Cairene جاب gāb covers “bring,” “fetch,” “get,” “obtain,” and several conventional result meanings. Its hollow stem alternates: جاب gāb but جبت gibt, while the imperfect is يجيب yigīb. The vowel bundle belongs to this verb; another hollow verb may shorten differently.
This page teaches mainstream urban Cairo (informal/neutral) with ordinary ج = /g/. General hollow morphology is treated on hollow verbs. Here the priority is using this very frequent verb with natural objects, recipients, clitics, and collocations.
The complete practical paradigm
The unsuffixed perfect and third-person plural have long ā: جاب، جابوا. Before consonant-initial person endings, the perfect uses short جِبـ gib-.
| Subject | Perfect | B-imperfect | Bare imperfect |
|---|---|---|---|
| أنا | جبت gibt | بجيب bagīb | أجيب ʾagīb |
| إنت | جبت gibt | بتجيب bitgīb | تجيب tigīb |
| إنتي | جبتي gibti | بتجيبي bitgībi | تجيبي tigībi |
| هو | جاب gāb | بيجيب biyigīb | يجيب yigīb |
| هي | جابت gābit | بتجيب bitgīb | تجيب tigīb |
| إحنا | جبنا gibna | بنجيب bingīb | نجيب nigīb |
| إنتوا | جبتوا gibtu | بتجيبوا bitgību | تجيبوا tigību |
| هم | جابوا gābu | بيجيبوا biyigību | يجيبوا yigību |
جبنا الأكل من المطعم قبل ما الضيوف يوصلوا.
gibna l-ʾakl min il-maṭʿam ʾabl ma ḍ-ḍuyūf yōṣalu.
We got the food from the restaurant before the guests arrived.
المندوب بيجيب الطلبات بعد الضهر كل يوم.
il-mandūb biyigīb iṭ-ṭalabāt baʿd iḍ-ḍohr kull yōm.
The courier brings the orders every afternoon.
The b-imperfect describes an ongoing or regular process. Bare نجيب after ممكن proposes an action:
ممكن نجيب كرسي زيادة من الأوضة التانية.
momkin nigīb kursi ziyāda min il-ʾōḍa t-tānya.
We can bring an extra chair from the other room.
Future, commands, and participles
Future حـ attaches to the bare form: حجيب، حتجيب، حيجيب، حنجيب. The safest mainstream Cairo command set is the suppletive هات hāt, هاتي hāti, and هاتوا hātu. Regular-looking جيب، جيبي، جيبوا is also attested and can be interchangeable for some speakers (informal variation), but this page keeps هات as its production baseline. A negative command returns to the imperfect stem: ماتجيبش ma-tgībsh, not ماهاتش.
حجيبلك الشاحن وأنا راجع من الشغل.
ḥagīblak ish-shāḥin wi-ʾana rāgiʿ min ish-shoghl.
I'll bring you the charger on my way back from work. (to one man)
هاتوا معاكم جاكتات عشان الجو حيبرد.
hātu maʿākum gākitāt ʿashān il-gaww ḥayibrad.
Bring jackets with you because the weather will get cold. (to a group)
Active جايب، جايبة، جايبين presents an acquired or brought-along result. It often answers “what do you have/bring with you?” rather than describing an event unfolding second by second.
أنا جايب العقد الأصلي وصورتين من البطاقة.
ʾana gāyib il-ʿaʾd il-ʾaṣli wi-ṣurtēn min il-biṭāʾa.
I've brought the original contract and two copies of the ID.
A freely productive passive participle is not central to conversational جاب. Use a finite passive/result expression such as اتجاب “was brought” or ordinary موجود when that is the intended state, rather than inventing a symmetrical form.
Productive transfer: object, source, and recipient
The theme is a direct object. من marks its source. A recipient is commonly expressed by attached لـ or a full لـ phrase.
هبة جابت الملف من العربية وادته للمدير.
Hiba gābit il-malaf min il-ʿarabiyya wi-ddēto lil-modīr.
Heba got the file from the car and gave it to the manager.
جبت لأمي نوع الشاي اللي بتحبه.
gibt li-ʾummi nawʿ ish-shāy illi bitiḥibbo.
I got my mother the kind of tea she likes.
English bring is centered on motion toward a viewpoint; get can mean acquire, buy, fetch, or understand. Egyptian جاب covers many acquisition and fetching readings, but not every English get. “Get tired,” for example, requires a change-of-state expression, not جاب.
Object clitics and two-object chains
A theme suffix attaches directly: جابه، جابها، جابهم. If both theme and recipient are clitics, the theme comes first and recipient لـ follows it: جابهولي “he brought it.M to me.”
طلبت التقرير، وهو جابهولي قبل الاجتماع.
