Lesson 31 – الدَّرْسُ الحادِي والثَّلاثُونَ
Verb in the Affirmative and the Negative Form – الفِعْلُ 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 |
| The teacher is not a miser | The teacher is generous |
| طَالِبُ العِلْمِ لَيْسَ كَسْلانًا The student is not lazy | The student is brilliant |
| لَيْسَ القَلَمُ فِي الحَقِيبَةِ The pen is not in the bag | The pen is in the bag |
| The weather is not hot | The weather is hot |
| The phone is not turned off | 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 |
| The teacher is not a miser | The teacher is not a miser | The teacher is generous |
| The student is not lazy | طَالِبُ العِلْمِ لَيْسَ كَسْلانًا The student is not lazy | The student is brilliant |
| The pen is not in the bag | لَيْسَ القَلَمُ فِي الحَقِيبَةِ The pen is not in the bag | The pen is in the bag |
| The weather is not hot | The weather is not hot | The weather is hot |
| The phone is not turned off | The phone is not turned off | 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 |
|
| (The verb vowel-ending, the đammah, changes into the fatħah) | I will not live with my family | Present affirmative |
|
| (The verb vowel-ending, the đammah, changes into the sukūn) | Ahmad did not watch | Present affirmative |
|
| (The verb vowel-ending, the indeclension sign of the past, does not change) | Ahmad did not eat I did not travel to Mecca | Past affirmative |
|
| (The verb vowel-ending, the đammah, does not change) | ما أُحِبُّ عَصِيرَ الجَوَافَةِ I do not like the guava juice. | Present affirmative |
|
| (The vowel-endings of the second noun, the predicate, changes from đammah to fatħah) | The teacher is not a miser | Nominal affirmative sentence | |
| (The vowel-endings of the second noun, the predicate, changes from đammah to fatħah) | The teacher is not a miser | Making the nominal sentence negative |