حكى ḥaka means “tell, recount, narrate” in mainstream Cairo. It is final-weak: compare citation حكى ḥaka, suffixed حكيت ḥakēt, third-feminine حكت ḥakit, and imperfect يحكي yiḥki. Learn the alternation as this verb’s paradigm, not by attaching endings to the English word tell.
The story or reported material can be direct, the recipient normally takes لـ, and a topic takes عن. A proposition can follow إن. This differs from English tell someone something, which permits two bare noun phrases. The structural background is covered under final-weak رمى-type verbs.
Complete Practical Paradigm
| Person | Perfect | Bare imperfect | b-imperfect | ḥa-future |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| أنا | حَكِيتْ ḥakēt | أَحْكِي ʾaḥki | بَحْكِي baḥki | حَحْكِي ḥaḥki |
| إنت | حَكِيتْ ḥakēt | تِحْكِي tiḥki | بِتِحْكِي bitiḥki | حَتِحْكِي ḥatiḥki |
| إنتي | حَكِيتِي ḥakēti | تِحْكِي tiḥki | بِتِحْكِي bitiḥki | حَتِحْكِي ḥatiḥki |
| هو | حَكَى ḥaka | يِحْكِي yiḥki | بِيِحْكِي biyiḥki | حَيِحْكِي ḥayiḥki |
| هي | حَكِتْ ḥakit | تِحْكِي tiḥki | بِتِحْكِي bitiḥki | حَتِحْكِي ḥatiḥki |
| إحنا | حَكِينَا ḥakēna | نِحْكِي niḥki | بِنِحْكِي biniḥki | حَنِحْكِي ḥaniḥki |
| إنتوا | حَكِيتُوا ḥakētu | تِحْكُوا tiḥku | بِتِحْكُوا bitiḥku | حَتِحْكُوا ḥatiḥku |
| هم | حَكُوا ḥaku | يِحْكُوا yiḥku | بِيِحْكُوا biyiḥku | حَيِحْكُوا ḥayiḥku |
The positive commands are احكي iḥki for one man or woman and احكوا iḥku for a group. Negative commands are ماتحكيش and ماتحكوش.
Story Direct, Recipient with لـ
The narrated story, event, joke, or information can be direct. The listener is marked with لـ: حكى القصة لأخته. This is the opposite of copying English double-object order.
جدي حكى حكاية قديمة عن الحارة.
giddi ḥaka ḥikāya ʾadīma ʿan il-ḥāra
My grandfather told an old story about the neighborhood.
حكيت لصحبتي اللي حصل في الاجتماع.
ḥakēt li-ṣoḥbiti lli ḥaṣal fi l-igtimāʿ
I told my friend what happened in the meeting.
الأم بتحكي للولاد حكاية قبل النوم.
il-ʾomm bitiḥki lil-wilād ḥikāya ʾabl in-nōm
The mother tells the children a story before bed.
The recipient may come before or after the content, but لـ remains. The direct content can also be a headless relative such as اللي حصل “what happened.”
Topic with عن, Proposition with إن
Use عن when presenting the subject matter rather than a bounded story object. Its pronominal forms are عنه، عنها، عنهم. Use إن before a proposition with its own subject and predicate.
البرنامج بيحكي عن ناس بدأوا شغل جديد بعد الخمسين.
il-barnāmag biyiḥki ʿan nās badaʾu shoghl gidīd baʿd il-khamsīn
The program tells the stories of people who started new careers after fifty.
حكت إن الطريق كان مقفول وإنها وصلت متأخر.
ḥakit ʾinn iṭ-ṭarīʾ kān maʾfūl wi-ʾinnaha wiṣlit mitʾakhkhar
She explained that the road was closed and that she arrived late.
In everyday factual reporting, قال إن is often more frequent than حكى إن. حكى foregrounds recounting or narrative development; قال simply attributes an utterance. That frequency difference is lexical, not a prohibition.
Recipient and Content Clitics
A recipient pronoun attaches to لـ: حكيتله “I told him.” A direct story object can attach to the verb: حكاها “he told it.” Both can stack in حكاهالي “he told it to me,” where content precedes recipient.
الخبر مهم، بس ماتحكيهوش لحد دلوقتي.
il-khabar mohim, bass ma-tiḥkīhūsh li-ḥadd dilwaʾti
The news is important, but don't tell it to anyone yet.
الحكاية دي حكاهالي شاهد كان واقف هناك.
il-ḥikāya di ḥakāhāli shāhid kān wāʾif hināk
A witness who was standing there told me this story.
ماحكيتهالوش عشان ماكانش وقته.
ma-ḥakēthālūsh ʿashān ma-kānsh waʾto
I didn't tell it to him because it wasn't the right time.
The last form contains subject-marked حكيتـ, direct feminine ـها, recipient ـله, and final negative ـش. English spaces these meanings into separate words; Egyptian joins the clitic sequence.
