بَاعَ “sell” is a Form-I hollow-yāʾ verb from root ب-ي-ع. Its middle radical does not appear as a stable written ي everywhere: the perfect has long ā, the imperfect long ī, and short-stem forms such as بِعْتُ، لَمْ يَبِعْ، بِعْ have short i. The root explains the family relationship, but the usable unit is بَاعَ — يَبِيعُ — بِعْتُ — بِعْ.
Syntax gives each commercial participant its own form. The thing sold is a direct object, the buyer normally follows لـ, and the price follows بـ or مقابل. Arabic therefore distinguishes “sell the car,” “sell it to Salma,” and “sell it for ten thousand” overtly. The hollow-verb overview places these stem changes in the wider weak-verb system.
Lookup card and principal parts
| Item | Form | Use |
|---|---|---|
| root and Form | ب-ي-ع، Form I | hollow-yāʾ verb |
| perfect | بَاعَ | he sold |
| short perfect stem | بِعْتُ | I sold |
| imperfect indicative | يَبِيعُ | he sells / is selling |
| imperative, 2 m.sg. | بِعْ | sell! |
| maṣdar | بَيْعٌ | sale, selling |
| active participle | بَائِعٌ | seller; one selling |
| passive participle | مَبِيعٌ | sold; item sold |
| passive | بِيعَ — يُبَاعُ | was sold — is sold |
The maṣdar preserves the root yāʾ as a glide in بَيْع. The active participle has hamza in بائع, a regular consequence of forming فَاعِل from a hollow root, not a fourth root consonant.
باع المالك الشقة بعد انتقاله إلى مدينة أخرى
bāʿa l-māliku sh-shaqqata baʿda ntiqālihi ʾilā madīnatin ʾukhrā
The owner sold the apartment after moving to another city. (Formal neutral.)
يبيع المتجر منتجات محلية عبر موقعه
yabīʿu l-matjaru muntajātin maḥalliyyatan ʿabra mawqiʿih
The shop sells local products through its website. (Formal commercial register.)
Perfect and imperfect stems
The long perfect stem appears where no consonant cluster forces shortening: باع، باعت، باعا، باعوا. Before consonant-initial personal endings it becomes بِعْـ: بعت، بعنا، بعن.
| Person | Perfect | Imperfect indicative |
|---|---|---|
| هو / هي | بَاعَ / بَاعَتْ | يَبِيعُ / تَبِيعُ |
| أنا / نحن | بِعْتُ / بِعْنَا | أَبِيعُ / نَبِيعُ |
| أنتَ / أنتِ | بِعْتَ / بِعْتِ | تَبِيعُ / تَبِيعِينَ |
| هم / هنَّ | بَاعُوا / بِعْنَ | يَبِيعُونَ / يَبِعْنَ |
The imperfect retains long ī in indicative يبيعُ and subjunctive لن يبيعَ. The suffixless jussive shortens it to لم يبعْ. Plural and feminine five-verb forms retain the long vowel while losing ن where required: لن يبيعوا، لم تبيعي.
لن نبيع الأرض قبل انتهاء التقييم
lan nabīʿa l-ʾarḍa qabla ntihāʾi t-taqyīm
We will not sell the land before the valuation is complete. (Formal; subjunctive after لن.)
لم يبع المستثمر أسهمه أثناء الهبوط
lam yabiʿi l-mustathmiru ʾas-humahu ʾathnāʾa l-hubūṭ
The investor did not sell his shares during the decline. (Formal financial register; jussive with linking i.)
The short imperative
The masculine singular command is بِعْ. The longer forms restore long ī before vowel-initial endings: بِيعي، بِيعا، بِيعوا; feminine plural is بِعْنَ. An attached object pronoun follows the short command directly: بِعْهُ “sell it.”
بع السيارة إذا كان عرض السعر مناسبا
biʿi s-sayyārata ʾidhā kāna ʿarḍu s-siʿri munāsibā
Sell the car if the price offer is suitable. (Formal command to one man; linking i before the article.)
بيعوا المخزون القديم قبل بدء الموسم الجديد
bīʿū l-makhzūna l-qadīma qabla badʾi l-mawsimi l-jadīd
Sell the old stock before the new season begins. (Formal instruction to a male or mixed group.)
English spelling offers no parallel to this alternation. There is no supporting alif in بع, and writing بيع changes the form: unvocalized بيع normally represents the noun بَيْع “sale” or passive perfect بِيعَ, not the singular active command.
Ranked meanings and government
1. Sell or offer for sale: direct object
The thing transferred is a direct object: باع المنزل، يبيع الكتب، بعها. Context distinguishes an actual completed sale from the general business sense “sell, stock, offer.”
تبيع الصيدلية أجهزة لقياس ضغط الدم
tabīʿu ṣ-ṣaydaliyyatu ʾajhizatan liqiyāsi ḍaghṭi d-dam
The pharmacy sells blood-pressure monitors. (Formal neutral.)
