English finish, complete, and be done overlap, but mainstream Cairene organizes completion around viewpoint. Intransitive خِلِص / بيِخلَص says that an event, supply, or period ends or runs out. Transitive خَلَّص / بيخلّص says that an agent finishes something. كمّل / بيكمّل profiles continuation through the remaining part, and تمّ presents completion in a formal or institutional style.
Unvocalized Egyptian spelling writes both خِلِص khiliṣ and خَلَّص khallaṣ as خلص. This is a genuine difficulty: the vowels, shadda, argument structure, and context distinguish them in speech even when ordinary writing does not.
خلص without an object: come to an end or run out
In the intransitive frame, the thing that ends is the subject. Meetings, films, time, money, water, stock, and similar items can يخلصوا. No agent directly acts on an object.
الاجتماع خلص متأخر، فمالحقتش القطر.
il-igtimāʿ khiliṣ mitʾakhkhar, fa-ma-lḥaʾtish il-ʾaṭr.
The meeting ended late, so I missed the train.
المية خلصت وإحنا لسه في الطريق.
il-mayya khilṣit wi-ʾiḥna lissa fiṭ-ṭarīʾ.
The water ran out while we were still on the road.
الفيلم بيخلص الساعة عشرة إلا ربع.
il-film biyikhlaṣ is-sāʿa ʿashara ʾilla robʿ.
The film ends at quarter to ten.
The b-imperfect in the last example presents the scheduled endpoint. خلص does not itself mean past; morphology and context establish viewpoint.
خلّص with an object: finish or get something done
Transitive خلّص takes the task or item finished as a direct object. An object pronoun attaches, and verbal negation surrounds the whole finite word.
خلصت التقرير قبل الميعاد بيوم.
khallaṣt it-taʾrīr ʾabl il-mīʿād bi-yom.
I finished the report a day before the deadline.
الورق مهم، خلصه قبل ما المدير يوصل.
il-waraʾ mohim, khallaṣu ʾabl ma l-modīr yiwṣal.
The paperwork is important; finish it before the manager arrives.
لسه ماخلصناش الحسابات القديمة.
lissa ma-khallaṣnāsh il-ḥisābāt il-ʾadīma.
We still haven’t finished the old accounts.
كمّل highlights continuation or the remaining portion
كمّل can mean “continue” with a bare verbal complement or “complete/finish off” with a direct object. Its characteristic contribution is that something has already begun and proceeds further. The command كمّل is therefore a natural instruction to resume or carry on.
كمل كلامك، أنا سامعك.
kammil kalāmak, ʾana sāmiʿak.
Go on with what you were saying; I’m listening.
هي كملت تذاكر بعد ما الكهربا رجعت.
hiyya kammilit tizākir baʿd ma l-kahraba rigʿit.
She carried on studying after the power came back.
كملنا باقي المشوار على رجلينا.
kammilna bāʾi l-mashwār ʿala riglena.
We completed the rest of the journey on foot.
The complement verb after phase-like كمّل is bare: كملت تذاكر, not an independently marked بتذاكر. With a noun object, باقي often makes the “remaining portion” explicit.
تمّ presents an accomplished institutional event
تمّ is common in notices, administration, news, and professional updates (formal/professional/MSA-influenced). It often combines with a maṣdar: تم الدفع “payment was completed,” تم إرسال الطلب “the application was sent.” In ordinary family conversation, a finite Cairene verb is usually more natural.
تم الدفع، والإيصال حيوصلك على الإيميل.
tamm id-dafʿ, wi-l-ʾīṣāl ḥa-yiwṣallak ʿala l-ʾimel.
Payment has been completed, and the receipt will reach you by email. (professional)
الطلب تم من غير أي مشاكل.
iṭ-ṭalab tamm min gher ʾayy mashākil.
The request went through without any problems. (professional)
Formal تمّ + maṣdar suppresses or backgrounds the agent. Do not treat it as a universal passive auxiliary in casual Egyptian. خلصنا الدفع or دفعنا is usually more direct in conversation.
Aspect, polarity, and the nearby particle خلاص
The three verbs accept ordinary viewpoint choices, but their lexical meanings remain distinct. بيخلص may mean “ends” or “finishes,” depending on transitivity; بيكمّل presents continuation; تمّ is already strongly result-oriented and register-marked. خلاص is a particle meaning roughly “done/enough/okay now,” not another inflected form of the verb.
