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  1. Grammar
  2. /Arabic (Modern Standard) Grammar
  3. /High-Frequency Verbs
  4. /دفع — pay

دفع — pay

دَفَعَ is a sound Form-I verb from root د-ف-ع. Its concrete core is “push,” but one of its most frequent modern meanings is “pay.” It also means “drive, prompt” someone toward an action and “ward off, repel” a threat. The morphology is regular; the demanding part is knowing which participant is direct and which preposition each sense selects.

For payment, the money, bill, fee, or price is usually the direct object; a recipient follows لـ or formal transfer إلى, and a method follows بـ. With physical “push,” the thing pushed is itself the direct object. This creates an important contrast: دفع العاملَ means “pushed the worker,” not “paid the worker.” Its stable consonantal morphology follows the sound Form-I pattern.

Lookup card and principal parts

ItemFormUse
root and Formد-ف-ع، Form Isound verb; several transitive senses
perfectدَفَعَhe paid / pushed / prompted
imperfect indicativeيَدْفَعُhe pays / pushes / prompts
imperative, 2 m.sg.اِدْفَعْpay! / push!
maṣdarدَفْعٌpayment; pushing; repelling
active participleدَافِعٌpayer; driving factor, motive
passive participleمَدْفُوعٌpaid; driven or propelled
passiveدُفِعَ — يُدْفَعُwas paid/pushed — is paid/pushed

The noun دُفْعَة is separate but closely related: it can mean an installment, a batch, or a cohort, according to context. دَافِع often lexicalizes the abstract sense “motive, impetus,” while مَدْفُوع appears in compounds such as مدفوع مسبقا “prepaid.”

دفع العميل الفاتورة بالبطاقة

dafaʿa l-ʿamīlu l-fātūrata bil-biṭāqa

The customer paid the bill by card. (Formal neutral.)

يدفع المستأجر الإيجار في بداية كل شهر

yadfaʿu l-mustaʾjiru l-ʾījāra fī bidāyati kulli shahr

The tenant pays the rent at the beginning of each month. (Formal neutral.)

💡
Before choosing a preposition, identify the role: دفع المبلغ (amount), دفع للشركة (recipient), دفع بالبطاقة (method), دفع مقابل الخدمة (exchange), and دفعه إلى الاستقالة (goal of prompting).

A regular sound paradigm

All three radicals remain visible. The perfect uses دَفَعْـ before consonant-initial suffixes, while the imperfect uses دْفَع after its person prefix. Mood changes the ending without changing the stem.

Person or environmentPerfectImperfect or command
هو / هيدَفَعَ / دَفَعَتْيَدْفَعُ / تَدْفَعُ
أنا / نحندَفَعْتُ / دَفَعْنَاأَدْفَعُ / نَدْفَعُ
هم / هنَّدَفَعُوا / دَفَعْنَيَدْفَعُونَ / يَدْفَعْنَ
after لن—لَنْ يَدْفَعَ / لَنْ يَدْفَعُوا
after لم—لَمْ يَدْفَعْ / لَمْ يَدْفَعُوا
commands—اِدْفَعْ، اِدْفَعِي، اِدْفَعَا، اِدْفَعُوا، اِدْفَعْنَ

The imperative begins with hamzat al-waṣl. It is pronounced idfaʿ at the beginning of an utterance and without that initial vowel after a preceding word: ثم ادفع is thumma dfaʿ.

لن أدفع الرسوم قبل أن أتلقى الفاتورة

lan ʾadfaʿa r-rusūma qabla ʾan ʾatalaqqā l-fātūra

I will not pay the fees before I receive the invoice. (Formal neutral.)

لم يدفع المقاول المبلغ في الموعد المحدد

lam yadfaʿi l-muqāwilu l-mablagha fī l-mawʿidi l-muḥaddad

The contractor did not pay the amount by the specified date. (Formal; jussive with linking i.)

ادفع الآن واحتفظ بإيصال العملية

idfaʿi l-ʾāna wa-ḥtafiẓ biʾīṣāli l-ʿamaliyya

Pay now and keep the transaction receipt. (Formal instruction to one man.)

Paying: participant roles

Amount, bill, fee, or price: direct object

Arabic normally makes what is paid the direct object: دفع المبلغ، دفع الفاتورة، دفع الرسوم، دفع الضريبة. For a purchase, دفع ثمن الشيء means “pay the price of the thing”; دفع مبلغا مقابل الخدمة means “pay an amount in exchange for the service.”

دفعت الشركة رواتب الموظفين في موعدها

dafaʿati sh-sharikatu rawātiba l-muwaẓẓafīna fī mawʿidihā

The company paid the employees' salaries on time. (Formal business register.)

دفعنا مبلغا إضافيا مقابل التوصيل السريع

dafaʿnā mablaghan ʾiḍāfiyyan muqābila t-tawṣīli s-sarīʿ

We paid an additional amount for express delivery. (Formal neutral.)

Recipient or transfer destination: لـ or إلى

The recipient commonly follows لـ: دفع للعامل أجره. In banking, legal, or administrative prose, دفع المبلغ إلى الحساب/الجهة marks the transfer destination. A bare human direct object instead receives the physical meaning “push.”

دفع صاحب المطعم للعامل أجره كاملا

dafaʿa ṣāḥibu l-maṭʿami lil-ʿāmili ʾajrahu kāmilā

The restaurant owner paid the worker his full wage. (Formal neutral.)

يجب دفع العربون إلى حساب الشركة

yajibu dafʿu l-ʿarabūni ʾilā ḥisābi sh-sharika

The deposit must be paid into the company's account. (Formal administrative register.)

Method, timing, and installments

Payment method takes بـ: بالبطاقة، بالتحويل المصرفي. Cash is often the adverb نقدا. مقدما means “in advance,” and على أقساط means “in installments.” عن can mark someone on whose behalf payment is made: دفع عنها الرسوم “paid the fees for her.”

يمكنك أن تدفع نقدا أو بالتحويل المصرفي

yumkinuka ʾan tadfaʿa naqdan ʾaw bit-taḥwīli l-maṣrifī

You can pay in cash or by bank transfer. (Formal neutral.)

دفع والداها عنها رسوم التسجيل

dafaʿa wālidāhā ʿanhā rusūma t-tasjīl

Her parents paid the registration fees for her. (Formal neutral.)

Push, prompt, and ward off

Physical push: direct object

In its concrete sense, دفع takes the person or thing pushed directly. Direction may follow إلى، نحو، بعيدا عن. Context, not a different verb form, distinguishes physical pushing from payment.

دفع الحارس الباب الثقيل بكلتا يديه

dafaʿa l-ḥārisu l-bāba th-thaqīla bikiltā yadayh

The guard pushed the heavy door with both hands. (Formal neutral.)

لا تدفع العربة نحو الحافة

lā tadfaʿi l-ʿarabata naḥwa l-ḥāffa

Do not push the cart toward the edge. (Formal direct prohibition.)

Drive or prompt someone to act: object + إلى

The causative sense uses دفع + person/entity + إلى + action noun, or إلى أن + subjunctive. The direct object is the person or institution experiencing the pressure; the إلى phrase is the resulting action.

دفعت الأزمة الشركة إلى خفض نفقاتها

dafaʿati l-ʾazmatu sh-sharikata ʾilā khafḍi nafaqātihā

The crisis drove the company to reduce its expenses. (Formal.)

دفعه القلق إلى أن يطلب رأيا طبيا آخر

dafaʿahu l-qalaqu ʾilā ʾan yaṭluba raʾyan ṭibbiyyan ʾākhar

Anxiety prompted him to seek another medical opinion. (Formal.)

Repel or protect from: عن

In دفع الخطر عن شخص and دفع التهمة عن نفسه, the verb means “ward off, repel, rebut.” This use is (formal) and especially common in legal, political, and elevated prose.

