Hollow Verbs: Middle Radical و or ي | Arabic (Modern Standard) Grammar

A hollow verb (فعل أجوف) has و or ي as its middle root consonant. Form I قَالَ / يَقُولُ “say” belongs to root ق-و-ل, while بَاعَ / يَبِيعُ “sell” belongs to ب-ي-ع. The weak middle radical usually surfaces as part of a long vowel in familiar forms, but that long vowel shortens before consonantal personal suffixes in the perfect, in jussive forms with no person-number ending, and before feminine-plural -نَ: قَالَ → قُلْتُ, يَقُولُ → لَمْ يَقُلْ, هُنَّ يَقُلْنَ. The 2 m.sg. imperative shares the suffixless jussive stem: قُلْ.

This alternation is systematic, but the identity of the vowel is lexical. Compare قُلْ from قال / يقول, بِعْ from باع / يبيع, and خَفْ from خاف / يخاف. A root dictionary supplies the perfect and imperfect principal parts; the endings then tell you when their long or short stem is required. The next page develops the most frequent model, قَالَ-type hollow verbs, in a complete paradigm.

See two stems, not a missing letter

For learning purposes, track a long realization and a short realization in each aspect. The long realization appears when the ending allows the long vowel to remain. A short realization appears before a consonantal personal suffix in the perfect and in imperfect forms that either have no ending after the jussive mood vowel is removed or take consonantal feminine-plural -نَ. For خاف, the perfect short vowel (خِفْتُ) and imperfect short vowel (لم يَخَفْ) even differ, so “short stem” is not one universal string.

Root	Long perfect	Short perfect	Long imperfect	Short jussive
ق-و-ل	قَالَ	قُلْتُ	يَقُولُ	لَمْ يَقُلْ
ب-ي-ع	بَاعَ	بِعْتُ	يَبِيعُ	لَمْ يَبِعْ
خ-و-ف	خَافَ	خِفْتُ	يَخَافُ	لَمْ يَخَفْ

The order in ق-و-ل matters because و is the middle radical. The visible alif of قال is not itself the dictionary root letter. Likewise, باع has alif on the page but a middle ي in its root.

قالت المهندسة إن إصلاح العطل لن يستغرق طويلا.

qālati l-muhandisatu ʾinna ʾiṣlāḥa l-ʿuṭli lan yastaghriqa ṭawīlan.

The engineer said that repairing the fault would not take long. (Formal.)

باعت الشركتان المبنى القديم واشترتا مقرا أصغر.

bāʿati sh-sharikatāni l-mabnā l-qadīma wa-shtaratā maqarran ʾaṣghar.

The two companies sold the old building and bought a smaller headquarters. (Formal VSO; singular feminine verb before a dual subject.)

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Alif in the perfect does not tell you whether the middle root letter is و or ي, and it does not predict the imperfect vowel. Learn قال–يقول, باع–يبيع, and خاف–يخاف as separate principal-part pairs.

The perfect: long before suitable endings, short before consonantal suffixes

With قال, the long stem قالـ occurs in قَالَ “he said,” قَالَتْ “she said,” قَالَا “they two said,” and قَالُوا “they (m.) said.” The short stem قُلْـ occurs before suffixes that begin with a consonant: قُلْتُ, قُلْتَ, قُلْتِ, قُلْنَا, قُلْتُمْ, and قُلْنَ.

Person	قَالَ	بَاعَ	Stem choice
he	قَالَ	بَاعَ	long
she	قَالَتْ	بَاعَتْ	long
I	قُلْتُ	بِعْتُ	short before -t
we	قُلْنَا	بِعْنَا	short before -n
they (f.)	قُلْنَ	بِعْنَ	short before -n

قلت للموظف إنني سأعود بعد الغداء.

qultu lil-muwaẓẓafi ʾinnanī saʾaʿūdu baʿda l-ghadāʾ.

I told the employee that I would return after lunch. (Neutral MSA.)

