Arabic Language Blog

Nominal sentences in Arabic are negated using (ليس). It should be noted that (ليس) should be conjugated according to the subject of the sentence. The following table shows the conjugation of (ليس) with different pronouns.

The following examples present nominal sentences negated by (ليس).

أنا طالبة.

لستُ طالبة.

أنتِ طالبة.

لستِ طالبة

أنتم طلاب.

لستم طلاب.

هن طالبات.

لسن طالبات.

It should be noted that nominal sentences with a fronted predicate, i.e. sentences expressing possession or existence are negated using ليس or ليست according to the gender of the sentence. We cannot use other conjugations in these sentence, e.g.

عندي بيت.

ليس عندي بيت.

“I have/don’t have a house”

عندي سيارة.

ليس/ليست عندي سيارة.

“I have/don’t have a car”

Expressing exclamation in Arabic is done using a special style called (أسلوب التعجب). The particle used in this style is (ما), and it should be followed by the form (أفعل) of the appropriate adjective, e.g.

الشارع واسع.

“The street is wide.”

ما أوسع الشارع!

“How wide the street is!”

It should be noted that the (أفعل) form does not change whether the subject is masculine, feminine or plural.

البنت جميلة.

“The girl is beautiful.”

ما أجمل البنت!

“How beautiful the girl is!”

العرب كرماء.

“The Arabs are generous.”

ما أكرم العرب!

“How generous the Arabs are!”

The noun that follows the (أفعل) form can be substituted by a pronoun suffix, e.g.

البنت جميلة، ما أجملها!

العرب كرماء، ما أكرمهم!

Can you make exclamation statements about the following sentences?

الجو بارد.

الولد طويل.

Here is a very nice video to illustrate exclamation, suggested by Josef: 

In this post, I present some simple adjectives and their opposites. It is also handy to know the word that can be used to negate adjectives, more or less like the English prefix, un- which is (غير). We use it before an adjective to negate it, e.g. (معروف) means ‘well-known’, while (غير معروف) means ‘un-known, (قانوني) means ‘legal’, while (غير قانوني) means ‘illegal’, and (ديموقراطي) means ‘democratic’ while (غير ديموقراطي) means ‘undemocratic’.

The list below gives a list of commonly used adjectives and their opposites: