Orders, suggestions and requests
There are several ways of telling somebody to do things- orders, strong recommendations, suggestions and polite requests....
- an order - do it!
- must - you must do it
- need to, have to - you need to do it
- should - you should do this
- could - you could do this
- would you like to... - you could do this
- are you going to to... - you could do this
- why don't you... - you could do this
- can, could, would - would you please do this?
Order
When you want to order somebody to do something, you use an imperative. This is only appropriate if you have some kind of control over somebody- for example, in the army or to a reluctant employee.
In English, we simply say the verb without a subject, for example Bring me the money!. In Egyptian, there are is a special form or the verb for the imperative- or rather three forms- masculine, feminine and plural. Here are some examples.
| English | Imperfect | Imperative | ||||||
| Masculine | Feminine | Plural | ||||||
 -iـي | -u ـوا | |||||||
| look! | yibuSS | يـِبـُصّ | buSS | بـُصّ | buSSi | بـُصّي | buSSu | بـُصّوا |
| go! | yirooh | يـِروح | ruwh | ر ُوح | ruwhi | ر ُوحي | ruwhu | ر ُوحوا |
| eat! | yaakul | يا َكـُل | kul | كـُل | kuli | كـُلي | kulu | كـُلوا |
| shut up! | yuskut | يـُسكـُت | 'iskut | إسكـُت | 'iskuti | إسكـُتي | 'iskutu | إسكـُتوا |
| calm down! | yihda | يـِهدى | 'ihda | إهدى | 'ihdi | إهدي | 'ihdu | إهدوا |
| walk! (go away) | yimshi | يـِمشي | 'imshi | إمشي | 'imshi | إمشي | 'imshu | إمشوا |
There are a couple of verbs have irregular imperatives.
| English | Imperfect | Imperative | ||||||
| Masculine | Feminine | Plural | ||||||
| -i | ـي | -u | ـوا | |||||
| bring! | yiddi | يـِدّي | haet | ها َت | haeti | ها َتي | hatu | ها َتوا |
| come! | yiygi | يـِيجي | taAaala | تـَعا َلَ | taAaali | تـَعا َلي | taAalu | تـَعا َلوا |
You cannot negate an imperative: instead, you use mish مـِش wrapped around the imperfect. For example:
| English | Imperfect | Negative Imperative | ||||||
| Masculine | Feminine | Plural | ||||||
| -i | ـي | -u | ـوا | |||||
| don't look! | yibuSS | يـِبـُصّ | matbuSSish | مـَتبـُصّـِش | matbuSSeesh | مـَتبـُصّيش | matbuSSoosh | مـَتبـُصّوش |
| don't go! | yirooh | يـِروح | matruwhsh | مـَتر ُوحش | matruwheesh | مـَتر ُوحيش | matroohoosh | مـَتروحوش |
obligation
With an imperative, you are imposing your own authority: you can be slightly more polite by suggesting some that there is some external obligation or reason that it should be done. In English, you can use modals like must, need to, have to.
In Egyptian, modals are followed by the simple imperfect. Most proper modals are invariable- there is no I/you/he form. Here are some examples:
| Modal | Example | Meaning | ||
| laazim | لا َز ِم | laazim yiktib | لا َز ِم يـِكتـِب | he must write |
| mihtaag | مـِحتا َج | mihtaag yiktib | مـِحتا َج يـِكتـِب | he needs to write |
| ilmafrooD | ا ِلمـَفروض | ilmafrooD yiktib | ا ِلمـَفروض يـِكتـِب | he should write |
| Daroori | ضـَروري | Daroori yiktib | ضـَروري يـِكتـِب | it is essential that he should write |
Suggestion
You can make a suggestion in several ways:
| English | Egyptian |
| You could ask your father | mumkin tis'al 'abook مـُمكـِن تـِسأل أبوك |
| We could make a cake | mumkin niAamil keeka مـُمكـِن نـِعـَمـِل كيكـَة |
| Let's go to the cinema | yalla nirooh ilseeneema يـَلّا َ نـِروح ا ِلسينيماَ |
| Would you like to go and have lunch together | teegi nirooh nitGadda sawa تيجي نـِروح نـِتغـَدّى سـَواَ |
| Would you like to go out? | tihibb tirooh? تـِحـِبّ تـِروح؟ |
| Do you want to come? | Aaeyiz teegy? عا َيـِز تيجي؟ |
Requests
When you want to ask somebody politely to do something, or for something, there are several ways of expressing this in English. In Egyptian, there are just two possiblities: using mumkin مـُمكـِن and a modal, or less formally, putting the prefix mi- مـِ before the perfect.
| English | Egyptian |
| Could I have an orange juice, please? | mumkin AaSeer burtu'aal, law samaht? مـُمكـِن عـَصير بـُرتـُقا َل، لـَو سـَمـَحت؟ |
| Could you open the door, please? | mumkin tiftah ilbaeb, law samaht? مـُمكـِن تـِفتـَح ا ِلبا َب، لـَو سـَمـَحت؟ |
| Why don't you entertain me? | misalleeni مـِسـَلّيني |