with difficulty.
Confusing residence with subsistence
❌ تعيش الأسرة على قرية صغيرة قرب الحدود.
Incorrect for residence—على introduces support or subsistence, while a place of residence takes في.
✅ تعيش الأسرة في قرية صغيرة قرب الحدود.
taʿīshu l-ʾusratu fī qaryatin ṣaghīratin qurba l-ḥudūd.
The family lives in a small village near the border.
Key Takeaways
- عاش — يعيش is a hollow-yāʾ Form-I verb from ع-ي-ش; compare عشتُ، لم يعشْ، عشْ.
- Use في for residence or setting, مع for companions, and على for the resource that sustains someone.
- A direct object gives the common transitive sense “live through, experience”: عاش تجربة صعبة.
- عيش and معيشة are common nouns, while عائش is less usual than حيّ for plain “alive.”
- Passive forms are not productive in ordinary modern use; keep experiencers as active subjects.
Related Topics
- بقي — remain with defective final-yāʾ behaviorB1 — Conjugate final-weak بقي and choose among its full-verb, copular, partitive, and بقي أن frames.
- مات — die with hollow wāw alternationsB1 — Conjugate hollow-wāw مات, express causes and circumstances of death, and distinguish intransitive die from causative kill.
- كان — beA2 — Reference the hollow verb كان across its full paradigm, copular and existential senses, predicate case, conditionals, and high-frequency collocations.
- Hollow Verbs: Middle Radical و or يA2 — Understand why middle-weak verbs alternate between long- and short-vowel stems across perfect suffixes, moods, and commands.