قال is the everyday Egyptian verb for “say,” and with a recipient it often covers English “tell.” Its root is ق-و-ل, and it is a hollow verb: compare perfect قال ʾāl with suffixed قلت ʾolt and imperfect يقول yiʾūl. The romanized initial ʾ reflects the mainstream Cairene realization of ق as a glottal stop. Upper Egyptian, rural, Bedouin, learned, and deliberately formal speech may use /g/ or /q/ (regional/formal) while keeping the same Arabic spelling.
English selects separate verbs in say something and tell someone. Cairene usually keeps قال and marks the listener with لـ or its suffix: قلت الخبر “I said the news,” قلتله الخبر “I told him the news.”
Core practical paradigm
| Person | Perfect | Bare imperfect | b-imperfect | ḥa-future |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| أنا | قُلْتْ ʾolt | أَقُولْ aʾūl | بَاقُولْ baʾūl | هَاقُولْ ha-ʾūl |
| إنت | قُلْتْ ʾolt | تِقُولْ tiʾūl | بِتِقُولْ bitiʾūl | هَتِقُولْ ha-tiʾūl |
| إنتي | قُلْتِي ʾolti | تِقُولِي tiʾūli | بِتِقُولِي bitiʾūli | هَتِقُولِي ha-tiʾūli |
| هو | قَالْ ʾāl | يِقُولْ yiʾūl | بِيِقُولْ biyiʾūl | هَيِقُولْ ha-yiʾūl |
| هي | قَالِتْ ʾālit | تِقُولْ tiʾūl | بِتِقُولْ bitiʾūl | هَتِقُولْ ha-tiʾūl |
| إحنا | قُلْنَا ʾolna | نِقُولْ niʾūl | بِنِقُولْ biniʾūl | هَنِقُولْ ha-niʾūl |
| إنتوا | قُلْتُوا ʾoltu | تِقُولُوا tiʾūlu | بِتِقُولُوا bitiʾūlu | هَتِقُولُوا ha-tiʾūlu |
| هم | قَالُوا ʾālu | يِقُولُوا yiʾūlu | بِيِقُولُوا biyiʾūlu | هَيِقُولُوا ha-yiʾūlu |
The long vowel of قال shortens and changes before consonant-initial perfect suffixes: قال → قلت. The imperfect retains long ū. These are core hollow-verb alternations, not optional pronunciation shortcuts.
Imperative, negation, and participles
The positive imperatives are قول ʾūl, قولي ʾūli, and قولوا ʾūlu. A negative command wraps the imperfect in ما...ش: ماتقولش.
قوللي بصراحة لو الميعاد مش مناسب.
ʾūlli biṣarāḥa law il-miʿād mish monāsib.
Tell me honestly if the time doesn't suit you.
ماتقولش لحد على المفاجأة لحد بكرة.
ma-tiʾūlsh li-ḥadd ʿala l-mofāgaʾa laḥadd bukra.
Don't tell anyone about the surprise until tomorrow.
The active participle is قايل، قايلة، قايلين. It often presents words as already stated or as a speaker's standing position. The result form متقال “said/worded” is common, especially about wording. Formal مقول belongs mainly to learned compounds and is not the ordinary conversational participle (formal).
أنا قايل من الأول إن الميزانية مش هتكفي.
ʾana ʾāyil min il-awwil inni l-mīzāniyya mish ha-tkaffi.
I've been saying from the start that the budget won't be enough.
الكلام متقال بطريقة ممكن تتفهم غلط.
il-kalām mitʾāl bi-ṭarīʾa momkin titfihim ghalaṭ.
The wording is phrased in a way that could be misunderstood.
Saying content: noun, quote, or إن clause
قال can take a content noun directly: قال الحقيقة، قال رأيه، قال كلمتين. Direct quotation then reproduces the speaker's words, while إن introduces a reported proposition.
قال الحقيقة حتى مع إنها كانت هتزعله.
ʾāl il-ḥaʾīʾa ḥatta maʿ innaha kānit ha-tzaʿʿalo.
He told the truth even though it was going to upset him.
سلمى قالت: أنا هراجع الأرقام وأرد عليكم بالليل.
Salma ʾālit: ʾana ha-rāgiʿ il-ʾarʾām wi-ʾarudd ʿalēkom bil-lēl.
Salma said, 'I'll review the figures and get back to you tonight.'
سلمى قالت إن هي هتراجع الأرقام وترد علينا بالليل.
Salma ʾālit in hiyya ha-trāgiʿ il-ʾarʾām wi-trudd ʿalēna bil-lēl.
Salma said that she would review the figures and get back to us tonight.
Everyday Cairene often retains the original speaker's tense and deictic perspective more freely than English school rules about “backshifting.” The reported clause must be interpreted in context, not mechanically pushed one tense backward. See reported speech.
Telling a recipient: لـ and its suffixes
The hearer is normally introduced by لـ: قال لمحمد “said/told Mohamed,” قال لي “said/told me.” Attached recipient suffixes form one word: قلتله، قالتلنا، قوللهم. This is why Egyptian does not need a separate everyday equivalent of English tell.
قلتله إن الباب هيقفل الساعة تسعة.
