قفل / بيقفل ʾafal / biyiʾfil is the everyday Cairene verb “close,” “shut,” and, with devices, “turn off.” Mainstream Cairene realizes ق here as /ʾ/. The perfect often has a–a when an agent closes an object—قفل الباب ʾafal il-bāb—while i–i perfects such as المحل قفل il-maḥall ʾifil are also well established, especially in intransitive “closed down/ceased operating” readings and in speakers’ individual systems.
That vowel variation is real; it is not solved by pretending every speaker has one mechanically predictable paradigm. This page uses ʾafal / yiʾfil as the practical transitive citation pair, labels the frequent intransitive ʾifil where it matters, and keeps spelling قفل stable. It also separates plain قفل from geminated قفّل ʾaffal, a related verb with substantial overlap but its own lexical distribution.
See the Cairene qaf guide for the social distribution of /ʾ/, /q/, and /g/, and the middle constructions page for lability beyond this single verb.
Complete practical paradigm
The table gives the productive ʾafal / yiʾfil set (mainstream Cairene; informal/neutral). Bare imperfect appears after modals and other licensors, b-imperfect makes an ordinary present or habitual clause, and joined حـ marks future.
| Person | Perfect | Bare imperfect | b-imperfect | ḥa-future |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| أنا | قَفَلْتْ ʾafalt | أَقْفِلْ ʾaʾfil | بَاقْفِلْ baʾfil | حَقْفِلْ ḥa-ʾfil |
| إنت | قَفَلْتْ ʾafalt | تِقْفِلْ tiʾfil | بِتِقْفِلْ bitiʾfil | حَتِقْفِلْ ḥa-tiʾfil |
| إنتي | قَفَلْتِي ʾafalti | تِقْفِلِي tiʾfili | بِتِقْفِلِي bitiʾfili | حَتِقْفِلِي ḥa-tiʾfili |
| هو | قَفَلْ ʾafal | يِقْفِلْ yiʾfil | بِيِقْفِلْ biyiʾfil | حَيِقْفِلْ ḥa-yiʾfil |
| هي | قَفَلِتْ ʾafalit | تِقْفِلْ tiʾfil | بِتِقْفِلْ bitiʾfil | حَتِقْفِلْ ḥa-tiʾfil |
| إحنا | قَفَلْنَا ʾafalna | نِقْفِلْ niʾfil | بِنِقْفِلْ biniʾfil | حَنِقْفِلْ ḥa-niʾfil |
| إنتوا | قَفَلْتُوا ʾafaltu | تِقْفِلُوا tiʾfilu | بِتِقْفِلُوا bitiʾfilu | حَتِقْفِلُوا ḥa-tiʾfilu |
| هم | قَفَلُوا ʾafalu | يِقْفِلُوا yiʾfilu | بِيِقْفِلُوا biyiʾfilu | حَيِقْفِلُوا ḥa-yiʾfilu |
قفلت باب البلكونة عشان التراب.
ʾafalt bāb il-balkōna ʿashān it-torāb.
I closed the balcony door because of the dust.
المطعم بيقفل المطبخ قبل الصالة بنص ساعة.
il-maṭʿam biyiʾfil il-maṭbakh ʾabl iṣ-ṣāla binoṣṣ sāʿa.
The restaurant closes the kitchen half an hour before the dining room.
حنقفل المكتب بدري عشان أعمال الصيانة.
ḥa-niʾfil il-maktab badri ʿashān ʾaʿmāl iṣ-ṣiyāna.
We’ll close the office early because of maintenance work.
One verb, two valency patterns
قفل is labile. In a transitive clause an agent closes a direct object: الأمن قفل الباب. In an intransitive clause a door, business, road, or program closes: الباب قفل، المحل قفل، البرنامج بيقفل. English also allows this alternation, but Egyptian uses it especially freely with schedules and technology.
الفرع قفل بدري بسبب قطع الكهربا.
il-farʿ ʾifil badri bisabab ʾaṭʿ il-kahraba.