Aspect and Future
Perfect حكى presents a telling as bounded. The b-imperfect can describe narration in progress or a storytelling habit. Bare يحكي follows modal and sequencing environments. Future حـ joins the stem; first-person ححكي visibly contains two adjacent ح letters because the future prefix precedes أحكي without the hamza.
هو بيحكي نفس الموقف بطريقة مختلفة كل مرة.
huwwa biyiḥki nafs il-mawʾif bi-ṭarīʾa mokhtalifa koll marra
He tells the same incident differently every time.
ححكيلك باقي التفاصيل لما نتقابل.
ḥaḥkīlak bāʾi t-tafāṣīl lamma nitʾābil
I'll tell you the rest of the details when we meet.
Participles, Narrative Nouns, and Limits
Active حاكي ḥāki can mean “narrator” or “one recounting,” but everyday Cairo often chooses راوي “narrator” or a finite verb. Passive محكي maḥki “told/narrated” is most at home in literary, linguistic, or critical discussion (formal/academic). The everyday nouns حكاية “story” and حكي “storytelling/talk” are lexical members of the family.
الجزء ده محكي من وجهة نظر البنت.
il-gozʾ da maḥki min wighit naẓar il-bint
This section is narrated from the girl's point of view. (literary/critical)
The colloquial idiom من طقطق لسلام عليكم means “from beginning to end.” It is natural with حكى when someone gives every detail, but it belongs to expressive informal speech rather than neutral official prose.
حكى الموضوع من طقطق لسلام عليكم وماسابش تفصيلة.
ḥaka l-mawḍūʿ min ṭaʾṭaʾ li-salām ʿalēkum wi-ma-sābsh tafṣīla
He told the whole story from beginning to end and left out no detail.
A Short Dialogue
ـ حكيت لأهلك عن السفر؟ ـ حكيت لماما، وهي حتحكي لبابا بالليل.
— ḥakēt li-ʾahlak ʿan is-safar? — ḥakēt li-māma, wi-hiyya ḥatiḥki li-bāba bil-lēl
‘Did you tell your family about the trip?’ ‘I told Mum, and she'll tell Dad tonight.’
Register and Variation
حكى is ordinary Egyptian (informal/neutral). Formal MSA shares حكى but uses a different inflectional system (formal). In some other Arabic varieties, the same root covers broader “speak/talk” senses; do not import those regional frames into the Cairo baseline. Alexandrian, Delta, Upper Egyptian, class, age, and community speech may differ in vowel quality and preferred reporting verbs, while literary performance may favor روى (formal/literary).
Common Mistakes
❌ أنا حكى القصة لزميلي.
Incorrect first-person perfect: final-weak حكى uses حكيت before this suffix.
✅ أنا حكيت القصة لزميلي في الطريق.
ʾana ḥakēt il-ʾiṣṣa li-zamīli fi ṭ-ṭarīʾ
I told the story to my colleague on the way.
❌ حكيت صاحبي اللي حصل.
Incorrect English-style double object: the recipient needs لـ.
✅ حكيت لصاحبي عن اللي حصل في الشغل.
ḥakēt li-ṣāḥbi ʿan illi ḥaṣal fi sh-shoghl
I told my friend about what happened at work.
❌ ما حكيت ها له ش.
Incorrect spacing: content, recipient, and negative -ش form one clitic complex.
✅ ماحكيتهالوش قبل ما أتأكد.
ma-ḥakēthālūsh ʾabl ma ʾatʾakkad
I didn't tell it to him before making sure.
هي بتحكي عن تجربتها.
hiyya bitiḥki ʿan tagribitha
hiya taḥkī ʿan tajribatihā
Pronunciation/register error: the MSA reading does not match this Cairene b-imperfect sentence.
Key Takeaways
- Learn حكى–حكيت–بيحكي–احكي as a final-weak set.
- Mark a recipient with لـ, a topic with عن, and a proposition with إن.
- Keep content and recipient clitics in their joined Egyptian order.
- Use participles selectively; finite حكى is more frequent than mechanically possible nominal forms in everyday narration.
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- رمى rama-Type Final-Weak Verbs in EgyptianB1 — Master the three perfect stems and final-i imperfect of the productive Cairene رمى-type class.
- عن — about and away fromA1 — Use Cairene عن for topics, distance, defense, responsibility, and other lexical frames, with its geminating suffix forms.
- Content Clauses with إنB1 — Build Egyptian content clauses with إن, subject suffixes, independent aspect, and the clause patterns used after knowing, saying, hearing, and discovering.
- Two Objects and Clitic OrderingB2 — Build Egyptian verb complexes with a direct-object theme and a recipient, including negative and contrastive forms.
- قال ʾāl — say; tellA2 — Conjugate Cairene قال and use it naturally with quotations, إن clauses, recipients, object clitics, and reported speech.