Additional Negative Forms

Lesson objective

In this lesson, you will learn other words used in negative sentences. These words replace the normal ending -š, while the prefix ma- is still used before the verb. Sometimes the negative word comes after the verb; sometimes it comes before the verb and before ma-.

Negative words

English	Darija
Nothing	walu / нtta нaja / нtta ši
No one	нtta waнd / нtta нdd
Neither… nor…	la… wala…
Only / just	ġir

Examples

ma-3rft walu. — I knew nothing.

ma-klit нtta нaja. — I ate nothing.

нtta waнd ma-ja. — No one came.

ma-šaf нtta waнd. / ma-šaf нtta нdd. — He saw no one.

ma-laqit la Mohamed wala Amber. — I met neither Mohamed nor Amber.

ma-šrbt ġir l-ma. — I drank only water.

Exercise: put the verbs in the correct form

l-нdd lli fat, (gls) f ḍ-ḍar, (xrj — negative) 3laнqqaš (kan) š-šta. f l-3šiya ṣaнbi (ja) u (mša) l s-siber bjooj. mn b3d (mša) l s-sinima. (šaf) waнd l-film zwin. mlli (xrj), (daz) l s-suq. (šra) l-xoḍra. mn b3d (šdd) ṭobis u (rj3) l ḍ-ḍar.

Picture exercise

Use pictures of a sequence of daily activities to write a paragraph describing what happened, using the negative forms above where relevant.