The branch closed early because of the power cut.
الأبليكيشن بيقفل لوحده كل ما أرفع صورة.
il-ʾablikēshan biyiʾfil liwaḥdo koll ma ʾarfaʿ ṣūra.
The app closes by itself whenever I upload a photo.
الباب اتقفل بالهوا وإحنا بره.
il-bāb itʾafal bil-hawa wi-iḥna barra.
The door got shut by the wind while we were outside.
Form VII اتقفل foregrounds the affected change or resulting closure. Plain intransitive قفل is often a neutral schedule or event report. The choice is not purely physical: a road can قفل or اتقفل, with the second often making the closure imposed on it more salient.
Commands, object suffixes, and negation
The commands are اقفل iʾfil, اقفلي iʾfili, and اقفلوا iʾfilu. Negative commands use ماتقفلش and its agreeing forms. Direct-object suffixes attach to the verb: قفلته “I closed/turned it off,” اقفلها “close it.” Inside negation the suffix precedes ـش: ماقفلتوش.
اقفلوا الشبابيك قبل ما المطر يبدأ.
iʾfilu sh-shabābīk ʾabl ma l-maṭar yibdaʾ.
Close the windows before the rain starts. (to several people)
ماتقفليش الصفحة قبل ما تحفظي التعديلات.
ma-tiʾfilīsh iṣ-ṣafḥa ʾabl ma tiḥfaẓi t-taʿdīlāt.
Don’t close the page before saving the changes. (to one woman)
ماقفلتوش بالمفتاح عشان أخويا لسه بره.
ma-ʾafaltūsh bil-miftāḥ ʿashān ʾakhūya lissa barra.
I didn’t lock it because my brother is still outside.
English distinguishes close and lock. Egyptian قفل can cover both; بالمفتاح or context specifies locking. When the distinction matters, قفل بالمفتاح is clearer than assuming قفل always means “lock.”
قافل and مقفول
The active participle قافل ʾāfil can describe an agent who has something shut or, very commonly, a business that is not operating: المحل قافل. The passive participle مقفول maʾfūl presents a resulting state: a door, account, road, or device is closed, locked, blocked, or switched off. Agreement produces مقفولة and مقفولين.
المحل قافل النهارده عشان صاحبته مسافرة.
il-maḥall ʾāfil in-naharda ʿashān ṣāḥibto mosāfra.
The shop is closed today because its owner is away.
الحساب مقفول لفترة مؤقتة لحد ما نراجع البيانات.
il-ḥisāb maʾfūl li-fatra moʾaʾʾata liḥadd ma nirāgiʿ il-bayānāt.
The account is temporarily locked until we review the information.
For a present participial state, use مش مقفول, not finite ما...ش.
الطريق مش مقفول، بس فيه تحويلة عند الكوبري.
iṭ-ṭarīʾ mish maʾfūl, bass fīh taḥwīla ʿand il-kōbri.
The road isn’t closed, but there is a diversion by the bridge.
Plain قفل and geminated قفّل
Geminated قفّل / بيقفّل ʾaffal / biyiʾaffil is a separate Form II lexeme. It can suggest closing things one after another, shutting something thoroughly, closing off access, or winding down operations. In actual Cairo usage it overlaps greatly with plain قفل, and speakers differ by collocation. Gemination is therefore not a mechanical “more closed” switch.
قبل السفر قفلنا الغاز وقفلنا كل الشبابيك كويس.
ʾabl is-safar ʾafalna l-ghāz wi-ʾaffalna koll ish-shabābīk kowayyis.
Before traveling, we shut off the gas and secured all the windows properly.
الشرطة قفلت الشارع، وبعدين قفلت المداخل الجانبية.
ish-shorṭa ʾafalit ish-shāriʿ, wi-baʿdēn ʾaffalit il-madākhil il-gānbiyya.
The police closed the street and then blocked off the side entrances.
These examples make the iterative/closure-strength nuance plausible, but plain قفل could also occur. Learn frequent collocations from usage rather than correcting native variation into a rigid textbook contrast.
