سكن / بيسكن sakan / biyiskon means “live, reside” in mainstream Cairo. It is a strong Form I verb from س-ك-ن, but its perfect and imperfect vowels must be stored together. In ordinary conversation, the agreeing active participle ساكن / ساكنة / ساكنين is especially common for a current or established address.
English live also means “be alive” and “experience life.” Egyptian سكن is narrower: it concerns residence. Use عاش / بيعيش for living one’s life or being alive. This lexical division matters more than the shared English gloss.
Because residence is learned as a whole frame, review في and its attached forms alongside this page.
Complete practical paradigm
The perfect reports a bounded period or change of residence. The b-imperfect describes a residence as a habit, ongoing arrangement, or repeated housing behavior. The bare imperfect follows expressions such as عايز and لازم; joined حـ projects a future residence.
| Person | Perfect | Bare imperfect | b-imperfect | ḥa-future |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| أنا | سَكَنْتْ sakant | أَسْكُنْ ʾaskon | بَسْكُنْ baskon | حَسْكُنْ ḥaskon |
| إنت | سَكَنْتْ sakant | تِسْكُنْ tiskon | بِتِسْكُنْ bitiskon | حَتِسْكُنْ ḥatiskon |
| إنتي | سَكَنْتِي sakanti | تِسْكُنِي tiskoni | بِتِسْكُنِي bitiskoni | حَتِسْكُنِي ḥatiskoni |
| هو | سَكَنْ sakan | يِسْكُنْ yiskon | بِيِسْكُنْ biyiskon | حَيِسْكُنْ ḥayiskon |
| هي | سَكَنِتْ sakanit | تِسْكُنْ tiskon | بِتِسْكُنْ bitiskon | حَتِسْكُنْ ḥatiskon |
| إحنا | سَكَنَّا sakanna | نِسْكُنْ niskon | بِنِسْكُنْ biniskon | حَنِسْكُنْ ḥaniskon |
| إنتوا | سَكَنْتُوا sakantu | تِسْكُنُوا tiskonu | بِتِسْكُنُوا bitiskonu | حَتِسْكُنُوا ḥatiskonu |
| هم | سَكَنُوا sakanu | يِسْكُنُوا yiskonu | بِيِسْكُنُوا biyiskonu | حَيِسْكُنُوا ḥayiskonu |
The commands اسكن، اسكني، اسكنوا (uskon, uskoni, uskonu) are grammatically regular but less frequent than suggestions such as اسكن قريب من الشغل “live near work.” The active participle is ساكن، ساكنة، ساكنين; the institutional noun plural سكان means “residents/population.”
سكنا في فيصل سنتين قبل ما ننقل الدقي.
sakanna fi Fēṣal sanatēn ʾabl ma ninʾol id-Doʾʾi.
We lived in Faisal for two years before moving to Dokki. (informal)
أخويا بيسكن في سكن الطلبة طول الترم.
ʾakhūya biyiskon fi sakan iṭ-ṭalaba ṭūl it-tirm.
My brother lives in student housing throughout the term. (informal)
نفسي أسكن قريب من محطة مترو.
nafsi ʾaskon ʾarīb min maḥaṭṭit mitro.
I'd like to live near a metro station. (informal)
Rule 1: use في for the residence and مع for co-residents
The productive frames are سكن في + place and سكن مع + person. They can co-occur: ساكن مع أخوه في شقة صغيرة. With many city and neighborhood names, colloquial speech can omit في after motion verbs, but residence with سكن strongly favors في.
منى ساكنة مع خالتها في مدينة نصر.
Mona sākna maʿ khālitha fi Madīnit Naṣr.
Mona lives with her maternal aunt in Nasr City. (informal)
حيسكنوا معانا لحد ما شقتهم تخلص.
ḥayiskonu maʿāna laḥadd ma shaʾʾithom tikhlaṣ.
They'll live with us until their apartment is ready. (informal)
When the complement is pronominal, it attaches to the preposition: فيها، معاه، معاهم. Base سكن is normally intransitive in this everyday frame, so do not attach the resident or home directly as a verbal object.
Rule 2: ساكن is the default for an established current address
Both بيسكن and ساكن can refer to the present, but they package it differently. The b-imperfect profiles residence as an activity, habit, or recurring arrangement. The participle presents the resulting state “located as a resident.” In a simple “Where do you live?” exchange, ساكن فين؟ is extremely natural.
إنت ساكن فين دلوقتي؟
inta sākin fēn dilwaʾti?
Where do you live now? (to one man, informal)
هي بتسكن في القاهرة وقت الشغل وبترجع بلدها في الصيف.
hiyya bitiskon fil-ʾāhira waʾt ish-shoghl wi-bitirgaʿ baladha fiṣ-ṣēf.
