عاش ʿāsh / يعيش yiʿīsh means “live, be alive, experience a life.” It is a hollow verb: third-person perfect forms keep long ā, while first- and second-person forms and “we” use short i: عاش / عشت ʿāsh / ʿisht. Its imperfect has long ī, so the useful entry is the whole set عاش–عشت–بيعيش; see the hollow-verb overview for the wider diagnostic.
For a present stable situation, the agreeing participle عايش، عايشة، عايشين is extremely common. The finite verb remains important for habits, ways of living, future projections, and bounded past stretches. English live does not tell you which Egyptian viewpoint to choose.
Complete practical paradigm
| Person | Perfect | Bare imperfect | b-imperfect | ḥa-future |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| أنا | عِشْتْ ʿisht | أَعِيشْ ʾaʿīsh | بَعِيشْ baʿīsh | حَعِيشْ ḥaʿīsh |
| إنت | عِشْتْ ʿisht | تِعِيشْ tiʿīsh | بِتِعِيشْ bitiʿīsh | حَتِعِيشْ ḥatiʿīsh |
| إنتي | عِشْتِي ʿishti | تِعِيشِي tiʿīshi | بِتِعِيشِي bitiʿīshi | حَتِعِيشِي ḥatiʿīshi |
| هو | عَاشْ ʿāsh | يِعِيشْ yiʿīsh | بِيِعِيشْ biyiʿīsh | حَيِعِيشْ ḥayiʿīsh |
| هي | عَاشِتْ ʿāshit | تِعِيشْ tiʿīsh | بِتِعِيشْ bitiʿīsh | حَتِعِيشْ ḥatiʿīsh |
| إحنا | عِشْنَا ʿishna | نِعِيشْ niʿīsh | بِنِعِيشْ biniʿīsh | حَنِعِيشْ ḥaniʿīsh |
| إنتوا | عِشْتُوا ʿishtu | تِعِيشُوا tiʿīshu | بِتِعِيشُوا bitiʿīshu | حَتِعِيشُوا ḥatiʿīshu |
| هم | عَاشُوا ʿāshu | يِعِيشُوا yiʿīshu | بِيِعِيشُوا biyiʿīshu | حَيِعِيشُوا ḥayiʿīshu |
The stem alternation is lexical. Do not borrow the short vowel from قال / قلت or the imperfect vowel from نام / بينام merely because all three verbs are hollow.
عشت في شبرا وأنا صغير.
ʿisht fi Shubra wi-ʾana ṣoghayyar.
I lived in Shubra when I was young. (male speaker)
جدي عاش لحد سن خمسة وتسعين.
gaddi ʿāsh laḥadd sinn khamsa wi-tisʿīn.
My grandfather lived to the age of ninety-five.
State, way of life, and lifespan
Use عايش when the point is a current state or residence: “is alive,” “is living somewhere.” Use the b-imperfect when you foreground a repeated way of living, an ongoing process, or what someone lives on. Perfect عاش presents a bounded stretch or completed experience.
إحنا عايشين قريب من أهل مراتي.
iḥna ʿāyshīn ʾarīb min ʾahl mirāti.
We live near my wife's family.
هو بيعيش على معاش بسيط وبيحسب كل جنيه.
huwwa biyiʿīsh ʿala maʿāsh basīṭ wi-biyiḥsib kull ginēh.
He lives on a small pension and watches every pound.
الست الكبيرة لسه عايشة وذاكرتها قوية.
is-sitt il-kibīra lissa ʿāysha wi-zākirtha ʾawiyya.
The elderly woman is still alive, and her memory is strong.
Residence often takes في; companionship takes مع; means of support takes على. A duration can follow directly: عاش هناك عشر سنين. For a precise address, ساكن في often sounds more specifically residential, while عايش في profiles one’s broader life situation.
Bare forms, future, and commands
Bare forms follow modals and subordinators: عايز أعيش، عشان نعيش. Future حـ joins the bare base. Positive commands are عيش ʿīsh, عيشي ʿīshi, and عيشوا ʿīshu. They are natural in advice and slogans, but a literal order “live!” needs an appropriate rhetorical context.
نفسي أعيش سنة جنب البحر.
nafsi ʾaʿīsh sana gamb il-baḥr.
I'd love to live by the sea for a year.
عيش يومك وماتشيلش هم الأسبوع الجاي.
ʿīsh yōmak wi-ma-tishīlsh hamm il-ʾusbūʿ il-gāy.
Live your day and don't worry about next week. (informal advice to one man)
لو نقلنا هناك، حنعيش بعيد عن الزحمة.
law naʾalna hināk, ḥaniʿīsh baʿīd ʿan iz-zaḥma.
If we move there, we'll live away from the congestion.
Perfect and b-imperfect negate with ما...ش: ماعشتش، مابيعيشش. The participial state takes مش: مش عايش هنا.
ماعشتش لوحدي قبل كده، فالموضوع جديد عليا.
ma-ʿishtish liwaḥdi ʾabl kida, fa-l-mawḍūʿ gidīd ʿalayya.