Devices, calls, and lexical collocations
With technology, قفل الجهاز means turn the device off or close it down; قفل البرنامج means close the program; intransitive البرنامج قفل can mean it closed or crashed. قفل السكة is the conventional colloquial expression “hang up/end the call” (informal). Its literal “close the line” structure should not be translated word for word.
الموبايل سخن، فقفلته وسيبته يبرد.
il-mobāyl sikhin, fa-ʾafalto wi-sibto yibrad.
The phone got hot, so I turned it off and left it to cool down.
اتعصب وقفل السكة قبل ما أرد عليه.
itʿaṣṣab wi-ʾafal is-sikka ʾabl ma ʾarodd ʿalēh.
He got upset and hung up before I could answer him. (informal)
A short dialogue
أ: المكتب قفل ولا نلحق نروح؟
A: il-maktab ʾifil walla nilḥaʾ nirūḥ?
A: Has the office closed, or can we still make it there?
ب: لسه فاتح، بس حيقفل بعد عشر دقايق.
B: lissa fātiḥ, bass ḥa-yiʾfil baʿd ʿashar daʾāyiʾ.
B: It’s still open, but it’ll close in ten minutes.
Register and regional variation
The /ʾ/ forms are mainstream Cairene (informal/neutral). Formal MSA has /q/ in قَفَلَ and often chooses more specialized verbs for “close,” “lock,” or “shut down” (formal/MSA). /g/ and /q/ occur systematically in several Egyptian regional and community varieties (regional: Upper Egypt/Bedouin-associated communities; formal performance). Perfect-vowel preferences and the distribution of plain versus geminated forms also vary by speaker, region, age, and collocation. Label those systems; do not call them failed Cairo pronunciation.
Common Mistakes
1. Pronouncing Cairene ق as formal /q/.
المحل بيقفل الساعة تمانية.
il-maḥall biyiʾfil is-sāʿa tamānya.
il-maḥall biyiqfil is-sāʿa tamānya.
Pronunciation mismatch—the Cairene baseline uses /ʾ/ here.
✅ المحل بيقفل الساعة تمانية، فتعالى بدري.
il-maḥall biyiʾfil is-sāʿa tamānya, fa-taʿāla badri.
The shop closes at eight, so come early.
2. Treating every intransitive closure as transitive.
❌ الشركة قفلت نفسها السنة اللي فاتت.
Unnatural for neutral ‘the company closed down’; no reflexive object is needed.
✅ الشركة قفلت السنة اللي فاتت بعد ما الإيجار زاد.
ish-shirka ʾiflit is-sana lli fātit baʿd ma l-ʾīgār zād.
The company closed down last year after the rent increased.
3. Negating a participial state with verbal ما...ش.
❌ الطريق مامقفولش النهارده.
Avoid verbal circumfixal negation with the participle in the neutral baseline.
✅ الطريق مش مقفول النهارده، بس الزحمة شديدة.
iṭ-ṭarīʾ mish maʾfūl in-naharda, bass iz-ziḥma shadīda.
The road isn’t closed today, but traffic is heavy.
4. Pulling the object outside the negative word.
❌ ماقفلتش ها قبل ما أنزل.
Incorrect—the object suffix must remain attached inside ما...ش.
✅ ماقفلتهاش قبل ما أنزل عشان أختي كانت في البيت.
ma-ʾafalthāsh ʾabl ma ʾanzil ʿashān ʾokhti kānit fil-bēt.
I didn’t lock it before going downstairs because my sister was home.
Key Takeaways
- Use the practical pair قفل / بيقفل ʾafal / biyiʾfil and recognize intransitive perfect ʾifil variation.
- The verb is labile: an agent closes an object, or a business, road, door, or program closes.
- Distinguish finite closure from قافل operating status and مقفول result state; negate participles with مش.
- Treat geminated قفّل and expressions such as قفل السكة as related but lexicalized usage, not automatic grammar.
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