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How to negate nominal sentences in Arabic Posted by on Aug 3, 2010 in Grammar

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.

لستُ

أنا

لستَ

أنتَ

لستِ

أنتِ

ليس

هو

ليست

هي

لسنا

نحن

لستما

أنتما

ليسا

هما m

ليستا

هما f

لستم

أنتم

لستن

أنتن

ليسوا

هم

لسنَ

هنّ

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”

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