بعت هاتفي القديم بعدما نقلت جميع البيانات
biʿtu hātifī l-qadīma baʿdamā naqaltu jamīʿa l-bayānāt
I sold my old phone after transferring all the data. (Formal neutral.)
2. Sell to a buyer: لـ
The buyer or new owner normally follows لـ. It is not a second direct object. The attached object pronoun can encode the item, while the لـ phrase identifies who bought it.
باع المزارع محصوله لشركة تصدير
bāʿa l-muzāriʿu maḥṣūlahu lisharikati taṣdīr
The farmer sold his crop to an export company. (Formal commercial register.)
3. Sell for a price: بـ or مقابل
Price normally follows بـ: باعه بمئة دينار. مقابل is useful when the return is not simply a numerical price: باع الحقوق مقابل نسبة من الأرباح. A single clause may state item, buyer, and price because each has a distinct role.
باع خالد سيارته لجاره بعشرة آلاف دولار
bāʿa khālidun sayyāratahu lijārihi biʿasharati ʾālāfi dūlār
Khalid sold his car to his neighbor for ten thousand dollars. (Formal neutral.)
4. Figurative betrayal or surrender
باع ضميره “sold his conscience” and باع مبادئه “sold his principles” are established figurative expressions (formal/journalistic). They imply abandoning an ethical commitment for gain. They should not be generalized to every English expression containing sell out.
اتهمه خصومه بأنه باع مبادئه من أجل المنصب
ittahamahu khuṣūmuhu biʾannahu bāʿa mabādiʾahu min ʾajli l-manṣib
His opponents accused him of selling his principles for the position. (Formal political register.)
Passive, participles, and commercial collocations
The passive بِيعَ / يُبَاعُ is very common in notices and transaction reports. The item sold becomes the grammatical subject. مبيع is the passive participle and also appears in the commercial plural مبيعات “sales.” بائع means “seller,” with plurals بائعون for a regular human plural and lexical باعة for sellers or vendors.
بيع المنزل خلال أسبوعين فقط
bīʿa l-manzilu khilāla ʾusbūʿayni faqaṭ
The house was sold in only two weeks. (Formal passive.)
تباع هذه المنتجات بالجملة ولا تباع بالتجزئة
tubāʿu hādhihi l-muntajātu bil-jumlati walā tubāʿu bit-tajziʾa
These products are sold wholesale, not retail. (Formal commercial register.)
Frequent clusters include عقد بيع “sale contract,” سعر البيع “selling price,” نقطة بيع “point of sale,” البيع بالتجزئة/بالجملة “retail/wholesale selling,” بيع بالمزاد “sale by auction,” and financial البيع على المكشوف “short selling” (technical/financial).
Common Mistakes
Keeping the long perfect stem before a consonantal suffix
❌ أنا باعت السيارة الأسبوع الماضي
Incorrect for the finite meaning ‘I sold’—باعت is ‘she sold’; the first-person form uses the short stem بِعتُ.
✅ أنا بعت السيارة الأسبوع الماضي
ʾanā biʿtu s-sayyārata l-ʾusbūʿa l-māḍiya
I sold the car last week.
Retaining the long vowel in the singular jussive
❌ لم يبيع المستثمر أسهمه
Incorrect in careful MSA—the suffixless jussive shortens يبيع to يبع.
✅ لم يبع المستثمر أسهمه
lam yabiʿi l-mustathmiru ʾas-humah
The investor did not sell his shares.
Using the noun spelling as the singular command
❌ بيع سيارتك الآن
Incorrect for the active command ‘sell!’—بيع is the spelling of the noun ‘sale’ or a passive perfect reading; the command is بع.
✅ بع سيارتك الآن
biʿ sayyārataka l-ʾān
Sell your car now.
Making the buyer a second direct object
❌ باع التاجر السيارة الزبون
Incorrect for ‘sold the car to the customer’—the buyer normally follows لـ.
✅ باع التاجر السيارة للزبون
bāʿa t-tājiru s-sayyārata liz-zabūn
The dealer sold the car to the customer.
Key Takeaways
- باع is a hollow-yāʾ Form-I verb from ب-ي-ع.
- Its key stems are باع، يبيع، بِعت، لم يَبِع، بِع.
- The item is a direct object, the buyer takes لـ, and the price takes بـ or مقابل.
- Passive بِيعَ — يُبَاعُ is central to sale reports; مبيعات is the common commercial noun “sales.”
- Keep the purchase/sale perspective straight: اشترى من البائع but باع للمشتري.
Related Topics
- اشترى — buy as a defective Form VIII verbB1 — Conjugate final-weak Form VIII اشترى and use its direct object with seller, price, beneficiary, passive, and purchasing collocations.
- دفع — payB2 — Use دفع for paying, pushing, prompting, and warding off, with sense-specific objects, recipients, methods, goals, and passive forms.
- 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.