دفع dafaʿ — pay; push | Arabic (Egyptian) Grammar

دفع dafaʿ is the everyday Cairene verb “pay” and also a transitive verb “push.” Its perfect stem is دفعـ dafaʿ-, while its imperfect is يدفع yidfaʿ. The verb is morphologically regular, but its argument structure is not interchangeable with English: a bill, amount, price, or pushed object can be direct, while the person receiving money commonly takes لـ.

For the general subject and aspect endings, see the Form I overview; this page concentrates on دفع and its two core senses.

The two meanings are genuinely lexical. A payment context gives دفعته “I paid it”; a physical context can give the same spelling “I pushed him.” Egyptian listeners use the object and situation to choose the reading.

Complete Practical Paradigm

Person	Perfect	Bare imperfect	b-imperfect	ḥa-future
أنا	دَفَعْتْ dafaʿt	أَدْفَعْ ʾadfaʿ	بَدْفَعْ badfaʿ	حَدْفَعْ ḥadfaʿ
إنت	دَفَعْتْ dafaʿt	تِدْفَعْ tidfaʿ	بِتِدْفَعْ bitidfaʿ	حَتِدْفَعْ ḥatidfaʿ
إنتي	دَفَعْتِي dafaʿti	تِدْفَعِي tidfaʿi	بِتِدْفَعِي bitidfaʿi	حَتِدْفَعِي ḥatidfaʿi
هو	دَفَعْ dafaʿ	يِدْفَعْ yidfaʿ	بِيِدْفَعْ biyidfaʿ	حَيِدْفَعْ ḥayidfaʿ
هي	دَفَعِتْ dafaʿit	تِدْفَعْ tidfaʿ	بِتِدْفَعْ bitidfaʿ	حَتِدْفَعْ ḥatidfaʿ
إحنا	دَفَعْنَا dafaʿna	نِدْفَعْ nidfaʿ	بِنِدْفَعْ binidfaʿ	حَنِدْفَعْ ḥanidfaʿ
إنتوا	دَفَعْتُوا dafaʿtu	تِدْفَعُوا tidfaʿu	بِتِدْفَعُوا bitidfaʿu	حَتِدْفَعُوا ḥatidfaʿu
هم	دَفَعُوا dafaʿu	يِدْفَعُوا yidfaʿu	بِيِدْفَعُوا biyidfaʿu	حَيِدْفَعُوا ḥayidfaʿu

The positive commands are ادفع idfaʿ, ادفعي idfaʿi, and ادفعوا idfaʿu. Negative commands are ماتدفعش، ماتدفعيش، ماتدفعوش.

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Keep دفع dafaʿ / يدفع yidfaʿ / ادفع idfaʿ together. The first short vowel of the perfect is not copied into the prefixed imperfect.

Paying a Bill, Amount, or Price

The most frequent use is payment. دفع الحساب، دفع الإيجار، دفع القسط take a direct object. An amount can also be direct: دفع ميتين جنيه. The payment method takes بـ, as in بالكارت “by card,” while كاش can occur adverbially in everyday speech.

دفعت فاتورة الكهربا من التطبيق الصبح.

dafaʿt fātūrit il-kahraba min it-taṭbīʾ iṣ-ṣobḥ

I paid the electricity bill through the app this morning.

إحنا بندفع الإيجار أول كل شهر.

ʾiḥna binidfaʿ il-ʾīgār ʾawwil kull shahr

We pay the rent at the beginning of every month.

دفعت تمن التصليح بالكارت.

dafaʿt taman it-taṣlīḥ bil-kārt

I paid for the repair by card.

English freely says pay for the repair. Cairene often makes تمن التصليح “the price of the repair” the direct object. دفعت في التصليح can occur when profiling how much money went into it, but it should not replace every English pay for mechanically.

Recipient and Clitic Stacking

When a person receives the payment, use لـ: دفعت للكهربائي “I paid the electrician.” A pronominal recipient attaches to that preposition: دفعتله “I paid him.” If a direct object and recipient both appear as suffixes, the direct object comes first, then the لـ recipient.

دفعت للصنايعي باقي المبلغ بعد ما خلص.

dafaʿt liṣ-ṣanāyʿi bāʾi l-mablagh baʿd ma khallaṣ

I paid the tradesman the rest of the amount after he finished.

الحساب جاهز، ادفعهولي لما تقابلني.

il-ḥisāb gāhiz, idfaʿhūli lamma tiʾābilni

The bill is ready; pay it to me when you meet me.

The second sentence contains direct object ـه “it” followed by recipient ـلي “to me.” English uses separate pronouns, but Egyptian builds one phonological and orthographic word.

b-Imperfect, Bare Imperfect, Future, and Negation

The b-imperfect presents actual or habitual payment. A modal or purpose construction selects the bare imperfect. Future حـ joins that same person-marked stem. Finite ما...ش wraps around the verb and any object clitic.

لازم ندفع العربون قبل يوم الخميس.

lāzim nidfaʿ il-ʿarbūn ʾabl yōm il-khamīs

We have to pay the deposit before Thursday.

