Arabic Prepositions
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Arabic Questions and Negation
Arabic Interrogative:
To form the interrogative in Arabic you just need to place the word “hal” هل in the beginning of the sentence, easy!
Hal means do or does.
Does he have a house? = hal ladaihi bait? هل لديه بيت؟
Do you smoke = hal tudakhen? هل تدخن؟
There are other ways to make questions in Arabic using interrogative pronouns, just add them to your sentence and unlike English, in Arabic you don’t need to change the order of the sentence:
What = matha (th pronounced as in that) è What do you want? Matha tureed? ماذا تريد؟
Who = man من è who are you? Man ant? من أنت؟
How = kaifa كيف è How are you? Kaifa haaluk? كيف حالك؟
At what time = mataa متى è at what time are you coming? Mataa sata’tee? متى ستأتي؟
Where = aina أين è Where are you going? Aina anta daaheb? أين أنت ذاهب؟
From where = men aina من أين è From where did you come? Men aina atait? من أين أتيت؟
Which = ayya أيّ è Which city? Ayya madina? أيّ مدينة؟
When = mataa متى è When are you going to go to be? Mataa satanaam? متى ستنام؟
How much/ many = kam كم è How much is this book? Kam howa hatha el kitaab? كم هو هذا الكتاب؟
Why = lematha (th pronounced as in that) لماذا è Why are you here? Lematha anta huna? لماذا انت هنا؟
Negation in Arabic:
Very simple and easy to form a negation in Arabic, just place “laaلا ” before the verb: for example:
I don’t like it = laa ohibbuha لا أحبها
Literally it means (No I like it).
I don’t want it = laa oreeduha لا أريدها, coffee is a drink I don’t like = al qahwah mashroobun laa ohibuh القهوة مشروب لا احبه
To say “I’m not, he is not, she is not, we’re not….” In Arabic we use “laisa ليس”, which is a verb that you need to conjugate:
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Negation in Arabic |
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Singular |
Dual |
Plural |
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I’m not لست أنا Ana lastu
You’re not (singular masc) لستَ أنتَ Anta lasta
You’re not (singular fem) لستِ أنتِ Anti lasti
he is not ليس هو Howa laisa
she is notليست هي Hiya laisat
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You’re not (dual male or female) أنتُما لستما Antuma lastuma
They’re not (dual male or female) هُما ليسا Humaa laisaa
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We’re not نحن لسنا Nahnu lasna
You’re not (plural masculine) لستم أنتُم Antum lastum
You’re not (plural feminine) لستن أنتُن Antun lastun
They’re not (plural masculine) ليسوا هُم Hum laisuu
They’re not (plural feminine) لسن هُن Hunna lasna
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I’m not alone = lastu wahdi لست وحدي (note that you don’t need to add the subject pronoun like (ana I), (anta you), (howa He)… it can be understood by the conjugation of the verb laisa, and remember that this is the case with most of verbs.
Arabic negation and the interrogative are not hard to learn after all as you can see.