سَأَلَ is the ordinary Form-I verb for asking a person, asking a question, or asking about a topic. It comes from the root س-ء-ل. The middle radical is hamza, so the verb is hamzated but not weak: no root consonant disappears, yet the hamza changes its written seat according to the surrounding vowels.
English uses ask before a person, a question, a topic, and a request. Arabic also covers all four ideas, but it marks their roles more clearly: the person is normally a direct object, the topic follows عن, and the thing said as a question can be سؤالا or a quoted/clausal question. Learning only “سأل = ask” therefore leaves out the part that actually determines a correct sentence.
For the writing logic behind أ، ؤ، ئ, see the medial-hamza guide. The companion أجاب reference gives the answering frames that pair with this verb.
Lookup card and principal parts
| Item | Verified form | Use |
|---|---|---|
| root and Form | س-ء-ل، Form I | sound in inflection, with a medial hamza |
| perfect | سَأَلَ | he asked |
| imperfect indicative | يَسْأَلُ | he asks / is asking |
| imperative, 2 m.sg. | اِسْأَلْ | ask! |
| verbal noun | سُؤَالٌ | a question; asking |
| active participle | سَائِلٌ | questioner; asker; also a person asking for charity |
| passive | سُئِلَ — يُسْأَلُ | was asked — is asked |
| passive participle | مَسْؤُولٌ | asked; lexically, responsible / official |
The principal-parts chain is سَأَلَ — يَسْأَلُ — اِسْأَلْ — سُؤَالًا. The spellings أ، ؤ، ئ do not represent different roots: they are seats for the same hamza. Compare سَأَلَ with سُؤَال and passive سُئِلَ. By contrast, deleting the hamza gives سالَ “flowed,” a different verb from root س-ي-ل.
سألت موظفة الاستقبال عن موعد الطبيب.
saʾaltu muwaẓẓafata l-istiqbāli ʿan mawʿidi ṭ-ṭabīb.
I asked the receptionist about the doctor's appointment. (Formal neutral.)
يسأل الصحفي سؤالا قصيرا ثم ينتظر الجواب.
yasʾalu ṣ-ṣaḥafiyyu suʾālan qaṣīran thumma yantaẓiru l-jawāb.
The journalist asks a short question and then waits for the answer. (Formal neutral.)
A compact conjugation: the stem remains, the seat follows spelling rules
Before consonant-initial perfect suffixes, the stem is سَأَلْـ: سَأَلْتُ، سَأَلْتَ، سَأَلْنَا، سَأَلْنَ. Before vowel-initial endings it remains سَأَلَـ: سَأَلَتْ، سَأَلَا، سَأَلُوا. The hamza is not a weak letter and is never dropped.
The imperfect likewise keeps سْأَل: أَسْأَلُ، تَسْأَلُ، يَسْأَلُ، نَسْأَلُ. Mood changes the final ending, not the medial stem: يَسْأَلُ indicative, لَنْ يَسْأَلَ subjunctive, and لَمْ يَسْأَلْ jussive. The feminine singular imperative and the plural are اِسْأَلِي، اِسْأَلُوا.
لن يسأل المدير عن التفاصيل قبل أن يقرأ الملخص.
lan yasʾala l-mudīru ʿani t-tafāṣīli qabla ʾan yaqraʾa l-mulakhkhaṣ.
The director will not ask about the details before reading the summary. (Formal; subjunctive after لن.)
لم تسألني اللجنة عن راتبي السابق.
lam tasʾalnī l-lajnatu ʿan rātibī s-sābiq.
The committee did not ask me about my previous salary. (Formal; jussive after لم.)
اسأل المحاسب قبل أن ترسل الفاتورة.
isʾali l-muḥāsiba qabla ʾan tursila l-fātūra.
Ask the accountant before you send the invoice. (Formal instruction to one man; a linking i joins the imperative to the article.)
The initial alif of اِسْأَلْ carries hamzat al-waṣl. It is pronounced when the command begins an utterance, but elides after a preceding word: ثُمَّ اسْأَلْ is pronounced thumma sʾal, not thumma ʾisʾal. The medial hamza remains fully pronounced in either position.
Standard Arabic also has the established shortened command سَلْ, especially in literary or elevated wording. It is a valid alternative, not a misspelling of اِسْأَلْ; this page uses اِسْأَلْ as the transparent productive default.
Ranked meanings and valency
1. Ask a person: direct object
The addressee normally follows directly, with no preposition: سأل المديرَ، سألها، سألني. This is the sharpest contrast with English ask a question of someone and with languages that require a marker equivalent to “to.” An attached object pronoun occupies the same slot as the full noun.
سألني المراجع عن سبب تأخر المعاملة.
saʾalanī l-murājiʿu ʿan sababi taʾakhkhuri l-muʿāmala.
The client asked me why the transaction had been delayed. (Formal administrative register.)
سألت الطالبة أستاذها سؤالا دقيقا بعد المحاضرة.
saʾalati ṭ-ṭālibatu ʾustādhahā suʾālan daqīqan baʿda l-muḥāḍara.
The student asked her professor a precise question after the lecture. (Formal neutral.)
2. Ask about a topic: عن
The topic or person being inquired about follows عن. Both roles may appear together: سألت الطبيبَ عن الدواء “I asked the doctor about the medicine.” If the addressee is not important, Arabic simply omits it: سألت عن الدواء “I asked about the medicine.”
سأل الضابط الشاهد عن لون السيارة.
saʾala ḍ-ḍābiṭu sh-shāhida ʿan lawni s-sayyāra.
The officer asked the witness about the color of the car. (Formal.)
اتصلت بالمختبر وسألت عن نتيجة التحليل.
ittaṣaltu bil-mukhtabari wa-saʾaltu ʿan natījati t-taḥlīl.
