Lesson 61 – الدَّرْسُ الواحِدُ والسِّتُّونَ

/lā/ of generic negation - لا النَّافِيَة لِلْجِنْسِ

Types of the noun of /lā/ of generic negation – أَنْوَاع اِسْم "لا النَّافية لِلجنس"

  • We are still in lesson sixty one of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • The subject after /lā/ of generic negation is called its noun, and the predicate is called its predicate. This change of terms happens with all annullers as we studied in lesson 59 of the verbal annullers /kāna/ and its sisters.
  • In this part we will study the types of the noun of /lā/ of generic negation and the declension of each type In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing)
  • We learnt in lesson 58 that each of the subject and the predicate of a nominal sentence can be in different forms. We learnt that the predicate can be a single noun, a sentence (nominal or verbal), or a quasi sentence (prepositional phrase) as in the following examples:

Type of predicate

Predicate

English meaning

Arabic example

No.

Single noun

مُفْرَد

جَدِيدٌ

/ĵadīdun/

The book is new

الكِتَابُ جَدِيدٌ

/al kitābu ĵadīdun/

1

Verbal sentence

جُمْلَة فِعْلِيَّة

يُحِبُّ السَّفَرَ

/yuħibbu as safari/

Ahmed likes travelling

أَحْمَدُ يُحِبُّ السَّفَرَ

/aħmadu yuħibbu as safari/

2

Nominal sentence

جُمْلَة اِسْمِيَّة

جِسْمُهُ قَوِيٌّ

/ ĵismuhu qawiyyun/

The boy, his body is strong

الوَلَدُ جِسْمُهُ قَوِيٌّ

/al waladu ĵismuhu qawiyyun/

3

Quasi sentence

شِبه جُمْلَة

مِنْ سُورِيا

/min sūria/

I am from Syria

أَنَا مِنْ سُورِيا

/anā min Sūria/

4

  • In this lesson there is no need to study each of these types of the predicate, because they are the same as in the non-annulled nominal sentence. Instead we give more importance to the subject after /lā/ of generic negation (its noun), because the declension of the subject will be different according to its type. This noun of /lā/ has two grammatical situations according to its type as follows:
    - It can be in the accusative case (signed with /fatħah/ on its last letter), if the noun is one of two types that we will study later in this part.
    - It can be indeclinable on the /fatħah/ on its last letter, if the noun of /lā/ is another type. (We studied the indeclension in many lesson as 25, 38, 39, and 40).
    - Let’s now study the different types of the noun of /lā/ of generic negation.
  • The noun of /lā/ of generic negation (اِسْم "لا النَّافية لِلجنس) can be one of the following forms:
    1- Annexing noun (
    اسم مضاف)
  • We studied in lesson (5) the annexation structure. We learnt that it is compound of two nouns:
    - The first is called the annexing noun (
    المضاف), it has to be always indefinite, and it indicates the possessed object.
    - The second is called the annexed noun (
    المضاف إليه) and it indicates the possessor of something.
    Consider the following example (for revision purpose):

Annexed noun

Annexing noun

Annexation structure

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

The student

الطَّالِب

Book

كِتاب

The book of the student (student’s book)

كِتاب الطالِب

  • If the noun of /lā/ of generic negation is an annexing noun, it will be in the accusative case (signed with /fatħah/ on its last letter) because it is the noun of /lā/ of generic negation, while the noun after it will be regularly in the genitive case because it is an annexed noun.
    Consider attentively the following examples:

picture

Reason

Grammatical sign

Noun of /lā/

Sentence

English

Arabic

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

The main sign of the accusative case

/fatħah/

 

()

قَائِلَ

No teller of the truth is a coward

لا قَائِلَ حقٍّ جَبانٌ

/lā qâ’ila ħaqqin ĵabānun/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

The main sign of the accusative case

/fatħah/

 

()

عَازِفَ

No  flute player is in the band

لا عَازِف َنَايٍ فِي الفَرِيقِ

/lā ξāzifa nāyin fī al farīqi/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

The sign of the accusative case of the dual

/yaa'/

 

(ي)

بائِعَي

There is no two book sellers in the street

لا بائِعَي كُتُبٍ في الشارعِ

/lā bā’iξay kutubin fī ash shāriξi/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

The sign of the accusative case of sound masculine plural

/yaa'/

 

(ي)

بائِعِي

No book sellers in the street

لا بائِعِي كُتُبٍ في الشارعِ

/lā bā’iξī kutubin fī ash shāriξi/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

The sign of the accusative case of the sound feminine plural

/kasrah/

 

()

بائِعَاتِ

No female book sellers in the street

لا بائِعَاتِ كُتُبٍ في الشارعِ

/lā bā’iξāti kutubin fī ash shāriξi/

  • From the above mentioned table we notice the following:
    - The noun of /lā/ in all the examples is an annexing noun, and it is followed by the annexed noun as follows:

بائِعَاتِ

بائِعِي

بائِعَي

عَازِف

قَائِلَ

The noun of /lā/ (the annexing noun)

كُتُبٍ

كُتُبٍ

كُتُبٍ

نَايٍ

حَقٍّ

The annexed noun

  • - You may notice that the noun of /lā/ in all the above mentioned examples is in the accusative case, so it is in the first and the second example signed with /fatħah/ on its last letter (عَازِفَقَائِلَ)   because it is singular noun, while it is signed with /yaa’/ in the third example (بائِعَي)  because it is dual (note that the /nūn/ of the dual is omitted because of the annexation). In the fourth example the noun of /lā/ is signed with /yaa’/ (بائِعِي) because it is sound masculine plural (the /yaa’/ here is also omitted for the annexation), and finally in the fifth example the noun of /lā/ is signed with /kasrah/ (بائِعَاتِ) because it is sound feminine plural.

