باع bāʿ-Type Hollow Verbs | Arabic (Egyptian) Grammar

The hollow verb باع “sell” has three central Cairene stems: long third-person perfect بَاعْ bāʿ, short first-/second-person and “we” perfect بِعْـ biʿ-, and long-ī imperfect/imperative بِيعْ bīʿ. It therefore cannot be conjugated by copying either قال–قلت–بيقول or نام–نمت–بينام.

The spelling بعت creates an additional real-world challenge: without vowel marks it can be بِعْتْ biʿt “I/you sold” or بَعَتّْ baʿatt “I/you sent.” Sentence context and pronunciation decide which verb is present. The larger three-way contrast appears on the hollow-verb overview.

Rule 1: split the perfect between bāʿ- and biʿ-

Third-person he, she, and they retain long ā. First person, second person, and “we” use short i before their suffixes.

Subject	Perfect	Romanization	Natural English
أنا	بِعْتْ	biʿt	I sold
إنت	بِعْتْ	biʿt	you sold (m.sg.)
إنتي	بِعْتِي	biʿti	you sold (f.sg.)
هو	بَاعْ	bāʿ	he sold
هي	بَاعِتْ	bāʿit	she sold
إحنا	بِعْنَا	biʿna	we sold
إنتوا	بِعْتُوا	biʿtu	you sold (pl.)
هما	بَاعُوا	bāʿu	they sold

هي باعت العفش قبل ما تنقل

hiyya bāʿit il-ʿafsh ʾabl ma tinʾal

She sold the furniture before moving. (informal)

إحنا بعنا العربية القديمة

ʾiḥna biʿna il-ʿarabiyya il-ʾadīma

We sold the old car. (informal)

The suffix does not merely attach to the written citation form. It selects the short stem; باعنا would naturally be read “he sold us,” with -نا as an object, not “we sold.”

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Contrast بعنا biʿna “we sold” with باعنا bāʿna “he sold us.” Vowel length distinguishes a subject suffix from an object clitic even when English word order encourages you to overlook it.

Rule 2: the imperfect and imperative use long ī

The b-imperfect keeps ī across persons and adds the regular Egyptian prefixes and plural/feminine endings.

Subject	B-imperfect	Romanization
أنا	بَبِيعْ	babīʿ
إنت	بِتِبِيعْ	bitibīʿ
إنتي	بِتِبِيعِي	bitibīʿi
هو	بِيِبِيعْ	biyibīʿ
هي	بِتِبِيعْ	bitibīʿ
إحنا	بِنِبِيعْ	binibīʿ
إنتوا	بِتِبِيعُوا	bitibīʿu
هما	بِيِبِيعُوا	biyibīʿu

Masculine بيع bīʿ, feminine بيعي bīʿi, and plural بيعوا bīʿu are the positive imperatives. Negative commands use the second-person bare imperfect inside ما...ش: ماتبيعش، ماتبيعيش، ماتبيعوش.

بيعوا الحاجات اللي مش محتاجينها

bīʿu il-ḥāgāt illi mish miḥtāgīnhā

Sell the things you don't need. (informal, to several people)

ماتبيعيش الموبايل بالسعر ده

ma-tibīʿīsh il-mobāyl bis-siʿr da

Don't sell the phone at that price. (informal, to one woman)

Rule 3: b-imperfect, bare imperfect, and ḥa- are different choices

The b-imperfect supports both ongoing and habitual readings. Context distinguishes them in this time-context minimal pair:

هو بيبيع لزبون دلوقتي

huwwa biyibīʿ li-zabūn dilwaʾti

He's making a sale to a customer now. (informal; ongoing)

هو بيبيع خضار في السوق كل يوم

huwwa biyibīʿ khuḍār fis-sūʾ kull yōm

He sells vegetables in the market every day. (informal; habitual)

After عايز, use the bare imperfect. In an independent future statement, join حـ to the imperfect.

عايز أبيع الكاميرا القديمة

ʿāyiz ʾabīʿ il-kāmira il-ʾadīma

I want to sell the old camera. (informal, male speaker)

حبيعها بعد العيد

ḥa-bīʿha baʿd il-ʿīd

I'll sell it after the holiday. (informal)

Egyptian does not add MSA mood endings to either form. The choice among ببيع، أبيع، حبيع is syntactic and discourse-based, not an English present/past/future conjugation grid.

