اَلْفِعْلُ الْمَاضِيُّ الْمَنْفِيُّ
The اَلْفِعْلُ الْمَاضِيُّ الْمَنْفِيُّ is a past-tense negation verb. In Arabic negation is called الْمَنْفِيُّ (or نَفْيٌ). A حَرْفٌ that negates is called نَافِيَّةٌ.
An important distinction to know before beggining our lesson is the difference between Negation and Refutation:
Negation – Simply denying that something happened or is true.
مُحَمَّدٌ ذَهَبَ
“Muḥammad went.”
مَا ذَهَبَ مُحَمَّدٌ.
“Muḥammad did not go.”
There is no previous claim being directly challenged. You are simply stating that Muḥammad did not go.
Refutation – Rejecting a statement or claim that someone has made.
مُحَمَّدٌ ذَهَبَ.
“Muḥammad went.”
مَا ذَهَبَ مُحَمَّدٌ.
“Muḥammad did not go.”
Here, the second sentence refutes the first person’s claim.
ما’ الْمَنْفِيُّ’
The حَرْفٌ that negates for the اَلْفِعْلُ الْمَاضِيُّ (past-tense verb) is:
مَا
- مَا is the strongest form of negation.
- مَا includes both negation and refutation.
- Be careful! مَا has other uses besides negation that we will study in this course.
الْمَاضِيُّ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَعْلُومِ الْمَنْفِيُّ
The الْمَاضِيُّ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَعْلُومِ الْمَنْفِيُّ is a past-tense, active, negation verb. let’s take نَصَرَ (he helped), by adding the حَرْفٌ نَافِيَّةٌ which we stated for اَلْفِعْلُ الْمَاضِيُّ is مَا, we get:
مَا دَرَّسُوا→ دَرَّسُوا
They teach → They did not teach
and
مَا نَصَرَ→ نَصَرَ
he helped → he did not help
The following is the conjugation table for مَا نَصَرَ.
| Pronoun | Pattern | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| هُوَ | مَا نَصَرَ | He did not help |
| هُمَا | مَا نَصَرَا | They (two males) did not help |
| هُمْ | مَا نَصَرُوا | They (males) did not help |
| هِيَ | مَا نَصَرَتْ | She did not help |
| هُمَا | مَا نَصَرَتَا | They (two females) did not help |
| هُنَّ | مَا نَصَرْنَ | They (females) did not help |
| أَنْتَ | مَا نَصَرْتَ | You (male) did not help |
| أَنْتُمَا | مَا نَصَرْتُمَا | You (two males) did not help |
| أَنْتُمْ | مَا نَصَرْتُمْ | You (males) did not help |
| أَنْتِ | مَا نَصَرْتِ | You (female) did not help |
| أَنْتُنَّ | مَا نَصَرْتُنَّ | You (females) did not help |
| أَنَا | مَا نَصَرْتُ | I did not help |
| نَحْنُ | مَا نَصَرْنَا | We did not help |
الْمَاضِيُّ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَجْهُولِ الْمَنْفِيُّ
The الْمَاضِيُّ الْمَبْنِيُّ لِلْمَجْهُولِ الْمَنْفِيُّ is a past-tense, passive, negation verb. Let’s take نُصِرَ (he was helped), by adding the حَرْفٌ نَافِيَّةٌ which we stated for اَلْفِعْلُ الْمَاضِيُّ is مَا, we get:
مَا نُصِرَ→ نُصِرَ
he was helped → he was not helped
The following is the conjugation table for مَا نُصِرَ.
| Pronoun | Pattern | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| هُوَ | مَا نُصِرَ | He was not helped |
| هُمَا (m) | مَا نُصِرَا | They (two males) were not helped |
| هُمْ | مَا نُصِرُوا | They (males) were not helped |
| هِيَ | مَا نُصِرَتْ | She was not helped |
| هُمَا (f) | مَا نُصِرَتَا | They (two females) were not helped |
| هُنَّ | مَا نُصِرْنَ | They (females) were not helped |
| أَنْتَ | مَا نُصِرْتَ | You (male) were not helped |
| أَنْتُمَا | مَا نُصِرْتُمَا | You (two) were not helped |
| أَنْتُمْ | مَا نُصِرْتُمْ | You (males) were not helped |
| أَنْتِ | مَا نُصِرْتِ | You (female) were not helped |
| أَنْتُنَّ | مَا نُصِرْتُنَّ | You (females) were not helped |
| أَنَا | مَا نُصِرْتُ | I was not helped |
| نَحْنُ | مَا نُصِرْنَا | We were not helped |
Example from the Quran:
…وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ…
…And the did not kill him, and they did not crucify him…
[4:157]