قال — say | Arabic (Modern Standard) Grammar

قَالَ / يَقُولُ is the central verb “say,” from root ق-و-ل. It is a Form-I hollow-wāw verb: long ā or ū appears in many forms, but a short u stem appears in قُلْتُ “I said,” لَمْ يَقُلْ “he did not say,” and قُلْ “say!” Knowing that morphology is necessary; knowing what may follow the verb is what makes it usable.

The dedicated قَالَ-type morphology page teaches the stem alternation in depth. This lexical entry concentrates on ranked meanings, addressees, reported content, quotation punctuation, and collocations.

Principal parts and derived lookup forms

Item	Form	Use
Perfect	قَالَ	he said
Perfect short stem	قُلْتُ	I said
Imperfect	يَقُولُ	he says / is saying
Imperative	قُلْ	say! (one male addressee)
Maṣdar	قَوْلٌ	saying, statement, view
Active / passive participles	قَائِلٌ / مَقُولٌ	speaker/one saying; said or uttered
Passive	قِيلَ / يُقَالُ	it was said / it is said

The passive is exceptionally useful in formal reporting: قيل إن... “it was said that...” and يقال إن... “it is said that....” The feminine noun مَقُولَة is a saying or proposition, while مَقُول is the passive participle “said.”

قلت للموظفة إنني سأرسل النسخة اليوم

qultu lil-muwaẓẓafati ʾinnanī saʾursilu n-nuskhata l-yawm

I told the employee that I would send the copy today. (Formal neutral.)

يقال إن المفاوضات ستستأنف الأسبوع المقبل

yuqālu ʾinna l-mufāwaḍāti satustaʾnafu l-ʾusbūʿa l-muqbil

It is said that negotiations will resume next week. (Formal reportive passive.)

💡

Learn one bundle of morphology and one bundle of valency: قال/يقول/قلت/قل, then قال شيئا، قال لفلان، قال إنّ، قال: «...».

The smallest useful paradigm

The perfect retains the long stem in قال، قالت، قالا، قالوا but uses short قُلْـ before consonantal suffixes: قلت، قلنا، قلن. The indicative and subjunctive imperfect retain long ū; the suffixless singular jussive shortens it.

Environment	Form	Meaning
3 m.sg. / 3 f.sg.	قَالَ / قَالَتْ	he/she said
1 sg. / 1 pl.	قُلْتُ / قُلْنَا	I/we said
3 m.pl. / 3 f.pl.	قَالُوا / قُلْنَ	they said
indicative / subjunctive	يَقُولُ / لَنْ يَقُولَ	says / will not say
jussive	لَمْ يَقُلْ	did not say
imperatives	قُلْ، قُولِي، قُولُوا، قُلْنَ	say! by addressee

قالت الباحثتان إن النتائج تحتاج إلى مراجعة

qālati l-bāḥithatāni ʾinna n-natāʾija taḥtāju ʾilā murājaʿa

The two female researchers said that the results needed review. (Formal verb-first order; a preceding verb is feminine singular before this dual subject.)

الموظفات قلن إن التدريب كان مفيدا

al-muwaẓẓafātu qulna ʾinna t-tadrība kāna mufīdā

The female employees said that the training was useful. (Formal; subject-first feminine plural.)

لم يقل المتحدث متى ستنتهي الجلسة

lam yaquli l-mutaḥaddithu matā satantahī l-jalsa

The speaker did not say when the session would end. (Formal; jussive with a linking i before the article.)

قل الحقيقة بوضوح ولا تبالغ

quli l-ḥaqīqata biwuḍūḥin walā tubāligh

Tell the truth clearly and do not exaggerate. (One male addressee; formal neutral.)

The thing said and the person addressed

قال can take a direct object denoting words or content: قال الحقيقة، قال كلمة، قال شيئا. The person addressed normally follows لـ: قال لي “said to me / told me.” English “tell someone” therefore does not license a bare person object in Arabic.

قال المدير بضع كلمات في بداية الحفل

qāla l-mudīru biḍʿa kalimātin fī bidāyati l-ḥafl

The director said a few words at the beginning of the ceremony. (Formal.)

قالت لي الطبيبة إن الفحوص مطمئنة

qālat lī ṭ-ṭabībatu ʾinna l-fuḥūṣa muṭmaʾinna

The doctor told me that the test results were reassuring. (Formal neutral.)

