راح is the core Cairene motion verb “go” and, when departure is foregrounded, “leave.” It comes from the hollow root ر-و-ح: compare perfect راح rāḥ, suffixed روحت roḥt, and imperfect يروح yirūḥ. It also appears in purpose chains such as راح يجيب “he went to get” and in lively informal narratives where literal movement fades.
English uses finite go for several kinds of motion and uses be going to as a future marker. Cairene does not normally turn راح into the general future auxiliary. Ordinary future uses حـ/هـ: هشوفه “I'll see him,” not a mechanical راح أشوفه copied from English or Levantine Arabic.
Core practical paradigm
| Person | Perfect | Bare imperfect | b-imperfect | ḥa-future |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| أنا | رُحْتْ roḥt | أَرُوحْ arūḥ | بَارُوحْ barūḥ | هَارُوحْ ha-rūḥ |
| إنت | رُحْتْ roḥt | تِرُوحْ tirūḥ | بِتِرُوحْ bitirūḥ | هَتِرُوحْ ha-tirūḥ |
| إنتي | رُحْتِي roḥti | تِرُوحِي tirūḥi | بِتِرُوحِي bitirūḥi | هَتِرُوحِي ha-tirūḥi |
| هو | رَاحْ rāḥ | يِرُوحْ yirūḥ | بِيِرُوحْ biyirūḥ | هَيِرُوحْ ha-yirūḥ |
| هي | رَاحِتْ rāḥit | تِرُوحْ tirūḥ | بِتِرُوحْ bitirūḥ | هَتِرُوحْ ha-tirūḥ |
| إحنا | رُحْنَا roḥna | نِرُوحْ nirūḥ | بِنِرُوحْ binirūḥ | هَنِرُوحْ ha-nirūḥ |
| إنتوا | رُحْتُوا roḥtu | تِرُوحُوا tirūḥu | بِتِرُوحُوا bitirūḥu | هَتِرُوحُوا ha-tirūḥu |
| هم | رَاحُوا rāḥu | يِرُوحُوا yirūḥu | بِيِرُوحُوا biyirūḥu | هَيِرُوحُوا ha-yirūḥu |
As with other hollow verbs, the long vowel in راح shortens and changes before consonant-initial perfect suffixes. Bare imperfect occurs after modals and subordinators—عايز أروح، لازم تروح—while b-imperfect presents an actual or habitual trip—بروح الشغل كل يوم.
Imperative, negation, and participles
The imperatives are روح rūḥ, روحي rūḥi, and روحوا rūḥu. Negative commands use the imperfect inside ما...ش: ماتروحش.
روح البيت ارتاح، وبعدين ابقى كلمني.
rūḥ il-bēt irtāḥ, wi-baʿdēn ibʾa kallimni.
Go home and rest, then call me later.
ماتروحش الفرع القديم؛ العنوان اتغير من الشهر اللي فات.
ma-tirūḥsh il-farʿ il-ʾadīm; il-ʿonwān itghayyar min ish-shahr illi fāt.
Don't go to the old branch; the address changed last month.
The active participle is central: رايح، رايحة، رايحين. It presents a person as currently headed somewhere or as committed to a near plan. The time phrase distinguishes “on the way” from “going later.”
أنا رايح المطار دلوقتي، فممكن الشبكة تقطع.
ʾana rāyiḥ il-maṭār dilwaʾti, fa-momkin ish-shabaka tiʾṭaʿ.
I'm on my way to the airport now, so the connection may drop.
سارة رايحة إسكندرية الجمعة وراجعة الأحد.
Sāra rāyḥa Iskindiriyya l-gomʿa wi-rāgʿa l-aḥad.
Sara is going to Alexandria on Friday and coming back Sunday.
There is no productive everyday passive participle for intransitive “go.” Forms such as متراح are marginal or lexical and should not be generated as the counterpart of رايح. The verbal noun رواح and instance noun روحة occur in particular expressions, but finite forms and the active participle do most everyday work. Separate Form II روّح commonly means “go home” or “send someone home”; it is a different lexeme, not merely another tense of راح.
Destinations, sources, and valency
راح is intransitive: the destination is not a direct object in the verbal sense, even when familiar destinations occur without an overt preposition. Cairene commonly says راح البيت، راح الشغل، راح الجامعة. لـ is natural with a person, service, or goal: راح للدكتور، راح للمحاسب. من introduces the point of departure.
رحت للدكتور عشان الوجع ماخفش بعد يومين.
roḥt lid-doktōr ʿashān il-wagaʿ ma-khaffish baʿd yōmēn.
I went to the doctor because the pain hadn't eased after two days.
هو راح من المكتب قبل ما المطر يبدأ.
huwwa rāḥ min il-maktab ʾabl ma l-maṭar yibdaʾ.
He left the office before the rain started.
A suffix in رحتلها belongs to destination لـ, not to the verb as a direct object. This distinction matters because “go her” is impossible in English too; the Egyptian spelling simply fuses “to her” onto the verb.
رحتلها عشان أديها المفتاح بنفسي.
roḥtilha ʿashān ʾaddīha l-miftāḥ binafsi.
I went to her so I could give her the key myself.
Going for a purpose
A motion verb can be followed by a bare imperfect that expresses purpose. The second verb agrees with the same understood subject.