حدفع نص المبلغ دلوقتي والباقي بكرة.

ḥadfaʿ noṣṣ il-mablagh dilwaʾti wil-bāʾi bokra

I'll pay half the amount now and the rest tomorrow.

مادفعتوش عشان الفاتورة كان فيها غلط.

ma-dafaʿtūsh ʿashān il-fātūra kān fīha ghalaṭ

I didn't pay it because there was an error on the bill.

With no object suffix, مادفعش may mean “he didn't pay” or “it didn't push,” but real context almost always resolves the lexical sense.

Physical “Push” and Everyday زق

دفع can take a physical object directly and mean “push.” This use is understood in Cairo and occurs in neutral narration. In highly spontaneous informal speech, زق zaʾʾ is often the more idiomatic everyday choice for a literal shove or pushing a door. That is a lexical preference, not a claim that “push” is absent from دفع.

دفع الباب بكتفه عشان إيده كانت مشغولة.

dafaʿ il-bāb bi-kifto ʿashān ʾīdo kānit mashghūla

He pushed the door with his shoulder because his hand was full.

الزحمة دفعتنا ناحية المخرج.

iz-zaḥma dafaʿitna nāḥyit il-makhrag

The crowd pushed us toward the exit.

An abstract cause can also “push” someone toward an action, especially in more planned or formal discourse: الظروف دفعته يغير شغله. Everyday speakers may instead choose خلّته “made him.” Label this difference as style, not correctness.

Active دافع dāfiʿ can present someone as having paid: أنا دافع الحساب “I've paid the bill.” Passive/result مدفوع madfūʿ means “paid,” with مدفوعة for a feminine noun. These predicates take مش.

الخدمة مدفوعة من الأول ومفيش استرجاع.

il-khidma madfūʿa min il-ʾawwil wi-mafīsh istirgāʿ

The service is paid in advance, and there are no refunds.

Unvocalized دافع also represents Form III دافع عن dāfiʿ ʿan “defend.” Its عن frame and meaning distinguish it from Form I active participle “having paid.” Form II دفّع daffaʿ means “make someone pay” or “charge someone,” often with a person object.

المكتب دفعني رسوم زيادة من غير تفسير.

il-maktab daffaʿni rosūm ziyāda min ghēr tafsīr

The office made me pay extra fees without an explanation.

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Do not derive every meaning from the root. دفع “pay/push,” دفّع “make or charge someone to pay,” and دافع عن “defend” are related but separately stored verbs with different frames.

A Short Dialogue

ـ دفعت للمندوب ولا لسه؟ ـ دفعتله تمن الطلب، بس مادفعتش التوصيل.

— dafaʿt lil-mandūb walla lissa? — dafaʿtlo taman iṭ-ṭalab, bass ma-dafaʿtish it-tawṣīl

‘Have you paid the courier yet?’ ‘I paid him for the order, but I didn't pay the delivery charge.’

The recipient is overtly marked in both turns: full للمندوب, then suffixal ـله. The two charges are direct objects.

Register and Variation

The payment paradigm is mainstream Cairene (informal/neutral). Formal financial writing uses related MSA morphology and specialized nouns (formal). Literal “push” with دفع may sound more neutral or written than colloquial زق in some situations, but it remains Egyptian. Regional and community speech can vary in lexical preference and vowel quality; this page does not flatten those choices into the Cairo production baseline.

Common Mistakes

❌ أنا بيدفع الإيجار كل شهر.

Incorrect person agreement: first singular takes بـ plus the first-person stem.

✅ أنا بدفع الإيجار بتحويل بنكي.

ʾana badfaʿ il-ʾīgār bi-taḥwīl banki

I pay the rent by bank transfer.

❌ دفعت الكهربائي الحساب.

Incorrect for ‘paid the electrician the bill’: the human recipient needs لـ.

✅ دفعت للكهربائي حساب الشغل.

dafaʿt lil-kahrabāʾi ḥisāb ish-shoghl

I paid the electrician for the work.

❌ الحساب مادفوعش.

Incorrect construction: مدفوع is a participle and takes مش, not finite ما...ش.

✅ الحساب مش مدفوع لحد دلوقتي.

il-ḥisāb mish madfūʿ laḥadd dilwaʾti

The bill hasn't been paid yet.

هي دفعت القسط امبارح.

hiyya dafaʿit il-ʾisṭ imbāriḥ

hiya dafaʿat al-qisṭa ʾamsi

Pronunciation/register error: the MSA vowels and case ending do not belong to this Cairene sentence.

Key Takeaways

Learn دفع dafaʿ / يدفع yidfaʿ / ادفع idfaʿ as one Cairene set.
A bill, amount, or pushed thing can be direct; a payment recipient normally takes لـ.
Use بـ for a payment method and often تمن to frame “pay for.”
Keep finite ما...ش apart from participial مش مدفوع, and distinguish Form I from دفّع and دافع عن.

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