هو بيخلص الجزء المهم بدري وبيكمل باقي الشغل من البيت.
huwwa biykhallaṣ il-gozʾ il-mohimm badri wi-biyikammil bāʾi sh-shoghl min il-bet.
He finishes the important part early and completes the rest of the work from home.
خلاص، خلصنا الأكل ومش عايزين حاجة تانية.
khalāṣ, khallaṣna l-ʾakl wi-mish ʿāyzīn ḥāga tānya.
That’s it; we’ve finished the food and don’t want anything else.
See خلاص: Completion, Enough, and Closure for its turn-closing and discourse uses.
Three everyday situations
الرصيد خلص، فشحنته من التطبيق.
ir-raṣīd khiliṣ, fa-shaḥantu min it-taṭbīʾ.
My credit ran out, so I topped it up through the app.
خلصي الرسالة وبعدين كملي الفيلم.
khallaṣi r-risāla wi-baʿden kammili l-film.
Finish the message, then carry on with the film. (to one woman)
تم تسجيل الحضور الساعة تسعة.
tamm tasgīl il-ḥoḍūr is-sāʿa tisʿa.
Attendance was recorded at nine. (formal/professional)
A deadline dialogue
خلصت العرض ولا محتاج وقت كمان؟
khallaṣt il-ʿarḍ walla moḥtāg waʾt kamān?
Have you finished the presentation, or do you need more time?
خلصت أغلبه، وحكمل آخر صفحتين دلوقتي.
khallaṣt ʾaghlabu, wi-ḥa-kammil ʾākhir ṣafḥiten dilwaʾti.
I’ve finished most of it, and I’ll complete the last two pages now.
Register and variation
خلص and كمّل are ordinary across urban Egyptian speech. Exact vowels and preferences can vary regionally (regional: Alexandria/Delta/Upper Egypt). تمّ is not “more correct”; it is a formal, bureaucratic, or news-like framing (formal/professional/media). Performance language sometimes uses formal completion formulas for comic or elevated effect (performance).
Common Mistakes
Treating intransitive and transitive خلص as one spoken form
أنا خلصت التقرير.
ʾana khallaṣt it-taʾrīr.
ʾana khiliṣt it-taʾrīr
Pronunciation error—the direct object requires transitive khallaṣt, not intransitive khiliṣt.
Putting b- on the complement after كمّل
❌ كملت بذاكر بعد العشا.
Incorrect in the phase-verb chain—the selected activity complement is bare.
✅ كملت أذاكر بعد العشا.
kammilt ʾazākir baʿd il-ʿasha.
I carried on studying after dinner.
Using تمّ as an everyday all-purpose “finish”
❌ تم أكلي للسندوتش يا ماما.
Mismatched and unnatural for the intended family chat—تمّ + nominalization is bureaucratic here.
✅ خلصت السندوتش يا ماما.
khallaṣt is-sandwitsh ya māma.
I finished the sandwich, Mom.
Confusing “continue” with “end”
❌ الاجتماع كمل الساعة خمسة.
Incorrect for ‘the meeting ended at five’—كمّل profiles continuation, not the endpoint itself.
✅ الاجتماع خلص الساعة خمسة.
il-igtimāʿ khiliṣ is-sāʿa khamsa.
The meeting ended at five.
Key Takeaways
Distinguish intransitive خِلِص from transitive خَلَّص, even though unvocalized spelling merges them. Use كمّل when continuation or the remaining portion matters, reserve تمّ for formal or institutional completion, and keep the discourse particle خلاص analytically separate.
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- Stacked Aspectual and Modal PredicatesC2 — Build Cairene predicate chains in which an outer tense or modal expression scopes over bare phase, attempt, and activity verbs.
- خلاص: Completion, Enough, and ClosureA2 — Use خلاص to present a result as settled, stop an action, close a turn, or confirm a decision.
- خلّص khallaṣ — finish; saveB1 — Conjugate transitive Cairene خلّص, use its direct-object and من rescue frames, and distinguish it from خِلِص, مخلّص, خالص, and خلاص.
- كمّل kammil — continue; completeB1 — Conjugate Pattern II كمّل and choose among direct-object completion, bare-verb continuation, directives, clitics, and result expressions.
- بطّل baṭṭal — stopB1 — Conjugate Cairene بطّل and use it naturally for quitting habits, stopping actions, commands, complements, clitics, and negation.
- Workplace and Service EncountersB2 — Navigate Egyptian workplace and customer-service speech through titles, mitigation, institutional wording, hierarchy, and selective English insertions.