حاول المحامي دفع التهمة عن موكله

ḥāwala l-muḥāmī dafʿa t-tuhmati ʿan muwakkilih

The lawyer tried to rebut the accusation against his client. (Formal legal register.)

💡
A human direct object is a diagnostic warning: دفع الموظفَ means “pushed the employee.” To say “paid the employee,” name what was paid and add the recipient: دفع للموظف أجره.

Passive, participles, and fixed combinations

The passive دُفِعَ / يُدْفَعُ is frequent in invoices, policies, and payment notices. Unvocalized دفع can represent active دَفَعَ, passive دُفِعَ, or the noun دَفْع; syntax supplies the reading. The command has an additional written alif: ادفع (اِدْفَعْ).

دفعت الرسوم بالكامل قبل بدء الدورة

dufiʿati r-rusūmu bil-kāmili qabla badʾi d-dawra

The fees were paid in full before the course began. (Formal passive.)

هذا الاشتراك مدفوع مسبقا لمدة عام

hādhā l-ishtirāku madfūʿun musbaqan limuddati ʿām

This subscription is prepaid for one year. (Formal commercial register.)

Frequent combinations include دفع فاتورة/رسوم/غرامة/ضريبة “pay a bill/fees/fine/tax,” دفع مقدما “pay in advance,” دفع على أقساط “pay in installments,” دافع رئيسي “main driver/motive,” and formal دفع عجلة التنمية “advance the process of development.”

Common Mistakes

Making the person paid a bare direct object

❌ دفع المدير الموظف في نهاية الشهر

Incorrect for ‘paid the employee’—as written, the core reading is that the manager pushed the employee.

✅ دفع المدير للموظف أجره في نهاية الشهر

dafaʿa l-mudīru lil-muwaẓẓafi ʾajrahu fī nihāyati sh-shahr

The manager paid the employee his wage at the end of the month.

Omitting بـ before a payment method

❌ دفعت البطاقة عند الصندوق

Incorrect for ‘I paid by card’—the method requires بـ; without it, البطاقة is interpreted as the object.

✅ دفعت بالبطاقة عند الصندوق

dafaʿtu bil-biṭāqati ʿinda ṣ-ṣundūq

I paid by card at the checkout.

Dropping إلى from the prompting frame

❌ دفعه الضغط أن يستقيل

Incorrect in the standard prompting frame—use إلى الاستقالة or إلى أن يستقيل.

✅ دفعه الضغط إلى أن يستقيل

dafaʿahu ḍ-ḍaghṭu ʾilā ʾan yastaqīl

The pressure drove him to resign.

Writing hamzat al-qaṭʿ on the command

❌ إدفع الرسوم قبل الجمعة

Incorrect standard spelling—the imperative begins with hamzat al-waṣl and is written ادفع.

✅ ادفع الرسوم قبل الجمعة

idfaʿi r-rusūma qabla l-jumuʿa

Pay the fees before Friday.

Key Takeaways

  • دَفَعَ — يَدْفَعُ — اِدْفَعْ — دَفْعٌ is a regular sound Form-I bundle.
  • In payment, the amount, bill, fee, or price is direct; the recipient takes لـ/إلى, and the method takes بـ.
  • A bare person object normally activates the physical sense “push.”
  • The prompting frame is دفع شخصا إلى فعل شيء; protective or rebuttal دفع commonly uses عن.
  • Passive دُفِعَ — يُدْفَعُ and participle مدفوع are central to formal payment notices.

Related Topics

  • باع — sell with bāʿa/yabīʿu hollow alternationB2 — Conjugate hollow-yāʾ باع and use its direct object with buyer, price, passive, participles, and commercial collocations.
  • حمل — carryB2 — Use حمل for carrying, bearing responsibilities, pregnancy, and the causative and interpretive frames built with على.
  • كان — beA2 — Reference the hollow verb كان across its full paradigm, copular and existential senses, predicate case, conditionals, and high-frequency collocations.
  • Form I: The Lexical BaseA2 — Learn why Form I must be stored through verified principal parts, stem-vowel class, valency, and maṣdar rather than one universal pattern.
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