Lesson 31 – الدَّرْسُ الحادِي والثَّلاثُونَ

Verb in the Affirmative and the Negative Formالفِعْلُ المُثْبَتُ وَالْفِعْلُ المَنْفِيُّ

Making the nominal sentence negative - نَفْيُ الجُمْلَةِ الاِسْمِيَّةِ

·         We are still in lesson thirty one of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.

·         To make the Arabic nominal sentence negative, we use the particle “laysa ليس (not to be)” . The nominal sentence starts with a noun, not a verb.

Negative Nominal sentence

Affirmative Nominal sentence

لَيْسَ الأُسْتَاذُ بَخِيلاً

The teacher is not a miser

الأُسْتاذُ كَرِيمٌ

The teacher is generous

طَالِبُ العِلْمِ لَيْسَ كَسْلانًا

The student is not lazy

طَالِبُ العِلْمِ مُتَفَوَّقٌ

The student is brilliant

لَيْسَ القَلَمُ فِي الحَقِيبَةِ

The pen is not in the bag

القَلَمُ في الحَقِيبَةِ

The pen is in the bag

لَيْسَ الجَوُّ حَارًّا

The weather is not hot

الجَوُّ حارٌّ

The weather is hot

لَيْسَ الهَاتِفُ مُغْلَقًا

The phone is not turned off

الهَاتِفُ مُغْلَقٌ

The phone is turned off

·         From the examples above, we notice that all the sentences begin with a noun like: (الأُسْتاذُ، طَالِبُ العِلْمِ، القَلَمُ، الجَوُّ، الهَاتِفُ)  . These are called nominal sentences.

·         There are two ways for making the nominal sentence negative:

a-   Using “laysa”

b-   Using “mā” which is also used to make both the present and past verbs negative.

Nominal sentence (Negative with “ma”)

Nominal sentence (Negative with “laysa”)

Affirmative nominal sentence

ما الأُسْتاذُ بَخِيلاً

The teacher is not a miser

لَيْسَ الأُسْتَاذُ بَخِيلاً

The teacher is not a miser

الأُسْتاذُ كَرِيمٌ

The teacher is generous

ما طَالِبُ العِلْمِ كَسْلانًا

The student is not lazy

طَالِبُ العِلْمِ لَيْسَ كَسْلانًا

The student is not lazy

طَالِبُ العِلْمِ مُتَفَوَّقٌ

The student is brilliant

ما القَلَمُ في الحَقِيبَةِ

The pen is not in the bag

لَيْسَ القَلَمُ فِي الحَقِيبَةِ

The pen is not in the bag

القَلَمُ في الحَقِيبَةِ

The pen is in the bag

ما الجَوُّ حارًّا

The weather is not hot

لَيْسَ الجَوُّ حارًّا

The weather is not hot

الجَوُّ حارٌّ

The weather is hot

ما الهَاتِفُ مُغْلقًا

The phone is not turned off

لَيْسَ الهَاتِفُ مُغْلقًا

The phone is not turned off

الهَاتِفُ مُغْلَقٌ

The phone is turned off

 

Summary

·         There are five particles used in the negation, as follows:

Change to verb:

Example

Change of tense and state (positive / negative):

Particle

(The verb vowel-ending, the đammah, does not change)

لا أُحِبُّ عَصِيرَ الجَوَافَةِ

I do not like the guava juice

- Present affirmative
to
Present negative

 

لا

(The verb vowel-ending, the đammah, changes into the fatħah)

لَنْ أَسْكُنَ مَعَ أُسْرَتِي

I will  not live with my family

Present affirmative
to
Future negative

 

لَنْ

(The verb vowel-ending, the đammah, changes into the sukūn)

لَمْ يُشاهِدْ أَحْمَدُ

Ahmad did not watch

Present affirmative
to
Past negative

 

لَمْ

(The verb vowel-ending, the indeclension sign of the past, does not change)

مَا أَكَلَ أحْمَدُ كَثِيرًا

Ahmad did not eat

ما سَافَرْتُ إلى مَكَّةَ

I did not travel to Mecca

Past affirmative
to
Past negative

 

مَا

(The verb vowel-ending, the đammah, does not change)

ما أُحِبُّ عَصِيرَ الجَوَافَةِ

I do not like the guava juice.

Present affirmative
to
Present negative

 

مَا

(The vowel-endings of the second noun, the predicate, changes from đammah to fatħah)

ما الأُسْتاذُ بَخِيلاً

The teacher is not a miser

Nominal affirmative sentence
to
Nominal negative sentence

مَا

(The vowel-endings of the second noun, the predicate, changes from đammah to fatħah)

لَيْسَ الأُسْتَاذُ بَخِيلاً

The teacher is not a miser

Making the nominal sentence negative

لَيْسَ