I've never lived alone before, so this is new to me.
Experiencing a life and object clitics
Base عاش is usually intransitive, but it has a limited transitive extension with nouns such as حياة، تجربة، لحظة: “live a life, live through an experience.” A feminine object suffix can then refer back to such an experience. This is a lexical frame, not permission to attach any English object.
دي كانت تجربة صعبة، بس عشتها للآخر.
di kānit tagriba ṣaʿba, bass ʿishtaha lil-ʾākhir.
It was a hard experience, but I lived through it to the end.
The object reading is much narrower than English live it up or live your dream. Learn established combinations such as عاش حياته and عاش التجربة, rather than treating عاش as freely transitive. Informal عايش الدور is a lexicalized evaluative expression for someone getting carried away with a role or persona.
هو عايش الدور وبيتكلم كأنه صاحب الشركة.
huwwa ʿāyish id-dōr wi-biyitkallim kaʾannu ṣāḥib ish-shirka.
He's really playing the part and talking as if he owns the company. (informal, critical or teasing)
Optative تعيش
Bare second-person تعيش can function optatively: it wishes life upon the addressee rather than predicting it. تعيش وتفتكر is an established remembrance/condolence-related formula, especially around memorial giving and commemorations; plural تعيشوا وتفتكروا addresses a family or group. It is socially marked and should not be reduced to a generic everyday “thanks.”
تعيشوا وتفتكروا، وربنا يرحمه.
tiʿīshu wi-tiftakru, wi-rabbina yirḥamu.
May you live and remember him, and may God have mercy on him. (commemorative/condolence formula)
Other optative uses occur in warm social formulas, but age, family, and region affect what sounds natural (social/regional). Learn each formula with its occasion, not merely as a conjugation slot.
A short dialogue
بقالك قد إيه عايشة في الحي ده؟
baʾālik ʾadd ʾēh ʿāysha fi l-ḥayy da?
How long have you been living in this neighborhood? (to one woman)
حوالي تمان سنين، وعشت سنتين منهم لوحدي.
ḥawāli tamān sinīn, wi-ʿisht santēn minhum liwaḥdi.
About eight years, and I lived alone for two of them.
Register and variation
The paradigm and ordinary عايش uses are neutral Cairo (informal/neutral). Formal يعيش can share spelling but differs in vowel detail, syntax, and endings (formal/MSA); do not add MSA case or mood endings to Cairene examples. عاش also appears in cheers and slogans, sometimes with elevated or performance intonation (performance language). Optative formulas vary by community, generation, and region, including Upper Egyptian usage around remembrance (regional: Upper Egypt/social). The page gives recognition guidance without presenting one ritual formula as universal.
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping ā before a perfect suffix.
❌ أنا عاشت هناك تلات سنين.
Incorrect first-person hollow stem and agreement—the form is عشت.
✅ أنا عشت هناك تلات سنين وقت الجامعة.
ʾana ʿisht hināk talāt sinīn waʾt il-gāmʿa.
I lived there for three years during university.
2. Using finite verbal negation on the participle.
❌ هي ماعايشاش هنا دلوقتي.
Incorrect for the ordinary participial state; use independent مش.
✅ هي مش عايشة هنا دلوقتي؛ نقلت المعادي.
hiyya mish ʿāysha hina dilwaʾti; naʾalit il-Maʿādi.
She doesn't live here now; she moved to Maadi.
3. Copying English live at mechanically.
❌ هو عايش عند القاهرة من زمان.
Wrong preposition for residence in a city; use في.
✅ هو عايش في القاهرة من أيام المدرسة.
huwwa ʿāyish fi l-ʾāhira min ʾayyām il-madrasa.
He's lived in Cairo since his school days.
4. Treating MSA present morphology as Cairene.
هو يعيش حياة هادية.
huwwa yiʿīsh ḥayāh hādya.
huwa yaʿīshu ḥayātan hādiʾatan
Pronunciation/register error—the displayed sentence has Cairene morphology and no MSA case ending.
Key Takeaways
- Memorize عاش / عشت / بيعيش; hollow-vowel patterns are lexical.
- Use عايش for a current life or residence state, and finite forms for bounded, habitual, or projected living.
- Residence normally takes في, companionship مع, and means of support على.
- Optative تعيش belongs to socially situated wishes and formulas, not a generic tense translation.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- Hollow Verbs: Middle Radical و or يB1 — Understand how Egyptian hollow verbs alternate between long and short stems without forcing قال، باع، and نام into one vowel pattern.
- Active Participles as Current StatesA2 — Use active participles such as واقف، قاعد، نايم، and عارف as agreeing current, persistent, and result-oriented predicates.
- Study and Work CollocationsA2 — Use the everyday Cairene frames for studying, learning, working, applying, and completing assignments without translating English collocations word for word.
- في — in, at, and withinA1 — Use Cairene في for location, containment, time, and lexical frames, with its complete attached-pronoun paradigm.
- مات māt — dieA2 — Conjugate hollow مات, use agreeing ميت, and choose direct or euphemistic wording appropriately.