ʾoltilo inni l-bāb ha-yiʾfil is-sāʿa tisʿa.
I told him that the door would close at nine.
قوللهم يستنونا قدام السينما، مش جوه.
ʾūllohom yistannūna ʾuddām is-sīnima, mish guwwa.
Tell them to wait for us in front of the cinema, not inside.
English speakers often place the person directly after tell. In Cairene, the لـ relation remains visible even when it is fused into a clitic.
Content and recipient clitics together
A content pronoun can attach directly: قلته ʾolto “I said it.” When both a content object and recipient are pronominal, Egyptian stacks them in a fixed order: verb + content + recipient. Thus قلتهوله means “I said it to him.” In connected Cairene speech, vowels around this cluster may reduce, but the grammatical consonants and spelling remain.
الكلام ده قلتهوله لوحده، ومش فاهم مين نقله.
il-kalām da ʾoltahūlo liwaḥdo, wi-mish fāhim mīn naʾalo.
I told him that privately, and I don't understand who passed it on.
Negation comes last, outside the entire cluster: ماقلتهولوش.
ماقلتهولوش عشان ماكنتش متأكد من الخبر.
ma-ʾoltahūlūsh ʿashān ma-kontish mitʾakkid min il-khabar.
I didn't tell it to him because I wasn't sure about the news.
Because two-object clusters are genuinely difficult, learn the high-frequency wholes and use the fuller alternative قلت الكلام له when a heavy cluster would impede clarity. That is stylistic choice, not grammatical failure.
Idioms and discourse uses
يعني literally develops from “mean,” not قال, but أقولك إيه؟ and نقول إيه؟ are conventional discourse frames. They can introduce resignation, evaluation, or a transition rather than request literal words.
أقولك إيه؟ الخدمة ممتازة، بس السعر غالي قوي.
aʾullak ʾēh? il-khidma momtāza, bass is-siʿr ghāli ʾawi.
What can I tell you? The service is excellent, but the price is very high.
The phrase قال يعني often marks skepticism or mocks a pretense (informal). Its pragmatic meaning cannot be derived by translating each word separately.
قال يعني هو مايعرفش إننا مستنيينه من الصبح.
ʾāl yaʿni huwwa ma-yiʿrafsh innana mistanniyīno min iṣ-ṣobḥ.
As if he doesn't know we've been waiting for him since this morning.
A short conversation
المدير قالك إيه؟ قاللي أخلص التقرير وأبعتهوله قبل الضهر.
il-modīr ʾāllak ʾēh? ʾālli ʾakhallaṣ it-taʾrīr wi-ʾabʿathūlo ʾabl iḍ-ḍohr.
What did the manager tell you? He told me to finish the report and send it to him before noon.
Notice that قالك and قاللي encode recipients, while the command content follows as a bare imperfect chain.
Common Mistakes
1. Copying English “tell someone” without recipient لـ.
❌ قلت أحمد إن الاجتماع اتأجل.
Incorrect neutral frame—the recipient Ahmed needs لـ.
✅ قلت لأحمد إن الاجتماع اتأجل للخميس.
ʾolt li-Aḥmad inni l-igtimāʿ itʾaggil lil-khamīs.
I told Ahmed that the meeting was postponed until Thursday.
2. Keeping the long perfect vowel before a consonant suffix.
❌ قالت أنا الحقيقة.
Wrong first-person form—the perfect contracts to قلت, not قالت, for “I said.”
✅ قلت أنا الحقيقة ومخبيتش حاجة.
ʾolt ʾana l-ḥaʾīʾa wi-ma-khabbētish ḥāga.
I told the truth and didn't hide anything.
3. Putting negative ـش before the clitic cluster.
❌ ماقلتشهوش الخبر.
Incorrect order—content and recipient clitics precede the final negative suffix.
✅ ماقلتهولوش عشان الخبر لسه مش مؤكد.
ma-ʾoltahūlūsh ʿashān il-khabar lissa mish moʾakkad.
I didn't tell it to him because the news still isn't confirmed.
4. Using a finite imperfect where an imperative is required.
❌ بتقوللي لما توصل.
This is a statement or question, not the positive command “tell me.”
✅ قوللي لما توصل عشان أنزل أفتحلك.
ʾūlli lamma tiwṣal ʿashān ʾanzil ʾaftaḥlak.
Tell me when you arrive so I can come down and let you in.
5. Forcing English tense backshift in every reported clause.
❌ قال إن كان تعبان دلوقتي.
Unnatural if the tiredness is current; كان unnecessarily pushes the state into the past.
✅ قال إنه تعبان دلوقتي ومش هيقدر ييجي.
ʾāl inno taʿbān dilwaʾti wi-mish ha-yiʾdar yīgi.
He said he's tired now and won't be able to come.
Key Takeaways
- Learn the hollow alternation قال ʾāl / قلت ʾolt / يقول yiʾūl as part of the verb's paradigm.
- Content may be a direct noun, quotation, إن clause, or object suffix; recipients use لـ.
- In double clitics, content precedes recipient and final negative ـش follows the whole cluster: ماقلتهولوش.
- قايل presents words as already stated, while متقال commonly comments on wording; formal مقول is not the everyday substitute.
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