بعنا الأثاث الزائد لجمع المال قبل الانتقال.

biʿnā l-ʾathātha z-zāʾida lijamʿi l-māli qabla l-intiqāl.

We sold the extra furniture to raise money before moving. (Neutral MSA.)

الموظفات قلن إن التدريب ساعدهن كثيرا.

al-muwaẓẓafātu qulna ʾinna t-tadrība sāʿadahunna kathīran.

The female employees said that the training helped them a lot. (Subject-first feminine plural.)

Do not describe قالت as “short because ت follows.” Its ending is historically and synchronically the 3 f.sg. -at, and the long stem remains. The relevant contrast is قَالَتْ versus consonant-suffixed قُلْتُ. Memorizing only the visible letter ت hides the actual paradigm.

The imperfect: long in the ordinary indicative and subjunctive

The imperfect normally keeps its long vowel: يَقُولُ, تَبِيعُ, نَخَافُ. Subjunctive particles change the final ending but do not shorten the stem: لَنْ يَقُولَ, لَنْ تَبِيعَ, لَنْ نَخَافَ. Forms with pronounced number endings also keep the appropriate long stem: يَقُولَانِ, تَبِيعِينَ, يَخَافُونَ.

يقول الأطباء إن الراحة جزء أساسي من العلاج.

yaqūlu l-ʾaṭibbāʾu ʾinna r-rāḥata juzʾun ʾasāsiyyun mina l-ʿilāj.

Doctors say that rest is an essential part of treatment. (Formal VSO; singular verb.)

لن تبيع المالكتان الشقة قبل انتهاء عقد الإيجار.

lan tabīʿa l-mālikatāni sh-shaqqata qabla ntihāʾi ʿaqdi l-ʾījār.

The two female owners will not sell the apartment before the lease ends. (Formal VSO; subjunctive.)

الأطفال يخافون من صوت الرعد أكثر من البرق.

al-ʾaṭfālu yakhāfūna min ṣawti r-raʿdi ʾakthara mina l-barq.

The children are more afraid of thunder than lightning. (Subject-first plural agreement.)

Suffixless jussives and the 2 m.sg. imperative

When an imperfect has no person-number ending, removal of its final mood vowel after لم leaves the hollow stem short: لَمْ أَقُلْ “I did not say,” لَمْ نَبِعْ “we did not sell,” لَمْ يَخَفْ “he was not afraid.” The masculine-singular imperative uses that same short stem after removal of تـ: قُلْ, بِعْ, خَفْ.

لم يقل المدير متى ستعلن النتائج.

lam yaquli l-mudīru matā satuʿlanu n-natāʾij.

The director did not say when the results would be announced. (Formal; jussive.)

لم تبع الأسرة منزلها رغم ارتفاع الأسعار.

lam tabiʿi l-ʾusratu manzilahā raghma rtifāʿi l-ʾasʿār.

The family did not sell its house despite rising prices. (Formal; jussive.)

قل الحقيقة بوضوح، ولا تخف من طرح الأسئلة.

quli l-ḥaqīqata bi-wuḍūḥin, wa-lā takhaf min ṭarḥi l-ʾasʾila.

Tell the truth clearly, and don't be afraid to ask questions. (Direct advice.)

The linking kasra in لَمْ يَقُلِ المدير and قُلِ الحقيقة merely connects a final sukūn to the following article. The underlying forms remain jussive يَقُلْ and imperative قُلْ.

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Test the exact person before shortening. Suffixless لم أقلْ، لم نقلْ، لم يقلْ are short. The 2 f.sg., dual, and masculine-plural five-verb forms retain the long stem while losing nūn: لم تقولي، لم يقولا، لم يقولوا.

Consonantal suffixes in the imperfect

Feminine-plural -نَ begins with a consonant and selects the short stem: هُنَّ يَقُلْنَ, أَنْتُنَّ تَبِعْنَ, هُنَّ يَخَفْنَ. By contrast, feminine-singular تَقُولِينَ and masculine-plural يَقُولُونَ preserve the long vowel.