ṭalabt it-taʾrīr, wi-huwwa gābhūli ʾabl il-igtimāʿ.
I asked for the report, and he brought it to me before the meeting.
هي بتجيبهالنا طازة من المخبز.
hiyya bitgībhalna ṭāza min il-makhbaz.
She brings it to us fresh from the bakery. (feminine theme)
With a full theme, attach only the recipient when natural: جبتلك القهوة. See two-object clitics for the full chain.
Negation preserves the short perfect stem
The first-person perfect negative is ماجبتش, not a long-stem form. An object and recipient stay inside the envelope before final ـش.
ماجبتش العربية عشان مفيش مكان نركن.
ma-gibtish il-ʿarabiyya ʿashān ma-fīsh makān nirkin.
I didn't bring the car because there's nowhere to park.
ماجابهولناش في المعاد المتفق عليه.
ma-gābhulnāsh fi l-maʿād il-mottafaʾ ʿalēh.
He didn't bring it to us at the agreed time.
Habitual negative مابيجيبش retains the b-marker. Future negation may use مش حيجيب when the future proposition itself is denied.
Causative-like and idiomatic extensions
جاب + person + bare imperfect can mean that the subject brought or arranged for someone to perform an action. Context decides whether actual motion or procurement is prominent.
صاحب الشقة جاب سباك يصلح الحنفية.
ṣāḥib ish-shaʾʾa gāb sabbāk yiṣallaḥ il-ḥanafiyya.
The landlord got a plumber to repair the faucet. (literally: brought a plumber to repair it)
The lower verb is bare يصلح, because جاب carries the event's tense. This is a lexical construction, not a license to use جاب for every English make/get someone to.
Common stored collocations include جاب نتيجة “produced a result,” جاب درجة “got a grade,” جاب سيرة “mentioned/brought up,” and جاب مشاهدات “got views.”
التغيير الصغير ده جاب نتيجة أحسن من المتوقع.
it-taghyīr iṣ-ṣughayyar da gāb natīga ʾaḥsan min il-mitwaʾʾaʿ.
This small change produced a better result than expected.
Short dialogue
أ: مين حيجيب التورتة للحفلة؟
A: mīn ḥayigīb it-tōrta lil-ḥafla?
A: Who's bringing the cake to the party?
ب: أنا حجيبها، وإنت هات العصير.
B: ʾana ḥagībha, wi-ʾinta hāt il-ʿaṣīr.
B: I'll bring it, and you bring the juice. (to one man)
Register and variation
These forms are mainstream Cairene (informal/neutral), with ج pronounced /g/. Formal جلب / أحضر may express “bring” in official prose (formal MSA); حصل على covers some formal “obtain” readings. They are register- and frame-specific, not superior replacements.
Alexandrian and Delta usage broadly shares the verb, while Upper Egyptian, Bedouin, class-, age-, and community-linked speech may differ in vowels, the realization of ج, or preferred collocations (regional/social). Learned loans or names can retain /dʒ/ or /ʒ/. Advertising may use جاب نتيجة hyperbolically (performance/advertising).
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping long ā before a consonant-initial ending.
❌ أنا جابت الطلب من الفرع.
Incorrect person and hollow stem — first singular is جبت.
✅ أنا جبت الطلب من فرع مدينة نصر.
ʾana gibt iṭ-ṭalab min farʿ Madīnit Naṣr.
I got the order from the Nasr City branch.
2. Using جاب for every English “get.”
❌ جبت تعبان بعد المشوار.
Incorrect for ‘I got tired’ — جاب does not mark this change of state.
✅ تعبت بعد المشوار الطويل.
taʿibt baʿd il-mishwār iṭ-ṭawīl.
I got tired after the long trip.
3. Reversing theme and recipient clitics.
❌ جابليهو قبل الاجتماع.
Incorrect chain for ‘brought it to me’ — the theme precedes لـ + recipient.
✅ جابهولي قبل الاجتماع بساعة.
gābhūli ʾabl il-igtimāʿ bi-sāʿa.
He brought it to me an hour before the meeting.
4. Importing an MSA pronunciation of ج into neutral Cairo.
هو جاب النتيجة امبارح.
huwwa gāb in-natīga imbāriḥ.
huwwa dʒāb in-natīdʒa imbāriḥ
Pronunciation/register error — mainstream Cairo uses /g/ in both instances of ج here.
Key Takeaways
- Learn جاب / جبت / يجيب as a three-part hollow bundle; do not preserve ā before every ending.
- The theme is direct, من marks a source, and لـ marks a recipient.
- Theme clitics precede recipient clitics, and final ـش closes the complete chain.
- جاب + person + bare verb and collocations such as جاب نتيجة are lexical extensions, not automatic translations of every English get.
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