She stays in Cairo during the work season and returns to her hometown in summer. (recurring arrangement)
Negate finite بيسكن with ما...ش, but negate ساكن with مش. A former residence can be كنت ساكن; a bounded period can use the perfect سكنت هناك سنة. English simple past does not choose between these viewpoints.
مش ساكنين هناك خلاص؛ نقلنا الشهر اللي فات.
mish sāknīn hināk khalāṣ; naʾalna sh-shahr illi fāt.
We don't live there anymore; we moved last month. (informal)
Rule 3: residence is not life in general
Use عاش when the focus is a life span, lived experience, or way of life. Use سكن for the home base. A person can عاش في مصر عشر سنين as a life-history statement and سكن في تلات محافظات as a list of residences; context can overlap, but the focus differs.
جدي عاش عمره كله في مصر، بس سكن في كذا مدينة.
gaddi ʿāsh ʿomro kollo fi Maṣr, bass sakan fi kaza madīna.
My grandfather lived his whole life in Egypt, but resided in several cities.
Pattern II سكّن can mean “house, settle, accommodate” someone and has other lexical meanings such as quieting pain in certain collocations. It is transitive and is not merely a more emphatic pronunciation of سكن.
الشركة سكنت الموظفين الجدد في فندق قريب.
ish-shirka sakkanit il-muwaẓẓafīn il-godod fi fondoʾ ʾarīb.
The company housed the new employees in a nearby hotel. (professional)
A short dialogue
أ: لقيتوا شقة ولا لسه؟
A: laʾētu shaʾʾa walla lissa?
A: Have you found an apartment yet? (informal)
ب: لقينا واحدة، وحنسكن فيها من أول الشهر.
B: laʾēna waḥda, wi-ḥaniskon fīha min ʾawwil ish-shahr.
B: We found one, and we'll move into it at the start of the month.
Here فيها carries the feminine pronoun referring to شقة. English says “live in it”; Egyptian likewise preserves the preposition before its attached object.
Register and variation
The forms here are mainstream urban Cairene (informal/neutral). Formal MSA uses سَكَنَ / يَسْكُنُ and may allow direct-object or بـ residence frames (formal/MSA). Everyday Cairo strongly favors في. Short-vowel qualities vary across Alexandria, the Delta, Upper Egypt, Bedouin-associated varieties, and social networks (regional/community); this page keeps sakan / yiskon / sākin as its production set. Official housing language uses سكن، إسكان، سكان more heavily (formal/institutional).
Common Mistakes
1. Using سكن for “be alive.”
❌ السمكة لسه ساكنة.
Incorrect for ‘the fish is still alive’—ساكنة means residing or still/not moving.
✅ السمكة لسه عايشة وبتتحرك.
is-samaka lissa ʿāysha wi-bititḥarrak.
The fish is still alive and moving.
2. Omitting في before an ordinary residence.
❌ إحنا ساكنين الشقة دي من سنة.
Incorrect in the everyday residence frame—use في before the home.
✅ إحنا ساكنين في الشقة دي من سنة.
iḥna sāknīn fish-shaʾʾa di min sana.
We've lived in this apartment for a year.
3. Negating the participle as a finite verb.
❌ هي ماساكنةش مع أهلها.
Incorrect in the neutral baseline—ساكنة takes independent مش.
✅ هي مش ساكنة مع أهلها دلوقتي.
hiyya mish sākna maʿ ʾahlaha dilwaʾti.
She isn't living with her family now.
4. Attaching a co-resident directly to the verb.
❌ سكنته تلات شهور.
Incorrect for ‘I lived with him’; this reads as a causative/object construction.
✅ سكنت معاه تلات شهور وقت التدريب.
sakant maʿāh talāt shuhūr waʾt it-tadrīb.
I lived with him for three months during the training.
Key Takeaways
- Use سكن في for a place and سكن مع for co-residents; pronouns attach to those prepositions.
- Prefer agreeing ساكن for a stable current address; use finite forms when profiling an event, habit, or projected residence.
- Keep سكن “reside” distinct from عاش “live/be alive” and transitive سكّن “house/settle.”
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- في — in, at, and withinA1 — Use Cairene في for location, containment, time, and lexical frames, with its complete attached-pronoun paradigm.
- مع — withB1 — Use Egyptian مع for accompaniment, interaction, alignment, and current custody, with its full Cairene suffix paradigm.
- Form I Active Participles on فاعلB2 — Form and use Cairene Form I active participles as agreeing agent, state, and result predicates rather than English-style -ing forms.
- Pronoun Suffixes after PrepositionsB1 — Attach Egyptian pronoun suffixes to prepositions and choose the host-specific forms used after على، مع، في، من، and لـ.
- عاش ʿāsh — liveA2 — Conjugate hollow عاش, describe lifespan and residence, and recognize optative تعيش in Egyptian social formulas.