محمود راح يجيب العربية من الجراج وهيرجع على طول.
Maḥmūd rāḥ yigīb il-ʿarabiyya min il-garāg wi-ha-yirgaʿ ʿala ṭūl.
Mahmoud went to get the car from the garage and will be right back.
هنروح نقابل المحامي قبل ما نوقع العقد.
ha-nirūḥ niʾābil il-moḥāmi ʾabl ma niwaʾʾaʿ il-ʿaʾd.
We'll go meet the lawyer before we sign the contract.
Do not add an English-style to mechanically between the verbs. Egyptian bare imperfect carries the purpose relation in this serial coordination frame.
Tight sequence and narrative foregrounding
Perfect راح followed by another perfect can narrate a prompt, sometimes unexpected step: راح جاب “so he went and got.” Literal movement may remain, but colloquial storytelling can bleach it almost completely. A clause such as وهو قاعد راح قاللي... cannot describe physical going, because the subject stays seated; راح pushes the next event into the foreground.
لقي الباب مقفول، راح كلم البواب وخد منه نسخة المفتاح.
liʾi l-bāb maʾfūl, rāḥ kallim il-bawwāb wi-khad minno noskhit il-miftāḥ.
He found the door locked, so he went and called the doorman and got a copy of the key from him.
وهو قاعد مكانه راح قاللي إن القرار اتغير.
wi-huwwa ʾāʿid makāno rāḥ ʾālli inni l-ʾarār itghayyar.
While still sitting right there, he suddenly tells me that the decision had changed. (informal narrative)
This second use is informal narrative and carries speaker stance—often surprise, escalation, or vivid sequencing. It is not a neutral general past marker, and it is not the future auxiliary found in some other Arabic varieties.
Negation and a short conversation
Perfect and imperfect finite forms take ما...ش: ماراحش، مابيروحش. The participle takes independent مش: مش رايح. Future uses مش هيروح.
هو ماراحش الاجتماع امبارح، ومش رايح المكتب النهارده كمان.
huwwa ma-rāḥsh il-igtimāʿ imbāriḥ, wi-mish rāyiḥ il-maktab in-naharda kamān.
He didn't go to the meeting yesterday, and he isn't going to the office today either.
رايح فين؟ رايح البنك، وبعده هروح أستلم الطلب.
rāyiḥ fēn? rāyiḥ il-bank, wi-baʿdo ha-rūḥ ʾastalim iṭ-ṭalab.
Where are you going? I'm heading to the bank, and after that I'll go pick up the order.
The participle anchors the current trip; future هروح introduces the later trip. That discourse contrast is more useful than treating both forms as interchangeable translations of going.
Common Mistakes
1. Using راح as a general future auxiliary.
❌ أنا راح أكلمك بكرة.
Not the mainstream Cairene future baseline; this resembles Levantine or pan-Arabic usage.
✅ أنا هكلمك بكرة بعد الاجتماع.
ʾana ha-kallimak bukra baʿd il-igtimāʿ.
I'll call you tomorrow after the meeting.
2. Treating رايح as an unchanging infinitive.
❌ هي رايح الجامعة دلوقتي.
Incorrect—the active participle agrees with a feminine subject.
✅ هي رايحة الجامعة دلوقتي وهترجع الضهر.
hiyya rāyḥa g-gāmʿa dilwaʾti wi-ha-tirgaʿ iḍ-ḍohr.
She's going to the university now and will be back at noon.
3. Building the perfect regularly without the hollow-vowel change.
❌ أنا راحت السوق بدري.
Incorrect first-person perfect; use رحت.
✅ أنا رحت السوق بدري عشان أتجنب الزحمة.
ʾana roḥt is-sūʾ badri ʿashān ʾatgannab iz-zaḥma.
I went to the market early to avoid the crowds.
4. Treating a لـ suffix as a direct object.
❌ رحتها عشان أشرح المشكلة.
Incorrect—راح is intransitive; “to her” requires لـ.
✅ رحتلها عشان أشرح لها المشكلة وش لوش.
roḥtilha ʿashān ʾashraḥ laha l-moshkila wishsh li-wishsh.
I went to her so I could explain the problem face to face.
5. Negating the active participle with verbal ما...ش.
❌ مارايحش الشغل النهارده.
Avoid verbal circumfixal negation with the active participle in the neutral baseline.
✅ مش رايح الشغل النهارده عشان عندي معاد دكتور.
mish rāyiḥ ish-shoghl in-naharda ʿashān ʿandi maʿād doktōr.
I'm not going to work today because I have a doctor's appointment.
Key Takeaways
- Memorize the hollow alternation راح rāḥ / رحت roḥt / يروح yirūḥ and the imperative روح rūḥ.
- Use رايح for current trajectory or a settled plan; use حـ/هـ + imperfect for neutral future.
- Familiar destinations may follow directly, while لـ marks many personal or goal destinations and hosts suffixes such as رحتلها.
- After another verb, راح can introduce purpose; in informal narrative it can foreground a surprising next event without literal movement.
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- Imperatives of Weak VerbsB1 — Form positive and negative Cairene commands from final-weak, hollow, and irregular weak verbs without importing MSA forms.
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