An attached direct-object pronoun refers to what was said: قاله “he said it.” The addressee still needs لـ: قاله له “he said it to him.”

ما قلته لها كان صحيحا

mā qultuhu lahā kāna ṣaḥīḥā

What I told her was correct. (Formal neutral.)

Reported content: إنّ, بأنّ, and direct quotation

After finite قال, a reported proposition normally begins with إنّ: قال إنّ الاجتماعَ أُلغي. The initial hamza takes kasra because the reported clause begins as a quoted or report-like utterance. This differs from English, where “that” may disappear entirely.

قال الوزير إن الحكومة ستنشر البيانات كاملة

qāla l-wazīru ʾinna l-ḥukūmata satanshuru l-bayānāti kāmila

The minister said that the government would publish the data in full. (Formal.)

قال بأنّ also occurs in contemporary journalistic prose, with بـ + أنَّ. It is accepted in widespread modern usage, though قال إنّ is usually leaner and is the best default. The بأنّ frame is especially established after nouns such as القول بأنّ “the claim/view that....”

رفضت اللجنة القول بأن القرار اتخذ مسبقا

rafaḍati l-lajnatu l-qawla biʾanna l-qarāra ttukhidha musbaqan

The committee rejected the claim that the decision had been made in advance. (Formal.)

For exact words, Arabic uses a colon and quotation marks just as modern edited English does: قال: «سأعود غدا». Do not place إنّ inside unless it was actually part of the quoted wording.

قالت المديرة: «سنعلن النتيجة غدا»

qālati l-mudīratu: «sanuʿlinu n-natījata ghadā»

The director said, ‘We will announce the result tomorrow.’ (Formal direct quotation.)

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Choose one reporting architecture: قال إنّ... for indirect content, or قال: «...» for exact words. Use بأنّ when the preposition بـ is genuinely part of the frame, especially with القول بأنّ.

Frequent collocations and register

Useful clusters include كما قال “as ... said,” على حد قوله “in his words / according to him,” قال كلمته “had his say,” يقال إن “it is said that,” and بعبارة أخرى with a reformulation. Repeated قُلْ introducing authoritative declarations is (literary) or sermon-like outside an ordinary literal command.

على حد قوله، لم يتلق الفريق أي تحذير مسبق

ʿalā ḥaddi qawlihi, lam yatalaqqa l-farīqu ʾayya taḥdhīrin musbaq

According to him, the team received no prior warning. (Formal reporting.)

Common Mistakes

Keeping the long stem before the first-person suffix

❌ قالت للمدير إنني سأعود

Incorrect if the intended subject is ‘I’—قالت means ‘she said’; use قلتُ.

✅ قلت للمدير إنني سأعود

qultu lil-mudīri ʾinnanī saʾaʿūd

I told the director that I would return.

Using a bare person as the object of “tell”

❌ قلت المديرة إن الخطة تغيرت

Incorrect for ‘I told the director’—the addressee normally takes لـ.

✅ قلت للمديرة إن الخطة تغيرت

qultu lil-mudīrati ʾinna l-khuṭṭata taghayyarat

I told the director that the plan had changed.

Writing أنَّ directly after قال

❌ قال الوزير أن الخطة جاهزة

Incorrect in the standard direct reporting frame—use إنّ after finite قال.

✅ قال الوزير إن الخطة جاهزة

qāla l-wazīru ʾinna l-khuṭṭata jāhiza

The minister said that the plan was ready.

Retaining و in the singular jussive

❌ لم يقول المتحدث متى تبدأ الجلسة

Incorrect—the suffixless jussive shortens يقولُ to يقلْ.

✅ لم يقل المتحدث متى تبدأ الجلسة

lam yaquli l-mutaḥaddithu matā tabdaʾu l-jalsa

The speaker did not say when the session would begin.

Key Takeaways

Learn قَالَ / يَقُولُ / قُلْتُ / قُلْ / قَوْلٌ as one lexical bundle.
Use لـ for the person addressed and a direct object for the words or content said.
Default to قال إنّ... for indirect reports and a colon plus quotation marks for exact words.
القول بأنّ is an established formal frame; finite قال بأنّ occurs in modern journalism, but قال إنّ is the cleaner default.
Passive قيل / يقال is central to formal impersonal reporting.

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