البائعات يبعن المنتجات المحلية في السوق الأسبوعي.

al-bāʾiʿātu yabiʿna l-muntajāti l-maḥalliyyata fī s-sūqi l-ʾusbūʿī.

The female vendors sell local products at the weekly market. (Subject-first feminine plural.)

This is why “jussive means short” is not a complete rule. Stem shape results from the particular ending: compare singular لم يَبِعْ with dual لم يَبِيعَا and masculine plural لم يَبِيعُوا.

Passive stems require separate checking

The ordinary Form I passive vowels interact with the weak middle radical. Common perfect passives include قِيلَ “it was said” and بِيعَ “it was sold,” while their imperfects are يُقَالُ and يُبَاعُ. These are not obtained by leaving the active long vowel unchanged.

قيل إن الطريق سيفتح قبل نهاية الأسبوع.

qīla ʾinna ṭ-ṭarīqa sayuftaḥu qabla nihāyati l-ʾusbūʿ.

It was said that the road would open before the end of the week. (Formal reportive passive.)

بيعت التذاكر كلها خلال ساعتين.

bīʿati t-tadhākiru kulluhā khilāla sāʿatayn.

All the tickets were sold within two hours. (Formal passive; nonhuman plural with feminine-singular agreement.)

Common Mistakes

Keeping the long vowel before a consonantal perfect suffix

❌ قالت أنا إن الموعد تغير.

Incorrect for ‘I said’—the first-person suffix selects short قُلْـ, so use قُلْتُ.

✅ قلت إن الموعد تغير.

qultu ʾinna l-mawʿida taghayyar.

I said that the appointment had changed.

Shortening every form with a written ت

❌ قلت مريم إن الاجتماع ألغي.

Incorrect for ‘Maryam said’—third-person feminine singular keeps the long stem: قَالَتْ.

✅ قالت مريم إن الاجتماع ألغي.

qālat Maryamu ʾinna l-ijtimāʿa ʾulghī.

Maryam said that the meeting had been canceled.

Keeping the long vowel in a singular jussive

❌ لم يقول المدير شيئا عن الميزانية.

Incorrect—the suffixless singular jussive shortens يَقُولُ to يَقُلْ.

✅ لم يقل المدير شيئا عن الميزانية.

lam yaquli l-mudīru shayʾan ʿani l-mīzāniyya.

The director said nothing about the budget.

Using the same short vowel for every hollow verb

❌ لم تبع الأسرة منزلها.

lam tabuʿi l-ʾusratu manzilahā

Incorrect reading—بَاعَ / يَبِيعُ has short stem بِعْـ, not بُعْـ; the unvocalized spelling alone does not show that vowel contrast.

✅ لم تبع الأسرة منزلها.

lam tabiʿi l-ʾusratu manzilahā.

The family did not sell its house.

Applying singular shortening to a five-verb form

❌ الموظفون لم يقلوا رأيهم.

Incorrect—the masculine-plural form retains long ū and loses only nūn after لم: يقولوا.

✅ الموظفون لم يقولوا رأيهم بعد.

al-muwaẓẓafūna lam yaqūlū raʾyahum baʿd.

The employees have not expressed their opinion yet.

Key Takeaways

A hollow verb has و or ي as its middle root radical, even when the surface form shows alif.
Learn the perfect and imperfect together; root type alone does not predict ū, ī, or ā in the imperfect.
The perfect uses a short stem before consonantal personal suffixes: قُلْتُ، بِعْنَا، خِفْنَ.
A jussive with no person-number ending and the 2 m.sg. imperative shorten: لم أقل، لم نقل، لم يقل، قل؛ لم يبع، بع؛ لم يخف، خف.
Five-verb jussives retain the long stem and drop nūn, while feminine-plural -نَ selects the short stem.

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