Rule 4: objects, buyers, and prices occupy different frames

The item sold is a direct object. The buyer commonly follows لـ, and the price follows بـ. English can say “sell someone something,” but Egyptian normally marks the buyer rather than treating that person as the direct object.

باع العربية لواحد صاحبه بمية ألف

bāʿ il-ʿarabiyya li-wāḥid ṣāḥbu bi-miyya ʾalf

He sold the car to a friend of his for one hundred thousand. (informal)

An object clitic attaches to the short suffixed stem, and -ش follows it in the negative:

بعتها الأسبوع اللي فات

biʿt-ha il-ʾusbūʿ illi fāt

I sold it last week. (informal; positive)

مابعتهاش الأسبوع اللي فات

ma-biʿt-hāsh il-ʾusbūʿ illi fāt

I didn't sell it last week. (informal; negative)

This spelling is also potentially read as a form of بعت “send,” but the vowel pointing, romanization, and context identify “sell” here.

The homograph بعت in real messages

Unvocalized Egyptian routinely leaves short vowels unwritten. بعت العربية naturally favors biʿt il-ʿarabiyya “I sold the car,” while بعت الرسالة usually favors baʿatt ir-risāla “I sent the message.” Ambiguous contexts need an extra word, not invented spelling.

بعت العربية بس لسه مابعتش الورق

biʿt il-ʿarabiyya bass lissa ma-baʿattish il-waraʾ

I sold the car, but I still haven't sent the paperwork. (informal)

The two identical-looking positive stems belong to different verbs and have different internal vowels and consonant length. This is an honest reading difficulty in an unvocalized script.

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When بعت is ambiguous, use the object and the wider event to decide. If both readings remain plausible, ask or add context; unvocalized spelling does not encode every contrast.

Two-turn Cairene dialogue

أ: بعتوا الترابيزة القديمة بكام؟

A: biʿtu it-tarābēza il-ʾadīma bi-kām?

A: How much did you sell the old table for? (informal, to several people)

ب: لسه مابعناهاش، بس حنبيعها الأسبوع ده

B: lissa ma-biʿnāhāsh, bass ḥa-nibīʿha il-ʾusbūʿ da

B: We haven't sold it yet, but we'll sell it this week. (informal)

The response combines the short perfect stem with -نا, an object clitic, and negation, then uses future حـ with the plural imperfect stem.

Register and variation

This paradigm is mainstream Cairene (informal/neutral). MSA uses related forms with formal person and mood endings (formal); those endings do not belong in ordinary Egyptian. Regional and community varieties may vary in prefix vowels, vowel quality, or lexical preference, and performance speech can move toward MSA. Such variation does not license mixing a Cairene b-prefix with an MSA final ending.

Common Mistakes

Copying the قال short vowel

❌ أنا بوعت العربية

Incorrect analogical form — باع uses short biʿ-, not the long or rounded vowel of another hollow class.

✅ أنا بعت العربية

ʾana biʿt il-ʿarabiyya

I sold the car. (informal)

Using the long stem before -نا

❌ إحنا باعنا العربية

Incorrect for ‘we sold’; باعنا is naturally ‘he sold us.’

✅ إحنا بعنا العربية

ʾiḥna biʿna il-ʿarabiyya

We sold the car. (informal)

Omitting b- in an independent habit

❌ هو يبيع خضار كل يوم

Incorrect for ordinary Cairene habitual meaning — the bare imperfect is unlicensed.

✅ هو بيبيع خضار كل يوم

huwwa biyibīʿ khuḍār kull yōm

He sells vegetables every day. (informal)

Separating clitics and negation

❌ ما بعت ها ش

Incorrect — the object and -ش attach inside one negative verb word.

✅ مابعتهاش

ma-biʿt-hāsh

I didn't sell it. (informal)

Adding an MSA ending

هو بيبيع العربية

huwwa biyibīʿ il-ʿarabiyya

huwa yabīʿu as-sayyārata

Pronunciation/register error — the MSA mood and case endings do not belong to this Cairene sentence.

Key Takeaways

Use باع in third-person perfect forms, بعـ biʿ- before first/second/we suffixes, and بيع bīʿ in the imperfect and imperative. Distinguish the unvocalized homograph بعت by pronunciation and context, mark buyers with لـ and prices with بـ, and keep object clitics inside joined verbal negation.

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