2- Similar to annexing noun (اِسْمٌ شَبِيهٌ بالمُضافِ):

  • The second type of the noun of /lā/ of generic negation is to be a similar to annexing noun.
  •  We studied in lesson 5 the annexation structure, and we learnt that  the annexing noun is that which has an annexed noun after it, and the second noun removes  generalization from the meaning of the first noun and gives it a kind of specification.
  •  The similar to the annexing noun is also followed by a noun that removes generalization from its meaning, but it is not annexed noun, instead it is an adjective or a preposition followed by a noun as in the following examples:

The nominative predicate of /lā/

The following noun

The accusative noun of /lā/

Example

English

Arabic

رَاسِبٌ

مُجْتَهِدًا

طَالِبًا

No hardworking student is unsuccessful

لا طَالِبًا مُجْتَهِدًا رَاسِبٌ

/lā ŧâliban muĵtahidan râsibun/

كَسْلانُ

فِي الفَصْلِ

طَالِبًا

No student in the class is lazy

لا طَالِبًا فِي الفَصْلِ كَسْلانُ

/lā ŧâliban fī al faŝli kaslānu/

سَعِيدٌ

عَنْ أُسْرَتِهِ

بَعِيدًا

No one far from his family is happy

لا بَعِيدًا عَنْ أُسْرَتِهِ سَعِيدٌ

/lā baξīdan ξan usratihi saξīdun/

حَزِينٌ

باللَّهِ

مُؤْمِنًا

No  believer in God is unhappy

لا مُؤْمِنًا باللَّهِ حَزِينٌ

/lā mu’minan billāhi ħazīnun/

شَرِيفٌ

فِي عَمَلِهِ

مُهْمِلاً

No careless in his work is honest

لا مُهْمِلاً فِي عَمَلِهِ شَرِيفٌ

/lā muhmilan fī ξamalihi sharīfun/

عاطِلٌ

مَاهِرًا

عامِلاً

No skilful worker is an unemployed

لا عامِلاً مَاهِرًا عاطِلٌ

/lā ξāmilan māhiran ξāŧilun/

3- Single noun (اسم مفرد):

  • The third type of the noun of /lā/ of generic negation is the single noun, i.e. which is neither an annexing noun nor a similar to the annexing noun.
  • Please notice the difference between the term (single) and the term (singular). Both of them are in Arabic (مُفْرَد /mufrad/), while the first (single) means the noun which is neither an annexing noun, a similar to it, a prepositional clause, nor a complete sentence, and the second term (singular) means the noun which is not dual or plural noun.
  • If the noun of /lā/ of generic negation is a single noun we notice that the sentence annulled by /lā/ consists only of three parts, which are respectively: /lā/, its noun, and its predicate, as in the following examples: (please read from right to left)

English meaning

Sentence

Its predicate

Its noun

/lā/

No stars are in the sky

فِي السَّمَاءِ

نُجُومَ

لا

No food at home

فِي البَيْتِ

طَعَامَ

لا

No money in the bank

فِي المَصْرَفِ

نُقُودَ

لا

No soul inside him

فِيهِ

حَيَاةَ

لا

No quietness in the city

فِي المَدِينَةِ

هُدُوءَ

لا

  •  You may notice from the above mentioned examples that the noun of /lā/ is a single noun, i.e. it is neither an annexing noun nor a similar to it.
  • In this case the noun of /lā/ is not accusative with /fatħah/; instead it is indeclinable on the /fatħah/ on its last letter.
  • We remind you that we learnt in lesson 25 that the difference between the declinable and the indeclinable noun is that the declinable noun can be signed with /tanwīn/ on its last letter (,,), while the indeclinable noun is never signed with the /tanwīn/.
  • You may notice that the noun of /lā/ in the above mentioned table is always without /tanwīn/, so it is indeclinable on the /fatħah/ on its last letter.
  • So, let’s compare the situation of the noun of /lā/ of generic negation when it is declinable (accusative) with the situation in which it is indeclinable on the /fatħah/.

Sentence in which the noun of /lā/ is declinable

Sentence in which the noun of /lā/ is indeclinable

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

No skilful worker is unemployed

لا عامِلاً مَاهِرًا عاطِلٌ

No salt is in the food

لا مِلْحَ فِي الطَّعامِ

  • In the sentence at the right the noun of /lā/ is a single noun, so it is signed with one /fatħah/ on its last letter, i.e. it is indeclinable on the /fatħah/.
  • In the sentence at the left the noun of /lā/ is a similar to an annexing noun, so it is signed with /fatħah/ and /tanwīn/ on its last letter, i.e. it is declinable (in the accusative case)