Negation in Arabic ( ar, ٱلنَّفْي, al-nafy 'the negative') is the array of approaches used in

Arabic grammar Arabic grammar or Arabic language sciences ( ar, النحو العربي ' or ar, عُلُوم اللغَة العَرَبِيَّة ') is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with ...

to express grammatical negation. These strategies correspond to words in English like ''no'' and ''not''.

Modern Standard Arabic

Negation in the present tense

Negating present-tense verbs

Present-tense verbs are negated by adding "not" before the verb:

Negation of sentences with no verb

If a sentence would, in the affirmative, have no verb (this can only happen in the present tense), then the negative verb ' "is not" is used. ' is inflected like a past-tense verb, but is used to negate present-tense sentences. As with ' "was", the

complement A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-clas ...

of ' must be in the accusative case. Before consonantal endings, the diphthong ''-ay-'' is reduced to a short ''-a-''. Here is an example sentence saying that something is not big in all possible persons and numbers:

Negation of past-tense verbs

Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also ref ...

, the main way to negate past-tense verbs is to add the negative particle "not" before the verb, and to put the verb in the jussive mood. In more colloquial usage, it is possible to give the verb in the present indicative mood (which is largely identical in form to the jussive). It is also possible to use the negative particle before the verb, giving the verb in the past tense.

Negation of verbs in the future tense

Negating a proposition in the future is done by placing the negative particle before the verb in the subjunctive mood.

Negation of imperative verbs

The imperative (known as "the order," from "he ordered") is negated by putting "not" before the verb, putting the verb in the jussive, rather than the imperative, mood. (This negative imperative is known as "the discouragement," from "he discouraged.") For example, in the masculine singular: (''iẓlim'', "oppress!"), (''lā taẓlim'', "do not oppress!").

Saying "no"

"No", as an answer to a question, is expressed by the negative particle .

Varieties of Arabic

Modern Standard Arabic ' "is not" is replaced in colloquial usage with a variety of other forms, which in origin are contractions of phrases such as ما مِنْ شَيْ ''mā min shay'' "nothing" (literally: "none from/of a thing"): North African,

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

, and some Levantine Arabic varieties negate verbs using a circumfix—a combination of the prefix ''ma-'' and the suffix ''- ʃ''. This, for example, is the negative paradigm of the verb "he wrote" in

Algerian Arabic Algerian Arabic (natively known as Dziria) is a dialect derived from the form of Arabic spoken in northern Algeria. It belongs to the Maghrebi Arabic language continuum and is partially mutually intelligible with Tunisian and Moroccan. Like ...

: In these varieties, to negate present participles and verbs conjugated in the future, ''mūš'', or its conjugated form, is frequently used (in front of the verb). For example, Tunisian Arabic ' is conjugated as follows:Chekili, F. (1982). The morphology of the Arabic dialect of Tunis (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).

References

{{reflist Arabic grammar