I called the laboratory and asked about the test result. (Formal neutral.)
3. Ask a content question
A quoted question may follow directly, or the content may be introduced by an interrogative such as متى، لماذا، هل. Arabic does not need an equivalent of English if/whether before هل.
سأل الطبيب المريضة: «هل تشعرين بالألم الآن؟»
saʾala ṭ-ṭabību l-marīḍata: «hal tashʿurīna bil-ʾalami l-ʾāna?»
The doctor asked the patient, “Are you in pain now?” (Formal neutral.)
سألتنا المدربة لماذا غيرنا ترتيب الخطوات.
saʾalatnā l-mudarribatu limādhā ghayyarnā tartība l-khuṭuwāt.
The trainer asked us why we had changed the order of the steps. (Formal.)
4. Ask someone to do something
For a requested action, سأل شخصا أن يفعل is grammatical and formal: the person remains a direct object, and أن + subjunctive gives the desired action. In routine contemporary requests, طلب من شخص أن يفعل is often more explicit and more frequent. Do not confuse asking a question with asking for an action merely because English uses the same verb.
سألت المحامية موكلها أن يراجع الإفادة بعناية.
saʾalati l-muḥāmiyatu muwakkilahā ʾan yurājiʿa l-ʾifādata biʿināya.
The lawyer asked her client to review the statement carefully. (Formal.)
Passive and the lexical life of مسؤول
The passive is regular for a hamzated sound verb: سُئِلَ “was asked” and يُسْأَلُ “is asked.” The questioned person becomes the grammatical subject; the topic still follows عن.
سئلت الوزيرة عن خطة الطوارئ في المؤتمر الصحفي.
suʾilati l-wazīratu ʿan khuṭṭati ṭ-ṭawāriʾi fī l-muʾtamari ṣ-ṣaḥafiyy.
The minister was asked about the emergency plan at the press conference. (Formal journalistic register.)
The passive participle مَسْؤُول historically means “one who is asked / held accountable,” but its dominant modern senses are “responsible” and, as a noun, “official.” Context therefore decides whether المسؤول عن المشروع means “the person responsible for the project,” not merely “the person questioned about it.”
High-frequency collocations
| Collocation | Meaning and register |
|---|---|
| سَأَلَ سُؤَالًا | ask a question (neutral) |
| سَأَلَ شَخْصًا عَنْ شَيْءٍ | ask someone about something (neutral) |
| سَأَلَ عَنِ الصِّحَّةِ | ask after someone's health (neutral/formal) |
| كَثِيرُ السُّؤَالِ | asking many questions; inquisitive (neutral, context-dependent) |
| سُؤَالٌ وَجِيهٌ | a valid / well-founded question (formal) |
| مِنْ دُونِ سُؤَالٍ | without being asked / without question (context decides) |
سألني زميلي عن صحة والدي قبل أن يبدأ الاجتماع.
saʾalanī zamīlī ʿan ṣiḥḥati wālidī qabla ʾan yabdaʾa l-ijtimāʿ.
My colleague asked after my father's health before the meeting began. (Courteous formal-neutral usage.)
Common Mistakes
Adding a preposition before the person asked
❌ سألت إلى المدير عن الميزانية.
Incorrect for ‘I asked the manager’—the addressee is a direct object, not an object of إلى.
✅ سألت المدير عن الميزانية.
saʾaltu l-mudīra ʿani l-mīzāniyya.
I asked the manager about the budget.
Confusing “ask the manager” with “ask about the manager”
❌ سألت عن المدير موعد التسليم.
Incorrect for the intended meaning ‘I asked the manager about the deadline’—عن المدير makes the manager the topic, not the addressee.
✅ سألت المدير عن موعد التسليم.
saʾaltu l-mudīra ʿan mawʿidi t-taslīm.
I asked the manager about the delivery deadline.
Dropping the medial hamza
❌ سال المريض الطبيب عن الدواء.
Incorrect—the spelling سال means ‘flowed’; سأل ‘asked’ requires hamza.
✅ سأل المريض الطبيب عن الدواء.
saʾala l-marīḍu ṭ-ṭabība ʿani d-dawāʾ.
The patient asked the doctor about the medicine.
Keeping the imperative's initial hamza in connected pronunciation
❌ ثم اسأل الخبير.
thumma ʾisʾal
Incorrect connected reading—the initial hamzat al-waṣl elides after ثم, although the written alif remains.
✅ ثم اسأل الخبير.
thumma sʾali l-khabīr.
Then ask the expert.
Key Takeaways
- سأل is hamzated, not weak: keep all three root consonants while choosing the correct hamza seat.
- Put the person asked directly after the verb; put the topic after عن.
- Distinguish سألته، سألت عنه، سألته عنه by role, not by English word order.
- Use سُئِلَ — يُسْأَلُ for the passive, and recognize modern مسؤول as “responsible” or “official.”
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- كتب — write with direct objects and إلى for recipientsA2 — Conjugate كتب and distinguish what is written, who receives it with إلى, what it concerns with عن, and where or how it is written.
- أجاب — answer with عن or direct-object patterns and a hollow Form IV stemA2 — Use أجاب for people, questions, wording, and requests while controlling its hollow Form-IV stem changes.
- كان — beA2 — Reference the hollow verb كان across its full paradigm, copular and existential senses, predicate case, conditionals, and high-frequency collocations.
- Medial Hamza SeatingB1 — Choose ئ, ؤ, أ, or standalone ء for medial hamza by comparing its vowel with the vowel immediately before it.
- Clitics in Formal Writing versus SpeechC1 — Keep the full Modern Standard Arabic suffix system distinct from regional spoken reductions and host-conditioned variants.