# EA: imperative



## Augmina

Hi everyone Please can you explain me  how to form imperative in egyptian arabic if the verb is weak and begin  with و or  ي ( for example وضع  وصل )and if the verb is hamzated with first hamza (for example  اكل  )


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## cherine

Welcome to the forum, Augmina 

The verb وضع is not used in the Egyptian dialect, we say 7oTT حط , so we can't use this example.

As for وصل , the imperative is iwSal اِوْصَل
And for أكل it's kol كل . Another verb أخد is خُد in the imperative.

But we can't consider dropping the hamza as a rule. For example, the verb أمَر becomes o2mor أؤمر.


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## Augmina

cherine thank for your welcome 
I have some more questions 
 the first one is about the verb beginning with  و or ي I always must add alif  to form the imperative or no? please give me some more examples 

and the second question is about the verb beginning with alif We must look what sounds follow alif If there are consonant+ volvel so we remove alif to form imperative ( like  kol كل) and If there are consonant +consonant so we don't remove alif ( like o2mor أؤمر) does this rule work?


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## Ghabi

Hi! I may be wrong, but I think the imperative form depends on the imperfect form, not the perfect form: we say o2mor because the imperfect form is yo2mor, and iwSal because we say yiwsal (compare: we2ef/yo2af --> o2af; we3e/yiw3a --> iw3a), so what need to consider is what the imperfect form is.

As to yaakol/yaakhod, I think they can be memorized as special cases (even their اسم فاعل are irregular: waakel/waakhed).


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## Augmina

Hello Ghabi thank you very much Yes I think you are right For forming  commands  step we start out with the imperfect form of the verb But some verbs have alif in the beginning and other ones haven't For example استنّى istinna =wait! there is alif at the biginning But ساعد saa3id =help! there is no alif at the bigining I try to understand when I must remove alif and when I need not to do so


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## Ghabi

Hi again! Verbs like estanna and saa3ed are "derived verbs", and have their own, _regular_ rules for forming the imperative, while the verbs mentioned above are "basic verbs", which are a bit erratic. For the "derived verbs", we form the imperative this way:

fakkar/yefakkar --> fakkar
saa3ed/yesaa3ed --> saa3ed
etfarrag/yetfarrag --> etfarrag
etnaa2esh/yetnaa2esh --> etnaa2esh
ebtasam/yebtesem --> ebtesem
esta3mel/yesta3mel --> esta3mel *(estanna belongs to this type; compare estarayya7/yestarayya7 -->  estarayya7)


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## Augmina

thank you Ghabi but what about verbs which have ي  و   at the beginning  ( وعد  وثق and so on) how I can form the imperetive in this case I always must add alif or no ? Please if it is possible give me some more examples with verb from this group


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## cherine

I think the verbs starting with و - ي are not that many in EA. For example, I don't remember ever hearing the imperative of وثق in EA, we mostly use the adjective: خلِّيك واثق .
As for وعد , the imperative is اِوْعِد .

I think the suggestions given by Gabi are the best option.


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## Ghabi

وعد is a "basic verb" (without those prefix, infix, doubled consonants and elongated vowels), so its imperative form depends on its imperfect forms: wa3ad/yiw3ed --> iw3ed; وثق is a bit tricky: it's a "high-register" verb, and as far as I know it's conjugated in its fuS7a form: wasiqa/yasiq --> siq (I don't know if you're familiar with fuS7a conjugation, which differs from its Egyptian counterpart, but there are many previous threads about it which you can search and read).

I hope that gives you any idea! And of course you can wait for our native colleagues who can give you more informative answers!

Edit: Cherine has answered.


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## Jamal31

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone who knows Egyptian Arabic knows equivalents of the following Form 1 imperatives in Fusha?

You write (male)
u-ktub
اُكْتُبْ‎

You write (female)
u-ktub-ī
اُكْتُبِي

You write (dual plural)
u-ktub-ā
اُكْتُبَا‎

You write (male plural)
u-ktub-ū
اُكْتُبُوا

You write (female plural)
u-ktub-na
اُكْتُبْنَ


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## analeeh

If I remember correctly, Egyptian essentially forms imperatives the same as MSA, except that it lacks a feminine plural + dual form. If you're going to make a habit out of these questions you might as well leave the dual out since I don't think there's a single dialect with dual verbal forms.

_uktub_
_uktubi
uktubu
_
My feeling is the stress will be on the second syllable in the latter two, though, not the first syllable as it would be in fuSHa.


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## Jamal31

Thanks, Analeeh. I know about the dual form, but I include it just in case. Hopefully you don't find it annoying


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## cherine

analeeh said:


> _uktub
> uktubi
> uktubu_


Correct, but incorrect vowels. We say ekteb, ektebi, ektebo.



Jamal31 said:


> I know about the dual form, but I include it just in case. Hopefully you don't find it annoying


Not really annoying but confusing. If you know that [most/all?] dialects don't use the dual form, then why did you add them? It could confuse others. And the same goes for plural feminine.
Dual and plural feminine are not used in Egyptian Arabic verbs.


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## akhooha

cherine said:


> Correct, but incorrect vowels. We say ekteb, ektebi, ektebo.



You may want to consider Badawi's transliteration system which would realize the vowels as iktib, iktibi, and iktibu


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## cherine

We had a lengthy discussion before about the accurateness of using "e" versus "i" when transliterating dialect. In EA, we have both sounds (consider an example like امشي emshi, and also the form mentioned above "emshi"). When we say اكتب it does not sound like "iktib" but "ekteb". And اكتبي has two different vowels/sounds ektebi.


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## akhooha

Yes, I am aware of the discussion you refer to, and I was merely pointing out (for Jamala31's consideration) that there is a difference of opinion regarding transliteration. I am not saying you're wrong and El-Said Badawi is right. Neither would I say that you're right and El-Said Badawi is wrong.


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## cherine

I am surely not belittling his opinion. What matters most to me is to point out that we do not pronounce the vowels of اكتبي the same way. You can transliterate them the way you believe is more accurate, but you need to keep in mind that the first vowel is not the same as the last one.


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## Jamal31

Thanks guys


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